Book Fourteen: 1812 - Chapter XVIII

by Leo Tolstoy

　　This campaign consisted in a flight of the French during whichthey did all they could to destroy themselves. From the time theyturned onto the Kaluga road to the day their leader fled from thearmy, none of the movements of the crowd had any sense. So one mighthave thought that regarding this period of the campaign thehistorians, who attributed the actions of the mass to the will ofone man, would have found it impossible to make the story of theretreat fit their theory. But no! Mountains of books have been writtenby the historians about this campaign, and everywhere are describedNapoleon's arrangements, the maneuvers, and his profound plans whichguided the army, as well as the military genius shown by his marshals.

　　The retreat from Malo-Yaroslavets when he had a free road into awell-supplied district and the parallel road was open to him alongwhich Kutuzov afterwards pursued him- this unnecessary retreat along adevastated road- is explained to us as being due to profoundconsiderations. Similarly profound considerations are given for hisretreat from Smolensk to Orsha. Then his heroism at Krasnoe isdescribed, where he is reported to have been prepared to accept battleand take personal command, and to have walked about with a birch stickand said:

　　"J'ai assez fait l'empereur; il est temps de faire le general,"* butnevertheless immediately ran away again, abandoning to its fate thescattered fragments of the army he left behind.

　　*"I have acted the Emperor long enough; it is time to act thegeneral."

　　Then we are told of the greatness of soul of the marshals,especially of Ney- a greatness of soul consisting in this: that hemade his way by night around through the forest and across the Dnieperand escaped to Orsha, abandoning standards, artillery, and nine tenthsof his men.

　　And lastly, the final departure of the great Emperor from his heroicarmy is presented to us by the historians as something great andcharacteristic of genius. Even that final running away, described inordinary language as the lowest depth of baseness which every child istaught to be ashamed of- even that act finds justification in thehistorians' language.

　　When it is impossible to stretch the very elastic threads ofhistorical ratiocination any farther, when actions are clearlycontrary to all that humanity calls right or even just, the historiansproduce a saving conception of "greatness." "Greatness," it seems,excludes the standards of right and wrong. For the "great" man nothingis wrong, there is no atrocity for which a "great" man can be blamed.

　　"C'est grand!"* say the historians, and there no longer existseither good or evil but only "grand" and "not grand." Grand is good,not grand is bad. Grand is the characteristic, in their conception, ofsome special animals called "heroes." And Napoleon, escaping home in awarm fur coat and leaving to perish those who were not merely hiscomrades but were (in his opinion) men he had brought there, feels quec'est grand,*[2] and his soul is tranquil.

　　*"It is great."

　　*[2] That it is great.

　　"Du sublime (he saw something sublime in himself) au ridicule il n'ya qu'un pas,"* said he. And the whole world for fifty years has beenrepeating: "Sublime! Grand! Napoleon le Grand!" Du sublime au ridiculeil n'y a qu'un pas.

　　*"From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step."

　　And it occurs to no one that to admit a greatness notcommensurable with the standard of right and wrong is merely toadmit one's own nothingness and immeasurable meanness.

　　For us with the standard of good and evil given us by Christ, nohuman actions are incommensurable. And there is no greatness wheresimplicity, goodness, and truth are absent.