The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-01-10
NAPOLEON'S STUDIES.

Rousseau had been the prophet and
| forerunner of the new social dispense
ton. The scheme for applying its
| principles is found in work which
bears the name of very mediocre
man, the Able Raynal, man who en-
joyed in his day an extended and SPLEEN
did reputation which now appears to
have had only the slender foundations
of unmerited persecution and the
friendship of superior men. In 1870
appeared over his name volume of
which he was the compiler, but not the
author. philosophical and Political
History of the Esta blishment and Com
merce of the Europeans in the Two
Indies is miscellany compounded OF
extracts from many sources, and of
short essays by Raynafs brilliant ac-
quaintances, on superstition, tyranny,
and similar themes. The reputed au-
thor had written for the public prints,
and had published several works, none
of which attracted attention. The
amazing success OF this one was not re-
markable if, as the critics now believe,
st least third of the book was by
Diderot. The position of the self
styled author as a man of letters inme-
diately became foremost one, and such
was the vogue of the work that the
authorities finally became alarmed. A
dramatic climax to Raynars renown
was secured when, in 1871, the volume
was condemned to be burned, and the
writer fed for safety into exile. The
storm had finally subsidized he had re-
turned to France, and through the
friendship of Nine. du Colombier, a
patroness of the young artillery lieu
tenant, communication was opened be-
tween the great man and his aspiring
reader ''Not yet eighteen" are the
startling words in the letter written
by Buonaparte, ''I'm a writer; it is the
age when we must learn. Will my
boldness subject me to your railiery?
No; 1 am sure. If indulgence be a
mark of genius, you should have much
Indulgence. l enclose chapters one
and two of a history of Corsica, with
an outline of the rest. Jfyou approve,
I will 60 on; if you advise me to stop,
will go no further" These chapters
as they came to Raynal's hands are
not in existence so far as it is known,
and posterity can never Judge how
monumental their authors assurance
was. The abbe's reply was kindly, but
he advised the novice to complete his
researches, and then to rewrite his
pieces. Buonaparte was not willing to
profit by the counsels he received; soon
after, in July, he gave two orders to
a Genevese bookseller, one for books
concerning Corsica, another for the
memoirs of Nine. de Warens and her
servant Claude Anet, which are a sort
of supplement to Rousseau's Comics
sions." The young historians letter
teens with bad spelling and bad gram
mar, but it is saturate with the spirit
of his time.
Some of the tagging days were not
only spent in noVel-reading. as the
emperor in after years confessed to
Mime. de Remusat, but in attempts at
novelwriting, to relieve the tedium of
idle hours. It is said that first and
last Buonaparte read "Werther" five
times through. Enough remains among
his boyish scribblings to show the kind
of fantastic dreams both of love and
of glory in which he INDUCED. Many
entertained a shrewd suspicion that
amid the gayeties Of the winter he lost
his heart, or thought he did and was
repulsed. At least, in his Dialogue
on Love-" written five years later, he
says, Il, too, was once in love-" and
proceeds after few lines to decry the
sentiments as harmful to mankind, a
L.. Il, "A
well to emancipate it. There seems to
have been in the interval no opportu-
nifty for philandering so good as the one
he had enjoyed in the drawing-rooms
of Nine. du Colombier. 1t has, at all
events, been the good fortune of that
excellent and charming woman to Sc
cure, by this superstition, place in
history not merely as the influential
patroness of Napoleon, but as the
mother of his first love.
But these were his avocations; the
real occupation of his time was study.
Besides reading again the chief works
of Rousseau, and devouring the Able
Raynal, his most beloved author, he
also read much in the works of Vol
taire, Of Filangieri. of Necker, and of
Adam Smith. With note book and
pencil he extracted, annotated, and
criticised. his mind alert and every
faculty bent to the clear apprehen-
sion OF the subject in hand.
TO the conception of the state
as private corporation. which
he had imbibed from Rousseau. was
now added the conviction that the in
stitutions of France were no longer
adapted to the occupations. beliefs. or
morals of her people, and that revolu
ton was a necessity. To Judge from
a memoir, presented some years later
to the Lyons academy, he must have
absorbed the teachings of the 1.-TWO
Indies" almost entire.
The consuming zeal for studies on
the part of this incomprehensible youth
Is A.ahahlsa nnraaxzllalad Haxizx Rad