20 MEMOIR OF GESNER. 



own resources. He was at this time about fifteen 

 years of age. 



He proved for a time, however, so unfortunate in 

 obtaining the means of prosecuting his studies, that 

 he was reduced to great extremities ; and he is even 

 said, by one of his biographers, to have repaired to 

 Strasburg and engaged himself as a servant. * The 

 same authority on which this statement is made 

 informs us, that his master soon discovered his 

 strong inclination for study, and was so indulgent 

 as to afford him every opportunity of doing so, 

 consistently with the duties of his station. The 

 knowledge he now acquired, added to his previous 

 attainments, rendered his scholarship highly respec- 

 table, and he was employed for a time by Capiton, 

 a distinguished scholar of the day, to assist him in 

 his literary labours. With the means acquired in 

 these various ways, and aided by a contribution 

 from the prebendaries of Zurich, who manifested 

 considerable interest in the welfare of their towns- 

 man, he was enabled to repair to Bourges and com- 

 mence the study of medicine, a profession which 

 both expediency and inclination led him to adopt. 

 Subsequently to this, and when he was about 

 eighteen years of age, he visited Paris, where he 

 remained for a considerable time, devoting himself 

 entirely to the acquisition of different branches of 

 learning, and completing his acquaintance with the 



* This circumstance is not mentioned by Schmiedel, one of 

 Gesner's ablest biographers, and may therefore be considered 

 as questionable. 



