nd taught him out
of the old family bible lessons from the sacred scriptures. She often
made visits to the poor, and Alphonse accompanied her on these
benevolent errands, and thus very early in life learned to be gentle and
good. He left the grounds of Milly at eight years of age, to enter the
school of Belley, under the care of the Jesuits.

He took the prizes with ease, and his teachers discovering that he had a
talent for poetry, encouraged it. His parents took counsel as to what
should be done with their son. The father wished to make a soldier of
him, but the mother was opposed to this plan--she did not care to make a
human butcher of her boy. He paused some time at Lyons, on his return
from school, and afterward he traveled over Italy. He here met a young
man who was an excellent singer, and became quite intimate with him, so
much so, that he often slept upon his shoulder. When the two friends had
arrived at Rome, Lamartine was called down to the breakfast-room one
morning, to behold--_not_ his male companion, but a young woman of
beauty, who greeted him familiarly. It was his friend who had been
traveling in male costume, and who now said blushingly, "Dress does not
change the heart."

Lamartine went to Naples and his purse ran low, when he chanced to meet
an old classmate who had plenty of money, and together the young men
enjoyed their good fortune. At Naples, Graziella, the daughter of a poor
fisherman, fell in love with the poet. The story of this girl he tells
very touchingly. When he returned home he was welcomed very warmly. The
family had removed to Macon. His mother grew pale and trembling, to see
how long absence and agony of heart had changed her son. She told him
that their fortune had been considerably affected by his travels and
imprudences, and she spoke not by way of reproach, for said she, "You
know that if I could change my tears into gold, I would gladly give them
all into your hands."

He wished to go to Paris, and his father gave him, for his maintenance,
the moderate sum of twelve hundred francs a year. The mother pitied her
son, and going to her room, she took her last jewel and put it into his
hands, saying, "Go and seek glory!" He took a plenty of recommendations
with him, but was resolved to accept nothing from the emperor. When a
young man he had dreamed of a republic, but now, after coming to Paris,
he became a Bonapartist. He entered the most aristocratic circles, and
changed again