"is always the work of the mother," and it is certain that he had ample
reason in his own remarkable career for making this important admission.
He inherited from his mother all those attributes which made him great,
and owed his sudden downfall to none of her teachings. She was noted for
her sagacity and prudence, but possibly it required more than human
sagacity and prudence to balance the mighty impulses which moved
Napoleon Bonaparte. "A father may turn his back on his child," says
Washington Irving, "brothers and sisters may become inveterate enemies,
husbands may desert their wives, wives their husbands; but a mother's
love endures through all; in good repute, in bad repute, in the face of
the world's condemnation, a mother still loves on, and still hopes that
her child may turn from his evil ways, and repent; still