--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Willard Done collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 1 number: 3 published: 1898-01 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Willard Done, "Young Characters in History," *Improvement Era* 1, no. 3 (January 1898): 196–200.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera13unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera13unse start_page: 196 end_page: 200 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1898-01) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera13unse publication_year: 1898 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1898, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Young Characters in History YOUNG CHARACTERS IN HISTORY, BY PROFESSOR WILLARD DONE, PRESIDENT OF THE LATTER-DAY saints' COLLEGE, SALT LAKE CITY. II. NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. I. The prodigy of history, the Ishmaelite of rulers, "his hand against every man and every man's hand against him." This is the key of his character. In youth as in manhood, in school-days as on the throne, he was always the same — strong, petulant, self-willed, solitary. No warmth of love could thaw the icy reserve of his selfishness, no fire of friendship melt the iron of his ambition. Whenever his genius blazed forth, it was only to scorch the wings of his poor, moth-like friends and enemies; and falling governmental systems but added fuel to the flame. It was a fire which burned, but failed to warm, a blaze which attracted, only to destroy. Self-centered, he looked with calm indifference on the fortunes or the misfortunes of others, measuring their importance only by their influence on his career. In the light of this estimate of his character, and with a preliminary knowledge of his overpowering genius and ability, we can read aright the history of his youth. Napoleon Bonaparte sprang from the poor gentility at the time when that class counted for very little in the economy of European politics. Furthermore, he was by birth a foreigner, in part, to France, the nation under whose care his youth was^spent. YOUNG CHARACTERS IN HISTORY. 197 Poverty added its heavy load to the burdens placed upon him by birth, and every misfortune gave rise to a real or fancied grudge against his associates. A butt of ridicule to his companions, he paid them back with scorn, and in his taciturnity he fancied that the world was at enmity with him and his cherished hopes. Pride was also a factor in the formation of his early career, and the pride of the poor is a power, compared with which the pride of wealth is a pigmy of weakness. His early training had a great effect on his youthful character. His father was one of those well-meaning, weak, vapid characters, who vacillate from one magnetic pole of thought and action to another, and are unfortunate at both; but his mother was a woman of integrity and practical sense; and most of the forming that his character acquired, may be said to have come from her. For the rest, it grew in response to his environments. His mother subjected him to sound discipline which subsequently impressed itself so strongly in his contact with men, and was one key to his power over them. The rigor of his early education is accountable for many of the peculiarities manifested in his adult life. When a boy of ten he was placed in a military school at Brienne, and here he commenced to endure the taunts and ridicule which such an uncouth, unpopular person would naturally excite. A pen picture of the boy during his first few years at the school, would be interesting, could it be correctly drawn. His complexion was sallow and dull. His hair black and stiff like an Indian's, and hung in unkempt confusion. His figure was slight, almost to meagreness, and his limbs, clad in the light leggings appropriate to his age, deserved the appellation of "spindles." There was practically no expression in his face; his eyes were dull and devoid of lustre. His manner at that time would have impressed no one save with its utter absence of distinction. To cap the climax, and to give his mischievous companions further grounds for ridicule, he spoke French with a strong Italian accent: as if this were not enough, (and his companions were not sparing in their ridicule of his personal 198 IMPR0VEMEN7 ERA. peculiarities) his birthplace, Corsica, was an object of their derision. He resented this even more than their personal taunts, for at that time, his one consuming ambition was to set Corsica free from the tyranny of the French. This smoldering fire of feeling manifested itself occasionally in sudden flashes of indignation. One incident of this kind is worthy of mention. While he was attending the school at Brienne, he came in daily contact with the spirit and genius of the French, whom he regarded as the enemies of his native Corsica. Despising them with all his heart, and stung by his own imaginary wrongs, he wandered through the building, and entered a room where a portrait of Choiseul was displayed. This man Napoleon regarded as the worst of Corsica's enemies. At sight of the portrait all the bitterness of the ten-year-old boy's heart was awakened, and he broke forth into bitter revilings against Choiseul in particular and the French in general. His dramatic attitude — his fist clinched and extended toward the portrait, and his thin body erect and rigid, his shrill voice, piping in childish treble, and resounding through the rooms, made an impression both ludicrous and exasperating to those who saw and heard him. The punishment they inflicted upon him served only to increase his rebellious disposition. Concerning Napoleon at this period, Prof. Sloane says: "Dark, solitary and untrained, the new scholar assumed the indifference of wounded vanity, despised all pastimes and found delight either in books or in scornful exasperation of his comrades when compelled to associate with them. There were quarrels and bitter fights, in which the Ishmaelite's hand was against every other. Sometimes in a kind of frenzy he inflicted serious wounds on his. fellow students. At length even the teachers mocked him, and deprived him of his position as captain in the school battalion. The climax of the miserable business was reached when to a taunt that his ancestry was nothing, his father a wretched tepstaff, Napoleon replied by challenging his tormentor to fight a duel. For this offense he was put in confinement, while the instigator went unpunished. What wonder is it that solitary musings and moody YOUNG CHARACTERS IN HISTORY. 199 silence should characterize the years of his further stay at Brienne? In a quiet nook he fortified himself against his schoolmates, resenting most savagely all attempts to intrude upon him, and then he spent hours poring over books, and pensively musing on his wrongs and difficulties. What schemes and plans for the future developed in his mind while he was isolated from his companions, and ostracised, in a way, from their society, it is impossible to say. But there is no doubt that much of the taciturnity and the enmity towards men which marked his later life, developed during this important period. It may also be that a hatred for the French and for French institutions arose within him, through the enmity he felt for the French who tormented him. It seems almost a case of retribution that he should become at a subsequent time, the arbiter of France's destiny, the absolute commander of her armies (including the boys who ridiculed him in youth), and, in a manner, the scourge of his adopted country. From one standpoint, however, he was benefited by this enforced seclusion from the companionship of the boys of his age. While it developed moodiness and taciturnity it also enabled him to make rapid progress in his studies, and he soon began to attract the attention of his superiors by the great intellectuul qualities which afterward distinguished him. This enforced training developed another of the masterful qualties which remained with him through life and became stronger each year, — his wonderful self-reliance. As a boy he became equally independent of the good will and the enmity of his companions. He was neither to be assisted in his career by the one, nor deterred by the other. Regardless of the wishes of friends and foes alike, he learned to go on in his work as if the fates impelled him; he came to regard himself, in a word, as "the man of destiny." That it is never right or expedient to become oblivious, or even unmindful of the wishes and interests of others, goes without saying. Such a condition may enable a man to gain his end quickly and thoroughly and may assist him in accomplishing any ambitious purpose, but it will never yield him true and perfect satisfaction. An admirable quality in its way, self-reliance must be coupled with a proper regard for others, before it can accom plish its legitimate ends. From regarding his companions in youth as his enemies, it was a natural step for him to regard them as his tools and as sacrifices to his ambition when his power over them was estabished, and this step was taken. Men and governmental systems became in his estimation merely the instruments of his self-centered ambition, to be disposed of, as Wendell Phillips so well expressed it, "like the titular dignitaries of the chess-board." Indeed, this thought was expressed by Napoleon himself in a manner so striking as to show clearly his estimate of the value of men, as compared with his own schemes of conquest. It was after one of the most bloody battles in the Napoleonic wars. Napoleon conqueror had been victorious in the battle, and, in company with one of his officers, was inspecting the battle-field in order to estimate more accurately the fruits of his victory. The officer was affected by the scene of desolation and death, and turning his tearful eyes towards the victor, he exclaimed, "Sire, how many gallant fellows have lost their lives today!" "True," said the conqueror, "but if one wants an omelet one must break a few eggs." I cannot avoid contrasting this careless, heartless expression with the pathetic incident in Washington's life, when he was moved to tearful prayers at seeing the sufferings of his officers and men at Valley Forge. We feel that conquests accomplished by the means Napoleon employed, do not deserve to be permanent.