I succeeded better in natural history, for there we find fewer changes, and we always have standard engravings of apes, kangaroos, zebras, rhinoceroses, etc. And having many such pictures in my memory, it often happens that at first sight many mortals appear to me like old acquaintances. I did well in mythology; I took real delight in the mob of gods and goddesses who ruled the world in joyous nakedness. I do not believe that there was a schoolboy in ancient Rome who knew the chief articles of his catechism--that is, the loves of Venus--better than I. To tell the truth, it seems to me that if we must learn all the heathen gods by heart, we might as well have kept them from the first, and we have not perhaps made so much out of our new Roman Trinity, or even our Jewish monotheism. Perhaps that mythology was not in reality so immoral as we imagine, and it was, for example, a very decent thought of Homer’s to give the much-loved Venus a husband. But I succeeded best of all in the French class of the Abbé d’Aulnoi, a French _émigré_, who had written a number of grammars, and wore a red wig, and jumped about very nervously when he recited his _Art poetique_ and his _Histoire Allemande_. He was the only man in the whole gymnasium who taught German history. Still French has its difficulties, and to learn it there must be much quartering of troops, much drumming in, much _apprendre par cœur_, and above all, no one should be a _bête allemande_. Thus many bitter words came in. I remember still, as though it happened yesterday, the scrapes I got into through _la religion_. Six times came the question: “Henri, what is the French for ‘the faith’?” And six times, ever more tearfully, I replied: “It is called _le crédit_.” And at the seventh question, with a deep cherry-red face, my furious examiner cried, “It is called _la religion_,” and there was a rain of blows, and all my schoolfellows laughed. Madam, since that day I can never hear the word _religion_ but my back turns pale with terror, and my cheeks red with shame. And to speak truly, _le crédit_ has during my life stood me in better stead than _la religion_. It occurs to me at this moment that I still owe the landlord of the “Lion,” in Bologna, five thalers; and I pledge you my word of honour that I would give him five thalers more if I could only be certain that I should never again hear that unlucky word _la religion_.