102 HEROES OF SCIENCE. 



rector of the college for it in Latin verse, and of 

 course children of twelve years of age could not 

 compose sufficiently well. So they copied, and the 

 result was that, year after year, the rector received 

 a collection of Latin letters which resembled those 

 of the year before, and this had gone on for several 

 generations. However, the boy wrote to the rector 

 in French verse, and in original verse. This was 

 considered something out of the common, and the 

 boy was praised, and his peculiar gift was fostered. 

 He became very intimate with a school-fellow 

 named Gaudy, who had the same tastes, and they 

 used to spend much of their time in turning Latin 

 prose and poetry into very bad French verse. 

 Soon after his old fondness for acting returned, and 

 he was successful in private theatricals. The boy 

 worked hard at this amusement, and learned many 

 of the great French tragedies and comedies, and 

 although the time was apparently wasted, yet De 

 CandoUe used to say that it did his memory good, 

 gave him a good style, and took away nervousness. 

 Then his father gave him a good private tutor, and 

 the boy entered the first class. There he found a 

 master who insisted on regular and profitable study, 

 besides Latin verse, and the result was that De 

 CandoUe began to distinguish himself and took 

 prizes. One prize which he gained, made him 

 think very deeply afterwards. It was an essay 

 relating to the existence of God. De CandoUe 

 wrote his essay in four hours, and it consisted of 

 from fifteen to twenty pages ; it included all he had 



