from the Polytechnic School," he answered. "What school is that?" "It is
a school which one enters by an examination." "Is much expected of the
candidates?" "You will see it in the programme which the Government
sends every year to the departmental administration; you will find it
moreover in the numbers of the journal of the school, which are in the
library of the central school."

I ran at once to the library, and there, for the first time, I read the
programme of the knowledge required in the candidates.

From this moment I abandoned the classes of the central school, where I
was taught to admire Corneille, Racine, La Fontaine, Molière, and
attended only the mathematical course. This course was entrusted to a
retired ecclesiastic, the Abbé Verdier, a very respectable man, but
whose knowledge went no further than the elementary course of La Caille.
I saw at a glance that M. Verdier's lessons would not be sufficient to
secure my admission to the Polytechnic School; I therefore decided on
studying by myself the newest works, which I sent for from Paris. These
were those of Legendre, Lacroix, and Garnier. In going through these
works I often met with difficulties which exceeded my powers; happily,
strange though it be, and perhaps without example in all the rest of
France, there was a proprietor at Estagel, M. Raynal, who made the study
of the higher mathematics his recreation. It was in his kitchen, whilst
giving orders to numerous domestics for the labours of the next day,
that M. Raynal read with advantage the "Hydraulic Architecture" of
Prony, the "Mécanique Analytique," and the "Mécanique Céleste." This
excellent man often gave me useful advice; but I must say that I found
my real master in the cover of M. Garnier's "Treatise on Algebra." This
cover consisted of a printed leaf, on the outside of which blue paper
was pasted. The reading of the page not covered made me desirous to know