LESSON 28

CHARACTER OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

拿破仑·波拿巴的性格

Charles Phillips, 1787-1859, an eminent barrister and orator, was born in Sligo, Ireland, and died in London. He gained much of his reputation as an advocate in criminal cases. In his youth he published some verses; later in life he became the author of several works, chiefly of biography.

He is fallen! We may now pause before that splendid prodigy, which towered among us like some ancient ruin, whose power terrified the glance its magnificence attracted. Grand, gloomy, and peculiar, he sat upon the throne a sceptered hermit, wrapt in the solitude of his own originality. A mind, bold, independent, and decisive; a will, despotic in its dictates; an energy that distanced expedition; and a conscience, pliable to every touch of interest, marked the outlines of this extraordinary character—the most extraordinary, perhaps, that in the annals of this world ever rose, or reigned, or fell.

Flung into life in the midst of a revolution that quickened every energy of a people who acknowledged no superior, he commenced his course, a stranger by birth, and a scholar by charity. With no friend but his sword, and no fortune but his talents, he rushed into the lists where rank, and wealth, and genius had arrayed themselves, and competition fled from him, as from the glance of destiny.

He knew no motive but interest; acknowledged no criterion but success; he worshiped no God but ambition; and, with an eastern devotion, he 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; for the sake of a divorce, he bowed before the cross; the orphan of St. Louis, he became the adopted child of the Republic; and, with a parricidal ingratitude, on the ruins both of the throne and the tribune, he reared the throne of his despotism. A professed Catholic, he imprisoned the Pope; a pretended patriot, he impoverished the country; and in the name of Brutus, he grasped without remorse, and wore without shame, the diadem of the Caesars.

The whole continent trembled at beholding the audacity of his designs, and the miracle of their execution. Skepticism bowed to the prodigies of his performance; romance assumed the air of history; nor was there aught too incredible for belief, or too fanciful for expectation, when the world saw a subaltern of Corsica waving his imperial flag over her most ancient capitals. All the visions of antiquity became commonplace in his contemplation: kings were his people; nations were his outposts; and he disposed of courts, and crowns, and camps, and churches, and cabinets, as if they were the titular dignitaries of the chessboard! Amid all these changes, he stood immutable as adamant. It mattered little whether in the field, or in the drawing-room; with the mob, or the levee; wearing the Jacobin bonnet, or the iron crown; banishing a Braganza, or espousing a Hapsburg; dictating peace on a raft to the Czar of Russia, or contemplating defeat at the gallows of Leipsic he was still the same military despot.

In this wonderful combination, his affectations of literature must not be omitted. The jailer of the press, he affected the patronage of letters; the proscriber of books, he encouraged philosophy; the persecutor of authors, and the murderer of printers, he yet pretended to the protection of learning; the assassin of Palm, the silencer of De Staël, and the denouncer of Kotzebue, he was the friend of David, the benefactor of De Lille, and sent his academic prize to the philosopher of England.

Such a medley of contradictions, and, at the same time, such an individual consistency, were never united in the same character. A royalist, a republican, and an emperor; a Mohammedan, a Catholic, and a patron of the synagogue; a subaltern and a sovereign; a traitor and a tyrant; a Christian and an infidel; he was, through all his vicissitudes, the same stern, impatient, inflexible original; the same mysterious, incomprehensible self; the man without a model, and without a shadow.

【中文阅读】

他倒下了！现在，我们在这位举世罕见的奇才面前驻足，他就像某些古代遗迹那样伫立在我们中间，他的威力令投向他那富丽堂皇外表的目光慑服。高傲、沮丧和异乎寻常，他坐在一位被授予权杖的隐士坐过的宝座上，周身笼罩着他独有的孤独。他的想法大胆，有主见，坚决果断；他的意志体现出独裁者的专横；他有进行长距离远征的旺盛精力；他的良心易受每一切身利益的影响。这种奇特的性格以上述特征为标志——也许，最不同寻常的就体现在这个世界总是兴起、占主导地位和覆灭的编年史之中。

扑进一场大革命，这场革命很快将认为不存在优越感的人们调集起来，他开始了自己的伟大航程，一个天生的陌生人、一个悲天悯人的学者。没有朋友，只有手中的利刃；没有财产，但有的是才具，他匆忙进入按等级、财富和天才排列的名单，但他逃离了竞争，也逃离了命运的眷顾。

他的眼中只有利益，没有动机；他只认可成功，而不论标准；他奉为神明的不是上帝，而是野心。凭借一种东方式的虔诚，他拜倒在自己偶像崇拜的神龛前。需要补充的是，他不会公开宣称任何一种信条，他也不会公开发表任何一种意见：怀着对建立王朝的希望，他支持奥斯曼帝国；为了离婚，他在十字架前鞠躬；圣路易的孤儿，他成为共和国的养子；还有，在王座和讲坛的废墟上，他凭借杀长上者的忘恩负义，树立起进行专制统治的宝座。作为一名立誓信教的天主教徒，他将教皇囚禁起来；作为一名假装爱国的人，他使这个国家愈发贫困；他以暗杀恺撒的布鲁图的名义，在攫取皇帝的王权时没有丝毫自责，在发誓时没有任何羞愧。

整个大陆在目睹他退位的大胆举动和属下被处决这一奇迹后瑟瑟发抖。持怀疑态度的人屈服于他的表演天才；浪漫史披上了历史的外衣；当这个世界见证了来自科西嘉的一名中尉将帝国的大旗覆在她最古老的首都上时，对信仰而言，任何事物都不足为信，对期望而言，再多的幻想也是虚妄。所有对古代幻想在他沉思中成了最寻常不过的事情：国王是他的臣民，国家是他的前哨；他随意处置法律、王权、军营、教堂和内阁事务，仿佛他们只不过是随意摆布的棋子！

在所有这些变化中间，他坚如磐石地岿然不动。这与是否在野外写生或者在画室里没什么关系；不论那些暴民还是早上等着觐见他的人，不论戴着雅各宾式的帽子，还是戴着王冠的人。驱逐一个布拉甘扎（自1822年至1889年间同时控制巴西的一个葡萄牙统治者王朝——译注），又支持哈布斯堡王朝 （欧洲最古老的王室家族——译注）；在去接俄国沙皇的木筏上信誓旦旦地要和平，结果脑子里却考虑着打破套在他同样实行军事专制的莱比锡头上的枷锁。

要深入讨论这个奇妙的复合体，他对文学的热爱不能略而不述。作为新闻出版业的监狱看守，他假装热心支持文学创作；作为书籍的排斥者，他却鼓励哲学研究。作为扼杀作家的刽子手和出版商的谋杀凶手，他却摆出一副保护知识的面孔。作为杀害帕尔姆的罪魁祸首，德•斯塔尔恶性的抹杀者和科茨布的公开指责者，他却成了大卫的朋友，德•里尔的恩人，将他的学术奖颁给了英格兰的哲学家。

像这样一位矛盾的混合体，与此同时又保持独特的连贯性的人，绝对不会融合同样的性格。一位保皇主义者，一位共和主义者，同时又是一位皇帝；一位伊斯兰教徒，一位天主教徒，同时又是犹太教堂的赞助者；一位中尉，同时又是一位君主；一个叛徒，又是一位暴君；一位基督教徒，同时又是一位异教徒；透过他的所有兴衰荣辱来看，他原本是个严厉、急躁和坚定不移的人。一个同样神秘和难以理解的自我。这是一个无法效仿的人，一个没有影子的人。