HEROIC ELOQUENCE. 457 



Csesar by preference attributed to himself in the events 

 of the war, that of which he seems to have been most 

 proud, was a moral influence. Ccesar harangued his army, 

 is constantly the first phrase with which he begins, when 

 describing a battle gained. And Ctesar did not arrive 

 soon enough to talk to his soldiers, to exhort them to con- 

 duct themselves well, is the general accompaniment of the 

 recital of a surprise or of a momentary repulse. The 

 general frequently undertakes to efface himself in the 

 presence of the orator. And the judicious Montaigne 

 remarks : " His language, truly, in many places, does 

 him notable service ! " 



Meantime, without transition, without even insisting 

 on the well-known exclamation of Frederic the Great : 

 "I would rather have written the Century of Louis XIV. 

 by Voltaire, than have gained a hundred battles." I 

 come to Napoleon. As we must hasten on, I will not 

 recall the celebrated proclamations, written under the 

 shade of the Egyptian Pyramids by the Member of the 

 Institute, Commander-in- Chief of the army of the East ; 

 nor the treaties of peace, in which monuments of art or 

 of science were the price of the vanquished people's ran- 

 som ; nor the profound esteem which the general, become 

 emperor, never ceased to feel for the Lagranges, the La- 

 places, the Monges, the Berthollets, nor the riches nor 

 the honours which he showered down upon them. An 

 anecdote, little known, will lead more directly to my 

 aim. 



Everybody remembers the decennial prizes. The four 

 classes of the Institute had sketched out rapid analyses 

 of the progress made in the sciences, letters, and arts. 

 The presidents and the secretaries were to be called in 

 succession to read them to Napoleon, in the presence of 



