154 EULOGY ON AMPERE. 



required to be lying down immovable, and Cnjas studied satisfactorily 

 only when stretched at full length on his face on the floor. We have 

 all, in our youth, had occasion to smile at the sight of lazy school-boya 

 gazing lixedly at the ceiling of the school-room, as if looking for the 

 lesson they no longer remembered. This was the position in which 

 Milton, his head thrown far back, always composed. 



These facts seem singular; but what will you say of Gnido Reni, who 

 was incapable of inspiration unless magniticently dressed ; of the mu- 

 sician Haydn, who declared himself utterly unable to coraiiose his grand 

 choruses without having on his finger the costly ring given him by 

 Frederick II; of the poet Mathmin, who would stick a wafer on 

 his forehead between his eye-brows, as much to excite his imagination 

 as a signal to his servants not to interrupt him by questions. 



The eyes, it has been said, are the windows of the soul. I am con- 

 viuce<l that it would be a mistake to generalize this remarlc too much by 

 extending it to gesticulations, or, if you please, to nervous action. The 

 arms of iSTapoleou's chair were not hacked by a penknife in moments of 

 anger or deep preoccupation only ; joy and mirth also gave employment 

 to his instrument of destruction. If the questors of our legislative as- 

 semblies did not place discretion in the front rank of the good qualities 

 which distinguish them, they could tell us that some members do not 

 less actively destroy the mahogany of their desks on the days of stormy 

 debate than during the monotonous and drowsy operation of the call 

 and recall. Does any one, while reading Glover's ballad entitled the 

 Shade of Admiral, Rosier, divine for a moment that the poet com- 

 j30sed it while unconsciously destroying with his cane a bed of tulips, 

 the especial delight of his friend, Lady Temple. 



Uncomfortable and painful attitudes, so necessary to some, are not 

 the only conditions indispensable to the development of the higher in- 

 tellectual faculties. Addison mentions a lawyer \vho could never plead 

 without passing the thumb of his left hand through a loop of twine, 

 which he would tighten to spur the thought or expression. One of our 

 most eloquent prose writers, who spoke as well as he wrote, was only 

 able to do so, however, when his right leg was twisted around the left, 

 like the serpent of Troy around the arms of the Laocoon. Let us re- 

 member all these facts. Their very singularity should induce us to do 

 so. But let us be careful not to draw from them any premature conclu- 

 sions against any particular mode of education ; for amongst the dis- 

 tinguished personages whose names I have just cited there are no two 

 who in their childhood were placed in exactly similar circumstances. 



If necessary to enter more into detail, I should be less reserved about 

 other habits of our associate which have more or less influenced his 

 career. Had Ampere been sent to school in his childhood to the hum- 

 blest village school, his disposition and habits would possibly have been 

 somewhat modified. He would have learned that scissors were not in- 

 tended for making pens ; that writing in large characters was not the 



