CHAPTER II 



STUDENT LIFE AND BOTANICAL CAREER 



The profession of arms had not led Lamarck to 

 forget the principles of physical science which he had 

 received at college. During his sojourn at Monaco 

 the singular vegetation of that rocky country had 

 attracted his attention, and Chomel's Traits des Plantes 

 usuelles accidentally falling into his hands had given 

 him some smattering of botany. 



Lodged at Paris, as he has himself said, in a room 

 much higher up than he could have wished, the 

 clouds, almost the only objects to be seen from 

 his windows, interested him by their ever-changing 

 shapes, and inspired in him his first ideas of meteor- 

 ology. There were not wanting other objects to ex- 

 cite interest in a mind which had always been remark- 

 ably active and original. He then realized, to quote 

 from his biographer, Cuvier, what Voltaire said of 

 Condorcet, that solid enduring discoveries can shed a 

 lustre quite different from that of a commander of a 

 company of infantry. He resolved to study some 

 profession. This last resolution was but little less 

 courageous than the first. Reduced to a pension 

 {pension alimentaire) of only 400 francs a year, he 

 attempted to study medicine, and while waiting until 

 he had the time to give to the necessary studies, he 

 worked in the dreary office of a bank. 



