The St. Lucie County tribune. (Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, Fla.) 1905-1920, 1906-12-28
NAPOLEON'S BOOkS'
The Great Military Genius
omnivorous Reader

IlS CplIlAAuu III iNo'y
haeu Napoleuu's renaissance as
awoge bis ambition, 80 II s''llu'a'e'
hls intellect. Heuceforward history
institutions. biography, travel Po''e
literature. poetry. became a perhlaneu'
interest Of bis mind whenever 'ile Ga
,S,u,ies u war and state allowed uin'
20 read anything save dispatches re-
,,rt, pud bulletins. He always re-
nau.d An omnIyorous ii not deep
reader 49,.
If Nauoleoa's enemies could nave
looked into ii, boxes Of BOOKS esP''
,,uIlv after lSO3, or seen the ihsl,"c'
films ba sent to his librarian the!
might uuy, anticipated the future more
accurately, lie always read UP 'or
4 coming campaign the history geos,
raply, institutions u toe country anu
p.ople with WHOM be was gong u
come IN contact. It is exceedingly IN
t.rpstng to see this projection o1 u's
thought into the future, as indicated
hy his reading. Iuis is particularly
true Of the Russ!an campaign,
This historcn. material dispIaceu
most Of the novels had the poems ID
the campa,gu VI 49,. But III tile not
summer days ~ that year, whlIe the
army waited long IN Poland, the EN-
ueror sometimes found that moments
Of leisure went 10y Oh leadeh wings
and prayed for more diverting htera'
ture. The faithful Meneval hastily uls'
patched AN order for some good new
novels, or old ones that he Is not fsiDll'
lar with, or some memoirs that "ou'u
make agreeable reading
The fate Of this travelling library
was the fate Of the entire army OF
lsl2-it was lost. The books Of the
emperor probably went to boil the tea
Of some Cossack soldier, even AS Jul
not's veterans plundered Spanish nora
rl,s 70 tud material for their camp
hres. One interesting detail Of Its rate
has been preserved, On the road to
Russia the emperor borrowed certain
books from the royal library IN ores
den. In the retreat from Moscow these
also were lost The effort the emperor
made TO repair this loss entities him to
place in the ancient and honorable
company Of book lovers. The man who
had lost an army Of $4,000 men. who
saw Europe marching against him
from the Ural 10 the bay Of Blscay'
took time and thought enough, on Feb.
!, 1913, upon his return to Paris, TO
give express orders to procure dupli'
Gates Of these volumes ut any price
and see that they were sent to Ores
den.
In 1905 Napoleon formed the Idea Of
having travelling library, in order to
make his hours of intellectual recrea.
ton independent Of the exigencies of a
campaign or the delays of courier.
Obviously such collection OF books
would have to be selected with great
care, that the library might be port
able one, and, consequently, the minute
instructions as to its care are, as II
were, a picture Of his mind.
The distribution Of subjects was as
follows Forty volumes Of religion.
forty Of epic poetry, forty Of the drama,
sixty volumes OF other poetry, sixty
volumes Of history and 100 novels. In
order to complete the quota ran the
Instructions, the balance shall be made
up Of historical memoirs" Among the
religious works were the Old and New
Testuments and the Koran, works on
church history. including some upon the
Lutheran and the Calvlnist movements
The epics included Homer. Lucan, Tas
So the "Henriade," and so forth. The
drama, selected tragedies Of COrneile
Racine and Votaire, Comedy Napo
leon could not endure. mot word OF
Mollere,' he says. The history included
some good chronological works stand
ard histories Of France, like that OF
Mably, Macbiavelli's "DiscOurses OIL
Llvy," some Of Voltalre's historical
writing. Montesquieu's Esprit de'
Lois" and French translation Of Glib
bon. Among the novels were the "NOu
velle Heloise," lie Sages "Contes" ant
French versions Of Richardson's ant
Fielding's works. Indeed. Of English
fiction Napoleon was very fond.-Jame
Westfall Thompson In Atlantic.