have made it my peculiar study; but at the same time, I have not
neglected the other branches of science. A man would make but a very
sorry chemist if he attended to that department of human knowledge
alone. If your wish is to become really a man of science and not
merely a petty experimentalist, I should advise you to apply to every
branch of natural philosophy, including mathematics." He then took me
into his laboratory and explained to me the uses of his various
machines, instructing me as to what I ought to procure and promising me
the use of his own when I should have advanced far enough in the
science not to derange their mechanism. He also gave me the list of
books which I had requested, and I took my leave.

Thus ended a day memorable to me; it decided my future destiny.


Chapter 4

From this day natural philosophy, and particularly chemistry, in the
most comprehensive sense of the term, became nearly my sole
occupation. I read with ardour those works, so full of genius and
discrimination, which modern inquirers have written on these subjects.
I attended the lectures and cultivated the acquaintance of the men of
science of the university, and I found even in M. Krempe a great deal
of sound sense and real information, combined, it is true, with a
repulsive physiognomy and manners, but not on that account the less
valuable. In M. Waldman I found a true friend. His gentleness was
never tinged by dogmatism, and his instructions were given with an air
of frankness and good nature that banished every idea of pedantry. In
a thousand ways he smoothed for me the path of knowledge and made the
most abstruse inquiries clear and facile to my apprehension. My