He did not enjoy a single advantage of breeding or birth or
riches. For the greater part of his youth he was desperately
poor and often he had to go without a meal or was obliged
to make a few extra pennies in curious ways.
He gave little promise as a literary genius. When he competed
for a prize offered by the Academy of Lyons, his essay
was found to be next to the last and he was number 15 out of
16 candidates. But he overcame all these difficulties through
his absolute and unshakable belief in his own destiny, and in
his own glorious future. Ambition was the main-spring of his
life. The thought of self, the worship of that capital letter
``N'' with which he signed all his letters, and which recurred
forever in the ornaments of his hastily constructed palaces, the
absolute will to make the name Napoleon the most important
thing in the world next to the name of God, these desires carried
Napoleon to a pinnacle of fame which no other man has
ever reached.
When he was a half-pay lieutenant, young Bonaparte was
very fond of the ``Lives of Famous Men'' which Plutarch, the
Roman historian, had written. But he never tried to live up
to the high standard of character set by these heroes of the
older days. Napoleon seems to have been devoid of all those
considerate and thoughtful sentiments which make men
different from the animals. It will be very difficult to decide
with any degree of accuracy whether he ever loved anyone
besides himself.
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