curious impression of one who is of extreme age while yet a boy, this mixture of age with youth preparing us unawares for the future utterances of the man that wait for later generations to be understood.

He possesses the power, nay, his is conscious of possessing the power, to produce within himself and for himself that which is, or, as he expresses it, "the events of nature reproduce themselves in purer forms than those under which they first appeared to my exterior senses." He was one, says Balzac, "who carried all his actions into thought as others put all their being into action.

Born of poor parents and attracting the attention of Mme. de Stael by a chance meeting and conversation, he is placed by her in college, that she might save him from the army and the Church and give him to the great future which she foresaw was before him because of his remarkable endowments. Their fame preceded his arrival and gave him a special standing with his fellow-pupils, one not altogether desirable, as circumstances proved, when his repeated fits of abstraction drew from his teacher the oft-repeated reprimand, "You are doing nothing, Lambert," and entailed upon him as a punishment so much copying of lines as to leave him with no time for recreation.

Our attention, as we read the vivid description of life in the college, is drawn specially to a characteristic of Louis' which could serve as a key to his nature even if it were not so fully outlined by the author.