HIGHER REASON AND JUDGMENT: Page 110

Well, then, this is the third function of pain. It develops power. "Power is pain transmuted." Read the life of Napoleon. There you see the finest manifestation of power. This man small and insignificant of build commanded the rugged soldiers as if they were infants. They were as wax in his hands. He could mould them as he wished. Take this single instance. Napoleon hearing that the Bourbons were misgoverning his country, returned from his exile at Elba. He had to give the guards the slip. He returned with no forces. He was alone in the midst of his bitterest enemies, the Bourbons. Troops were drawn up to fight him. The entire army had been commanded to fire at his breast. They were standing -the Bourbon soldiers-with their muskets levelled at his breast ready for the command "Aim." Napoleon on foot, alone, undefended and unarmed, marched deliberately towards the troops with measured tread, gazing directly into their eyes. The command to "Fire" was shouted out. A single shot would have killed him. A fortune would have awaited the man who fired it. If the army had obeyed the order no less than forty thousand bullets would have entered Napoleon's breast. But this man flinched not. He undid the buttons, bared his breast and stood within a few yards facing them. The whole army wavered. How could they shoot this man? "Fire!" "Fire!!" But how could they fire? They were under this man's fascination. They were spell-bound. They couldn't fire. Not one