The Youth and Education of Napoleon Bonaparte [pp. 402-412]

The Youth and Education of Napoleon Bonaparte.
of these two boys selected the military career
for one instead of his brother. One boy was
full of fire and energy; the other gentle,
amiable, and irresolute.
All writers seem to agree that the father,
Charles Bonaparte, was a vain, easy-going
gentleman, fond of his pleasures, who thought
more of pushing his fortunes by subserviency
to the great, than by creating a career for
himself; while the mother, by her ability, resolution, and courage, was the source from
whence one of her sons derived his wonderful force. Napoleon himself seems to have
originated this impression of his parents.
But, judging from the memoirs, letters, etc.,
at my disposal, I am inclined to think the
inference unwarrantable. The father seems
to have done all he could to push his fortunes
and those of his children. His immense family and his pecuniary resources did not balance, and the unfortunate gentleman early
succumbed to the increasing weight of one,
and the lightness of the other; but that he
made a brave struggle, appears from the
strenuous efforts he made to obtain positions
and an education for his children.
The mother, beautiful in youth, and dignified in age, does not appear to have been
other than an average woman and mother,
either as to character or mental powers.
That either the burden of so many children
was too much for her, or she was a careless
mother, is shown by the way the little Napoleon spent his childhood, and from the wild
and wholly untamed forces of his character.
Colonel Jung says of him, as a child, that he
was ill-tempered, and kept the family in an
uproar; that he was always in the open air,
with his shoes untied, with his hair blowing
in the wind, and greatly preferred the society
of herdsmen and sailors to the maternal fireside. Again, he says of him, when at the
age of ten he was taken to France, that he
was a perfect little savage. Napoleon, at
St. Helena, speaking of his childhood, said:
"Nothing pleased me. I feared no one.
I fought with one, kicked another, scratched
a third, and made myself feared by all.
My brother Joseph was my slave. My
mother had to restrain my bellicose temper.
Her tenderness was severe. She punished
and rewarded indiscriminately."
Madame Junot, whose sources of information were Napoleon himself, his mother,
her own mother, and Savaria, the nurse, relates a curious anecdote to show the resolution and obstinacy of the boy at seven. He
was wrongfully accused of stealing some
fruit, and was whipped and confined three
days to bread and moldy cheese. He would
not cry, nor accuse his guilty sister and her
playmate. On the fourth day, the playmate,
who had been away, returned, and, more generous than his sister, confessed the fault.
Madame Junot also says the habit of beating
children was common in all classes of Corsican society, but that when the little Napoleon was whipped, he would sometimes shed
a few tears, but would never utter a word in
the way of begging pardon. Am I not right
in imputing it as a fault in the mother, that
this wayward son should not have been
amenable to gentle maternal influences?
No wonder that when the ambitious father
saw an opportunity of obtaining a place for
one of his sons at the military school at Brienne, he should want the place for Napoleon
rather than for the amiable, irresolute Joseph.
Corsica had been completely overrun by
the French, and made a dependency of that
kingdom. The father, after becoming convinced that it was useless to continue the fight,
early gave in his adhesion to France, and
was an earnest supporter of the government;
but his little son, running wild among the
mountains of his native island, associating
with shepherds, and his ears regaled with
tales of the struggle for liberty and the exploits of his people, his enthusiasm and bellicose nature aroused against the conquerors
of his native land, had a hatred for France
which he never concealed or attempted topalliate, until, in the midst of revolution and
chaos come again, he saw an opportunity
presented of a great career for himself in the
country adopted for him by.his father.
By the aid and intercession of the Governor of the Island, an appointment was
procured in 1778 at the school at Brienne
for the son of Charles Bonaparte. The fa
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