BARON CUV1ER. 67 



In his last year in the Gymnase, when he was 

 fourteen, he chose a certain number of his school- 

 fellows, and formed an Academy. Every Thurs- 

 day he gathered the lads into his room, and 

 placing them around a table, seated himself upon 

 his bed, and after some book had been read on 

 natural history, philosophy, history, or travels, he 

 asked their opinions of it, and then, being pres- 

 ident, summed up the argument in a clear and 

 concise manner. The mother's seed-sowing in the 

 mind of her ardent boy was bearing fruit. 



As the family were poor, and had only a soldier's 

 pension to support them, it was decided that Georges 

 should enter the free school at Tubingen, and pre- 

 pare for the church. But the principal of the 

 Gymnase, who had never forgiven the boy for 

 some playful trick, placed his composition in the 

 third rank. Georges knew that it deserved the first 

 rank, and that this low standard would affect his 

 position in college. He, therefore, resolved not to 

 enter Tubingen, and, though he was thereby lost to 

 the church, he was saved for great scientific work. 



A fortunate thing now happened. A woman, a 

 princess, who knew about the bright boy, spoke of 

 him to her brother, Duke Charles of Wtlrtemberg. 

 When the duke visited Montbeliard, he sent for the 

 lad, questioned him as to what he had learned, asked 

 to see his drawings, and ended by sending him free 

 of expense to the University of Stuttgart, to enter 

 his own Academy, called the Academy Caroline. It 

 seemed a little thing for a lady to speak of a boy's. 



