Napoleon Bonaparte, I (August 15, 1769-May 5, 1821)

Napoleon Bonaparte, I (August 15, 1769-May 5, 1821) was the Emperor of France, 1804-15. Born in Corsica and trained as an artillery officer in mainland France, Bonaparte rose to prominence under the First French Republic and led successful campaigns against the First and Second Coalitions arrayed against France.

In interesting twist of history is related by Juan Cole, in Napoleon's Egypt-Invading the Middle East (NY: Palgrave MacMillian, 2007). France had been in a treaty with the Muslim Ottoman Empire and planned to send artillery personnel to upgrade and train the Ottoman military. Napoleon was going to be sent, but he resigned in protest, wanting to fight himself, not train others. The French Army relented and shortly thereafter, Napoleon won fame through his brilliant use of artillery in his Italian campaign.

In 1796, Napoleon was given command of the French army in Italy. He turned a near defeat by the Austrians into victory over Milan, Mantua, Sardinia and Naples, followed by the papacy suing for peace.

One can only speculate how history would have been different if Napoleon's artillery expertise had been used by the Muslim Ottoman Empire.

Following the American Revolution, the French Revolution began in 1789. The preaching of equality and liberty found its way to the slaves in the prosperous French Colony of Haiti, resulting in a slave rebellion in 1791. It was this incident that later persuaded Napoleon to sell the Louisiana Territory to the United States. After the loss of Haiti in 1791, France wanted to replace its tropical colony, so Napoleon obtained the Directory's support for conquering Egypt, which would challenge England's trade with India.

In 1798, Napoleon sailed his ships to the Christian Island of Malta, asking for safe harbor. Once inside, he captured the Island and evicted the Knights of Saint John of Malta who had been defending Europe from the Muslim Barbary Pirates for centuries.

Napoleon then invaded Ottoman Egypt on July 1, 1798, which broke France's treaty with the Ottoman Empire and renewed Muslim pirate attacks on French vessels. Within weeks of being in Egypt, Napoleon's skilled use of artillery defeated the Muslim Mamluk cavalry.

In Napoleon's Egypt-Invading the Middle East, Juan Cole explained how Napoleon was unable to bring "democracy" to Egypt as there were no Arabic words for such concepts -the land being ruled for centuries by force.

When British Admiral Horatio Nelson destroyed Napoleon's fleet in the Battle of the Nile, August 2, 1798, Napoleon was forced to accommodate the Muslims, but this was perceived as weakness and led to repeated uprisings. He finally had to abandon the campaign a year later.

Returning to France in 1799, Napoleon staged a coup d'état and became the first consul in the French government formed after the Roman model.

In 1802, Napoleon defeated the Austrians and was made consul for life.

In 1804, he proclaimed himself emperor. This turn towards imperialism disappointed Ludwig van Beethoven, who proceeded to scratch Napoleon's name from the dedication of his 3rd Symphony.

Napoleon renewed the war with Italy, Germany and Switzerland. It was during this time that Napoleon, needing money for his military campaigns, abandoned the idea of a French colony in America. In 1803, Napoleon sold the Louisiana Territory for $15,000,000.00 to the United States. This single purchase of nearly a million square miles, at about 2 cents an acre, more than doubled the size of the United States of America.

Though Napoleon was defeated on the sea by the British Lord Horatio Nelson at Trafalgar, he won tremendous victories on land at Austerlitz, Jena and Friedland.

In 1812, Napoleon invaded Russia with over half a million men, but nearly 400,000 of them died in the brutal Russian winter. In 1813, he was defeated at Leipzig, forced to abdicate and exiled to the tiny island of Elba.

At Paris, January 23, 1814, Napoleon remarked:

<France is invaded; I am leaving to take command of my troops, and, with God's help and their valor, I hope soon to drive the enemy beyond the frontier.> 1769NB001

Napoleon escaped from Elba and returned to a hero's welcome in Paris, where he led France for the famous Hundred Days in an attempt to regain his former power.

On June 18, 1815, in one of the most decisive battles in history, Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo by the British Duke of Wellington. He was then captured and banished to the island of St. Helena, off the west coast of Africa, where he lived for the remainder of his life.

In the writing On St. Helena, 1816, Napoleon is reported to have stated to General H.G. Bertrand while exiled on the island of St. Helena:

<The Gospel possesses a secret virtue, a mysterious efficacy, a warmth which penetrates and soothes the heart. One finds in meditating upon it that which one experiences in contemplating the heavens.

The Gospel is not a book; it is a living being, with an action, a power, which invades everything that opposes its extension.

Behold it upon this table, this book surpassing all others (here the Emperor solemnly placed his hand upon it): I never omit to read it, and every day with new pleasure.

Nowhere is to be found such a series of beautiful ideas, and admirable moral maxims, which pass before us like the battalions of a celestial army...The soul can never go astray with this book for its guide....

Everything in Christ astonishes me. His spirit overawes me, and His will confounds me. Between Him and whoever else in the world there is no possible term of comparison; He is truly a Being by Himself. His ideas and His sentiments, the truth which He announces, His manner of convincing, are not explained either by human organization or by the nature of things.

Truth should embrace the universe. Such is Christianity, the only religion which destroys sectional prejudices, the only one which proclaims the unity and the absolute brotherhood of the whole human family, the only one which is purely spiritual; in fine, the only one which assigns to all, without distinction, for a true country, the bosom of the Creator, God.

Christ proved that He was the Son of the Eternal by His disregard of time. All His doctrines signify one only and the same thing-eternity. What a proof of the divinity of Christ! With an empire so absolute, he has but one single end - the spiritual melioration of individuals, the purity of the conscience, the union to that which is true, the holiness of the soul....

Not only is our mind absorbed, it is controlled; and the soul can never go astray with this book for its guide. Once master of our spirit, the faithful Gospel loves us. God even is our friend, our father, and truly our God. The mother has no greater care for the infant whom she nurses....

If you do not perceive that Jesus Christ is God, very well: then I did wrong to make you a general.> 1769NB002

Napoleon's statement, in another rendering from the French language, declares:

<The Bible is no mere book, but a Living Creature, with a power that conquers all that oppose it.> 1769NB003

Napoleon I, in a discussion with Count de Motholon, stated:

<I know men; and I tell you that Jesus Christ is not a man. Superficial minds see a resemblance between Christ and the founders of empires, and the gods of other religions. That resemblance does not exist.

There is between Christianity and whatever other religions the distance of infinity....His religion is a revelation from an intelligence which certainly is not that of man.

The religion of Christ is a mystery which subsists by its own force, and proceeds from a mind which is not a human mind. We find in it a marked individuality, which originated a train of words and actions unknown before.

Jesus is not a philosopher, for His proofs are miracles, and from the first His disciples adored Him.

Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and myself founded empires; but upon what foundation did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force! But Jesus Christ founded His upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for Him.> 1769NB004

Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte I stated:

<All systems of morality are fine. The Gospel alone has exhibited a complete assemblage of the principles of morality, divested of all absurdity. It is not composed, like your creed, of a few commonplace sentences put into bad verse. Do you wish to see that which is really sublime? Repeat the Lord's Prayer.> 1769NB005

<The nature of Christ's existence is mysterious, I admit;...Reject it and the world is an inexplicable riddle; believe it and the history of our race is satisfactorily explained.> 1769NB006

<The loftiest intellects since the advent of Christianity have had faith, a practical faith, in the doctrines of the Gospel:...Descrates and Newton, Liebnitz and Pascal, Racine and Corneille, Charlemagne and Louis XIV.> 1769NB007 Upon receiving a copy of Pierre Simon de Laplace's book, Mecanique Celeste, Napoleon Bonaparte remarked:

<You have written this huge book on the system of the world without once mentioning the author of the universe.> 1769NB008

Napoleon remarked:

<All things proclaim the existence of God.> 1769NB009

--

American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.

Endnotes:

1769NB001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Napoleon Bonaparte. January 23, 1814, at Paris. John Bartlett, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 420.

1769NB002. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Napoleon Bonaparte. 1816, on the island of St. Helena, in a reported conversation with General H.G. Bertrand. Tryon Edwards, D.D., The New Dictionary of Thoughts-A Cyclopedia of Quotations (Garden City, NY: Hanover House, 1852; revised and enlarged by C.H. Catrevas, Ralph Emerson Browns and Jonathan Edwards [descendent, along with Tryon, of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), president of Princeton], 1891; The Standard Book Company, 1955, 1963), p. 46. Charles E. Jones, The Books You Read (Harrisburg, PA: Executive Books, 1985), p. 134. John S.C. Abbott, The History of Napoleon Bonaparte, Vol. II, Chapter XXXIII. Canon Liddon, in his Bampoton Lectures, p. 148, names these authorities: Luthardt, Apologetische Vortrage, pp. 234, 293; M. Auguste Nicholas, Etudes Philosophique sur le Christianisme, Bruxelles, 1849, tom II., pp. 352, 256; Chevalier de Beauterne, Sentiment de Napoleon sur le Christianisme, edit. par M. Bathild Bouniol, Paris, 1864, pp. 87, 118. Stephen Abbott Northrop, D.D., A Cloud of Witnesses (Portland, Oregon: American Heritage Ministries, 1987; Mantle Ministries, 228 Still Ridge, Bulverde, Texas), p. 38.

1769NB003. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Napoleon Bonaparte. Henry H. Halley, Halley's Bible Handbook (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1927, 1965), p. 18.

1769NB004. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Napoleon Bonaparte. At St. Helena, to Count de Motholon. Major General Alfred Pleasonton. Stephen Abbott Northrop, D.D., A Cloud of Witnesses (Portland, OR: American Heritage Ministries, 1987; Mantle Ministries, 228 Still Ridge, Bulverde, Texas), pp. 361-362. Vernon C. Grounds, The Reason for Our Hope (Chicago: Moody Press), p. 37. Willard Cantelon, New Money or None? (Plainfield, NJ: Logos International, 1979), p. 246.

1769NB005. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Napoleon Bonaparte. Charles E. Jones, The Books You Read (Harrisburg, PA: Executive Books, 1985), p. 114.

1769NB006. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Napoleon Bonaparte. Tryon Edwards, D.D., The New Dictionary of Thoughts-A Cyclopedia of Quotations (Garden City, NY: Hanover House, 1852; revised and enlarged by C.H. Catrevas, Ralph Emerson Browns and Jonathan Edwards [descendent, along with Tryon, of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), president of Princeton], 1891; The Standard Book Company, 1955, 1963), p. 88. Frank S. Mead, The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations (Old Tappan: Revell, 1976), p. 56. Willard Cantelon, New Money or None? (Plainfield, NJ: Logos International, 1979), p. 246.

1769NB007. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Napoleon Bonaparte. Stephen Abbott Northrop, D.D., A Cloud of Witnesses (Portland, Oregon: American Heritage Ministries, 1987; Mantle Ministries, 228 Still Ridge, Bulverde, Texas), p. introduction.

1769NB008. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Napoleon Bonaparte. His remark upon receiving a copy of Mecanique Celeste by Pierre Simon de Laplace. John Bartlett, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 397.

1769NB009. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Napoleon Bonaparte. Bless Your Heart (series II) (Eden Prairie, MN: Heartland Samplers, Inc., 1990), 5.31.


Older Post Newer Post


Leave a comment

Please note, comments must be approved before they are published