His memory was prodigious, and a common saying of his was that “A head without a memory was like a fort without a garrison.”  He never used a word that was not full of meaning.  The unparalleled amount of literature that surrounds his name teems with concise, vivid sentences on every conceivable subject, and the more they are read and studied, the more wonderful appears their wisdom.  On the eve of a great battle, his exhortations to his soldiers were like magic, burning hot into their souls, making them irresistible.  The popular idea in the country in his time, when passion ran rampant, and indeed, in a hazy way, affects some people’s minds now, was that he and his family were mere perfidious Corsicans without mental endowments or character, and unworthy of the stations in life in which his genius had placed them.  His sisters have been caricatured as having the manners of the kitchen, and loose morals, and his brothers as mediocrities.  A great deal of the same stuff is now written about other people who have occupied and do occupy high stations in life.

Here is Napoleon’s own version of each of his brothers and sisters and of his mother.  It was given in course of conversation to Las Cases at St. Helena.  “The Emperor,” he says, “speaks of his people; of the slight assistance he has received at their hands, and of the trouble they had been to him; he goes on to say that for the rest, we should always, as a last resort, endeavour to form a judgment by analogy.  What family, in similar circumstances, would have done better?  And, after all, does not mine furnish, on the whole, a record which does me honour?  Joseph would be an ornament to society wherever he might happen to reside; Lucien, an ornament to any political assembly; Jerome, had he come to years of discretion, would have made an excellent ruler; I had great hopes of him.  Louis would have been popular, and a remarkable man anywhere.  My sister Elisa had a man’s intellect, a brave heart, and she would have met adversity philosophically.  Caroline is a very clever and capable woman.  Pauline, perhaps the most beautiful woman of her day, has been, and will be until the end, the most charming creature living.  As for my mother, she is worthy of every respect.  What family as numerous could make a finer impression?”

If unprejudiced history counts for anything, this testimony is true, and it is doubtful whether any of the ruling families of France who preceded them, or even those of other countries, who took part in bringing about their downfall (taking them as a whole), could tabulate a better record of worthiness.  Certainly no previous ruler of France ever made the efforts that the head of the Bonaparte family did to fashion his brothers and sisters into filling the positions he had made for them in a way that became princes and princesses.