He tolerated virtue only when he could cover it with ridicule."] [Footnote 1247: Nearly all his false calculations are due to this defect, combined with an excess of constructive imagination .-- Cf.

De Pradt, p.94: "The Emperor is all system, all illusion, as one cannot fail to be when one is all imagination.

Whoever has watched his course has noticed his creating for himself an imaginary Spain, an imaginary Catholicism, an imaginary England, an imaginary financial state, an imaginary noblesse, and still more an imaginary France, and, in late times, an imaginary congress."] [Footnote 1248: Roederer, III., 495.

(March 8, 1804.)] [Footnote 1249: Ibid., III., 537 (February 11, 1809.)] [Footnote 1250: Roederer, III., 514.

(November 4, 1804.)] [Footnote 1251: Marmont, II., 242.] [Footnote 1252: "Correspondance de Napoleon," I.( Letter to Prince Eugene, April 14, 1806.)] [Footnote 1253: M.de Metternich, I., 284.] [Footnote 1254: Mollien, III., 427.] [Footnote 1255: "Notes par le Comte Chaptal": During the Consulate, "his opinion not being yet formed on many points, he allowed discussion and it was then possible to enlighten him and enforce an opinion once expressed in his presence.