Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 32.djvu/169

i NAPOLEON AND HIS CODE 133 And after comparing it with the German Civil Code "which, having been drawn up at the end of the 19th century, naturally does not show the same lacxmae or omissions" he significantly adds: "It is inspired, however, by a very different spirit, and the French code does not suffer altogether by comparison with it either in sub- stance or in form." No greater tribute could be paid the ill-fated Corsican than the fact that now, more than a century after its promulgation, his code stands higher in the world's judgment than ever before. Napoleon himself realized that this branch of his work was to be the most enduring. At St. Helena he wrote: "My true glory is not in having won forty battles; Waterloo will blot out the memory of those victories. But nothing can blot out my Civil Code. That will live eternally." «^ And that prophecy is being Hterally fulfilled. Men no longer read much about his battles; they have lost interest in his diplo- matic triumphs; they give little heed to his display of administrative genius; but they are hearing more and more about his legislation. He is going down to history with the Code in his hand. It was the writer's privilege once to visit Napoleon's tomb in the Hotel des Invalides at Paris. It is probably the most magni- ficent of the world's mausoleums, not excepting the beautiful Taj Mahal at Agra, India — doubtless more deUcate in construction, but not so imposing as that which Hes beneath the dome of the Invalides. The historic associations, the superb embeUishments, the "dim reHgious light" that falls through the shaded dome directly upon the sarcophagus of the hero — all unite to inspire the visitor with a feeHng of awe. But to the writer the most impres- sive features of that entire structure were the bas-relief representing the Code and the inscription that encircles the great rotunda con- sisting of this sentence from Napoleon's will: "I desire that my ashes repose on the banks of the Seine, in the midst of the French people whom I have so loved." Historians who have considered only his wars, the countless lives lost in his campaigns, the misfortunes that befell France after " I De Montholon, Rial de la CAPnviTf de l'emperexjr Napoleon, 401.