MATHEMATICAL STUDIES. 5 
in attempts to comprehend at first sight the propositions 
before me, J admitted their truth provisionally ; I went 
on further, and was quite surprised, on the morrow, that 
I comprehended perfectly what overnight appeared to me 
to be encompassed with thick clouds. 
I thus made myself master, in a year and a half, of all 
the subjects contained in the programme for admission, 
and I went to Montpellier to undergo the examination. 
I was then sixteen years of age. M. Monge, junior, the 
examiner, was detained at Toulouse by indisposition, and 
wrote to the candidates assembled at Montpellier that he 
would examine them in Paris. I was myself too unwell 
to undertake so long a journey, and I returned to Per- 
pignan. 
There I listened for a moment to the solicitations of 
my family, who pressed me to renounce the prospects 
which the Polytechnic School opened. But my taste for 
mathematical studies soon carried the day; I increased 
my library with Euler’s “ Introduction & P Analyse Infini- 
tésimale,” with the “ Résolution des Equations Numéri- 
ques,” with Lagrange’s “ Théorie des Fonctions Analyti- 
ques,” and “ Mécanique Analytique,” and finally with 
Laplace’s “ Mécanique Céleste.” I gave myself up with 
great ardour to the study of these books. From the jour- 
nal of the Polytechnic School containing such investiga- 
tions as those of M. Poisson on Elimination, I imagined 
that all the pupils were as much advanced as this geome- 
ter, and that it would be necessary to rise to this height 
to succeed. 
From this moment, I prepared myself for the artillery 
service,—the aim of my ambition; and as I had heard 
that an officer ought to understand music, fencing, and 
dancing, I devoted the first hours of each day to the cul- 
tivation of these accomplishments. 
