112 HEROES OF SCIENCE. 



He studied the "sleep of plants," the classifi- 

 cation of the Vetches,[was presented at the Institute, 

 and elected a member of the Soci^t6 Philomathique, 

 where he met and became the associate of his old 

 botanical companions at Fontainebleau. 



There is no doubt that a singular political position 

 which was thrust upon this young man of twenty- 

 two years of age, decided his future career, for it 

 brought him under the eye of Napoleon Bonaparte, 

 the First Consul of France. Geneva nominated him 

 as a "notable" to whom the consul might apply 

 for information about the requirements of the 

 town. De Candolle wrote in his memoirs : " I was 

 not much of a partisan. Born a republican, a 

 friend of peace, I saw with anxiety Napoleon's 

 evident love of war and desire for monarchy, but I 

 was obliged to look favourably on him, for he had 

 destroyed anarchy, and possessed great abilities." 

 Napoleon and the young man had two interviews, 

 one a peaceable one, which did good to the town 

 of Geneva, and a second and stormy one, during 

 which the simple student of the truth stood up, like 

 a man, against the angry despot, and quailed not 

 beneath that eye which most men feared. He was 

 not forgotten, however, and after a while he was 

 nominated on a commission to investigate the 

 teaching given in the schools of Paris, under the 

 charge of laymen. This commission was necessary, 

 for the Roman Catholic authorities were anxious 

 to put down lay teaching. De Candolle, a firm 

 Protestant, took great care in making his report, 



