Napoleon Bonaparte |拿破仑波拿巴
A Letter to the President of Congress |致大陆议会主席的一封信
Thomas Jefferson, thePen of the Revolution|托马斯杰斐逊：革命的文学斗士
A Breakfast with Elia |和伊利亚共进早餐
Liberty and Independence |自由与独立
Dedication of the Washington Monument |华盛顿纪念碑献词
Dickens |狄更斯
Pocahontas |宝嘉康蒂
Websters School Days |韦伯斯特的学校岁月=
Chapter.2Views.|.各地风物
A Louisiana Sugar Plantation of the Old Regime |路易斯安那州的老式甘蔗园
South Carolina and Massachusetts |南卡莱罗纳州与马萨诸塞州
A Flower in the Window |窗台边的花
In the Wheat Field |麦田
Broek |布鲁克
Mardi-Gras |新奥尔良狂欢节
October in Tennssee |十月的田纳西
November |十一月
Home of the People |人民之家
What Is Our Country ? |我们有着怎样一个国家？
Chapter.3Popularizing Sicence.|.趣味科普
The Origin of Roast Pig |论烤猪
The Biography of a Beaver |河狸传记
The Perils and Pleasures of Ballooning |热气球的危险与乐趣
On the Art of Flying |论飞行的技艺
The Sister Years |姐妹年
WaterSome Properties |水的特性
Chapter.4History.|.历史瞬间
Crecy and Calais |英法克雷西及加来之战
Loss of the Arctic |消逝的北极号
The Stamp Act in North Carolina |北卡罗来纳州的印花税法案
Webster Defending His Alma Mater |守护母校的韦伯斯特
Mount Mitchell |米切尔峰
A Cavalry Charge |一场骑兵对战
The Man Without a Country |没有国家的人
Chapter.5Stories.|.趣味故事
The High Society of Inquiry |最高调查协会
How I Became a Writer |作家养成记
The Runaway Cannon |失控的大炮
Patrasche |忠犬帕奇
Odysseus and Polyphemos |奥德修斯和波吕斐摩斯
A Fable |寓言一则
Men to Be Honored |值得尊敬的人
Choosing a Class of People to Be Exterminated
Chapter.6Miscellaneous Poems.|.杂诗
Music in Camp |军营之歌
O Captain! My Captain! |啊，船长！我的船长！
TheOld, Old Song|古老之歌
Liberty and Independence |自由与独立
I Remember, I Remember |我记得，我记得
Goodbye |再见
A Christmas Carol |圣诞颂歌
The New Year |新年
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon understood his business. Here was a man that in each moment and emergency knew what to do next. It is an immense comfort and refreshment to the spirits, not only of kings, but of citizens. Few men have any next; they live from hand to mouth, without plan, and are ever at the end of their line, and, after each action, wait for an impulse from abroad.
Napoleon had been the first man of the world, if his ends had been purely public. As he is, he inspires confidence and vigor by the extraordinary unity of his action. He is firm,sure, self-denying, self-postponing, sacrificing everything to his aim,money, troops, generals, and his own safety also; not misled, like common adventurers, by the splendor of his own means.Incidents ought not to govern policy, he said,but policy incidents.To be hurried away by every event, is to have no political system at all.
His victories were only so many doors, and he never for a moment lost sight of his way onward in the dazzle and uproar of the present circumstance. He knew what to do, and he flew to his mark. He would shorten a straight line to come at his object. Horrible anecdotes may, no doubt, be collected from his history, of the price at which he bought his successes, but he must not, therefore, be set down as cruel, but only as one who knew no impediment to his will： not blood-thirsty, not cruel; but woe to what thing or person stood in his way!
Sire, General Clarke cannot combine with General Junot for the dreadful fire of the Austrian battery.Let him carry the battery.Sire, every regiment that approaches the heavy artillery is sacrificed. Sire, what orders?Forward!Forward!
In the plenitude of his resources every obstacle seemed to vanish. There shall be no Alps,he said; and he built his perfect roads, climbing by graded galleries their steepest precipices, until Italy was as open to Paris as any town in France. Having decided what was to be done, he did that with might and main. He put out all his strength. He risked everything and spared nothing,neither ammunition, nor money, nor troops, nor generals, nor himself. If fighting be the best mode of adjusting national differences, certainly Bonaparte was right in making it thorough.
He fought sixty battles. He had never enough. Each victory was a new weapon.My power would fall, were I not to support it by new achievements. Conquest has made me what I am, and conquest must maintain me. His vigor was guarded and tempered by the coldest prudence and punctuality. A thunderbolt in the attack, he was found invulnerable in his intrenchments. His every attack was never the inspiration of courage,but the result of calculation. His idea of the best defence consisted in being always the attacking party. My ambition, he said, was great, but was of a cold nature.
Everything depended upon the nicety of his combinations;the stars were not more punctual than his arithmetic. His personal attention descended to the smallest particulars. At Montebello, I ordered Kellerman to attack with eight hundred horses; and with these he separated the six thousand Hungarian grenadiers before the very eyes of the Austrian cavalry. This cavalry was half a league off, and required a quarter of an hour to arrive on the field of action. I have observed that it is always these quarters of an hour that decide the fate of a battle.
Before he fought a battle Bonaparte thought little about what he should do in case of success, but a great deal about what he should do in case of a reverse of fortune. The same prudence and good sense marked all his behavior. His instructions to his secretary at the palace are worth remembering： During the night, enter my chamber as seldom as possible. Do not awake me when you have any good news to communicate; with that there is no haste; but when you bring bad news, rouse me instantly, for then there is not a moment to be lost. His achievement of business was immense, and enlarges the known powers of man. There have been many working kings, from Ulysses to William of Orange, but none who accomplished a tithe of this mans performance.
Those who had to deal with him found that he was not to be imposed upon, but could cipher as well as another man. When the expenses of the empress, of his household, of his palaces, had accumulated great debts, Napoleon examined the bills of the creditors himself, defeated overcharges and errors,and reduced the claims by considerable sums.
His grand weapon, namely, the millions whom he directed,he owed to the representative character which clothed him. He interests us as he stands for France and for Europe; and he exists as captain and king only as far as the Revolution or the interests of the industrious masses found an organ and a leader in him.
In the social interests he knew the meaning and value of labor, and threw himself naturally on that side. The principal works that have survived him are his magnificent roads. He filled his troops with his spirit, and a sort of freedom and companionship grew up between him and them, which the forms of his court never permitted between the officers and himself.They performed under his eye that which no others could do. The best document of his relation to his troops is the order of the day on the morning of the battle of Austerlitz, in which Napoleon promises his troops that he will keep his person out of reach of fire. This declaration, which is the reverse of that ordinarily made by generals on the eve of
battle, sufficiently explains the devotion of the army to their leader.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
A Letter to the President of Congress
Washington at Trenton
Headquarters, Morristown
December 27, 1776.
To the President of Congress：
SIR： I have the pleasure of congratulating you upon the success of an enterprise which I had formed against a detachment of the enemy lying in Trenton, and which was executed yesterday morning.
The evening of the twenty-fifth I ordered the troops intended for this service to parade back of McKonkeys ferry, that they might begin to pass as soon as it grew dark, imagining that we should be able to throw them all over, with the necessary artillery, by twelve oclock and that we might easily arrive at Trenton by five in the morning, the distance being about nine miles. But the quantity of ice made that night impeded the passage of the boats so much that it was three oclock before the artillery could all be got over and near four before the troops took up their line of march.
This made me despair of surprising the town, as I well knew that we could not reach it before the day was fairly broke, but as I was certain there was no making a retreat without being discovered, and harassed on repassing the river, I determined to push on at all events.
I formed my detachment into two divisions, one to march by the lower or river road, the other by the upper or Pennington road. As the divisions had nearly the same distance to march,I ordered each of them immediately, upon forcing the outguards, to push directly into the town, that they might charge the enemy before they had time to form.
The upper division arrived at the enemys advanced post exactly at eight oclock, and in three minutes after I found from the fire on the lower road that that division had also got up.The out guards made but small opposition; though, for their numbers, they behaved very well, keeping up a constant retreating fire from behind houses. We presently saw their mainbody formed, but from their motions, they seemed undetermined how to act.
Being hard pressed by our troops, who had already got possession of their artillery, they attempted to file off by a road on their right leading to Princeton. But, perceiving their intention, I threw a body of troops in their way, which immediately checked them. Finding from our disposition that they were surrounded, and that they must inevitably be cut to pieces if they made any further resistance, they agreed to lay down their arms.
The number that submitted in this manner was twenty-three officers and eight hundred and eighty-six men. Colonel Rahl, the commanding officer, and seven others were found woundedin the town. I do not know exactly how many they had killed; but I fancy not above twenty or thirty, as they never made any regular stand. Our loss is very trifling indeed, only two officers, and one or two privates wounded.
I find that the detachment consisted of the three Hessian regiments of Lanspach, Kniphausen, and Rahl, amounting to about fifteen hundred men, and a troop of British light horse; but immediately upon the beginning of the attack, all those who were not killed or taken pushed directly down toward Bordentown. These would have likewise fallen into our hands could my plan have been completely carried into execution.
General Ewing was to have crossed before day at Trenton ferry and taken possession of the bridge leading out of the town; but the quantity of ice was so great that though he did everything in his power to effect it, he could not get over.
This difficulty also hindered General Cadwalader from crossing with the Pennsylvania militia from Bristol. He got part of his foot soldiers over; but finding it impossible to embark his artillery, he was obliged to desist. I am fully confident that could the troops under General Ewing and Cadwalader have passed the river, I should have been able, with their assistance, to drive the enemy from all their posts below Trenton. But the numbers I had with me being inferior to them below me, and a strong battalion of light infantry being at Princeton above me, I thought it most prudent to return the same evening with the prisoners and the artillery we had taken. We found no stores of any consequence in the town.
In justice to the officers and men, I must add that their behavior upon this occasion reflects the highest honor upon them. The difficulty of passing the river in a very severe night, and their march through a violent storm of snow and hail did not in the least abate their ardor; but when they came to the charge, each seemed to vie with the other in pressing forward; and were I to give a preference to any particular corps, I should do great injustice to the others.
Colonel Baylor, my first aide-camp, will have the honor of delivering this to you; and from him you may be made acquainted with many other particulars. His spirited behavior upon every occasion requires me to recommend him to your particular notice.
I have the honor to be, etc.
G. W. George Washington
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