, that he enjoyed such good health, and that this
superabundance of vital energy kept him always occupied, and, by a
natural consequence, never dull. There was no denying that it was a
solitary life for so young a man.

Ivan was very little over thirty, and when he opened the door of his
small house with his key, and closed the door behind him, he was
alone. He hadn't even a dog to come and greet him. He waited upon
himself; and in this he was a great man. Eating he looked upon as an
unnecessary waste of time; nevertheless, he ate a great deal, for his
muscular and mental system needed food. He was not delicate in his
appetite. He dined every day at the tavern. His food was very little
better than that of his pitmen, the only difference being that he
avoided the strong drinks they indulged in--for this reason, that they
worked only with their bodies; he had to bring to his work a clear
intellect, not a soddened one. His bed needed no making. It was a
wooden plank, upon which a mattress was placed, covered with a
sheep-skin. There was no use in brushing his clothes; they were always
permeated with coal-dust.

Any one who would offer, by way of doing him a service, to clear out
his room, would, in fact, have done him a deadly injury. It was full
of every sort of thing--new books half cut, minerals, scientific
instruments, plans, pictures, retorts. Not one of these should be
moved from its place. There was order in the disorder, and in the
heterogeneous mass Ivan could find what he wanted. In one corner was
Lavoisier's pyrometer; in another Berard's gas food-warmer. Over there
a wonderful sun-telescope; against the wall Bunsen's galvanic battery,
together with every conceivable invention, every sort of chemical
apparatus for analyzing and searching into the mysteries of Nature.

Amongst these things Ivan was wont to spend the long nights. Another
man, tired as he must have been with his day's work, would have flung
himself upon his bed, and have sought in sleep some compensation for
the labors of the day, or if not weary enough for this, would have sat
before his door and breathed the fresh air, which at night was free
from smoke and coal-dust. But this student of the unseen withdrew into
his inner chamber, lit his fire, made his lamp blaze, and busied
himself breaking lumps of coal, cooking seeds, developing deadly
gases, a breath of which was enough to send a man into eternity.

What was it he searched for? Was he se