e to administer to me a moral
lecture.

"Young man," he said, "you are possessed by the same preposterous
vanity which induced Empedocles to throw himself into Vesuvius, and
Erostratus to fire the temple of Diana. I recommend a course of dry
cupping to the nape of the neck, to relieve your congested and
over-excited brain, and, in the mean time, a decent seclusion from
society, that you insult with your absurdities."

I flushed red with anger, but this last rebuff warned me that I must
change my tactics. Like all reformers, I found the world too stiff and
rigid for my purposes, and only harmed myself with kicking against the
bristling pricks. I must turn to a new generation, to early youth, and
find some mind still unformed and flexible, that I could myself submit
to a far-sighted training, and cast into the mould of my own ideas.
The opportunities of which my contemporaries were unworthy, I would
reserve as a gracious boon for a well-initiated pupil.

Two years had elapsed since my arrival at Paris, and the untiring
energy with which I pursued physiological researches had begun to
bring my name into notice. When, therefore, I proposed to open a
course of lectures upon experimental physiology, my friends all
encouraged me with flattering assurances.

"A la bonne heure," exclaimed the student to whom had I once addressed
my secret plans, "something sensible at last. I trust such rational
occupation will purge your head of its maggots, and satisfy your
aspirations for fame--"

I smiled stealthily to myself. It is thus that the light world always
measures the austerity of our resolutions by its own lightness!

I obtained the requisite official permission, and opened the course at
the Ecole Pratique under the best auspices. The lectures were thronged
from the beginning, and the interest by no means abated as the weeks
rolled on. Enthusiastic myself, I possessed in no small degree the
gift of communicating (on all ordinary subjects) my enthusiasm to
others. I aimed less at imparting solid instruction to my pupils than
at impressing their imagination by a series of skilfully arranged
effects. My experiments, therefore, were governed by dramatic unity,
rarely sought in the confused and arid expositions of official
professors. Now I led my auditors into the inmost laboratories of
Nature, and revealed, in plant and animal, the fine affinities that
regulated her processes of nutrition. Now I traced some delicate
nervous f