Another singular peculiarity in him of the same kind is this:—In his common intercourse of life, and his familiar conversation, the Emperor mutilated the names most familiar to him, even ours; yet I do not think that this would have happened to him on a public occasion. I have heard him many times, during our walks, repeat the celebrated speech of Augustus; and he has never missed saying, “Take a seat, Sylla.”[[30]] He would frequently create names of persons according to his fancy; and, when he had once adopted them, they remained fixed in his mind, although we pronounced them as they should be, a hundred times in the day, within his hearing; but he would have been struck if we had used them as he had altered them. It was the same with respect to orthography: in general, he did not attend to it; yet, if our copies had contained any faults of spelling, he would have complained of it. One day the Emperor said to me; “You do not write orthographically, do you?” This question gave rise to a sarcastic smile from a bystander, who thought that it was meant to convey a reproach. The Emperor, who saw this, continued:—“At least, I suppose you do not; for a man occupied with public or other important business, a Minister, for instance, cannot, and need not, attend to orthography. His ideas must flow faster than his hand can trace; he has only time for hieroglyphics; he must put letters for words, and words for sentences; and leave the scribes to make it out afterwards.”—The Emperor left a great deal for the copyists to do; he was their torment: his handwriting actually formed hieroglyphics; he often could not decipher it himself. My son was one day reading to him a chapter of the Campaign of Italy: on a sudden he stopped short, unable to make out the writing. “The little blockhead,” said the Emperor, “cannot read his own writing!”—“It is not mine, Sire.”—“And whose then?” “Your Majesty’s.”—“How, you little rogue! do you mean to insult me?” The Emperor took the manuscript, tried a long while to read it, and at last threw it down, saying, “He is right: I cannot tell myself what is written.”—He has often sent the copyists to me, to try to read to them what he had himself been unable to decipher.
The Emperor accounted for the clearness of his ideas, and the faculty of extremely protracted application which he possessed, by saying that the different affairs were arranged in his head as in a closet. “When I wish to turn from any business,” said he, “I close the drawer which contains it, and I open that which contains another. They do not mix together, and do not fatigue me or inconvenience me.” He had never been kept awake, he said, by an involuntary pre-occupation of mind. If I wish to sleep, I shut up all the drawers, and I am soon asleep.[asleep.] So that he had always, he added, slept when he wanted rest, and almost at will.
MY ATLAS.—PREDESTINATION, &C.—THE GOVERNOR MAKES FRUITLESS ATTEMPTS TO BE RECEIVED BY THE EMPEROR.
Tuesday, 1st October. When I entered the Emperor’s room, he had my Atlas in his hands. He turned over several of the genealogical maps, whose relation and correspondence with each other he now understands remarkably well. On closing the book, he said, “What a concatenation! how each part results from and corroborates what goes before it! How every part unfolds itself and remains fixed in the mind! Las Cases, if you had done nothing more than point out the true method for instruction, you would still have rendered a most essential service. Every one may now clothe the skeleton as they like; it will, no doubt, be improved upon, but the first conception is yours,” &c.
Amongst the numerous subjects of conversation which followed, predestination was mentioned. The Emperor made many remarkable observations on that subject; amongst others, “Pray,” said he, “am I not said to be given to the belief in predestination?” “Yes, Sire, at least by many people.” “Well, well! let them say on; one may sometimes be tempted to imitate, and it may occasionally be useful.... But what are men!... How much easier it is to occupy their attention, and to strike their imaginations, by absurdities than by rational ideas! But can a man of sound sense listen for one moment to such a doctrine? Either predestination admits the existence of free will, or it rejects it. If it admits it, what kind of predetermined result is that which the mere will, a step, a word, may alter or modify, ad infinitum? If predestination, on the contrary, rejects the existence of free will, it is quite another question; in that case a child need only be thrown into its cradle as soon as it is born; there is no necessity for bestowing the least care upon it; for if it be irrevocably determined that it is to live, it will grow though no food should be given to it. You see that such a doctrine cannot be maintained: predestination is but a word without meaning. The Turks themselves, those patrons of fatalism, are not convinced of the doctrine, or medicine would not exist in Turkey; and a man residing in a third floor would not take the trouble to go down by the longer way of the stairs, he would immediately throw himself out of the window: you see to what a string of absurdities that will lead.”
At about three o’clock, the Emperor was told that the Governor wished to communicate to him some instructions which he had just received from London. The Emperor replied that he was unwell, that the instructions might be sent to him, or communicated to some of his suite; but the Governor insisted on being admitted, saying, that he wished to communicate directly with the Emperor: he added that he had also a few words to say to us in private, after having spoken to the General. The Emperor again refused; upon which the Governor retired, saying that he begged he might be informed when he could see the General. This period may be distant indeed; the Emperor, with whom I was at that moment, having said to me that he was determined never to receive him again.
After dinner, the Emperor had Buffon and Valmont de Bomare brought to him. He looked at what these authors say respecting the diversities in the human species, the difference between a negro and a white; but he was not much satisfied with what he found in them on the subject. He retired early to his apartment: he was unwell.
2d. The Emperor having told me that he was determined to apply again to the study of English, and that I must oblige him every morning to take his lesson, I accordingly went to his apartment at about half-past twelve. I was not fortunate in the choice of the moment, for he was lying on his sofa asleep after his breakfast. I must have vexed him, and was very much vexed myself. However, he would not let me go away, and read a little English for about half an hour. He was not very well. He dressed. Having told him that we had finished what he had given us to do, he at first proposed to go to work on the chapters of the Campaign of Italy; but he afterwards altered his mind, and was busy the whole day on something else. At about five o’clock he attempted to walk out, but found the weather too cold. After dinner, he tried to read, but in vain; he could not go on: he felt tired, drowsy, indisposed, and withdrew almost immediately.
JURISPRUDENCE; THE CODE; MERLIN, &C.—MONUMENTS IN EGYPT.—PLAN OF AN EGYPTIAN TEMPLE IN PARIS.
3d. After breakfast, the Emperor took two or three turns in the garden. We were all with him. He spoke of the communications which the Governor had to make to us, and took a review of the different conjectures—some good, some bad—which each of us formed on the subject. The weather was tolerable; he ordered the calash, and we went round the wood. The heat and the heaviness of the atmosphere, though the sun was obscured, obliged him to go into the house again. He sat down and dictated to my son until five o’clock.