and overcome by his words and his enthusiasm than by the hoary
everlasting. When we came down from the cold mountaintop, my mind
was made up: mathematics would be abandoned.

On the day before his departure, he said to me: 'You interest
yourself in shells. That is something, but it is not enough. You
must look into the animal itself. I will show you how it's done.'

And, taking a sharp pair of scissors from the family work-basket
and a couple of needles stuck into a bit of vine shoot which served
as a makeshift handle, he showed me the anatomy of a snail in a
soup plate filled with water. Gradually he explained and sketched
the organs which he spread before my eyes. This was the only,
never-to-be-forgotten lesson in natural history that I ever
received in my life.

It is time to conclude. I was cross-examining myself, being unable
to cross-examine the silent Beetle. As far as it is possible to
read within myself, I answer as follows: 'From early childhood,
from the moment of my first mental awakening, I have felt drawn
towards the things of nature, or, to return to our catchword, I
have the gift, the bump of observation.'

After the details which I have already given about my ancestors, it
would be ridiculous to look to heredity for an explanation of the
fact. Nor would any one venture to suggest the words or example of
my masters. Of scientific education, the fruit of college
training, I had none whatever. I never set foot in a lecture hall
except to undergo the ordeal of examinations. Without masters,
without guides, often without books, in spite of poverty, that