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Excerpt from Napoleon at Home: The Daily Life of the Emperor at the Tuileries
Right arm, which he twists, while he twitches the cuff of his coat with his hand. He gives himself no trouble to ascertain if the secretary can follow with his pen. That is his affair. The secretary cannot be expected to grasp all that is dictated literally, but he notes the characteristic expressions and the salient points, so as to reproduce the leading idea, doubtless in a form less full of imagery, and losing much of the heat Of improvisation. Napoleon only looks to ideas, and the expres sions which render them most forcibly are for him the best. He does not hesitate, therefore, to go to extremes in this first sketch, to blurt out a word plain and blunt, to add force to the energy Of his ideas by an overstatement. In some of the rough drafts dictated by him one is sensible Of the scansion which his. Walking gives to the phrase, the sudden stops at the end Of the cabinet, and the jerking out Of the words in his going and coming.
We hear him speak, and the written words. Have the sound of his voice.
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