One could say the same of Napoleon Bonaparte ... Hegel, he was the Enlightenment on horseback, clearing away thrones and altars to make room for the modern world. To the nineteenth-century ...

The verse at the top begins with an old proverb: “Set Beggars on Horseback - they’ll ride to the Devil,” meaning if someone rises to power or wealth too quickly, they will become corrupted. Napoléon’s ...