IV. His Wonderful Memory.

His Three Atlases. - Their scale and completeness.

Let us try for a moment to show the range and contents of this
intellect; we may have to go back to Caesar to his equal; but, for
lack of documents, we have nothing of Caesar but general features - a
summary outline. Of Napoleon we have, besides the perfect outline,
the features in detail. Read his correspondence, day by day, then
chapter by chapter;[67] for example, in 1806, after the battle of
Austerlitz, or, still better, in 1809, after his return from Spain, up
to the peace of Vienna; whatever our technical shortcomings may be, we
shall find that his mind, in its comprehensiveness and amplitude,
largely surpasses all known or even credible proportions.

He has mentally within him three principal atlases, always at hand,
each composed of "about twenty note-books," each distinct and each
regularly posted up. -

1. The first one is military, forming a vast collection of
topographical charts as minute as those of an general staff, with
detailed plans of every stronghold, also specific indications and the
local distribution of all forces on sea and on land - crews,
regiments, batteries, arsenals, storehouses, present and future
resources in supplies of men, horses, vehicles, arms, munitions, food,
and clothing.

2. The second, which is civil, resembles the heavy, thick volumes
published every year, in which we now read the state of the budget,
and comprehend, first, the innumerable items of ordinary and