404 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



work on physical geography, entitled La Terre ; and about the 

 same time, to mark his disapproval of the despotism of the em- 

 pire, he enrolled himself in the ranks of the International. Dur- 

 ing the siege of Paris he assisted M. Nardar, the well-known 

 aeronaut, in sending communications out of the city, and also 

 fought bravely in the National Guard. When the insurrection 

 of March 18, 1871, broke out, Reclus, after publishing an eloquent 

 appeal to his countrymen in favor of conciliation, flung in his lot 

 with the Commune, and was taken prisoner by the Versailles 

 troops. He was sentenced to transportation for life, after having 

 been retained prisoner for seven months at Brest, where he occu- 

 pied himself with giving lessons in algebra and mathematics to 

 his fellow-prisoners. Meantime, however, the scientific world of 

 Europe was roused to indignation at the condemnation to perpet- 

 ual exile of so eminent a man ; and when peace was once more 

 restored in France, a number of eminent men, among whom fig- 

 ured the names of Darwin, Wallace, Lord Amberley, and others, 

 sent in a petition to the head of the French Government, begging 

 him to consider that in sentencing so eminent a man to transpor- 

 tation for life he was depriving science of great and incalculable 

 services. Their petition was listened to, and M. Thiers commuted 

 the sentence of transportation into one of banishment. Reclus in 

 consequence went to live in Italy, where he resumed his labors, 

 and where after a short time he had the sorrow to lose his young 

 wife, whom he ardently adored, and who had shared his exile. 

 After this he resided for a time in Switzerland, on the shores of 

 Lake Geneva, working alternately at his geographical and com- 

 munistic studies. He refused to return to France before all the 

 prisoners of the Commune should have been amnestied, an am- 

 nesty was not granted till 1879. Thus it will be seen that his 

 scientific labors and his humanitarian endeavors have ever gone 

 hand in hand, nor is it so very long since he returned to France. 

 Scarcely had he come back than he gained for himself fresh no- 

 toriety as the frank initiator of the anti-marriage movement. 



He lives in Paris in the greatest retirement, and is in his per- 

 son a very modest and refined man who hates notoriety above all 

 things, and dislikes even the idea of being spoken of in a news- 

 paper or a review ; and nevertheless he is perpetually acting and 

 writing in a manner that must necessarily draw public attention 

 to him. He is a friend in heart and idea of Prince Kropotkine, 

 the celebrated Russian anarchist, and he too styles himself an 

 anarchist in the true sense of the word as he would explain it 

 that is to say, not the man who blows up houses and mur- 

 ders innocent women and children, but one who wants to change 

 society and objects to every form of government ; who has no 

 feeling for country or patriotism, but only for humanity. Prac- 



