the coves and creeks, roving along the beaches of this magnificent gulf, a
lump of bread in his pocket, quenching his thirst with sea-water in default
of fresh!

They were mornings full of rosy illusions, whose smiling hopes were
revealed in his admirable letters to his brother. Already he meditated a
conchology of Corsica, a colossal history of all the molluscs which live
upon its soil or in its waters. (3/3.) He collected all the shells he could
procure. He analysed, described, classed, and co-ordinated not only the
marine species, but the terrestrial and freshwater shells also, extant or
fossil. He asked his brother to collect for him all the shells he could
find in the marshes of Lapalud, in the brooks and ditches of the
neighbourhood of Orange. In his enthusiasm he tried to convince him of the
immense interest of these researches, which might perhaps seem ridiculous
or futile to him; but let him only think of geology; the humblest shell
picked up might throw a sudden light upon the formation of this or that
stratum. None are to be disdained: for men have considered, with reason,
that they were honouring the memory of their eminent fellows by giving
their names to the rarest and most beautiful. Witness the magnificent Helix
dedicated to Raspail, which is found only in the caverns where the
strawberry-tree grows amid the high mountains of Corsica. (3/4.)

Moreover, he said, "the infinitesimal calculus of Leibnitz will show you
that the architecture of the Louvre is less learned than that of a snail:
the eternal geometer has unrolled his transcendent spirals on the shell of
the mollusc that you, like the vulgar profane, know only seasoned with
spinach and Dutch cheese." (3/5.)

For all that, he did not neglect his mathematics, in which, on the
contrary, he found abundant and suggestive recreation. The properties of a