M.Krempe was a little squat man with a gruff voice and a repulsive countenance; the teacher, therefore, did not prepossess me in favour of his pursuits.

In rather a too philosophical and connected a strain, perhaps, I have given an account of the conclusions I had come to concerning them in my early years.

As a child I had not been content with the results promised by the modern professors of natural science.

With a confusion of ideas only to be accounted for by my extreme youth and my want of a guide on such matters, I had retrod the steps of knowledge along the paths of time and exchanged the discoveries of recent inquirers for the dreams of forgotten alchemists.
Besides, I had a contempt for the uses of modern natural philosophy.
It was very different when the masters of the science sought immortality and power; such views, although futile, were grand; but now the scene was changed.

The ambition of the inquirer seemed to limit itself to the annihilation of those visions on which my interest in science was chiefly founded.