12 ON MUSEUMS, &c.. 



The career of Napoleon III., the originator of the spectacle which 

 rendered 1867 so memorable, will doubtless hereafter be employed, after 

 the traditional fashion, to point a moral and adorn a tale. He will be 

 one more conspicuous instance of the instability of human greatness- 

 He will be parallelled perhaps in sentimental strain with Croesus. Solon 

 had said to Croesus, when displaying to him his magnificence as King 

 of Ionia, " No one while he lives is happy." When in the grasp of 

 Cyrus, Croesus recalled with groans this saying of Solon. The oracle 

 had said to Croesus, " Gro up against Persia, and thou shalt destroy a 

 great empire." He went up accordingly, but with the fate that has 

 befallen Napoleon. With reason did he, when in durance, send to 

 ask of Apollo if he were not ashamed of having encouraged him, as the 

 destined destroyer of the empire of Cyrus, to begin a war with Persia, 

 of which such were the first fruits ; and with equal reason did Apollo 

 reply, " When the God told him that if he attacked the Persians, he 

 would destroy a mighty empire, he ought, if he had been wise, to have 

 sent again and inquired which empire was meant, that of Cyrus or his 

 own." Again, mtitatis mutandis, the words of Croesus to Cyrus might 

 be addressed by Napoleon to William of Prussia, " What I did, King, 

 was to thy advantage, and to my own loss. If there be blame, it rests 

 with the Grod of the Greeks, who encouraged me to begin the war. No 

 one is so foolish as to prefer to peace war, in which instead of sons 

 burying their fathers, fathers bury their sons. But the gods willed 

 it so." And this convenient shifting off from human shoulders of the 

 burden of responsibility would probably be accepted with complacency 

 by the Prussian King. 



The words, however, of Napoleon III., which in connexion with the 

 Exposition of 1867, I was purposing to quote, when this digression 

 was induced, were these :— " The Exhibition of 1867," he said, in the 

 really noble address which accompanied the delivery by himself of the 

 medals to the successful exhibitors, " will, I hope, inaugurate a new 

 era of harmony and progress. Assured that Providence blesses the 

 efforts of all those who, like ourselves, wish to do good, I believe in 

 the final triumph of the great principles of morale and justice, which, by 

 satisfying all legitimate aspirations, can alone consolidate thrones, elevate 

 the people, and ennoble humanity." 



These words, heard now amid the dreadful echoes which every hour 

 reach us from what was beautiful and comparatively prosperous France, 

 have a strange and hollow sound. They may, in spite of appearance, 



