JUVENILE CAREER. 7 



vent their believing ; let us compassionate the weaknesses 

 of others, since every one has his own ; and let us allow 

 prejudices to wear away by time when we cannot obviate 

 them by reason." 



After theology, scientific studies, especially those of 

 geometry and algebra, had their turn, and, as at Nolay 

 and Autun, his success was rapid and brilliant. M. de 

 Longpre, director of the preparatory school, was ac- 

 quainted with D'Alembert. The illustrious geometer was 

 not above going amongst very young scholars, to encour- 

 age rising merit by his approbation. In one of his visits 

 he particularly distinguished Carnot, and addressed to 

 him flattering and prophetic words, which our colleague 

 would repeat with emotion, even during those periods 

 when fortune had rendered him one of the arbiters of the 

 destinies of Europe. 



Perhaps this is an opportunity, Gentlemen, for re- 

 gretting that, in our society, such as half a century of 

 revolutions has made it, the personal intercourse which 

 formerly existed between the professors and distinguished 

 scholars of great schools, has totally disappeared, and has 

 become indeed, to a certain degree, impossible. Now-a- 

 days, at the hour set down in the programmes, illustrious 

 men of learning or of literature arrive in spacious am- 

 phitheatres. A crowd is waiting for them. During entire 

 hours, all that is profound, intricate, or new, in science or 

 literature, is developed with system, clearness, and elo- 

 quence ; but, the lesson finished, the professor retires, 

 without even knowing the names of those who have 

 listened to him. Nevertheless, in the midst of such an 

 audience (I will confine myself, Gentlemen, to a single 

 example), Fourcroy found, in an apothecary's boy who 

 had come furtively to hear him, the devoted, exact, in- 



