est had been the life of the world. The greatness of England he
understood to be largely due to her bestriding the two hemispheres.

Up to this moment he had been a theorist, and might have wasted his
fine powers by further indulgence in dazzling generalizations, as so
many boys do when not called to test their hypotheses by experience.
Henceforward he was removed from this temptation. A plan for an
elective council in Corsica to replace that of the nobles, and for a
local militia, having been matured, he was a cautious and practical
experimenter from the moment he left Auxonne. Thus far he had put into
practice none of his fine thoughts, nor the lessons learned in books.
The family destitution had made him a solicitor of favors, and, but
for the turn in public affairs, he might have continued to be one. His
own inclinations had made him both a good student and a poor officer;
without a field for larger duties, he might have remained as he was.
In Corsica his line of conduct was not changed abruptly: the
possibilities of greater things dawning gradually, the application of
great conceptions already formed, came with the march of events, not
like the sun bursting out from behind a cloud.

Traveling by way of Aix, Napoleon took the unlucky Lucien with him.
This wayward but independent younger brother, making no allowance, as
he tells us in his published memoirs, for the disdain an older boy at
school is supposed to feel for a younger one, blood relative or not,
had been repelled by the cold reception his senior had given him at
Brienne. Having left that school against the advice of the same
would-be mentor, his suit for admission to Aix had been fruitless.
Necessity was driving him homeward, and the two who in after days were
again to be separated were now, for almost the only time in their
lives, companions for a considerable period. Their intercourse made
them no more harmonious in feeling. The only incident of the journey
was a visit to the Abbe Raynal at Marseilles. We would gladly know
something of the talk between the master and the pupil, but we do not.

Napoleon found no change in the circumstances of the Buonaparte
family. The old archdeacon was still living, and for the moment all
except Elisa were at home. On the whole, they were more needy than
ever. The death of their patron, Marbeuf, had been followed by the
final rejection of their long-urged suit, and this fact, combined with
the political opinions of th