"War is Hell"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Great, John. My guess is that the Rev. Brooks was the same "C.B." credited
with the pieces in the pacifist religious publictions around 1860 that
attribute "War is Hell" to Napoleon I.

Also of interest is the annoying fact that my search last night of Google
Books didn't turn up either of your exx.

JL


On Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 8:17 PM, Baker, John <JMB at stradley.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "War is Hell"
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> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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>        Google Books has this example, which pushes the attribution to
> Napoleon back to 1835, or at any rate to 1854.  This is from an essay on
> the life of the Rev. Charles Brooks, of Massachusetts (1795-    ), in
> John Livingston, Portraits of Eminent Americans Now Living 483 (1854):
>
>        <<In 1835, he published his views of war and the means of
> preventing it.  His statement was this--". . . . Bonaparte said,--'War
> is hell.'  It surely is a suspension of the laws of God.">>
>
>        The text doesn't seem to give any further indication of where
> and how Brooks published his views in 1835.  Incidentally, what Brooks
> sought was a high Court of Nations to resolve disputes.
>
>
>        Google Books also has an 1850 example, not referring to
> Napoleon, in George McHenry, The Helleniad, An Epic Poem 66 (1850):
>
>        <<Preferring hell to heaven: for war is hell,
>          And peace is heaven even in this world.>>
>
>
> John Baker
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
> Of Jonathan Lighter
> Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2009 11:41 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: "War is Hell"
>
>  FWIW, I have found no online evidence that Napoleon Bonaparte ever wrote
> or said the words, "La guerre, c'est l'infer."
>
> Ah, well; as one might have expected.
>
> JL
>
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