The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1895-09-19

sure mark of genius! He enclosed to the
Able the first two chapters of his al
legged History of Corsica" the cacog
raphy only being surpassed by the heresy |
of the rhetoric and the massage of gram
mari
We half suspect that the bottom mo-
tive of this business was not the hope
of being historian, but rather the dis
tinction of having correspondence with
q great man. However this may be, the
Able INDUCED Napoleon, wrote to him,
advised him to study further, and then
to rewrite his work. Not only did the
historical ambition have the Lieutenant,
but the romantic also. He took some.
what to novels, and for the first time
falling in love, determined to write
noyel. At the house of Madame du Co
lombier, he made the acquaintance of
her beautiful daughter, and fell i'll love
with hereafter the manner of all young
lieutenants. The flame of this passion
presently went out, but traces of it are
seen in his correspondence until what
time-ceasing to love Madamoiselle Co
lombier - he turned pessimist, de-
uounced love as a mockery, and in par
ticular as the drawback to human am
bition!
In the midst of the fitful CLEANS of
this erratio life may be seen burning the
Goals of that furnace-heat which the
years have not yet extinguished. The
student Bonaparte became pale, living
reality. He supplied himself with the
works of the leading authors of the age,
and devoured them with the rapacity of
| one starving He made himself familiar
with the writings of Voltaire and Neck
en- The one he followed through the
mazes of the new French learning, and
the other through the intricacies of prac-
teal finance. For months together, i'll
his lodgings and about the barracks, he
might be seen, with book in hand, NUT
tering as he read, penciling the margins,
approving and condemning the doctrine,
according to his Judgment or whim.
There never was time i'll his life when
he swept within his grasp greater
amount of intellectual products than
during the after part of 1856 and the
first half of the following year.
Coincident with the date of the Lyons
episode, came a military order sending
the Regiment La Fere from Valence to
Douai, in French Flanders, three hun
dred and ninety miles distant Here Ma
poleon found himself exposed to north
ern blasts and unfamiliar hardships. In
his correspondence he complains bitter
~ of his situation. He got fever of
both mind and body, and the effects of
it lasted for several years. His unhap-
piness became extreme, and he sought
by every means in his power to escape
from the situation He would get away
or kill himself! Nor were very powerful
reasons wanting why he should go else
where.
The Bonaparte family in Corsica had
fallen by this time into desperate straits
Joseph had undertaken to build up q
wine-trade with Italy, but had failed
as he did with most things else. Lucien,
q student at Brienne, was doing his best
to get transfer to AK, where he might
substitute priestly for a military edu,
cation Madame de Bonaparte, now
thirty seven years of age, was hoping
against hope that the government would
pay her the petty stipend due for the
care of her mulberry orchards, but nc
payment was made.
There came want into the household
Lieutenant Bonaparte, making the con
dition of his family a plausible excuse
sought, and in February Of 1888, oh
tanned. leave of absence to visit Corsica
Thither he went, in poor health ant
general morbidity of mind By this tim
| hic arhitrarv aharaatar hoA hounn
show itself in full force, Once at home
he played the despot, He hectored al
his kinsfolk, with the exception of tn
mother, and she could hardly withstand
his impetuosity, willfulness and gloom
Home again after an absence of near
ly nine years, the young officer busie
himself more with things great thai
things little. He was more ooncerne
with the political condition of the worl
than with the daily needs of his moth
er's house. He dwelt more on the stat
Q of Corsica than on the emptiness of Ma
, dame Bonaparte's cuisine-more on tn
woes of Ajaccio than on those Of hi
brothers and sisters stomachs He con
ceived himself to be the patriot par eA
cellence of his age, and spent more tim
in delivering socialistio monologue
than in continuing the means to rescu
the family from impending ruin.
1t was at this juncture that Napoleo
began TO concern himself especial
about the institutions and history {
England. Along with his Necker b
studied Smiths Wealth of Nations,
then only twelve years from the press
The Elizabethan age-not indeed fc
the intellectual glory that was in it, br
for its political intrigues-impresse
him greatly; and he undertook to d
into fiction the features of that era in
novel entitled the Count of Essex.
Then he flew back to his History {
Corsica" revised the parts which b