He did not study as an ordinary scholar, for he never read but with perpetual researches.

At ten years of age, his passion for the studies of antiquity was kindled at the sight of some ancient coins dug up in his neighbourhood; then that vehement passion for knowledge "began to burn like fire in a forest," as Gassendi happily describes the fervour and amplitude of the mind of this man of vast learning.

Bayle, who was an experienced judge in the history of genius, observes on two friars, one of whom was haunted by a strong disposition to _genealogical_, and the other to _geographical_ pursuits, that, "let a man do what he will, if nature incline us to certain things, there is no preventing the gratification of our desire, though it lies hid under a monk's frock." It is not, therefore, as the world is apt to imagine, only poets and painters for whom is reserved this restless and impetuous propensity for their particular pursuits; I claim it for the man of science as well as for the man of imagination.

And I confess that I consider this strong bent of the mind in men eminent in pursuits in which imagination is little concerned, and whom men of genius have chosen to remove so far from their class, as another gifted aptitude.

They, too, share in the glorious fever of genius, and we feel how just was the expression formerly used, of "their _thirst_ for knowledge." But to return to the men of genius who answer more strictly to the popular notion of inventors.