Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1895-11-04
WORKS HE STUDIED.
THE KIND OF LITERATURE THAT IN.
TEReSTED NAPOLEON.

THE KIND OF LITERATURE THAT IN.
TEReSTED NAPOLEON.
He Fen Under the Influence Of Able Ray.
nal. Who Advised Him to Read More
Before writing-He Was Partial to His
tory. Politics and Geography.
Rousseau had been the prophet and
forerunner of the new social dispense
ton. The scheme for applying its prin-
clples is found in o work which bears
the name Of . very mediocre man, the
Able Raynal, a man who enjoyed in
his day an extended and splendid repu-
tation which now appears to have had
only the slender foundations of unmer-
tied persecution and the friendship of
superior men. In 1910 appeared over
his name volume of which he was the
compiler. but not the author. "Philo-
sophical and Political History Of the
establishments and Commerce of the
Europeans In the Two Indies is mis-
ceilany compounded of extracts from
many sources and Of short essays by
Raynal's brilliant acquaintance ON su-
perstition, tyranny and similar themes.
The reputed author had written for the
public prints and had published several
works, none Of which attracted atten-
ton The amazing success Of this one
was not remarkable if, as the critics
now believe, at least third of the book
was by Diderot. The position Of the self
styled author as man of letters imme.
diately became foremost one, and such
was the vogue Of the work that the an.
thorities finally became alarmed. A
dramatic climax to Raynal's renown
was secured when in 1881 the vol
ume 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 communication
was opened between the great man and
his aspiring reader.
Mot yet 18," are the startling words
in the letter written by Bonaparte, IT
am writer. 1t is the age when we
must learn. Will my holiness subject
me to your raillery: No; l am sure. If
indulgence be mark of true genius,
you should have much indulgence. I
inclose chapters l and 2 of a his
tory Of Corsica, with an outline of the
rest. IT you approve, will go on; If
you advise Inc to stop, l will 60 no fur
ther. P" These chapters as they came to
Raynal's hands are not in existence, so
far as lis 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 re-
write his pieces. Bonaparte was not
unwilling to profit by the counsels he
received. Soon after, in July, he gave
two orders to q Genevese bookseller, one
for books concerning Corsica, another
for the memoirs of Mime. de Warens and
her servant. Claude Anet, which are q
sort of supplement to Rousseau's ''Con-
LESSONS. The young historians letter
teens with bad spelling and bad gram.
mar, but it is saturated with the spirit
OF his time.
Some Of the tagging days were not
only spent in novel reading, as the en-
peror in after years confessed to Mime.
de Remusat, but in attempts at novel
writing to reliero the tedium of idle
hours. 1t is said that first and last b.
naparte read "Werther" five times
through. Enough remains among his
boyish scri5blings to show the kind of
fantastic dreams both of love and Of
glory in which he INDUCED. Many en-
tertain shrewd suspicion that amid
the gayeties of the winter he lost his
heart, or thought he did, and was re-
pulsed. At least, in his Dialogue on
Love, written five years later, he says,
Il. too, was once in love-" and pro-
ceeds, after few lines, to decry the
sentiment as harmful to mankind, a
something from which God would do
well to emancipate it. There seems to
have been i'll the interval no opportuni-
ty for philandering so good as the one
he had enjoyed in the drawing rooms Of
Nine. dc Colombier. 1t has at all events
beer, the good fortune of that excellent
and charming woman to secure, by this
superstition, aplace in history not mere
~ as the influential patroness Of Napo-
leon, but as the mother of his first love.
But these were his avocations. The
ASssA OOSupotAOA VI 0Ao tlIu0 was STUDY.
Besides reading again the chief works
OF Rousseau and devouring the Abbe
Raynal, his most beloved author, he
also read much in the works of voltaire,
of Filangieri, Of Necker and of Adam
Smith. With notebook and pencil he
extracted. annotated and criticised, his
mind alert and every faculty bent to the
clear aDprehensiOn NJ the snbioct IN,
hand. To the conception of the state as
a private corporation, which he had
imbibed from Rousseau, was now added
the conviction that the institutions Of
France were no longer adapted to the
occupations, beliefs or morals of her
people, and that revolution was q neces-
sity. To judge from 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