ENCOURAGEMENT TO YOUNG STUDENTS. 349 



misery as the natural wages of those who devote their 

 vigils to the development of the human mind ! Let us 

 not then forget to point out the exceptions whenever they 

 present themselves. If we wish that youth should give 

 itself up with ardour to intellectual labours, let us show 

 them that the glory attached to great discoveries allies 

 itself, sometimes at least, with some degree of tranquillity 

 and happiness. Let us even withdraw, if it be possible, 

 from the history of science so many pages which tarnish 

 its glory. Let us try to persuade ourselves that in the 

 dungeons of the Inquisitors, a friendly voice had caused 

 Galileo to hear some of the delightful expressions which 

 posterity has kept sacred for his memory ; that behind 

 the thick walls of the Bastille, Freret might yet have 

 learned from the world of science, the glorious rank 

 which it had reserved for him among the men of erudi- 

 tion whom France honours ; that before going to die in 

 an hospital, Borelli had found sometimes in the city of 

 Rome a shelter against the inclemency of the atmosphere, 

 and a little straw on which to lay his head ; and lastly, 

 that the great Kepler had not experienced the sufferings 



of hunger. 



