xiv THE LIFE OF KARL WILHELM SCHEELE 



at school, exhibiting no taste whatever for languages. In 

 regard to his mathematical abilities, history is, apparently, 

 silent. Indeed, the whole bent of his mind, all his natural 

 inclinations, seem to have been towards pharmacy. Happily, 

 in his case, his parents allowed him to follow a profession in 

 complete accordance with his most heartfelt desires. They 

 wisely determined that they would not put a round stick into 

 a square hole. At the age of fourteen, therefore, he was 

 apprenticed to an apothecary named Bauch, in the far-away 

 town of Gothenburg, some two hundred miles from his father's 

 residence, and to reach which he had to cross the Baltic 

 and pass through the Sound and the Cattegat. Let us con- 

 sider that the lad was far removed from home, and domiciled 

 in the house of possibly a comparative stranger. How then 

 did the young apprentice conduct himself under the roof of 

 his master ? History recordeth that here, by dint of per- 

 severance, urged and stimulated by that kind of industry 

 which only a strong natural love of the work one has in hand 

 can induce, he soon acquired a valuable store of chemical 

 knowledge, and that astonishing practical skill, combined with 

 such highly exceptional manual dexterity, in the performance 

 of chemical experiments which was so characteristic of him 

 in after years. It is related of him that during the whole 

 of his eight years' stay in Gothenburg he was studious and 

 reserved, but strictly punctual and exact in the discharge of 

 the duties which devolved upon him. Conscientiousness and 

 thoroughness were indeed the prevailing feature in the man's 

 character throughout the whole of his life, and it is due to 

 this conscientiousness, and to this thoroughness, and to the 

 fact that he took nothing for granted until he had proved it 

 experimentally both analytically and synthetically, that he 

 made such few mistakes, that he fell into so few of the pit- 

 falls and snares which beset the man of science, the moment 



