"What else could I do? I knew Latin and Greek as well as any man in
France, but as far as anything else was concerned I was as ignorant as a
schoolmaster. The same day I tried to make use of what I knew, and I
went to a publisher of classic books, of whom I had heard my professor of
Greek literature speak. After questioning me he gave me a copy of Pindar
to prepare with Latin notes, and advanced me thirty francs, which lasted
me a month. I came to Paris with the desire to work, but without having
made up my mind what to do. I went wherever there were lectures, to the
Sorbonne, to the College de France, to the Law School, and to the School
of Medicine; but it was a month before I came to a decision. The
subtleties of law displeased me, but the study of medicine, depending
upon the observation of facts, attracted me, and I decided to become a
doctor."

"A marriage of reason."

"No, a marriage for love. Because, if I had consulted reason, it would
have told me that to marry medicine when one has nothing--neither family
to sustain you nor relatives to push you--would be to condemn yourself to
a life of trials, of battles, and of misery. My student life was happy;
I worked hard, and by giving lessons in Latin I had enough to eat. When
I received as house-surgeon six, eight, nine hundred francs, I thought it
a large fortune, and I would have remained in this position for the rest
of my life if I had been able to do so, but when I took my degree of
doctor I was obliged to leave the hospital. The possessor of several
thousand francs, I should have followed rigorously my dream of ambition.
While attending the mistress of one of my comrades I made the
acquaintance of an upholsterer, who suggested that he should furnish an
apartment for me, and that I might pay him later. I yielded to
temptation. Remember, I had passed eight years in the Hotel du Senat,