It is true that a man of Napoleon's truth of adaptation to the mind
of the masses around him becomes not merely representative, but actually
a monopolizer and usurper of other minds. Thus Mirabeau plagiarized
every good thought, every good word, that was spoken in France. Dumont
relates that he sat in the gallery of the Convention, and heard Mirabeau
make a speech. It struck Dumont that he could fit it with a peroration,
which he wrote in pencil immediately, and showed to Lord Elgin, who
sat by him. Lord Elgin approved it, and Dumont, in the evening, showed
it to Mirabeau. Mirabeau read it, pronounced it admirable, and declared
he would incorporate it into his harangue, to-morrow, to the Assembly.
"It is impossible," said Dumont, "as, unfortunately, I have shown it
to Lord Elgin." "If you have shown it to Lord Elgin, and to fifty
persons beside, I shall still speak it to-morrow:" and he did speak
it, with much effect, at the next day's session. For Mirabeau, with
his overpowering personality, felt that these things, which his presence
inspired, were as much his own, as if he had said them, and that his
adoption of them gave them their weight.
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