Then, too, he recoiled from Francois' purely intellectual labour, for he himself had scarcely emerged from the harrowing study of conflicting texts.

Thus he was more inclined for manual toil like that of Thomas.

In mechanics he found precision and clearness such as might help to quench his thirst for certainty.

So he placed himself at the young man's orders, pulled his bellows and held pieces of mechanism for him.

He also sometimes served as assistant to Guillaume, tying a large blue apron over his cassock in order to help in the experiments.