Show NAPOLEONS described sy thia writer be ing somewhat shifty the emperor would change ni point of view la an instant it ao a chance wa to be ira proved prof william M seoane gibee an jn te resting analysis of the youthful nature of napoleon in century the period consideration is that im mediately following napoleons flight from corsica when he had renounced his firm allegiance to paoli in the belief that would improve his own chance for preferment prof seoane says not that the outcast Buona parte was any longer exclusively a corsican it is impossible to conceive of a lot more pitiful or a fate more obdurate than his had BO far been tl ere was little hereditary morality in his nature and none had been inculcated by training he had no vital piety nor even sincere superstition A butt and an outcast at a french school under the old regime he had imbibed a bitter hatred for the land indelibly associated with such haughty privileges for the rich and such contemptuous disdain for alu poor lie had not even the consolation of having received an education his nature revolted at the religious formalism of hia mind turned in disgust from the scholastic husks of its superficial knowledge what lie had learned came from inborn capacity from desultory reading and from the untutored imaginings of his garden at his cave at agaccio ajaccio Aj accio or his barrack chambers what more plausible than that he should first turn to the land of his birth with some hope of happiness usefulness or even glory 1 what more mortifying than the stupefying revelation that in manhood he was too french for corsica as he has been in boyhood too corsican for france Th estory of his reception and adventures in corsica has no fascination it is neither heroic nor but belongs to the dull and mediocre realism which snakes up so much of commonplace life it is difficult to find even a thread of continuity in it there may be one as to purpose there is none as to cither conduct or theory there is the passionate admiration of a southern nature for a hero as represented bytho ideal paoli there is the equally southern quality of quick but transient hatred the love of dramatic effect is shawn at every turn in the perfervid style of his writings in the mode dignity of an edict issued from the grotto at in the empty honors of a lieutenant colonel without a raal command in the paltry stylo of nn artillery inspector with no artillery but a guns but the most prominent characteristic of the young manawas hia shiftiness in both the good and bad senses of the word he would perish with mortification rather than fail in devising some expedient to meet every emergency he felt no his point of view as experience destroyed an idea or an un forseen chance was to be seized and improved he was ao spendthrift but he had scruples about money he was proud in the headship 0 his family and reckless as to how he should support them or should secure their promotion solitary in his boyhood he had become in youth a companion and leader but his true friendships were not with his social equals who he despised but with alie lowly whom he understood finally ho was a citizen of the world a man without a country his birthright was gone for corsica repelled him france he hated for she had neve adopted him he was likewise without a profession for he had neglected that of a soldier and had failed both as an author and as a politician he was apparently B too without a single guiding principle the world had been a haisli stepmother at whose knee he had neither learned the truth nor experienced ann chess ite appears consistent in j nothing but making the best of events as they oc burred so far ho was a man neither much better nor much worse than the world in which he wai bom he was quite as those about him than they in alty adroitness ability and persistence during the period before ans corsica these qualities of leadership were scarcely recognizable but they existed As yet to all outward appearance the little captain of artillery was the same slim ill proportioned and rather insignificant youth but at twenty four he had had the experience of a much greater age unconscious bof his powers he had dreamed many daydreams day dreams and had acquired a habit of boastful conversation in the family circle but fully cognizant of the dangers incident to his place and the unsettled conditions about him he was cautious and reserved in the outside world |