836 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



reading public, that the people should be enabled to share the 

 fruits of scholarship. 



" I was convinced that no one should attempt to do this sort 

 of work but a man of thorough scientific training. I had done 

 all the work the schools offered. I had been a professor. I had 

 made some original researches. I felt that I had a right to at- 

 tempt to explain in a popular style the wonders of science. My 

 first book, on the Principal Modern Scientific Discoveries, was a 

 success, and I immediately arranged to continue the work. My 

 colleagues blamed me, and said I was belittling science, but I was 

 convinced the thing ought to be done, and I made up my mind to 

 do it if possible. 



" In 1855 I began to write scientific letters for La Presse, 

 which under Emile de Girardin was one of the most important 

 papers of Paris. But I soon found I had too much to do. The 

 university or the popularization must be given up. I chose the 

 latter. There were plenty of men willing to do the exclusive 

 work of the former; there was only myself willing to use my 

 training for the press. And that is how I became a jour- 

 nalist." 



He never referred to his early journalistic experience with- 

 out recalling the brilliant circle which he entered when he be- 

 came a member of the staff of La Presse. It needed only the 

 suggestion of a name then to get his characterization of many 

 a famous man or woman. He would clasp his hands and lift 

 his eyes. "Ah, those were great days ! Victor Hugo was living 

 then, you know. The year I joined the staff of La Presse Thdo- 

 phile Gautier was doing its dramatic work, Lamartine was run- 

 ning his Caesar as a feuilleton, and George Sand the Story of her 

 Life. It was around such a nucleus that the Girardins gathered 

 all that was brilliant in Paris into their hotel in the Champs 

 Elysdes." 



M. Figuier continued writing popular scientific books after he 

 began journalism. The familiar Annee Scientifique, which he 

 conducted till the end of his life, was his first venture. It was 

 followed by the Pictures of Nature, the first of which, The World 

 before the Deluge, has been alluded to. This series incuded nine 

 volumes, reviewing the meteorology, physics, mechanics, and 

 chemistry of the globe. 



One day when we were talking about the books he said: "I 

 had an ambitious idea in beginning that series. I wanted to 

 chase lying out of the schools." 



" Lying ? " 



" Yes, lying. What are mythology and fables but lying ?" 



But " 



" False, all false." 



