to mankind.
Unfortunately, the monks did not perceive this, and were too poor to pay
for good masters.... The often-repeated assertion of Bonaparte having
received a _careful education_ at Brienne is therefore untrue.'

Napoleon's military bent showed itself whilst he was at the College of
Brienne. Heavy snow fell during one winter, and prevented him from
taking the solitary walks that were his chief recreation. He therefore
fell back upon the expedient of getting his school companions to dig
trenches and build snow fortifications. 'This being done,' he said, 'we
may divide ourselves into sections, form a siege, and I will undertake
to direct the attacks.' In this way he organized a sham war that was
carried on with great success for a fortnight.

This brief sketch of Napoleon Bonaparte's schooldays has been given in
order to show that the development of his genius owed nothing to
academic training. Without being actually a dunce, he was backward in
all the subjects except the one in which he took a vivid interest; and,
doubtless, had he cared as little for mathematics as for Latin, he would
have left Brienne with a reputation for profound stupidity.

The school career of his great opponent, Wellington, was even less
distinguished. Tradition has handed down to posterity no further details
regarding his Eton days beyond the record of a fight with Sydney Smith's
elder brother 'Bobus.' Alluding to him as a dull boy, Mr. Smiles
states, in a footnote, in his book on 'Self-Help': 'A writer in the
_Edinburgh Review_ (July, 1859) observes that "the Duke's talents seem
never to have developed themselves until some active and practical field
for their display was placed immediately before him. He was long
described by his Spartan mother, who thought him a dunce, as only 'food
for powder.' He gained no sort of distinction, either at Eton or at the
French Military College of Angiers." It is not improbable that a
competitive examination, at this day, might have excluded him from the
army.'

Lord Clive was a perfectly hopeless youth from the schoolmaster's point
of view. He loathed work, and was always up to some prank or other. In
the vain hope of inducing him to learn something, he was sent to four
schools in succession; but, with a single exception, every master under
whom he was placed declared him to be an incorrigible idler. The
exception was Dr. Eaton of Lostock, who predicted a great career for
Clive, provided an opportu