treating God and the angels with levity.  The whole aim of the story is a moral and religious one.  The narrator is trying to show that sympathy and mercy are better than selfish ambition, and that war is not only immoral but irrational.  The conversation between God, the angels, and the Devil is a mere prologue, intended to bring Napoleon and Ivan-angel on the stage and lay the foundation of the plot.  The story-teller’s keen sense of fun and humor is shown in many little touches, but he never means to be irreverent.  The whole legend is set forth in the racy, idiomatic, highly elliptical language of the common Russian muzhik, and is therefore extremely difficult of translation; but I have tried to preserve, as far as possible, the spirit and flavor of the original.

The French story was first reduced to writing—­or at least put into literary form—­by Honore de Balzac, and appeared under the title of “The Napoleon of the People” in the third chapter of Balzac’s “Country Doctor.”  It purports to be the story of Napoleon’s life and career as related to a group of French peasants by one of his old soldiers—­a man named Goguelat.  It covers more time chronologically than the Russian story does, and deals much more fully and circumstantially with historical incidents and events:  but it seems to me to be distinctly inferior to the Russian tale in power of creative imagination, unity of conception, skill of artistic treatment, and depth of human interest.  The French peasant regards Napoleon merely as a great leader and conqueror, “created to be the father of soldiers,” and aided, if not directly sent, by God, to show forth the power and the glory of France.  The Russian peasant, more thoughtful by nature as well as less excitable and combative in temperament, admits that Napoleon was sent on earth by God, but connects him with one of the deep problems of life by using him to show the divine nature of sympathy and pity, and the cruelty, immorality, and unreasonableness of aggressive war.  The only feature that the two tales have in common is the recognition of the supernatural as a controlling factor in Napoleon’s life.  The French peasant believes that he had a guiding star; that he was advised and directed by a familiar spirit in the shape of a “Red Man”; and that he was saved from dangers and death by virtue of a secret compact with the Supreme Being.  The Russian peasant asserts that he was created by the Devil, and that God, after having given him a soul by accident, first used him as a means of punishing the Russian people for their sins, and then made him really a man by inspiring him with the human feelings of sympathy and compassion.  In the French story Napoleon appears as a great military leader, whose life and career reflect honor and glory upon France.  In the Russian story he is merely the leading actor in a sort of moral drama, or historical mystery-play, intended to show the divine nature of sympathy and compassion, the immorality of war, and the essential solidarity and brotherhood of all mankind.