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The Pattern of Decline in The First Book of Napoleon

At first glance, The First Book of Napoleon: The Tyrant of the Earth (1809) by Eliakim the Scribe (likely a pseudonym of Michael Linning) appears to be nothing more than a biblical retelling of the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. However... although The First Book of Napoleon and the Book of Mormon describe vastly different peoples, places, and historical events, both books present a remarkably similar explanation for the rise and fall of civilizations. 

One of the most recognizable themes in the Book of Mormon is commonly call the "pride cycle." Throughout the Nephite record, societies prosper when they are faithful to God. Prosperity eventually leads to complacency, complacency gives rise to pride, pride produces wickedness, and wickedness brings suffering and destruction. Affliction humbles the people, leading to repentance and a return to righteousness before the cycle begins again.

Eliakim the Scribe similarly argues that political collapse is merely the outward manifestation of a deeper spiritual decline. The major difference between the two works is that Eliakim largely records the downward half of the cycle. The restoration that appears repeatedly in the Book of Mormon remains largely absent, likely because the events described by Eliakim were still unfolding as he wrote.



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A Nation Forgets God

The Book of Mormon repeatedly teaches that societies begin to decline when they forget God. Mormon summarizes this principle with a simple observation:

Yea, and we may see at the very time when he doth prosper his people... yea, then is the time that they do harden their hearts, and do forget the Lord their God. (Helaman 12:2)

Eliakim begins his account of France in much the same way. Before discussing revolution, Napoleon, or war, he identifies the true source of the nation's troubles:

The fear of the Lord had not been for many generations, and they had become a corrupt and perverse people. (Napoleon 1:3)

This spiritual decline had spread throughout every level of society:

Their chief priests, and the nobles of the land, and the learned men thereof, had become wicked in the imaginations of their hearts, and in the practices of their lives. (Napoleon 1:3)

For both Mormon and Eliakim, national decline begins long before armies appear. It begins when a people cease to fear God.


Pride and Self-Exaltation

Once reverence for God disappears, pride takes its place.

The Book of Mormon repeatedly describes prosperous societies becoming "lifted up in the pride of their hearts." Eliakim presents the same development through the revolutionary spirit spreading across France.

He writes:

The evil spirit whispered unto the people, even unto the meanest and vilest thereof, that all men being born equal, were free to act, each one according to the imaginations and devices of his own heart. (Napoleon 1:6)

The movement becomes increasingly hostile toward authority and restraint:

They should no longer be subject either to the controul of the laws, or the admonitions of the priests. (Napoleon 1:7)

The progression culminates in one of the most important statements in the book:

The evil spirit stirred up every one to seek his own exaltation. (Napoleon 1:8)

This phrase closely parallels the Book of Mormon's description of pride. Society becomes increasingly centered upon self-interest, personal ambition, and individual advancement rather than duty, humility, and obedience to God.


Wickedness and Corruption

In both books, pride inevitably produces corruption.

The Book of Mormon repeatedly portrays pride leading to contention, greed, persecution, and widespread wickedness. Eliakim describes the same progression in France.

He writes:

And while this spirit raged in Gaul, the curse of God was upon the land, and bloodshed, murder, and rapine, and all manner of blasphemy, wickedness, and uncleanness, prevailed amongst the people thereof. (Napoleon 1:9)

The corruption extends beyond behavior and reaches the realm of belief itself:

And they not only despised the commandments of the Lord, but also blasphemed the name of the only true and living God, and they made idols and false gods to themselves, and fell down and worshipped them. (Napoleon 1:10)

What began as pride has now become a full-scale moral crisis. The nation is no longer merely forgetting God. It is actively rejecting Him.


False Trust in Human Solutions

One of the most distinctive features of The First Book of Napoleon is its emphasis on false solutions.

Rather than recognizing that their troubles originate in moral and spiritual decline, the people seek salvation through political ideology. Eliakim represents these revolutionary principles through the symbol of Licentiousness, an idol that promises liberty while producing destruction.

The movement offers a vision of freedom and social transformation, yet its fruits reveal its true nature.

Eliakim describes the revolutionary tree:

It brought forth nothing but bad and forbidden fruit. (Napoleon 2:10)

The consequences are unavoidable:

All those who tasted of its fruit perished thereby.  (Napoleon 2:11)

This stage has no exact counterpart in the traditional outline of the Book of Mormon pride cycle, but similar themes appear in figures such as Korihor, the king-men, and the Gadianton robbers. In both books, people attempt to solve spiritual problems through human schemes rather than repentance.


Chastisement Through Tyranny

The next stage of the cycle is divine chastisement.

The Book of Mormon repeatedly teaches that suffering follows wickedness. Mormon explains:

Except the Lord doth chasten his people with many afflictions... they will not remember him. (Helaman 12:3)

Eliakim presents Napoleon himself as the instrument of that chastisement.

He writes:

And it pleased the Lord, as a punishment for the wickedness and perverseness of the people, to deliver into the hands of this man the dominion over many lands. (Napoleon 3:21)

The purpose of Napoleon's rule is explicitly stated:

That they might be ruled as with a rod of iron, and chastened for the iniquity and wickedness of their ways. (Napoleon 3:21)

This is one of the strongest parallels between the two books. In both accounts, suffering is not random. It is the consequence of national wickedness and serves as a form of divine correction.


Bondage and Suffering

The final stage clearly depicted in The First Book of Napoleon is bondage.

The Book of Mormon frequently portrays wicked societies falling into captivity and suffering. Eliakim describes a similar outcome as Napoleon's power spreads across Europe.

An angel explains:

Behold the dragon who is at the head of the devouring armies thou seest, causeth the nations over which he ruleth to forge fetters for themselves. (Napoleon 18:3)

The symbolism is striking. The people are not merely victims. They have participated in creating their own bondage.

The angel continues:

Not only do the nations thou beholdest work out the chains wherewith they are themselves fettered; but they moreover shed their blood in order to purchase them. (Napoleon 18:6)

This closely parallels Mormon's observation that "it is by the wicked that the wicked are punished" (Mormon 4:5). In both books, societies often create the very conditions that eventually destroy their freedom.


The Missing Restoration

At this point, the pattern begins to diverge from the Book of Mormon.

The classic Book of Mormon pride cycle does not end with suffering. Affliction humbles the people. Humility leads to repentance. Repentance restores righteousness and prosperity. The cycle then begins again.

The First Book of Napoleon never fully reaches this stage. Eliakim was writing in 1809 while Napoleon was still at the height of his power. Much of Europe remained under French domination, and the final outcome of the Napoleonic Wars was still unknown.

Consequently, Eliakim could describe the causes of France's decline, the rise of revolutionary ideology, the emergence of Napoleon, and the suffering that followed. What he could not yet describe was how the story would end.


The Alternative Path: Albion

Only after describing France's decline does Eliakim introduce Albion as a contrast.

(Edit 06/10/2026: Albion is Britain, specifically the United Kingdom and its people.)

Unlike France, Albion resists the revolutionary spirit and remains faithful.

Eliakim explains:

But it had pleased the Lord to open the hearts, and enlighten the understanding of the people of Albion, and they resisted the temptations of the idol, feared the Lord, and honoured the king. (Napoleon 6:3)

As a result:

Therefore the Lord blessed them in their store, and in their outgoings and incomings; and behold every man worshipped under his own vine, and under his own fig tree, and there was no one to make him afraid. (Napoleon 6:4)

Earlier he explains:

Now it had pleased the Lord, not to deliver this people into the hands of the Gauls, nor to put them under the yoke of the tyrant of the earth. (Napoleon 5:3)

Albion serves as a living example of the path France failed to take. It demonstrates that the catastrophe consuming Europe was not inevitable.



Conclusion

When viewed through the lens of the pride cycle, The First Book of Napoleon and the Book of Mormon reveal a remarkably similar understanding of the rise and fall of civilizations. Both portray national decline as beginning with the abandonment of God. Both describe the progression from pride to corruption, from corruption to suffering, and from suffering to bondage. Both insist that nations often participate in creating their own destruction.

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