CHARTER: I 
STUDENT LIFE AND BOTANICAL CAREER 
THE profession of arms had not led Lamarck to 
forget the principles of physical science which he had 
received at college. During his sojourn at Monaco 
the singular vegetation of that rocky country had 
attracted his attention,and Chomel’s 7razté des Plantes 
usuelles accidentally falling into his hands had given 
him some smattering of botany. 
Lodged at Paris, as he has himself said, in a room 
much higher up than he could have wished, the 
clouds, almost the only objects to be seen from 
his windows, interested him by their ever-changing 
shapes, and inspired in him his first ideas of meteor- 
ology. There were not wanting other objects to ex- 
cite interest in a mind which had always been remark- 
ably active and original. He then realized, to quote 
from his biographer, Cuvier, what Voltaire said of 
Condorcet, that solid enduring discoveries can shed a 
lustre quite different from that of a commander of a 
company of infantry. He resolved to study some 
profession. This last resolution was but little less 
courageous than the first. Reduced toa _ pension 
(pension alimentaire) of only 400 francs a year, he 
attempted to study medicine, and while waiting until 
he had the time to give to the necessary studies, he 
worked in the dreary office of a bank. 
