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you are superior to that kind of thing, you may consult me now. She leads the way into the middle of the courtyard. What do you want to know? Napoleon Following her. Madam: I have not come all this way to discuss matters of State with a woman. I must ask you to direct me to one of your oldest and ablest men. The Oracle None of our oldest and ablest men or women would dream of wasting their time on you. You would die of discouragement in their presence in less than three hours. Napoleon You can keep this idle fable of discouragement for people credulous enough to be intimidated by it, madam. I do not believe in metaphysical forces. The Oracle No one asks you to. A field is something physical, is it not. Well, I have a field. Napoleon I have several million fields. I am Emperor of Turania. The Oracle You do not understand. I am not speaking of an agricultural field. Do you not know that every mass of matter in motion carries with it an invisible gravitational field, every magnet an invisible magnetic field, and every living organism a mesmeric field? Even you have a perceptible mesmeric field. Feeble as it is, it is the strongest I have yet observed in a short-liver. Napoleon By no means feeble, madam. I understand you now; and I may tell you that the strongest characters blench in my presence, and submit to my domination. But I do not call that a physical force. The Oracle What else do you call it, pray? Our physicists deal with it. Our mathematicians express its measurements in algebraic equations. Napoleon Do you mean that they could measure mine? The Oracle Yes: by a figure infinitely near to zero. Even in us the force is negligible during our first century of life. In our second it develops quickly, and becomes dangerous to short-livers who venture into its field. If I were not veiled and robed in insulating material you could not endure my presence; and I am still a young woman: one hundred and seventy if you wish to know exactly. Napoleon Folding his arms. I am not intimidated: no woman alive, old or young, can put me out of countenance. Unveil, madam. Disrobe. You will move this temple as easily as shake me. The Oracle Very well. She throws back her veil. Napoleon Shrieking, staggering, and covering his eyes. No. Stop. Hide your face again. Shutting his eyes and distractedly clutching at his throat and heart. Let me go. Help! I am dying. The Oracle Do you still wish to consult an older person? Napoleon No, no. The veil, the veil, I beg you. The Oracle Replacing the veil. So. Napoleon Ouf! One cannot always be at one’s best. Twice before in my life I have lost my nerve and behaved like a poltroon. But I warn you not to judge my quality by these involuntary moments. The Oracle I have no occasion to judge of your quality. You want my advice. Speak quickly; or I shall go about my business. Napoleon After a moment’s hesitation, sinks respectfully on one knee. I⁠— The Oracle Oh, rise, rise. Are you so foolish as to offer me this mummery which even you despise? Napoleon Rising. I knelt in spite of myself. I compliment you on your impressiveness, madam. The Oracle Impatiently. Time! time! time! time! Napoleon You will not grudge me the necessary time, madam, when you know my case. I am a man gifted with a certain specific talent in a degree altogether extraordinary. I am not otherwise a very extraordinary person: my family is not influential; and without this talent I should cut no particular figure in the world. The Oracle Why cut a figure in the world? Napoleon Superiority will make itself felt, madam. But when I say I possess this talent I do not express myself accurately. The truth is that my talent possesses me. It is genius. It drives me to exercise it. I must exercise it. I am great when I exercise it. At other moments I am nobody. The Oracle Well, exercise it. Do you need an oracle to tell you that? Napoleon Wait. This talent involves the shedding of human blood. The Oracle Are you a surgeon, or a dentist? Napoleon Psha! You do not appreciate me, madam. I mean the shedding of oceans of blood, the death of millions of men. The Oracle They object, I suppose. Napoleon Not at all. They adore me. The Oracle Indeed! Napoleon I have never shed blood with my own hand. They kill each other: they die with shouts of triumph on their lips. Those who die cursing do not curse me. My talent is to organize this slaughter; to give mankind this terrible joy which they call glory; to let loose the devil in them that peace has bound in chains. The Oracle And you? Do you share their joy? Napoleon Not at all. What satisfaction is it to me to see one fool pierce the entrails of another with a bayonet? I am a man of princely character, but of simple personal tastes and habits. I have the virtues of a laborer: industry and indifference to personal comfort. But I must rule, because I am so superior to other men that it is intolerable to me to be misruled by them. Yet only as a slayer can I become a ruler. I cannot be great as a writer: I have tried and failed. I have no talent as a sculptor or painter; and as lawyer, preacher, doctor, or actor, scores of second-rate men can do as well as I, or better. I am not even a diplomatist: I can only play my trump card of force. What I can do is to organize war. Look at me! I seem a man like other men, because nine-tenths of me is common humanity. But the other tenth is a faculty for seeing things as they are that no other man possesses. The Oracle You mean that you have no imagination? Napoleon Forcibly. I mean