I had revelled for some time in this deeper life of give and take before
I discovered that this faculty of recuperation also was curiously and
wonderfully active in me. Whenever I fell into a state of weakness,
well-nigh empty of life, I withdrew myself from company, and dwelt for a
little while with the simplest forms of Nature."
"But," asked Lefevre, "how did you get into such a low condition?"
"How? _I lived!_" said he with fervour. "_Yes; I lived:_ that was how! I
had always delighted in animals, but then I began to find that when I
caressed them they were not merely tamed, as they had been wont, but
completely subdued; and I felt rapid and full accessions of life from
contact with them. If I lay upon a bank of rich grass or wild flowers, I
had to a slight extent the same revivifying sensation. The fable of
Antaeus was fulfilled in me. The constant recurrence and vigour of this
recuperation not only filled me with pride, but also set me thinking. I
turned to medical science to find the secret of it. I entered myself as
a student in Paris: it was then I met you.
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