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knelt at the shrine of his idolatry. Subsidiary to this, there was no creed that he did not profess, there was no opinion that he did not promulgate: in the hope of a dynasty, he upheld the crescent; r the sake of a divorce, he bowed be re the cross: the or­ phan of St. Louis, he became the adopted child of the republic; and with a parricidal ingratitude, on the ruins both of the throne ana tribune, he reared the throne of his despotism. pro ssed Catholic, he imprisoned the pope; a pretended patriot, he impov­ erished the_ country; and, in the name of Brutus, he grasped without remorse, and wore without shame,
the diadem of the C sars !
3. Through this pantomime of policy, rtune played the clown to his caprices. t his touch, crowns crumbled, beggars reigned, systems vanished, the wildest theories took the colour of his whim, and all that was venerable, and all that was novel, changed places with the Tapidity of a drama. Even apparent de at assumed the appearance of victory-his ight om Egypt con rmed his destiny-ruin itself only elevated him to empire. But if his rtune was great, his genius was transcendent; decision ashed upon his councils; and it was the same to decide and to
per rm. To inferior intellects his combinations ap­ peared perfectly impossible, his plans per ctly im­ practicable; but, in his hands, simplicity marked their development, and success vindicated their adop­ tion. His person partook the character of his mind -if the one never yielded in the cabinet, the other never bent in the eld. Nature had no obstacle that he did not surmount-space no opposition that he did not spurn; and whether amid Alpine rocks, ra­ bian sands, or Polar snows, he seemed proof against Peril, and empowered with ubiquity!
READING LESSONS.
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