DE CANDOLLE. 1 93 



learned of his catechism, what he remembered of 

 many sermons, and a host of quotations from the 

 Bible. But although the youth got the prize, and 

 was much applauded, he felt that he was a complete 

 stranger to the spirit of the truths he had written, 

 and that his heart had little to do with the sentences 

 which came from his pen. He learned religion 

 just as he learned Greek and Latin. In 1792 

 De Candolle left the college and began to study 

 literature, and,^ released from the troublesome dis- 

 cipline of the class, worked as if he were a man. 

 But things did not go on smoothly, for the political 

 troubles of that age soon affected Geneva. A 

 French army occupied Savoy and encamped near 

 Geneva. The Government prepared to defend the 

 town, and the fathers of families began to send 

 their wives and children into the interior of Switzer- 

 land. De Candolle was in despair when his father 

 told him and his brother to accompany their 

 mother ; he longed to fight for his country, but he 

 had to leave, and they went to Champagne, a small 

 village near Grandison, where the father, foreseeing 

 the trouble, had bought an estate. There the 

 summer and autumn were passed peaceably, and 

 in superintending the vines, the gathering of the 

 grapes, and managing the property with his mother. 

 Montesquieu, the French general, did not care about 

 crushing the little town of Geneva, and other 

 matters called him away. So the immediate danger 

 passed and the family returned to Geneva. 



The youth returned to his studies amidst popular 



