_(For the Mirror.)_
It is impossible at this time of day, to foretell how the future
destinies of Europe may be influenced by the subject of these lines. To
use the words of the talented author of the _Improvisatrice_, "Poetry
needs no preface." However in this instance, a few remarks may not be
uninteresting. Until I met with the following stanzas, I was not aware
that Napoleon had been a votary of the muses. He has certainly climbed
the Parnassian mount with considerable success, whether we take the
interest of the subject, or the correctness of the versification into
consideration. Memorials like these of such a man, are, in the highest
degree, interesting; they serve to display the _man_, divested of the
"pomp and circumstance" of royalty. That Napoleon had many faults cannot
be disputed, but it is equally clear that he possessed many virtues the
world never gave him credit for:--_"Posterity will do me justice."_
I subjoin two translations of the beautiful lines written by Napoleon at
St. Helena, on the portrait of his son. The love he bore to his son was
carried to enthusiasm. According to those persons who had access to his
society at St. Helena, his young heir was the continual object of his
solicitude during the period of seven years, "_For him alone,_" he said,
"_I returned from the Island of Elba, and if I still form some
expectations on earth, they are also for him._" He has declared to
several of his suite, that he every day suffered the greatest anxiety on
his account. Since I met with these lines however, I have found that
Napoleon had in his youth composed a poem on Corsica, some extracts of
which are to be found in "Les Annales de l'Europe" a German collection.
He was exceedingly anxious in after life to destroy the copies of this
poem which had been circulated, and bought and procured them by every
means in his power for the purpose of destroying them; it is probable
not a single copy is in existence at the present period. It has been
remarked, that, "it requires nothing short of the solitude of exile, and
the idolatry which he manifested for his son, to inspire him once more.
In neither of the original poems is it indicated which he preferred."