424 MEMOIR OF LOUIS-CLAUDE-MARIE RICHARD. 



The perusal of books of travels excited his imagination, and 

 from that time may be dated the resolution which he adopted 

 of addicting himself entirely to Natural History, exploring 

 the most distant and least known lands, and there making 

 discoveries. 



When Louis Richard was thirteen years of age, and had 

 finished his first classes, and was about to commence the study 

 of Rlietoric, the Archbishop of Paris, who had remarked the 

 precocity of his talents, promised the elder Richard his especial 

 patronage, if he would destine his son to the ecclesiastical 

 profession. As ma}^ be easily imagined, this flattering pro- 

 posal was eagerly accepted by the family; but so distasteful 

 did it prove to our youthful naturalist, that he resisted every 

 solicitation, and finding his parent inflexible and deaf to his 

 entreaties, he finally, in utter despair, fled from the parental 

 roof, and escaped alone to Paris. Reprehensible as this step 

 certainly was, some excuse may be found in the extreme 

 youth of the child, and it also evinced such a vehement at- 

 tachment to his studies, that his father would no longer op- 

 pose it, but trusted to time and experience to work a change. 

 This, however, did not ensue: his taste became daily more 

 confirmed, and the result proved far happier than could pos- 

 sibly have been foreseen. Let our readers imagine the state 

 of a lad of thirteen, utterly inexperienced and alone in 

 Paris, exposed to every danger and seduction, and whose 

 only subsistence depended on the slender sums that he had 

 contrived to save, and an allowance of twelve francs (ten shil- 

 lings) a month, which his father had agreed to grant him for 

 a short period. His destitute condition may be easily con- 

 ceived. The parent entertained hopes that want would 

 drive his son home, but nothing on earth could wear out 

 the patience, or change the resolution, of the young Richard, 

 who felt that the happiness of his future life depended on his 

 present firmness. Amid the severest privations, he industri- 

 ously pursued his studies, and went through the course of 

 Philosophy and Logic in the Mazarin College. Meanwhile, 

 the funds for a necessary subsistence were indispensable, and 



