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Rh And here is another self-condemnation:

"On reaching the Isle of Poplars, the First Consul stopped at Rousseau's grave and said: 'It would have been better for the repose of France if that man had never existed!' 'And why, citizen Consul?' 'He is the man who made the French Revolution.' 'It seems to me that you need not complain of the French Revolution.' 'Well, the future must decide whether it would not have been better for the repose of the whole world if neither myself nor Rousseau had ever lived,' He then resumed his promenade in a reverie."

And from the outset of his career, he boldly proclaims his selfish purposes.

Do you suppose,' says he to them, after the preliminaries of Leoben, 'that it is to aggrandise Directory lawyers, such as the Carnots, and the Barras, that I triumph in Italy? Do you suppose, also, that it is for the establishment of a republic? What an idea! A republic of thirty million men! With our customs, our vices, how is that possible? It is a delusion with which the French are infatuated, and which will vanish along with so many others. What they want is glory, the gratification of vanity—they know nothing about liberty. Look at the army! Our successes just obtained, our triumphs have already brought out the true character of the French soldier. I am all for him. Let the Directory deprive me of the cockade and