The making of a nation is not unlike bread or cake making.

One element is used as the basis, to which are added other component parts, of varying qualities, and the result we call England, or Germany, or France.

The steps by which it is accomplished, the blending and fusing of the elements, require centuries, and the process makes what we call--history.
It was written in the book of fate that Gaul should become a great nation; but not until fused and interpenetrated with two other nationalities.

She must first be humanized and civilized by the Roman, and then energized and made free from the Roman by the Teuton.
The instrument chosen for the former was Julius Caesar, and for the latter--five centuries later--Clovis, the Frankish leader.
It is safe to affirm that no man has ever so changed the course of human events as did Julius Caesar.

Napoleon, who strove to imitate him 1800 years later, was a charlatan in comparison; a mere scene-shifter on a great theatrical stage.