quand, 'even if,' E.B

1. 19. s'en trouvât. ..' would be much happier for it.' Owing to the want of a complete set of tenses in the subjunctive mood this might mean 'was much happier for it.' But the context makes it clear. See the example in E.B. 286 (1).

1. 20. tine unité majestueuse, a true description of Napoleon's conception of the state. Perhaps the following passage from M. Taine {Le Régime Moderne) may be suggestive, "Dans aucun pays de l'Europe, les vies humaines ne sont si bien encadrées, par un cadre si universel, si simple, si satisfaisant pour les yeux et pour la logique: l'édifice, où désormais les Fiançais se meuvent, est régulier de fond en comble, par l'ensemble et par les détails, à l'extérieur comme à l'intérieur."

1. 21. un philosophe. Perhaps the article is used because philosophe is used less in its general sense of a philosopher, than in the specialized meaning of les philosophes of the end of the 18th century.

L 22. sais. The general rule is that connaître is used of knowing a person, but here the meaning is to know about, not to know personally. So in Molière, "Je sais un paysan qu'on appelait Gros-Pierre."

notre secrétaire de Florence. Machiavelli (1469 — 1527) was secretary to 'the Ten,' the administrators of the Florentine republic after the expulsion of the Medici. His famous book 'The Prince' is often quoted as containing maxims of the most unprincipled statecraft. Its real object was very different; his great desire was to see Italy organized, as it now is, into a great coherent nation. It is no doubt with this point of view as well as with the unscrupulous adaptation of means to endsthat Napoleon, as represented by de Vigny, sympathizes. Notice the use of notre, meaning the one we know about. "Si notre Alexandre avait connu cette invention, il n'aurait pas eu besoin de sa valeur pour cou-

quérir le monde," Voltaire. The English use of 'our friend, 'our young gentleman ' in telling a story is parallel.

1.27. Les paradoxes. A paradox is properly something unexpected, as for example a cause producing just the opposite result to what one looks for. Thus the Hydrostatic Paradox is the supporting of an immense weight by the pressure of a very thin column of water. Here Napoleon means that people would, when he was dead, try and explain his actions by any far-fetched motive rather than the simple and natural one.