458 JAMES WATT. 
the great dignitaries of the empire, and the Council of 
State. 
On the 27th of February, 1808, it came to the turn 
of the French Academy. As may be easily supposed, 
the assembly on that day was even more numerous than 
usual: who does not think himself a judge in matters of 
taste? Chenier reads. He is listened to with attentive 
silence : but all at once he is interrupted by the emperor, 
who, putting his hand on his heart, his body leaning for- 
ward, his voice affected by a visible emotion, exclaimed : 
“Tt is too much, too much, Gentlemen, you overpower 
me; words fail me in which to express my gratitude !” 
— Tleave you to imagine the deep surprise of the many 
courtiers who witnessed this scene; those men who from 
flattery to flattery had come at last to say to their master, 
and without his appearing astonished at it: “When 
God had created Napoleon, he felt the want of re- 
pose |” 
But what then were the words that went so exactly, so 
directly to the heart of Napoleon? These words were 
the following :— 
“Tn camps where, far from the calamities of the inte- 
rior, national glory was unalterably preserved, another 
style of eloquence arose, unknown until then to modern 
nations. We must even acknowledge, that when we read 
in ancient authors harangues from the most renowned 
leaders, we are often tempted to admire only the talent 
of the historians in them. But here, it is impossible to 
doubt ; the monuments exist: history has only to collect 
them together. It was from the armies of Italy that 
those beautiful proclamations emanated, in which the 
conqueror of Lodi and of Arcoli, created at the same 
time a new system of warfare, and a new style of mili- 
