Chemists -- France -- Biography; Curie, Pierre, 1859-1906; Physicists -- France -- Biography
Other means of instruction came to me through my being one of an
enthusiastic group of young men and women of Warsaw, who united in a
common desire to study, and whose activities were at the same time
social and patriotic. It was one of those groups of Polish youths who
believed that the hope of their country lay in a great effort to develop
the intellectual and moral strength of the nation, and that such an
effort would lead to a better national situation. The nearest purpose
was to work at one's own instruction and to provide means of instruction
for workmen and peasants. In accordance with this program we agreed
among ourselves to give evening courses, each one teaching what he knew
best. There is no need to say that this was a secret organization, which
made everything extremely difficult. There were in our group very
devoted young people who, as I still believe today, could do truly
useful work.
I have a bright remembrance of the sympathetic intellectual and social
companionship which I enjoyed at that time. Truly the means of action
were poor and the results obtained could not be considerable; yet I
still believe that the ideas which inspired us then are the only way to
real social progress. You cannot hope to build a better world without
improving the individuals. To that end each of us must work for his own
improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for all
humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can
be most useful.
All the experiences of this period intensified my longing for further
study. And, in his affection for me, my father, in spite of limited
resources, helped me to hasten the execution of my early project. My
sister had just married at Paris, and it was decided that I should go
there to live with her. My father and I hoped that, once my studies were
finished, we would again live happily together. Fate was to decide
otherwise, since my marriage was to hold me in France. My father, who in
his own youth had wished to do scientific work, was consoled in our
separation by the progressive success of my work. I keep a tender memory
of his kindness and disinterestedness. He lived with the family of my
married brother, and, like an excellent grandfather, brought up the
children. We had the sorrow of losing him in 1902, when he had just
passed seventy.
So it was in November, 1891, at the age of twenty-four, that I was able
to realize the dream that had been always present in my mind for several
years.
When I arrived in Paris I was affectionately welcomed by my sister and
brother-in-law, but I stayed with them only for a few months, for they
lived in one of the outside quarters of Paris where my brother-in-law
was beginning a medical practice, and I needed to get nearer to the
schools. I was finally installed, like many other students of my
country, in a modest little room for which I gathered some furniture. I
kept to this way of living during the four years of my student life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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