Excerpt from The Life of Napoleon Buonaparte, Emperor of the French, Vol. 1 of 3: With a Preliminary View of the French Revolution<br><br>On the execution of his task, it becomes the author to be si lent. He is aware it must exhibit many faults; but he claims credit for having brought to the undertaking a mind disposed to do his subject as impartial justice as his judgment could sup ply. He will be found no enemy to the person of Napoleon. The term of hostility is ended when the battle has been won, and the foe exists no longer. His splendid personal qualities his great military actions and political services to France, will not, it is hoped, be found lessened in the narrative. Unhap pily, the author's task involved a duty of another kind, the discharge of which is due tod'ranee, to Britain, to Europe, and to the world. If the general system of Napoleon has rest ed upon force or fraudfit is neither the greatness 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 histo rian. The reasons, however, are carefully summed up where the author has presumed to express a favourable or unfavour able opinion of the distinguished person of whom these vo lumes treat; so that each reader may judge of their validity for himself.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>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.