The true northerner., 1896-01-17

NAPOLEON AT THIRTY.
tion was at this time well fitted to be the
finishing ground for a young military as
pirant l. Ecole Militaire do Paris held
the relation to that of Brienne and the
Others of college TO academy. The 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 If by
a second birth, to the world.
The social character of Napoleon now
began to show itself more distinctly. Back
at Brienne he had been introduced by
General Marbeuf to some private fam
lilies of distinction. Them he impressed as
a peculiar, forceful and solitary genius,
more capable of heroic dreams and boyish
monologue than of polite conversation or
social amenities Going to Parts, his ac-
'quaintance was somewhat enlarged. Mar
b1uf'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 in demeanor. Elise, the sister of
Bonaparte, had meanwhile been brought
out from Corsica. and was now a member
of the Royal School for Girls at SaiDtCyr
80 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 Brienne. He
was a hard student-in his way. He still
disprized 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 the individual. He dwelt
with interest and enthusiasm upon the
lives of great men, Plutarch he knew al
most by heart. The well ll-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-
leon s work and policy. Out of his history
proper he branched in only one direction
politics He became rather expert in the
political platitudes and persihage of the
times To the end of his life he was never
capable of high and abstract views; but he
knew all special things as If by intuition.
His mind flashed out, lightning like, in
this direction and in that the blaze of 1t
u
place; but from that prodigious intellect
there was never diffused broad and uni
versal light Much of this must be attrib
uted to his Unborn character; and some
thing TO the manner of his education.
We must here allow also for the reac-
tionary influence of Paris itself on a great
genius in boyhood Napoleon saw and
felt Paris for ten months, in his sixteenth
year. 1t was a revelation; but he seems
not to have been greatly affected by IL. 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 magnificence, the
charm, the seductive vices of the metrop-
oils were hardly noticed by the Corsican
in his onward course
The year 1885 was in all respects crit
ical TO Bonaparte. His course at the Mill
tary 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 unsuccess-
full Buonaparte had discovered refuge
for himself at the chateau of Madame Per
mon, mother of the Duchess d dAbrantes
OF great fame. There, on the gath OF Feb
ruary, he expired, of a chronic malady,
perhaps cancer of the stomach-most fatal
premonition of what should happen TO his
famous son thirty-six years afterwards.
AT his deathbed were his eldest son Jo-
seph and that other Joseph who should
become the Cardinal Fesch The latter,
now a priest, would fain administer some
consolation of religion to the dying man;
but Charles Bonaparte would not accept
the solace, ce,-preferring to die, as he had
lived, in absolute unbelief
Hard was this stroke of death on the
members OF Buonapartes family. From
the time Of his union with Letitia Ramo
lino-a period of twenty years-thirteer
children had been born. Eight OF thes,
were living; three were in France, and
five with the mother in A jaccio. All wer,
at the door Of penury. 1t Is law of ma