It was not that he had found controversial works of an anti-religious character in the bookcase, or that his father, whose papers he sorted, had ever gone beyond his technical studies as a _savant_.

But little by little, despite himself, the light of science dawned upon him, an _ensemble_ of proven phenomena, which demolished dogmas and left within him nothing of the things which as a priest he should have believed.

It seemed, in fact, as though illness had renewed him, as though he were again beginning to live and learn amidst the physical pleasantness of convalescence, that still subsisting weakness which lent penetrating lucidity to his brain.

At the seminary, by the advice of his masters, he had always kept the spirit of inquiry, his thirst for knowledge, in check.

Much of that which was taught him there had surprised him; however, he had succeeded in making the sacrifice of his mind required of his piety.