The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-03-11

tiou was at this time well fitted to be the
finishing ground for young military as
pirant L'Ecole Militaire do Paris held
tho relation 20 that OF Brienne and the
others Of college to academy Tho curric-
ulum was more ample and the methods
more rational in the first than those pur-
sued in the provincial institutions. Here
the academic training of Napoleon Bona
parte--as that OF his younger brother Lu-
cien afterwards-was completed. From
this school he was to be delivered, as IL
second birth, to the world.
Tho social character of Napoleon no
began TO show itself more distinctly Ba
at Brienne he had been introduced
General Marbnuf TO some private fam
lilies OF distinction. Them he impressed as
a peculiar, forcoful and solitary genius,
more capable of heroic dreams and boyish
monologue than of polite conversation or
social amenities. Going to Paris, his ac-
quaintance was somewhat enlarged. Mar
bnuf's nephew, the Bishop of Autun, now
lived at Versailles; and that worthy was
glad, after the lapse Of five years, to re-
ceive his former pupil, greatly grown in
intellect and person, but virtually the
same I'm demeanor. Elise, the sister of
Bonaparte, had meanwhile been brought
out from Corsica, and was now member
of the Royal School for Girls at Saint-Cyr.
So that the young man had now few
friends and some social advantages.
For the rest, he pursued in Paris the
Same self-centered life as at Bfienne. He
was hard student-in his way. He still
disprizcd the polite branches of education
in favor of the exact sciences and geog-
raphy. In humane inquiry, his sole en-
deavor was to master History. His study,
however, in this field did not reach histor-
ical generalization or broad philosophy.
He stopped with tho individual He dwelt
with interest and enthusiasm upon the
lives of great men. Plutarch he knew al.
most by heart The well known stories
which in that age passed for history he
conned with the passion of zealot
In after life, the peculiar effect of this
discipline was manifested in all of Napo-
Icons work and policy. Out of his history
proper he branched in only one direction
politics. He became rather expert In the
political platitudes and persflagc Of the
times. To the end of his life he was never
capable of high and abstract views; but he
knew all special things ms II by intuition.
His mind flashed out, lightning-like, in
this direction and in that; the blaze of It
illumined many dark and blood-splashed
place, but from that prodigious intellect
there was never diffuscd broad and uni
versal light Much of this must be attrib.
uted TO his Unborn character; and some
thing TO tho manner Of his education.
We must here allow also for the reac.
tionary influence Of Paris itself on great
genius In boyhood Napoleon saw and
felt Paris for ten months, in his sixteenth
year lt was revelation; but he seems
not to have been greatly affected by it So
much was he concentrated on himself-so
strongly was the concept Of destiny
struggling TO form itself within him
that even the glare, the magni1ccnce the
charm, the seductive vices, OF the metrop.
oils were hardly noticed by tho Corsioan
In his onward course.
The year 1856 was In oil respects crit
teal TO Bonapartc. His course at the Mil.
harry School ended with August of that
year He was admitted to his final exami
nation almost precisely at his sixteenth
birthday. Nearly six months before this
time his father, who had found tempo
rary residence at Montpelier, came TO the
final scene The visionary and unsuccoss
ful Buonaparte had discovered a refuge
for himself at the chateau OF Madame Per.
mon, mother Of tho Duchess d'Abrantes
of great famo. There, ON tho cath Of Feb
ruary, ho expired, Of chronic mnlady,
perhaps cancer OF the stomach--most fatal
prcmonition Of what should happen TO his
famous son thlrty-six years afterwards
At his Geathbea ve-~ his eldest son 10.