BULLETIN OF DENISON UNIVERSITY. 
150 
from the equator to the poles, and from continent to continent, com- 
paring one observation with another.” This is explained by Chamis- 
so’s possession of a claim to distinction in addition to his literary 
achievement ; as a student of nature he deserves mention with Hum- 
boldt and Darwin. 
Yet not as their equal. Both his general education and his spe- 
cial training were obtained under appalling difficulties. Born in 
Champagne of noble parents, Chamisso was but nine years old when, 
in 1790, his family fled from the ancestral castle, involved in the retri- 
bution which befell the guilty aristocracy of France. The father of 
the Chamisso family joined others of his order in the endeavor, with 
the help of Prussian and Austrian bayonets, to turn back the tide of 
Revolution. The sons accompanied their mother and sisters and be- 
gan a really manly struggle for their support. The future naturalist 
was at one time about to learn the trade of a joiner; he did in his 
efforts to earn his bread gain some skill in making artificial flowers 
and, what was afterwards very useful to him, in drawing and painting. 
In the latter art his elder brothers had become proficient when in 1796, 
after wandering about Holland and Germany, Berlin became the 
home of the family. Adelbert became page to the Queen of Prussia 
and was enabled to study in the French gymnasium. Two years later 
he was appointed ensign in the Prussian army, in which he spent 
eight unhappy years, trying repeatedly to resign, until the sudden and 
crushing defeat of Prussia by Napoleon in 1806 released him. By this 
time, by dint of remarkable assiduity in private study he had gained an 
education of surprising thoroughness and breadth, and had written and ^ 
published poems in both his native and adopted tongue. He had 
found friends also, — not among his fellow-officers, from whom he was 
isolated by nationality, tastes and studious habits and, it must be 
added, by considerable absent-mindness ; but in non-military circles he 
had found, as early as 1803, those with whom he formed life-long 
friendships. The turning point in his change from Frenchman to 
German was passed. Six years of rather aimless life in his native and 
