volume of Etienne Bezout's Cours de Mathematiques, the artilleryman's
bible. There then followed a year in artillery school, after which cadets
were examined on the next three volumes of Bezout; if successful,
candidates were then commissioned as second lieutenants. Oustandingly
gifted boys could take a single examination on all four volumes of Bezout
and go straight into a regiment with a commission. Only a very few
attempted this feat every year, but among them in 1785 was Napoleon
Buonaparte.
Every summer an examiner came to the military school to test artillery
candidates. Until 1783 it had been the renowned Bezout himself, but then
his place was taken by Pierre Simon, marquis de Laplace. One of the
great authentic scientific geniuses of the eighteenth century, Laplace was
a brilliant mathematician who specialized in astronomy. His theories
explained the motions of Saturn and Jupiter and its moons, the workings
of the tides, the nebulae in deep space, electromagnetism and molecular
physics. In September 1785 Laplace subjected Napoleon to a rigorous
examination in differential equations and algebra as well as the practical
applications of mathematics.
Only fifty-eight candidates were taken into the artillery from all schools
and colleges in France. The Ecole Royale Militaire in Paris should have
had the edge but, of the seventeen boys put in for the examination, only
four featured among the successful fifty-eight. Among them was
Napoleon, placed forty-second, Des Mazis, placed fifty-sixth and
Napoleon's bi tter student rival Le Picard de Phelipeaux, who was forty
first. To be forty-second out of fifty-eight does not sound distinguished,
and this fact has contributed to the persistent idea that Napoleon was not
a particularly brilliant student, but it must be remembered that he was up
against students who in some cases had had two years' more study than
he. In September, just sixteen, he was commissioned as a second
lieutenant. He and Des Mazis had expressed a wish to join the same
regiment, and the request was granted; the two friends were gazetted to
join the La Fere regiment at Valence in the RhOne valley. Some have
speculated that Napoleon's request had an ulterior motive, since the La
Fere regiment was known to have served in Corsica ever since 1769. But
if there was Machiavellianism in his method, Napoleon was disappointed:
by 1785 only twenty men from the regiment remained in Corsica and the
rest were in Provence.
Napoleon's education was now complete and his personality formed in all
essentials; there would be no decisive change in attitudes until 1792 and
probably no fundamental shift in world-view until 1795, when he first