The Kharkoff Lycée--Bogomoloff and Socialism--Atheism--Natural
History studies--Private lodgings--Private lessons in histology
from Professor Tschelkoff--A borrowed microscope--First article
--Italian Opera--The gold medal.
In 1856 Dmitri Ivanovitch took the boys to Kharkoff in order to make
them enter the Lycée. They passed their entrance examination quite
satisfactorily; Kolia was admitted into the fifth class and Ilia into
the one below it. They were day boarders and lived in the house of one
of their former tutors.
This was at a time when the new and liberal reign of Alexander II. was
giving birth to many hopes; the Lycées preserved but insignificant
traces of the hard regime of Nicholas I. Previous narrow and doctrinal
teaching was giving way to a current of realistic and rational ideas,
physical and natural science had become the vogue, and professors were
trying to come into touch with their pupils and to influence their
intellectual development. The boys on their side were founding mutual
instruction clubs, attending popular Sunday lectures, interesting
themselves in social questions--in fact the revolutionary movement was
beginning to strike root. Life in general was intense, aspirations
exalted, and hopes radiant.
During his first school year Elie worked assiduously in all branches of
the curriculum, and his name soon appeared on the honours list. The
Russian language teacher became his friend, and greatly contributed to
his development by choosing for him books of general knowledge. Under
this direction Elie read, among other things, Buckle's _History of
Civilisation_, which had at that time a very great influence on the
young Russian mind. According to the author's principal thesis, the
progress of humanity depended chiefly upon that of positive science;
this idea sunk deeply into the boy's mind and confirmed his scientific
aspirations.
When he reached the fifth class he formed a friendship with one of
his school-fellows, Bogomoloff, who had great influence over Elie's
ulterior development; he was the son of a colour manufacturer, and his
elder brothers were studying chemistry at the Kharkoff University with
a view to applying it to their industry. They had travelled abroad
and had brought back novel ideas and books forbidden by the Russian
censorship; they influenced their young brother, who in his turn
initiated Elie. It was thus that the latter became acquainted with
materialistic ideas and social theories; he read the _Popular Star_,
the _Bell of Herzin_, and other publications prohibited in Russia.
Little by little he lost the faith which he had held when under his
mother's influence. Atheism, however, was to him more interesting than
disappointing; it incited in him a state of general criticism. Ardently
passionate in this as in all things, he preached atheism to others
and received the nickname of "God is not." The course of teaching
at the Lycée did not escape his criticism; when he had reached the
fourth class he omitted those exercises which seemed to him devoid of
interest. On the other hand, he plunged with passion into the study of
natural science, botany, and geology.
He had ceased to be a model student, but his scientific aspirations
became stronger from day to day.
In order to cultivate foreign languages, the two brothers had been
placed in a boarding-house where morals were strict and patriarchal,
the food bad, and the director's sermons long and tedious. None of
these things suited Elie. This regime, with the addition of dancing
lessons, inspired him with the deepest aversion; he resolved to obtain
from his parents permission to take furnished rooms for himself and his
brother.
In spite of the current of political exaltation which was then
universal in Russia, Elie was too deeply immersed in his studies to
be carried away in that direction. He did at one time attend popular
lectures and the political gatherings of the students, but he felt
that science was his real vocation. He was so early and so completely
absorbed by it that he was not interested in the great movement for the
emancipation of the serfs. It is true that, at Panassovka, the question
was not acute as elsewhere, the serfs being quite happy; however,
the fact remains that it was his passion for science which kept him,
in spite of his exalted ideas and ardent soul, apart from the noble
movement for liberation.
In the third class he made friends with a group of students who were
devoted to science and to intellectual culture. Elie, owing to his
ardour and vivacity, played the part of a ferment in that little
circle, each member of which was to make a special study of certain
scientific branches in order that they might together edit a new
encyclopædia of human knowledge. He studied German so as to read in the
original the classical materialistic writers, Vogt, Feuerbach, Buchner,
Moleschott, etc. The Lycée lectures were relegated to the background.
Nevertheless, owing to his great facility of assimilation, he was
successful in every branch. Plans for his ulterior activities were soon
definitely fixed.
At that time of intense intellectual effervescence in Russia, libraries
were invaded by a number of translations of works on natural science.
Elie absorbed them with avidity, and read amongst others a Russian
translation of Bronn's book on the _Classes and Orders of the Animal
Kingdom_. He saw for the first time in the plates of that work pictures
of micro-organisms, amoebæ, Infusoria, Rhizopoda, etc. That world of
lower beings impressed him so strongly that he resolved from that
moment to devote himself to the study of them, that is, to the study of
the primitive manifestations of life in its simplest forms.
He was then fifteen years old. The two brothers now obtained from
their parents permission to live in furnished rooms, an independent
arrangement which allowed each of them to satisfy his individual
tastes. Apart from the Lycée, Kolia spent his time in playing cards and
billiards and in other amusements, whilst Elie worked with ardour, his
only recreations being music and debates on abstract subjects. When he
entered the second class he had become completely specialised. In order
to tackle serious scientific studies, he tried to come into touch with
one of the University professors. The University of Kharkoff was still
making use of ancient methods; teaching was given by means of manuals,
with practical application; but Elie, who did not know that, dreamt of
finding in laboratories assistance and means of, at least, undertaking
personal scientific work. He attended a lecture on comparative anatomy,
and, in order not to appear too young, he wore his ordinary clothes
instead of the Lycée uniform. After the lecture was over, he shyly
approached the professor and begged to be allowed to study protoplasm
under his direction. The professor received him coldly, and told him in
a pedantic tone that he was in too much of a hurry, and that he should
first of all finish his course at the Lycée and then get admitted into
the University.
It was a disappointment for the eager boy; however, he did not lose
heart but continued to attend divers University lectures, clinging
to the hope that another professor might be more sympathetic. He was
pleased with the lectures of a young physiologist, Tschelkoff by name,
and decided to make another attempt. This time he was successful. The
professor received him kindly and consented to give him private lessons
in histology. Then, fired with a passionate desire to produce something
personal in medical science, and attracted by Virchow's cellular
theory, he dreamt that he might create a general theory of his own in
medicine. In order to increase his scientific knowledge, he undertook
with his friend Zalensky the translation of Grove's work, _The Unity
of Physical Forces_. The professor of chemistry and natural history
willingly encouraged the two boys in this work, to which they gave up
the whole of the school year. Elie wasted no opportunity of learning;
during those lectures which did not interest him he used to read
scientific books. One day that he was doing so during catechism he did
not notice that the priest, wishing to know what he was reading, had
come up to him. The latter, however, was greatly impressed by the title
of Radlkoffer's learned work on _The Crystals of Proteic Substances_;
he returned the book without a word and never interfered with him again.
Through the assistance of some medical students, Elie obtained the loan
of a microscope; he studied Infusoria and imagined that he had made
divers discoveries; he hastened to write an article, and sent it to the
only scientific Russian paper then in existence, the _Bulletin of the
Moscow Society of Naturalists_. To his great joy his MS. was accepted,
but before long the young scientist perceived that his deductions
were erroneous, for he had mistaken phenomena of degenerescence for
phenomena of development. He was able to stop the publication of this
article, the first he ever wrote, and it never appeared.
Thanks to Tschelkoff, who lent him a microscope for the duration of the
holidays, he was able to study the local fauna of inferior animals. At
the beginning of his last year at the Lycée, he read a text-book of
geology by a Kharkoff professor and, with juvenile assurance, wrote a
critical analysis of it. Inserted in the _Journal de Moscou_, this was
Elie's first publication; he was then sixteen years old. Encouraged
by this success, he sent several other criticisms, but they were not
accepted.
The last examinations were coming near: Elie wished to obtain the gold
medal, not only out of pride, but in order to prove to his parents that
he deserved their assistance in order to go abroad to continue his
studies. He therefore provisionally suspended his favourite pursuits
and resumed the study of the long-neglected school programme. The last
examinations took place in the spring of 1862. It happened to be the
Italian Opera season and Elie could not resist the temptations offered
him by music. In order to make up the time, he often had to work the
whole night long at the cost of severe fatigue.
In spite of this complication, he passed his examinations brilliantly
and obtained the gold medal. He now wished for nothing but to devote
himself to scientific study.