ooks
placed in his brother's care, drifted into a territory which is not
embraced in the usual high-school curriculum, viz., the Oriental
languages. While still at school, and during his leisure hours, he
mastered with wonderful energy, aided as it was by an almost phenomenal
power for acquiring knowledge, the Hebrew and most other Semitic
languages, as also Sanscrit and Persian. As, however, Egypt had the
greatest attraction for him, he also studied the Coptic dialect, the
language of the Egyptians during the early centuries after Christ, which
was written in Greek letters with some few others added. Withal, the
remarkable youth was cheerful and companionable, finding time even to
practise his poetic gifts; nor did his physical development suffer
through the severe exertion of his mind. His portrait, in the Louvre in
Paris, represents him in manhood with bronzed skin, easily allowing him
to be recognized as a native of the South of France. His nose is
slightly bent, his forehead lofty, his hair black and of great
abundance. The dark eyes, shaded by heavy brows, express
serenity--earnest and profound sincerity--while his well-formed mouth
gives evidence of winning manners and the friendliness of his nature.

At the age of seventeen he submitted his first work, a geography of
ancient Egypt, to the Academy of Grenoble, which, notwithstanding his
extreme youth, conferred upon him the degree of associate. Soon after he
followed a course of lectures at the Oriental College of Paris. With
youthful zeal he availed himself of the numerous educational advantages
at his disposal in this great city, and gained even then the notice of
the most prominent men of his profession. After two years' time, not
quite twenty years of age, he was called to a position at the University
of Grenoble.

When Napoleon rested in this town on his way from Elba to Paris, in
1815, he appointed the elder Champollion as his private secretary.

The close relationship into which this position brought Figeac to the
emperor, and his republican ideas after Napoleon's downfall--which ideas
were shared by his brother Francois--were circumstances which, in later
years, became great obstacles to their further advancement. They were
looked upon as characters dangerous to the state, and were deprived of
their positions, while the Institute of France even withheld from
Francois its protection.

The brothers were banished to their old homestead, Figeac, where the