ause of any special interest that had been aroused in his own mind,
but entirely because of his friendship for a distinguished old
fellow-professor, whose walks he used to share, and who was deeply
interested in botany. This was the Abbe Lhomond, a very {176}
well-known scholar, to whom we owe a number of classic text-books
arranged especially for young folk.

The Abbe's recreation consisted in botanizing expeditions; and Hauey,
who had chosen the kindly old priest as his spiritual director, was
his most frequent companion. Occasionally, when M. Lhomond was ailing,
and unable to take his usual walks, Hauey spent the time with him. He
rather regretted the fact that he did not know enough about botany to
be able to make collections of certain plants to bring to the
professor at such times, in order that the latter might not entirely
miss his favorite recreation. Accordingly, one summer when he was on
his vacation at his country home, he asked one of the
Premonstratensian monks, who was very much interested in botany, to
teach him the principles of the science, so as to enable him to
recognize various plants. Of course his request was granted. He
expected to have a pleasant surprise for Abbe Lhomond on his return,
and to draw even closer in his friendly relations with him, because of
their mutual interest in what the old Abbe called his _scientia
amabilis_ (lovely science). His little plan worked to perfection, and
there was won for the study of physical science a new recruit, who was
to do as much as probably any one of his generation to extend
scientific knowledge in one department, though that department was
rather distant from botany.

Hauey's interest in botany, however, was to {177} prove only temporary.
It brought him in contact with other departments of natural history,
and it was not long before he found that his favorite study was that
of minerals, and especially of the various forms of crystals. So
absorbed did he become in this subject that nothing pleased him better
than the opportunity to spend long days in the investigation of the
comparative size and shape of the crystals in the museum at Paris. A
friend has said of him that, whether they were the most precious
stones and gems or the most worthless specimens of ordinary minerals,
it was always only their crystalline shape that interested Hauey.
Diamonds he studied, but only in order to determine their angles; and
apparently they had no more attraction for