an artist, a scientist, and a writer, was the result of
his unaided study of nature. To books he was indebted for only the
smallest part of what he knew.

Happy and hopeful, sunshiny of face and disposition, Bernard grew from
childhood to youth. Then, when he was about eighteen, there came into
his heart a longing to try his fortune in the great world which lay
beyond his forest home. Like most country-bred boys of his age, he felt
that he had grown too large for the parent nest and must try his wings
elsewhere. In his case there was, indeed, little to induce an ambitious
boy to stay at home. The trade of glass painting, which in previous
years had been a profitable one, had at that time fallen somewhat out
of favor, and there was not enough work to keep father and son busy.

When he shouldered his scanty wallet and bade farewell to father and
mother, and the few friends and neighbors he knew in the straggling
forest hamlet, Bernard Palissy closed the first chapter of his life.
The second was a long period of travel and self-education.

He wandered through the forest of Ardennes, making observations and
collecting specimens of minerals, plants, reptiles, and insects. He
spent some years in the upper Pyrenees, at Tarbes. From Antwerp in the
east he bent his steps to Brest, in the most westerly part of Brittany,
and from Montpellier to Nismes he traveled across France. During his
wanderings he supported himself by painting on glass, portrait painting
(which he practiced after a fashion), surveying, and planning sites for
houses and gardens. In copying or inventing patterns for painted
windows, he had acquired a knowledge of geometry and considerable skill
in the use of a rule and compass. His love of knowledge for its own
sake made him follow up the study of geometry, as far as he could
pursue it, and hence his skill as a surveyor.

At this time young Palissy had no other object in life than to learn.
His eager, inquiring mind was ever on the alert. Wherever his travels
led him, he sought information of men and nature, always finding the
latter his chief instructor. He painted and planned that he might live
to probe her secrets. But the time was fast approaching when a new
interest should come into his life and overshadow all others.

After ten or twelve years of travel, he married and settled in Saintes
where he pursued, as his services were required, the work of glass
painter and surveyor. Before long he grew dissat