Bonaparte instituted the setting of merit above birth, and also so completely
stripped the divinity from royalty that, whereas crowned heads in Europe were
gods before, they are only men since, and can never be gods again, but only
figure-heads, and answerable for their acts like common clay. Such benefactions
as these compensate the temporary harm which Bonaparte and the Revolution did,
and leave the world in debt to them for these great and permanent services to
liberty, humanity, and progress.
- Life on the Mississippi
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