The Memoirs left by Napoleon, the many volumes of conversations collected by his friends on subjects of general interest, as well as those books that relate to the military profession, show the wonderful strength of his mind. His temperate habits were, of course, a great help in carrying out the broad plans that he made for hard work. He took little wine, and then only used it as a medicine.
Napoleon's hours for rising and going to bed were very irregular. Often on moonlight nights he would rise at three o'clock, and when at The Briars he would go to the garden before Toby was up, getting the key from the place where the old slave had hidden it. He would then have an early breakfast of fresh fruits.
Not infrequently, in those early days of his stay at St. Helena, Betsy would see him in the early morning riding around the lawn on his beautiful horse Hope, and when she talked with him she would learn that already he had that day dictated a number of letters. Hope was the first horse Napoleon rode on the island, and it pleased him to think that this name was an augury.
When it came to his bed hour, Napoleon's habits were most uncertain. Frequently, when he was restless, he would have Marchand read him to sleep.
At times when he was ill he resented the doctor's efforts to get him to take medicine. He had original ideas on the best treatment of the sick, and believed strongly in the efficacy of the salt-water bath.
However heterodox his views on any subject, Napoleon seldom hesitated to express them, at least to those in whom he had confidence.
"I have no faith whatever in medicine," said Napoleon one day to a very clever medical man who was on the island. "My own remedies are starvation and the warm bath. Churchmen," he added, "are often hypocrites, because too much is expected of them. Politicians must have a conventional conscience, and soldiers are cut-throats and robbers. But surgeons are neither too good nor too bad; their mission is to benefit mankind, and they have opportunities to study human nature as well as science. I have a higher opinion of the surgical profession than of any other. The practice of the law," he concluded, "is too severe for poor human nature, for he who distorts truth and exults at the success of injustice at last will hardly know right from wrong."
Napoleon liked sailors, and often talked with those who conducted fatigue parties around the island.
One day he asked the girls if they had met one active young reefer, who happened to belong to a distinguished family.