Excerpt from The Life of Napoleon Buonaparte, Emperor of the French, Vol. 1 of 2: With a Preliminary View of the French Revolution On the execution of his task, it becomes the author to be silent. He is aware it must exhibit many faults but he claims credit for having brought to the undertaking a mind disposed to do his sub ject as impartial justice as his judgment could supply. He will be found no enemy to the person of Napoleon. The term of bestill ty is ended when the battle has been won, and the foe exists no longer. His splendid personal qualities-his great military actions and poutical services to France, will not, it is hoped, be found lessened in the narrative. Unhappily, the author's task involved a duty of another kind, 'the discharge of which is due to France, to Britain, to Europe, and to the world. If the general system of Napoleon has rested upon force or fraud, it is neither the great ness of his talents, nor the success of his undertakings, that ought to stifle the voice or dazzle the eyes of him who adventures to be 'his historian. The reasons, however, are carefully summed up where the author has presumed to express a favourable or unfa vourable opinion of the distinguished person of whom these vol umes treat; so that each reader may judge of their validity for himself. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.