The Age of Napoleon

by Will Durant

  BY WILL DURANT

  The Story of Philosophy

  Transition

  The Pleasure of Philosophy

  Adventures in Genius

  BY WILL AND ARIEL DURANT

  THE STORY OF CIVILIZATION

  1. Our Oriental Heritage

  2. The Life of Greece

  3. Caesar and Christ

  4. The Age of Faith

  5. The Renaissance

  6. The Reformation

  7. The Age of Reason Begins

  8. The Age of Louis XIV

  9. The Age of Voltaire

  10. Rousseau and Revolution

  11. The Age of Napoleon

  The Lessons of History

  Interpretation of Life

  A Dual Autobiography

  COPYRIGHT © 1975 BY WILL AND ARIEL DURANT

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  INCLUDING THE RIGHT OF REPRODUCTION

  IN WHOLE OR IN PART IN ANY FORM

  PUBLISHED BY SIMON AND SCHUSTER

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  SIMON AND SCHUSTER AND COLOPHON ARE TRADEMARKS

  OF SIMON & SCHUSTER

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  MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

  LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA

  DURANT, WILLIAM JAMES, 1885-

  THE AGE OF NAPOLEON.

  (HIS THE STORY OF CIVILIZATION; PT. II)

  BIBLIOGRAPHY: P. 781

  INCLUDES INDEX.

  1. EUROPE—CIVILIZATION. 2. EUROPE—HISTORY—

  1789–1815. 3. NAPOLÉON I, EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH,

  1769–1821. ι. DURANT, ARIEL, JOINT AUTHOR.

  II. TITLE.

  CB53.D85 pt. II [CB411] 909s [940.2’7] 75–6888

  ISBN 0–671-21988-X (PT. II)

  ISBN: 0-965-07443-9

  eISBN-13: 978-1-4516-4768-6

  TO ETHEL

  Preface

  “By the middle of the twentieth century,” says the Encyclopaedia Britannica (XVI, Ioa), “the literature on Napoleon already numbered more than 100,000 volumes.” Why add to the heap? We offer no better reason than to say that the Reaper repeatedly overlooked us, and left us to passive living and passive reading after 1968. We grew weary of this insipid and unaccustomed leisure. To give our days some purpose and program we decided to apply to the age of Napoleon (1789–1815) our favorite method of integral history—weaving into one narrative all memorable aspects of European civilization in those twenty-seven years: statesmanship, war, economics, morals, manners, religion, science, medicine, philosophy, literature, drama, music, and art; to see them all as elements in one moving picture, and as interacting parts of a united whole. We would see Prime Minister William Pitt ordering the arrest of author Tom Paine; chemist Lavoisier and mystic Charlotte Corday mounting the guillotine; Admiral Nelson taking Lady Hamilton as his mistress; Goethe foreseeing a century of events from the battle of Valmy; Wordsworth enthusing over the French Revolution, Byron over the Greek; Shelley teaching atheism to Oxford bishops and dons; Napoleon fighting kings and imprisoning a pope, teasing physicians and philosophers, taking half a hundred scholars and scientists to conquer or reveal Egypt, losing Beethoven’s dedication to the Eroica for an empire, talking drama with Talma, painting with David, sculpture with Canova, history with Wieland, literature with Goethe, and fighting a fifteen-year war with the pregnable but indomitable Mme. de Staël. This vision roused us from our septua-octo-genarian lassitude to a reckless resolve to turn our amateur scholarship to picturing that exciting and eventful age as a living whole. And shall we confess it?—we had nurtured from our adolescence a sly, fond interest in Napoleon as no mere warmonger and despot, but as also a philosopher seldom deceived by pretense, and as a psychologist who had ceaselessly studied human nature in the mass and in individual men. One of us was rash enough to give ten lectures on Napoleon in 1921. For sixty years we have been gathering material about him, so that some of our references will be to books once helpful and now dead.

  So here it is, a labor of five years, needing a lifetime; a book too long in total, too short and inadequate in every part; only the fear of that lurking Reaper made us call a halt. We pass it on, not to specialist scholars, who will learn nothing from it, but our friends, wherever they are, who have been patient with us through many years, and who may find in it some moment’s illumination or brightening fantasy.

  WILL AND ARIEL DURENT

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  First of all, to our daughter, Ethel Durant Kay, who not only typed the manuscript immaculately, but often improved it with corrections and suggestions. She has been a patient and helpful companion to us at every stage of our enterprise.

  To our dear friends Arthur Young and Gala Kourlaeff, who lent us precious books from their private collections.

  To the Los Angeles Public Library, and more directly to its Hollywood Branch and the ladies at its reference desk, and especially to Mrs. Edith Cruikshank and Mrs. Elizabeth Fenton.

  To J. Christopher Herold, whose books on Napoleon and Mme. de Staël have been a light and a treasure to us; and to Leslie A. Marchand, whose masterly three-volume Byron has moderated, with its wealth of information, a Byronic addiction already passionate in 1905, when WD prayed God to release the crippled poet from hell.

  To Vera Schneider, who brought to the months-long task of copy editing all the scope and precision of her scholarship. Our book has profited immensely from her work.

  And to our dear friend Fernand, Comte de Saint-Simon, who gave so much of his time to guiding us to Napoleoniana in Paris, Versailles, and Malmaison.

  All in all, in life and history, we have found so many good men and women that we have quite lost faith in the wickedness of mankind.

  NOTE

  In excerpts, italics for emphasis are never ours unless so stated.

  Certain especially dull passages, not essential to the story, are indicated by reduced type.

  MONETARY EQUIVALENTS

  No consistent formulation is possible: coins bearing the same names now as then usually bought, two hundred years ago, much more than now, but sometimes less. History is inflationary, if only through repeated debasements of the currency as an old way of paying governmental debts; but the notion that goods cost less in the past than now is probably the enchantment of distance; in terms of labor required to earn the money to buy them they generally cost more. By and large, allowing for many exceptions and national variations, we may equate some European currencies of 1789 with United States currencies of 1970 as follows.

  crown, 6.25

  ducat, 12.50

  florin, 2.50

  franc, 1.25

  groschen, ¼cent

  guilder, 5.25

  guinea, 26.25

  gulden, 5.00

  kreuzer, ½ cent

  lira, 1.25

  livre, 1.25

  louis d’or, 25.00

  mark, 1.25

  pound, 25.00

  shilling, 1.25

  sou, 5 cents

  thaler, 5.25

  Table of Contents

  Book I: THE FRENCH REVOLUTION: 1789–99

  Chapter I. THE BACKGROUND OF REVOLUTION: 1774–89

  I. The French People

  II. The Government

  Chapter II. THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY: May 4, 1789-September 30, 1791

  I. The States-General

  II. The Bastille

  III. Enter Marat: 1789

  IV. Renunciation: August 4–5, 1789

  V.
To Versailles: October 5, 1789

  VI. The Revolutionary Constitution: 1790

  VII. Mirabeau Pays His Debts: April 2, 1791

  VIII. To Varennes: June 20, 1791

  Chapter III. THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY: October 1, 1791-September 20, 1792

  I. Persons of the Drama

  II. War: 1792

  III. Danton

  IV. The Massacre: September 2–6, 1792

  Chapter IV. THE CONVENTION: September 21, 1792-October 26, 1795

  I. The New Republic

  II. The Second Revolution: 1793

  III. Exit Marat: July 13, 1793

  IV. The “Great Committee”: 1793

  V. The Reign of Terror: September 17, 1793-July 28, 1794

  1. The Gods Are Athirst

  2. The Terror in the Provinces

  3. The War Against Religion

  4 The Revolution Eats Its Children

  VI. The Thermidoreans: July 29, 1794-October 26, 1795

  Chapter V. THE DIRECTORY: November 2, 1795-November 9, 1799

  I. The New Government

  II. The Young Napoleon: 1769–95

  III. Josephine de Beauharnais

  IV. Italian Whirlwind: March 27, 1796-December 5, 1797

  V. The Coup d’État of the 18th Fructidor: September 4, 1797

  VI. Oriental Fantasy: May 19, 1798-October 8, 1799

  VII. The Decline of the Directory: September 4, 1797-November 9, 1799

  VIII. Napoleon Takes Charge: The 18th Brumaire (November 9), 1799

  Chapter VI. LIFE UNDER THE REVOLUTION: 1789–99

  I. The New Classes

  II. The New Morality

  1. Morality and Law

  2. Sexual Morality

  III. Manners

  IV. Music and Drama

  V. The Artists

  VI. Science and Philosophy

  VII. Books and Authors

  VIII. Mme. de Staël and the Revolution

  IX. Afterthoughts

  BOOK II: NAPOLEON ASCENDANT: 1799–1811

  Chapter VII. THE CONSULATE: November 11, 1799-May 18, 1804

  I. The New Constitution

  1. The Consuls

  2. The Ministers

  3. The Reception of the Constitution

  II. The Campaigns of the Consulate

  III. Remaking France: 1802–03

  1. The Code Napoléon: 1801–04

  2. The Concordat of 1801

  IV. The Paths of Glory

  V. The Great Conspiracy: 1803–04

  VI. The Road to Empire: 1804

  Chapter VIII. THE NEW EMPIRE: 1804–07

  I. The Coronation: December 2, 1804

  II. The Third Coalition: 1805

  III. Austerlitz: December 2, 1805

  IV. The Mapmaker: 1806–07

  V. Jena, Eylau, Friedland: 1806–07

  VI. Tilsit: June 25-July 9, 1807

  Chapter IX. THE MORTAL REALM: 1807–11

  I. The Bonapartes

  II. The Peninsular War: I (October 18, 1807- August 21, 1808)

  III. Constellation at Erfurt: September 27-October 14, 1808

  IV. The Peninsular War: II (October 29, 1808-November 16, 1809)

  V. Fouché, Talleyrand, and Austria: 1809

  VI. Marriage and Politics: 1809–11

  Chapter X. NAPOLEON HIMSELF

  I. Body

  II. Mind

  III. Character

  IV. The General

  V. The Ruler

  VI. The Philosopher

  VII. What Was He?

  Chapter XI. NAPOLEONIC FRANCE: 1800–1815

  I. The Economy

  II. The Teachers

  III. The Warriors

  IV. Morals and Manners

  V. Mme. Récamier

  VI. The Jews in France

  Chapter XII. NAPOLEON AND THE ARTS

  I. Music

  II. Varia

  III. The Painters

  IV. The Theater

  Chapter XIII. LITERATURE VERSUS NPOLEON

  I. The Censor

  II. Mme. de Staël: 1799–1817

  1. Napoleon’s Nemesis

  2. The Author

  3. The Tourist

  4. Understanding Germany

  5. Imperfect Victory

  III. Benjamin Constant: 1767–1816

  IV. Chateaubriand: 1768–1815

  1. Youth

  2. Development

  3. The Genius of Christianity

  4. René

  5. Chateaubriand and Napoleon

  Chapter XIV. SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY UNDER NAPOLEON

  I. Mathematics and Physics

  II. Medicine

  III. Biology

  1. Cuvier (1769–1832)

  2. Lamarck (1744–1829)

  IV. What Is Mind?

  V. The Case for Conservatism

  BOOK III: BRITAIN: 1789–1812

  Chapter XV. ENGLAND AT WORK

  I. A Different Revolution

  II. At the Bottom

  III. The Dismal Science

  IV. Robert Owen: 1771–1858

  Chapter XVI. ENGLISH LIFE

  I. Classes

  II. The Government

  1. The Legislature

  2. The Judiciary

  3. The Executive

  III. Religion

  IV. Education

  V. Morality

  1. Man and Woman

  2. Mary Wollstonecraft

  3. Social Morality

  VI. Manners

  VII. The English Theater

  VIII. In Sum

  Chapter XVII. THE ARTS IN ENGLAND

  I. The Artists

  II. Architecture

  III. From Cartoons to Constable

  IV. Turner: 1775–1851

  Chapter XVIII. SCIENCE IN ENGLAND

  I. Avenues of Progress

  II. Physics: Rumford and Young

  III. Chemistry: Dalton and Davy

  IV. Biology: Erasmus Darwin 391

  V. Medicine: Jenner

  Chapter XIX. ENGLISH PHILOSOPHY

  I. Tom Paine on Christianity

  II. Godwin on Justice

  III. Malthus on Population

  IV. Bentham on Law

  Chapter XX. LITERATURE IN TRANSITION

  I. The Press

  II. Books

  III. Jane Austen: 1775–1817

  IV. William Blake: 1757–1827

  Chapter XXI. THE LAKE POETS: 1770–1850

  I. Ambience

  II. Wordsworth: 1770–97

  III. Coleridge: 1772–94

  IV. Southey: 1774–1803

  V. Coleridge: 1794–97

  VI. A Threesome: 1797–98

  VII. Lyrical Ballads: 1798

  VIII. The Wandering Scholars: 1798–99

  IX. Idyl in Grasmere: 1800–03

  X. Love, Labor, and Opium: 1800–10

  XI. Coleridge Philosopher: 1808–17

  XII. Wordsworth: Climax, 1804–14

  XIII. The Sage of Highgate: 1816–34

  XIV. On the Fringe

  XV. Southey: 1803–43

  XVI. Wordsworth Epilogue: 1815–50

  Chapter XXII. THE REBEL POETS: 1788–1824

  I. The Tarnished Strain: 1066–1809 454

  II. The Grand Tour: Byron, 1809–11

  III. The Lion of London: Byron, 1811–14

  IV. Trial by Marriage: Byron, 1815–16

  V. The Youth of Shelley: 1792–1811

  VI. Elopement I: Shelley, 1811–12

  VII. Elopement II: Shelley, 1812–16

  VIII. Swiss Holiday: Byron and Shelley, 1816

  IX. Decay in Venice: Byron, 1816–18

  X. Shelley Pater Familias: 1816–18

  XI. Shelley: Zenith, 1819–21

  XII. Love and Revolution: Byron, 1818–21

  XIII. Contrasts

  XIV. Pisan Canto: 1821–22

  XV. Immolation: Shelley, 1822

  XVI. Transfiguration: Byron, 1822–24

  XVII. Survivors
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  Chapter XXIII. ENGLANDÉS NEIGHBORS: 1789–1815

  I. The Scots

  II. The Irish

  Chapter XXIV. PITT, NELSON, AND NAPOLEON: 1789–1812

  I. Pitt and the Revolution

  II. Nelson: 1758–1804

  III. Trafalgar: 1805

  IV. England Marks Time: 1806–12

  BOOK IV: THE CHALLENGED KINGS: 1789–1812

  Chapter XXV. IBERIA

  I. Portugal: 1789–1808

  II. Spain: 1808

  III. Arthur Wellesley:1769–1807

  IV. The Peninsular War: III (1808–12)

  V. Results

  Chapter XXVI. ITALY AND ITS CONQUERORS: 1789–1813

  I. The Map in 1789

  II. Italy and the French Revolution

  III. Italy under Napoleon: 1800–12

  IV. Emperor and Pope

  V. Behind the Battles

  VI. Antonio Canova: 1757–1822

  VII. Vale iterum Italia

  Chapter XXVII. AUSTRIA: 1780–1812

  I. Enlightened Despots: 1780–92

  II. Francis II

  III. Metternich

  IV. Vienna

  V. The Arts

  Chapter XXVIII. BEETHOVEN: 1770–1827

  I. Youth in Bonn: 1770–92

  II. Progress and Tragedy: 1792–1802

  III. The Heroic Years: 1803–09

  IV. The Lover

  V. Beethoven and Goethe: 1792–1802

  VI. The Last Victories: 1811–24

  VII. Comoedia Finita: 1824–27

  Chapter XXIX. GERMANY AND NAPOLEON: 1786–1811

  I. The Holy Roman Empire: 1800

  II. The Confederation of the Rhine:

  III. Napoleon’s German Provinces

  IV. Saxony

  V. Prussia: Frederick’s Legacy, 1786–87

  VI. The Collapse of Prussia: 1797–1807

  VII. Prussia Reborn: 1807–12

  Chapter XXX. THE GERMAN PEOPLE: 1789–1812

  I. Economics

  II. Believers and Doubters

  III. The German Jews

  IV. Morals

  V. Education

  VI. Science

  VII. Art

  VIII. Music

  IX. The Theater

  X. The Dramatists

  Chapter XXXI. GERMAN LITERATURE: 1789–1815

  I. Revolution and Response

  II. Weimar

  III. The Literary Scene

  IV. The Romantic Ecstasy

  V. The Voices of Feeling

  VI. The Brothers Schlegel

  Chapter XXXII. GERMAN PHILOSOPHY: 1789–1815

  I. Fichte: 1762–1814

  1. The Radical

  2. The Philosopher

  3. The Patriot

  II. Schelling: 1775–1854

  III. Hegel: 1770–1831