From this day natural philosophy, and particularly
chemistry, in the most comprehensive sense of the
term, became nearly my sole occupation. I read
with ardour those works, so full of genius and discrimination,
which modern inquirers have written on these subjects.
I attended the lectures and cultivated the acquaintance
of the men of science of the university, and I found
even in M.
Krempe a great deal of sound sense and
real information, combined, it is true, with a repulsive
physiognomy and manners, but not on that account the
less valuable. In M. Waldman I found a true
friend. His gentleness was never tinged by dogmatism,
and his instructions were given with an air of frankness
and good nature that banished every idea of pedantry.
In a thousand ways he smoothed for me the path of
knowledge and made the most abstruse inquiries clear
and facile to my apprehension. My application
was at first fluctuating and uncertain; it gained strength
as I proceeded and soon became so ardent and eager
that the stars often disappeared in the light of morning
whilst I was yet engaged in my laboratory.
As I applied so closely, it may be easily conceived
that my progress was rapid. My ardour was indeed
the astonishment of the students, and my proficiency
that of the masters. Professor Krempe often asked
me, with a sly smile, how Cornelius Agrippa went on,
whilst M. Waldman expressed the most heartfelt exultation
in my progress. Two years passed in this manner,
during which I paid no visit to Geneva, but was engaged,
heart and soul, in the pursuit of some discoveries
which I hoped to make. None but those who have
experienced them can conceive of the enticements of
science. In other studies you go as far as others
have gone before you, and there is nothing more to
know; but in a scientific pursuit there is continual
food for discovery and wonder. A mind of moderate
capacity which closely pursues one study must infallibly
arrive at great proficiency in that study; and I, who
continually sought the attainment of one object of
pursuit and was solely wrapped up in this, improved
so rapidly that at the end of two years I made some
discoveries in the improvement of some chemical instruments,
which procured me great esteem and admiration at the
university. When I had arrived at this point
and had become as well acquainted with the theory
and practice of natural philosophy as depended on
the lessons of any of the professors at Ingolstadt,
my residence there being no longer conducive to my
improvements, I thought of returning to my friends
and my native town, when an incident happened that
protracted my stay.
