SKETCH OF LOUIS FIGUIER. 837 



M. Figuier never allowed me to oppose him. He rose and 

 took down one of tlie volumes, opened to a preface, and read me 

 with many a gesture and with increasing warmth of tone the fol- 

 lowing observations : 



" The first book to put into the hands of a child should treat 

 of natural history. Instead of calling the attention of young 

 minds to the fables of La Fontaine, the adventures of Puss in 

 Boots, or the Twelve Labors of Hercules, they should be directed 

 to the simple and naive pictures of Nature the structure of a 

 tree, the composition of a flower, the organs of animals, the per- 

 fection of crystalline forms. It is because the nourishment of the 

 young has been falsehood that the present generation includes so 

 many false, feeble, and irresolute minds. 



" If I live a hundred years I shall never forget the frightful 

 confusion into which the reading of my first book threw my 

 young head. It was an abridgment of mythology ; and you 

 know what one finds there : Deucalion, who creates the human 

 race by throwing stones over his shoulders ; Jupiter, who cracks 

 his skull and lets out Minerva and all her accessories; Venus, 

 who one fine morning is born from the sea foam ; old Saturn, with 

 his vicious habit of eating his children ; and all the rest of that 

 Olympus where the gods and goddesses commit so many bad 

 actions. How can the head of a four-year-old resist such an up- 

 setting of common sense ? " 



And so M. Figuier wrote his nine big volumes. Unquestion- 

 ably they have contributed to interesting the young, not alone of 

 France but of a large part of the world, in the phenomena of 

 Nature; and if they have not yet driven out La Fontaine, Per- 

 rault. Mother Goose, and the fascinating inhabitants of Olympus, 

 they have at least entered into healthy competition with them. 



His great hobby as a literary worker was system. " System, 

 classification," he would repeat, " it is through them I have done 

 my great work. Every note I take goes into its proper place. So 

 with everything I own. You have asked for data of my life. I 

 can give them to you without looking ! See here ! " He opened a 

 drawer in a cabinet in the room, and out came a great bundle 

 of clippings press notices on his work, reviews of his books, 

 sketches of his life. A goodly number of them were American. 



" Yes," he said, regarding them with a frown, " I get press 

 notices from America by paying an agency, but that is all. My 

 books have been steadily reproduced there for thirty years. See 

 here, notice after notice of my last book. Happiness beyond the 

 Tomb, and I have been unable to get even a copy of the trans- 

 lation." 



It was while pursuing his favorite subject of " system " that 

 M. Figuier revealed to me the great passion of his life. 



