428 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



find him with his diploma entering the college of Carpentras 

 as a primary teacher, with the munificent salary of £28 per 

 annum. These were the inauspicious circumstances in which 

 he passed his early years, but already his inclinations had 

 shown themselves, for he had learned to know and love the 

 creatures of the countryside, and some of his earliest recollec- 

 tions are of discoveries in nature knowledge, such as the first 

 time he heard the bell-ringer frog. His dogged perseverance 

 and natural aptitude for study had also been manifested, and 

 he shortly passed his baccalaureats and two licentiate examina- 

 tions. Here for the first time we find indications of what almost 

 amounts to a desire to avoid other people, for he writes to his 

 brother, " When something embarrasses you, do not abuse the 

 help of your colleagues ; with assistance the difficulty is only 

 evaded ; with patience and reflection it is overthrown" ; but 

 at the same time his own method is revealed in the following 

 words : " Try only for a few days this method of working, in 

 which the whole energy, concentrated on one point, explodes 

 like a mine and shatters obstacles ; try for a few days the 

 force of patience, strength, and perseverance ; and you will 

 see that nothing is impossible." When he missed two succes- 

 sive appointments he seems to have shown an unnecessary 

 amount of indignation and resentment, but eventually he 

 obtained a post in Corsica. The wonderful flora and fauna 

 of this island were a revelation to him and enamoured him 

 more and more of the pursuits of natural history, and he 

 collected and observed with remarkable ardour. A year or so 

 later he returned to the lycee of Avignon. Up to this time his 

 studies had included mathematics, physical sciences, chemistry, 

 and classics, besides his natural history, but he had not yet 

 limited his attentions. 



By chance he read a volume by Leon Dufour which awak- 

 ened his curiosity, and he started to investigate some of the 

 problems for himself. This decided his future career, and 

 from this time forward he steadily devoted himself to biology 

 and became world-renowned as one of the most remarkable of 

 entomologists. All the time two sides of his nature were being 

 developed. His was one of those remarkable characters that 

 possessed the power of poetry to a high degree, indeed his 

 Souvenirs entomologiques are coloured throughout by poetic 

 imagery, and at the same time had also the scientific tern- 



