To these last it is now needful to refer.

Indeed, the external events of his early life are of value only as they reveal the many-sidedness of his nature and the growth of his mental powers.
How came he to outgrow the insular patriotism of his early years?
The foregoing recital of facts must have already suggested one obvious explanation.

Nature had dowered him so prodigally with diverse gifts, mainly of an imperious order, that he could scarcely have limited his sphere of action to Corsica.

Profoundly as he loved his island, it offered no sphere commensurate with his varied powers and masterful will.

It was no empty vaunt which his father had uttered on his deathbed that his Napoleon would one day overthrow the old monarchies and conquer Europe.[9] Neither did the great commander himself overstate the peculiarity of his temperament, when he confessed that his instincts had ever prompted him that his will must prevail, and that what pleased him must of necessity belong to him.