But it will be necessary for him to attend to dates, circumstances, difference of situation, change of temperament, and age,--for age has much influence over men.

We do not think and act at fifty as at twenty-five.

By exercising this caution he will be able to discover the truth, and to establish an opinion for posterity.
The reader must not expect to find in these Memoirs an uninterrupted series of all the events which marked the great career of Napoleon; nor details of all those battles, with the recital of which so many eminent men have usefully and ably occupied themselves.

I shall say little about whatever I did not see or hear, and which is not supported by official documents.
Perhaps I shall succeed in confirming truths which have been doubted, and in correcting errors which have been adopted.

If I sometimes differ from the observations and statements of Napoleon at St.Helena, I am far from supposing that those who undertook to be the medium of communication between him and the public have misrepresented what he said.