ubled
his very slender means of existence, when he obtained the appointment of
geographical engineer, and was sent to Malta. The Knights of the Order
were at this time expecting to be attacked by the Turks. Having already
been in the service, it was singular that St. Pierre should have had the
imprudence to sail without his commission. He thus subjected himself to
a thousand disagreeables, for the officers would not recognize him
as one of themselves. The effects of their neglect on his mind were
tremendous; his reason for a time seemed almost disturbed by the
mortifications he suffered. After receiving an insufficient indemnity
for the expenses of his voyage, St. Pierre returned to France, there to
endure fresh misfortunes.

Not being able to obtain any assistance from the ministry or his family,
he resolved on giving lessons in the mathematics. But St. Pierre was
less adapted than most others for succeeding in the apparently easy,
but really ingenious and difficult, art of teaching. When education
is better understood, it will be more generally acknowledged, that,
to impart instruction with success, a teacher must possess deeper
intelligence than is implied by the profoundest skill in any one branch
of science or of art. All minds, even to the youngest, require, while
being taught, the utmost compliance and consideration; and these
qualities can scarcely be properly exercised without a true knowledge of
the human heart, united to much practical patience. St. Pierre, at this
period of his life, certainly did not possess them. It is probable that
Rousseau, when he attempted in his youth to give lessons in music, not
knowing any thing whatever of music, was scarcely less fitted for
the task of instruction, than St. Pierre with all his mathematical
knowledge. The pressure of poverty drove him to Holland. He was well
received at Amsterdam, by a French refugee named Mustel, who edited a
popular journal there, and who procured him employment, with handsome
remuneration. St. Pierre did not, however, remain long satisfied with
this quiet mode of existence. Allured by the encouraging reception given
by Catherine II. to foreigners, he set out for St. Petersburg. Here,
until he obtained the protection of the Marechal de Munich, and the
friendship of Duval, he had again to contend with poverty. The latter
generously opened to him his purse and by the Marechal he was introduced
to Villebois, the Grand Master of Artillery, and by hi