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cannot discriminate betweten ^ -good and evil- ^—between the career of honour towards the goal of fame and real glory , or infamy . " ; * We may infer , perhaps , from this , that the opinion Captain Hey wood had formed thus early of the character of Napoleon , was similar to that developed by Dr . Channing , in his " Remarks on the Life and
Character of Napoleon Buonaparte , and in his " Thoughts on True Greatness , " productions published many years afterwards , with which Captain H . entirely coincided in sentiment . '—pp . 299 , 300 . The € public' is not quite such a brute beast as the Captain supposed . They knew that the world owed something to Napoleon ., and the remembrance at that moment would have been untimely that he might have made the world owe him much more . He was the ' fallen Emperor Napoleon /—three pithy words , and
which describe no every-day sight , but one which might attract , * from curiosity , ' even those who can * discriminate between good and evil . ' Moreover he was * awaiting his destiny ; ' that is to say , having , as sovereign of France , lost a decisive battle , he had thrown himself upon the generosity of the Prince Regent of England , which generosity was about to send him to a lingering death at St . Helena . Here was more matter for those who can
* discriminate between good and evil . ' What lustre the British character gained by that transaction ^ and in what proportions * real glory and infamy' are to be distributed between the career of Napoleon and that of the Holy Alliance Sovereigns , with our government as their ( then ) appendage , we leave the future
historian to decide . He will scarcely divide the antithesis between them . The Captain ' s own part in Vanity Fair was to * lead the fleet through the various manoeuvres exhibited before the Allied Sovereigns when they visited Portsmouth . ^ The Plymouth spectacle had more heart in it .
The biographer forgets or mistakes the direction in which the current of opinion on Napoleon ' s character has been flowing , when he ascribes merit to Captain Heywood for having 'thus early' appreciated that character in the same way as Dr . Channing . There was neither anticipation nor perspicacity in the case . The opinion itself disproves the former , and at least does not imply the latter . It was the common vulgar estimate of
Napoleon . At the time to which we now refer , it was beginning , not to be ' developed , ' but modified . Rightly or wrongly , from that period it is undeniable that the character of Napoleon began to rise in English estimation . From Warden ' s Letters , to the Memoirs of the Duchesse d'Abrantes , the tendency of the numerous
publications concerning him which have issued from the press has been fo place his character in a more favourable light . The popularity of those publications has shown the change in public opinion . Even the Times newspaper learned the language of respect . To anticipate Dr . Channing ' s view of Napoleon was only to anticipate that which had long existed , and was beginning
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- ^ Tagarrs ^ efnotir of Captain Hepwood . % & 3
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1832, page 813, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1826/page/21/
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