understand them. A
good deal later, when close upon fifteen, I began vaguely to see that
words have a physiognomy of their own. Some pleased me better than
others by the distinctness of their meaning and the resonance of their
rhythm; they produced a clearer image in my mind; after their fashion,
they gave me a picture of the object described. Colored by its adjective
and vivified by its verb, the name became a living reality: what it said
I saw. And thus, gradually, was the magic of words revealed to me, when
the chances of, my undirected reading placed a few easy standard pages
in my way.

CHAPTER XIII. MATHEMATICAL MEMORIES: MY LITTLE TABLE

It is time to start our analytical geometry. He can come now, my
partner, the mathematician: I think I shall understand what he says.
I have already run through my book and noticed that our subject, whose
beautiful precision makes work a recreation, bristles with no very
serious difficulties.

We begin in my room, in front of a blackboard. After a few evenings,
prolonged into the peaceful watches of the night, I become aware, to my
great surprise, that my teacher, the past master in those hieroglyphics,
is really, more often than not, my pupil. He does not see the
combinations of the abscissas and ordinates very clearly. I make bold
to take the chalk in hand myself, to seize the rudder of our algebraical
boat. I comment on the book, interpret it in my own fashion, expound the
text, sound the reefs until daylight comes and leads us to the haven of
the solution. Besides, the logic is so irresistible, it is all such easy
going and so lucid that often one seems to be remembering rather than
learning.

And so we proceed, with our positions reversed. I dig into the hard
rock, crumble it, loosen it until I make room for thought to penetrate.
My comrade--I can now allow myself to speak of him on equal terms--my
comrade listens, suggests objections, raises difficulties which we try
to solve in unison. The two combined levers, inserted in the fissure,
end by shaking and overturning the rocky mass.

I no longer see in the corner of the quartermaster's eye the leery
droop that greeted me at the start. Cordial frankness now reigns, the
infectious high spirits imparted by success. Little by little, dawn
breaks, very misty as yet, but laden with promises. We are both greatly
amazed; and my share in the satisfaction is a double one, for he sees
twice over who makes others see. Thus