The Humanistic Tradition, Book 5 Romanticism, Realism, and the Nineteenth-Century World

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TJ123-8-2009 LK VWD0011 Tradition Humanistic 6th Edition W:220mm x H:292mm 175L 115 Stora Enso M/A Magenta (V)

Q What, according to Napoleon,

is the role of the imagination?

Q Why might Napoleon’s self-image

be considered “romantic”?

READING 30.

CHAPTER 28 The Romantic Hero 31

Book5 31

truth will be known; and the good I have done will be

compared with the faults I have committed. I am not uneasy

as to the result. Had I succeeded, I would have died with the

reputation of the greatest man that ever existed. As it is,

although I have failed, I shall be considered as an extraordinary 20

man: my elevation was unparalleled, because unaccompanied

by crime. I have fought fifty pitched battles, almost all of which

I have won. I have framed and carried into effect a code of

laws that will bear my name to the most distant posterity. I

raised myself from nothing to be the most powerful monarch in

the world. Europe was at my feet. I have always been of [the]

opinion that the sovereignty lay in the people.

From Napoleon’s Diary(1800–1817)

Milan, June 17, 1800:... What a thing is imagination! Here 1

are men who don’t know me, who have never seen me, but

who only knew of me, and they are moved by my presence,

they would do anything for me! And this same incident arises

in all centuries and in all countries! Such is fanaticism! Yes,

imagination rules the world. The defect of our modern

institutions is that they do not speak to the imagination. By

that alone can man be governed; without it he is but a brute.

December 30, 1802: My power proceeds from my reputation,

and my reputation from the victories I have won. My power 10

would fall if I were not to support it with more glory and more

victories. Conquest has made me what I am; only conquest can

maintain me....

Saint Helena, March 3, 1817: In spite of all the libels, I have no

fear whatever about my fame. Posterity will do me justice. The

Figure 28.2 JACQUES-LOUIS DAVID, Napoleon Crossing the Great Saint Bernard Pass, 1800. Oil on canvas,

8 ft. 6 in. 7 ft. 3 in. When the painting entitled General Bonaparte’s Passage over Mont St. Bernardwas first

exhibited in London, it was described as follows: “He is here represented braving all the obstacles which Nature

seemed to oppose to his passage; the winds, the cold, ice, snow, and thunder; nothing stops him; with one hand he

is assisting his horse to mount these impractical rocks, with the other he is pointing out to his brave followers the

dangers they have still to surmount, before they arrive where Glory calls them.”

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