men and who never set foot on British soil. The
events of 1789-94 meant, for most Englishmen,
Robespierre and the Reign of Terror; the events of
1796-1815, Bonaparte and the conquest of Europe.
In France itself only these two names have been
given to a society and to a magazine devoted to the
history of their epochs. Both were self-made men, of
small origins, laborious and ambitious, who had to
make their way in a hostile world: Robespierre from
within, with mole-like progress from point to point;
Bonaparte from without, with an eagle flight that en-
visaged world-vistas and world-problems. One rose
and fell within the small circuit of Paris and the
concentrated events of five years; the other rose and
fell by policies and campaigns of fifteen years that
covered all Europe from Paris to Moscow and from
the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. Yet in terms of
territory (and territory dear to France) it may be
said that Robespierre won the Rhine frontier and
Napoleon lost it; and in terms of achievement that
the work of the Empire would have been impossible
unless it had been built upon that of the Republic.
In the final judgment of history, the events of the five
years are likely to be accounted as of more lasting
value than those of the fifteen; and to Robespierre
may be attributed a greatness due to his setting and
his theme which is not incomparable with that which
Napoleon claims by his own genius of thought and
act.

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