92 MEMOIR OF MAGENDIE. 



his own shoes. At this point, the good sense of the young man revolted ; he 

 protested against all these follies ; declared that he preferred to be dependent 

 and well-shod, and concluded by asking to be sent to school. 



The primary school had no pupil more ardent ; admitted late, and endowed 

 with an energetic will, the young Magendie quickly outstripped all competitors. 

 His father was not at all shocked at the inequality which his son found the 

 means of establishing from the first ; but very generously pardoned him for it, 

 and clapped his hands at hearing the great prize adjudged to this neophyte of 

 fourteen years for an exercise " On the Jcnowledge of the rights of mail and the 

 Constitution^ The Journal des Hommes Libres soon afterwards announced 

 " that there was still hope for the most tender age, when the corrupting poisons 

 of the reaction had not blasted it in its first bloom, since the son of citizen 

 Magendie, municipal officer, elector, member of the commune, &c., having met 

 with a child who was weeping and dared not appear in the presence of his father, 

 had comforted, encouraged, and carried him back to the bosom of his family," a 

 tender asylum which had often been wanting to this extemporized protector 

 himself. A prize of virtue, ostentatiously awarded on this occasion, completed 

 the glorification of the young republican. It was with reference to this incident 

 that, in later life, M. Magendie, when the liberty was taken by any one of pro- 

 testing against the too real asperities of his temper, would pleasantly reply that 

 before his fifteenth year he had obtained the proud triumph just spoken of 

 under the regime of equality, which must not be supposed to mean equality of 

 temper ; but that few certainly could boast of so precocious a virtue as. himself. 



According to the nearly constant practice of those who preach liberty, the 

 father of M. Magendie reserved the exclusive use of it for himself. He an- 

 nounced to'his son that, not to derogate from the family dignity, he must pre- 

 pare to invest himself with the robe and bonnet of the doctor. It had been well 

 if at the same time he could have inculcated the unhesitating faith and placid 

 self-importance, essential qualifications, from which the acute and discriminating 

 genius of the young man was soon to claim perpetual dispensation. 



Introduced into the hospitals, the future adept there commenced his studies. 

 The judicious Boyer chose him for his prosector, and in a few months this pro- 

 sector transformed himself into a professor of anatomy.* Having obtained by 

 competition the position of house-surgeon, {interne,) at the age of eighteen M. 

 Magendie was competent to his own support. He distributed his time into three 

 parts : the larger share was devoted to study ;t a second portion was reserved 

 for instruction, which, practiced from the outset, extendei to all that he himself 

 had learned, and formed at once the delight and resource of his youth ;% then, 

 poor but self-reliant, although the impressions received from his father had 

 imbued him with a republican roughness, yet by a sort of instinct, the lively and 

 last spark of the social distinction of his mother, he loved and courted the re- 

 finements of good society ; aristocratic and culpable refinements, which however 

 educate the character, mould the taste and invigorate the intellect ; these had for 

 him something of the prestige of forbidden fruit. A third part of his time, there- 

 fore, was consecrated to the intercourse of those saloons which, after the revo- 

 lutionary tempest, had opened at the first return of tranquillity, and in which, 



* It was about this time that he contracted his intimacy with Dr. Ferrus, who is known 

 for his ingenious investigations and just views regarcSng the maladies of the mind. 



t With his medical he combined literary studies. Although he had been reared at an 

 epoch when it was the custom to swear only by Athens and Rome, when habits, manners, 

 and principles were all borrowed from those two republics, he had been taught nothing of 

 the ancient languages. Desirous of supplying this deficiency, he found the means of doing 

 ■ so through the excellent courses of M. Lemare, which were attended also by some of his 

 most distinguished cotemporaries. He always felicitated himself in after life for having had 

 courage for this undertaking. 



X He thereby formed a talent which was peculiarly his own, that, namely, of teaching 

 forthwith whatever he had learned, and at the moment of learning it. This communicated 

 an indelible stamp to his instructions, which was particularly pleasing to the young. 



