The Life of Jean Henri Fabre 



" Let us try another method." 



And I start again this way and that way and 

 yet another way. My pupil's eyes serve as my 

 thermometer and tell me of the progress of my 

 efforts. A blink of satisfaction announces my suc- 

 cess. I have struck home, I have found the joint 

 in the armour. The product of minus multiplied 

 by minus surrenders its mysteries to us. 1 



The study of algebra was pursued in this 

 fashion without any undue impediments as 

 far as the pupil was concerned, but at the 

 cost of a prodigious exertion of patience and 

 penetration on the part of the primary school- 

 master who was so venturesome as to act as 

 a professor of the higher mathematics. Au- 

 daces fortuna juvat. The young schoolmas- 

 ter had not too greatly presumed on his 

 powers. His pupil was accepted upon exami- 

 nation, and he himself was able to return the 

 book to its place, having completely assimi- 

 lated its contents. 



But he had made too good a start to stop 

 midway. He was burning with eagerness to 

 attack geometry, which was not so unfamiliar 

 to him, but of which he had yet a great deal 

 to learn: "At my normal school," writes 



1 Souvenirs, IX, pp. 164-170. The Life of the Fly, chap, 

 xii., "Mathematical Memories: The Binomial Theo- 

 rem." 



108 



