"Now, ten of you try to move it!"

I was present, and can vouch for this strange display of strength; it
was impossible to move the table.

Lambert had the gift of summoning to his aid at certain times the most
extraordinary powers, and of concentrating all his forces on a given
point. But children, like men, are wont to judge of everything by
first impressions, and after the first few days we ceased to study
Louis; he entirely belied Madame de Stael's prognostications, and
displayed none of the prodigies we looked for in him.

After three months at school, Louis was looked upon as a quite
ordinary scholar. I alone was allowed really to know that sublime--why
should I not say divine?--soul, for what is nearer to God than genius
in the heart of a child? The similarity of our tastes and ideas made
us friends and chums; our intimacy was so brotherly that our
school-fellows joined our two names; one was never spoken without the
other, and to call either they always shouted "Poet-and-Pythagoras!"
Some other names had been known coupled in a like manner. Thus for two
years I was the school friend of poor Louis Lambert; and during that
time my life was so identified with his, that I am enabled now to
write his intellectual biography.

It was long before I fully knew the poetry and the wealth of ideas
that lay hidden in my companion's heart and brain. It was not till I
was thirty years of age, till my experience was matured and condensed,
till the flash of an intense illumination had thrown a fresh light
upon it, that I was capable of understanding all the bearings of the