craving amid luxurious surroundings or in the society of this or that great personage. I shall need nothing of that sort, and I shall be far, far richer, having no other desire than to be satisfied with myself." In soaring thus resolutely into the regions of the ideal, Julien was in truth following a secret tendency which had developed in him early in life. He had received an exceedingly good education, and, while studying his art assiduously, had read a great deal; but, being naturally inclined to enthusiasm of an austere sort, he did not indulge his tastes in all directions or plunge into all sorts of pleasure. Of all that his youth had fed upon, he had revelled in the great Corneille with the most satisfaction and benefit. There he had found, in the loftiest form, the strongest and most daring aspirations to heroism. He preferred teaching of that sort put in action, those noble virtues manifesting and giving expression to themselves, to the discussions of contemporary philosophy. This is not equivalent to saying that he despised the spirit of his time, or that he held aloof from the extraordinary upheaval of ideas then in progress. On the contrary he was one of the sturdiest products of that period which is unique in all history in respect to its magnificent illusions pending the formation of awe-inspiring resolutions. Those were the last days of the monarchy, and very few people then thought of overturning it. At all events Julien was not one of those who thought of it; he went very far beyond anticipation of any event whatsoever in politics. He was intoxicated with the discoveries and dreams of science, moral and physical, recently set free, _en masse_ so to speak, from the clouds of the past. Lagrange, Bailly, Lalande, Berthollet, Monge, Condorcet and Lavoisier were already revolutionizing thought. When we reflect upon that rapid succession of fortunate experiments which, in a few years, produced astronomy from astrology, chemistry from alchemy, and replaced blind prejudice by experimental analysis all along the line of human knowledge, we realize that by making war on superstitions, the philosophers of the 18th century freed individual genius from its fetters simultaneously with the religious and social conscience of nations. What presumption then, what excitement, what intoxication in these first reachings out toward the future! The human intellect has hailed the bright sun of progress, and already it thinks to take possession of all its rays. No sooner has the first balloon arisen on its wings of flame, than two men risk the crossing of the Straits of Dover. Instantly mankind cries: "We are masters of the roads through the air, we are the inhabitants of the sky!"