CHAPTER III.
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. It was, perhaps,
the amiable character of this man that inclined me more to that
branch of natural philosophy which he professed, than an
intrinsic love for the science itself. But this state of mind
had place only in the first steps towards knowledge: the more
fully I entered into the science, the more exclusively I pursued it for its own sake.
That application, which at first had been a matter of duty and resolution, now became
so ardent and eager, that the stars often disappeared in the
light of morning whilst I was yet engaged in my laboratory.
