Bancalari, the professor of natural philosophy, was famous in his
day; by what seems even an odd coincidence, he went deeply into
electromagnetism; and it was principally in that subject that
Signor Flaminio, questioned in Latin and answering in Italian,
passed his Master of Arts degree with first-class honours. That he
had secured the notice of his teachers, one circumstance
sufficiently proves. A philosophical society was started under the
presidency of Mamiani, 'one of the examiners and one of the leaders
of the Moderate party'; and out of five promising students brought
forward by the professors to attend the sittings and present
essays, Signor Flaminio was one. I cannot find that he ever read
an essay; and indeed I think his hands were otherwise too full. He
found his fellow-students 'not such a bad set of chaps,' and
preferred the Piedmontese before the Genoese; but I suspect he
mixed not very freely with either. Not only were his days filled
with university work, but his spare hours were fully dedicated to
the arts under the eye of a beloved task-mistress.
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