The Mentor Napoleon Bonaparte 3

The Mentor Napoleon Bonaparte 3

We have chosen this cover after a number of experiments. It has not

been an easy matter to settle. The Mentor, as we have stated more than

once, is not simply a magazine. It does not call for the usual magazine

cover treatment. What we have always wanted and have always sought for

from the beginning has been a cover that would express, in the features

of its design, the quality of the publication. In the endeavor to make

clear by dignified design the educational value and importance of The

Mentor, the tendency would be to lead on to academic severity--and

that we desire least of all. On the other hand, it would be manifestly

inappropriate to wear a coat of many colors. The position of The Mentor

in the field of publication is peculiar--its interest unique. How best

could its character be expressed in decorative design?

 

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We believe that Mr. Edwards has given us in the present cover a fitting

__EXPRESSION__ of the character of The Mentor. It is unusual in its

lines--that is, for a periodical. It has the quality of a fine book

cover design--at least so we think. It will, we believe, invite readers

of taste and intelligence to look inside The Mentor, and as experience

has taught us, an introduction to The Mentor usually leads on to

continued acquaintance.

 

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We want The Mentor to be regarded as a companion. It has often been

said that books are friends. We give you in The Mentor the good things

out of many books, and in a form that is easy to read and that taxes

you little for time. A library is a valuable thing to have--if you know

how to use it. But there are not many people who know how to use a

library. If you are one of those who don’t know, it would certainly be

worth your while to have a friend who could take from a large library

just what you want to know and give it to you in a pleasant way. The

Mentor can be such a friend to you.

 

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And since the word “library” has been used, let us follow that just a

bit further. The Mentor may well become _yourself_ in library form.

Does that statement seem odd? Then let us put it this way: The Mentor

is a cumulative library for you, each day, each week--a library

that grows and develops as you grow and develop--a library that has

in it just the things that you want to know and ought to know--and

nothing else. Day by day and week by week you add with each number

of The Mentor something to your mental growth. You add it as you add

to your stature--by healthy development; and the knowledge that you

acquire in this natural, agreeable way becomes a permanent possession.

You gather weekly what you want to know, and you have it in an

attractive, convenient form. It becomes thus, in every sense, _your_

library, containing the varied things that you know. And you have its

information and its beautiful pictures always ready to hand to refer to

and to refresh your mind.

 

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So in time your assembled numbers of The Mentor will represent in

printed and pictorial form the fullness of your own knowledge.

 

 

 

 

[Illustration: NAPOLEON AT ARCOLE--BY ANTOINE JEAN GROS]

 

NAPOLEON AT ARCOLE, from the painting by Antoine Jean Gros,

is the subject of one of the intaglio-gravure pictures

illustrating “Napoleon Bonaparte.”

 

MONDAY DAILY READING IN THE MENTOR COURSE

 

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION

 

AT THE BRIDGE AT ARCOLE

 

 

“Follow your general!” was the cry with which young Bonaparte urged his

army to victory at Arcole. He was only twenty-seven years old at the

time--and yet was commander in chief of the army of Italy. The years

that brought Napoleon into prominence had been troublous ones. He was

born in Corsica, and in moderate circumstances. The exact date of his

birth is uncertain. At school he said it was 1768. It is stated that he

gave this date because that made him a citizen of Genoa, inasmuch as

Corsica was at that time a dependency of Genoa. Later on he said that

he was born in 1769; for Corsica had then become a French possession,

and this made him a Frenchman by birth. After early schooling at

Brienne young Napoleon entered the military academy of Paris in 1784.

After a year he was commissioned as a sublieutenant in the regular

army, and made rapid progress from the start. As lieutenant colonel he

distinguished himself in the wars of Spain. He held the mobs boldly and

in masterful manner during the turbulent scenes in the early days of

the Revolution. Barras, a high official, recognized his military genius

and gave Bonaparte command of the army of Italy.

 

The capture of the bridge at Arcole was essential to the success of the

Italian campaign. For three days the Austrian army gallantly opposed

the attacks of Napoleon’s forces, and it was only by the personal

courage of the young general that victory was finally won. Bonaparte

personally led a rush across the bridge at Arcole, and he was the real

vital force in the battle. He saw his staff killed or wounded about him

during the onslaughts. Once he himself was swept by a counter attack of

the Austrian forces into a swamp, where he nearly perished.

 

Napoleon’s army consisted of 18,000 men, which he had moved over the

narrow and rugged roads with heavy baggage at a rate of fourteen miles

a day for three consecutive days,--the same rate at which Stonewall

Jackson made his marches through the Shenandoah Valley. It was a

remarkable achievement under the conditions Napoleon had to face.

 

And with this force he met an Austrian army of 40,000 and defeated it

signally after a bitter engagement.

 

COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

 

 

 

 

[Illustration: EMPEROR NAPOLEON--BY FRANCOIS GÉRARD]

 

EMPEROR NAPOLEON, from the painting by François Gérard, is the

subject of one of the intaglio-gravure pictures illustrating

“Napoleon Bonaparte.”

 

TUESDAY DAILY READING IN THE MENTOR COURSE

 

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION

 

EMPEROR NAPOLEON

 

 

“I shall now give myself to the administration of France.” That was

the statement of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802 after he had overthrown

the government and had instituted a consulate, to which he was elected

first for ten years, and then for life. There were three consuls, and

Napoleon was known as the first consul. To one of his sublime ambition,

however, the thought of association in government was unbearable. Two

years later, despite his attitude expressed in his own words, “I am a

friend of the Republic; I am a son of the Revolution; I stand for the

principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity,” Napoleon determined

to make an office for himself that would be absolute and hereditary.

The title of king had grown hateful to the people of France; so

Napoleon chose “emperor” instead, and in 1804 he assumed the title and

the office.

 

Many were shocked; but none could resist his assumption of imperial

power. A popular vote showed that only 2,500 people opposed the new

government. Pope Pius VII accepted Napoleon’s request to take part in

the coronation ceremony on December 2, 1804. The event occurred at

Notre Dame Cathedral. The pope poured the mystic oil on the head of

the kneeling sovereign. It was ten centuries since any pope had left

Rome for a coronation, and in the minds of the Latin peoples this was

a consecration of a monarch that put him on an equal plane with the

proudest rulers of Europe, whose power reposed on the basis of Divine

Right. When the pope lifted the crown Napoleon performed an act so

striking in its originality that the people held their breath. He took

the crown from the pope’s hands and placed it on his own head. He then

crowned Empress Josephine.

 

A few months later Napoleon journeyed to Milan, the capital of what

was called the Cisalpine Republic, and there proclaimed the kingdom of

Italy. He crowned himself then with “the iron crown of the Lombards”

and named Prince Eugène, his stepson, heir to the throne.

 

During the ceremonies the republic of Genoa sent ambassadors to Paris

with the request to be incorporated into the French empire. This

offended Austria, and led to the third war with that empire since 1792,

when the republic of France was proclaimed.

 

 

 

 

[Illustration: FRIEDLAND--“1807”--BY MEISSONIER]

 

FRIEDLAND--“1807,” from the painting by Meissonier, is the

subject of one of the intaglio-gravure pictures illustrating

“Napoleon Bonaparte.”

 

WEDNESDAY DAILY READING IN THE MENTOR COURSE

 

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION

 

FRIEDLAND--“1807”

 

 

Emperor Napoleon’s brilliant victory at Friedland was the event that

placed him at the topmost height of his military power. In a fierce

battle, noted for the strategy characteristic of Bonaparte, he defeated

a large Russian army. This was on June 14, 1807.

 

Czar Alexander of Russia had refused to comply with the demands of

Napoleon regarding trade with England. England would not recognize

Napoleon as emperor, and he retorted by forcing several of the European

nations to sever commercial connections with England. Czar Alexander

held out. The forces of both emperors met at a small town called

Heilsberg, near Friedland. Napoleon disposed his army in such a way

that he led the Russian general, Bennigsen, to believe that he had to

conquer only a small number at Friedland. Part of the French army was