He rates too high his own prestige in France and in the countries annexed to her, the balance of confidence and zeal on which he may rely.

But these errors are rather the product of his will than of his intelligence, he recognizes them at intervals; if he has illusions it is because he fabricates them; left to himself his good sense would rest infallible, it is only his passions which blurred the lucidity of his intellect .-- As to the other two atlases, the topographical and the military, they are as complete and as exact as ever; No matter how much the realities they contain will swell and daily become ever more complex, they continue to correspond to it in their fullness and precision, trait for trait.
V.His Imagination and its Excesses.
His constructive imagination .-- His projects and dreams.
-- Manifestation of the master faculty and its excesses.
But this multitude of information and observations form only the smallest portion of the mental population swarming in this immense brain; for, on his idea of the real, germinate and swarm his concepts of the possible; without these concepts there would be no way to handle and transform things, and that he did handle and transform them we all know.
Before acting, he has decided on his plan, and if this plan is adopted, it is one among several others,[1170] after examining, comparing, and giving it the preference; he has accordingly thought over all the others.

Behind each combination adopted by him we detect those he has rejected; there are dozens of them behind each of his decisions, each maneuver effected, each treaty signed, each decree promulgated, each order issued, and I venture to say, behind almost every improvised action or word spoken.

For calculation enters into everything he does, even into his apparent expansiveness, also into his outbursts when in earnest; if he gives way to these, it is on purpose, foreseeing the effect, with a view to intimidate or to dazzle.

He turns everything in others as well as in himself to account--his passion, his vehemence, his weaknesses, his talkativeness, he exploits it all for the advancement of the edifice he is constructing.[1171] Certainly among his diverse faculties, however great, that of the constructive imagination is the most powerful.