Bonaparte was insensible to the charms of poetic harmony.  He had not even sufficient ear to feel the rhythm, of poetry, and he never could recite a verse without violating the metre; yet the grand ideas of poetry charmed him.  He absolutely worshipped Corneille; and, one day, after having witnessed a performance of ‘Cinna’, he said to me, “If a man like Corneille were living in my time I would make him my Prime Minister.  It is not his poetry that I most admire; it is his powerful understanding, his vast knowledge of the human heart, and his profound policy!” At St. Helena he said that he would have made Corneille a prince; but at the time he spoke to me of Corneille he had no thought of making either princes or kings.

Gallantry to women was by no means a trait in Bonaparte’s character.  He seldom said anything agreeable to females, and he frequently addressed to them the rudest and most extraordinary remarks.  To one he would say, “Heavens, how red your elbows are!” To another, “What an ugly headdress you have got!” At another time he would say, “Your dress is none of the cleanest.....  Do you ever change your gown?  I have seen you in that twenty times!” He showed no mercy to any who displeased him on these points.  He often gave Josephine directions about her toilet, and the exquisite taste for which she was distinguished might have helped to make him fastidious about the costume of other ladies.  At first he looked to elegance above all things:  at a later period he admired luxury and splendour, but he always required modesty.  He frequently expressed his disapproval of the low-necked dresses which were so much in fashion at the beginning of the Consulate.

Bonaparte did not love cards, and this was very fortunate for those who were invited to his parties; for when he was seated at a card-table, as he sometimes thought himself obliged to be, nothing could exceed the dulness of the drawing-room either at the Luxembourg or the Tuileries.  When, on the contrary, he walked about among the company, all were pleased, for he usually spoke to everybody, though he preferred the conversation of men of science, especially those who had been with him in in Egypt; as for example, Monge and Berthollet.  He also liked to talk with Chaptal and Lacphede, and with Lemercier, the author of ‘Agamemnon’.

Bonaparte was seen to less advantage in a drawing-room than at the head of his troops.  His military uniform became him much better than the handsomest dress of any other kind.  His first trials of dress-coats were unfortunate.  I have been informed that the first time he wore one he kept on his black cravat.  This incongruity was remarked to him, and he replied, “So much the better; it leaves me something of a military air, and there is no harm in that.”  For my own part, I neither saw the black cravat nor heard this reply.