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I replied in the affirmative. "Every minute," continued M. Krempe

with warmth, "every instant that you have wasted on those books

is utterly and entirely lost. You have burdened your memory with

exploded systems and useless names. Good God! In what desert land

have you lived, where no one was kind enough to inform you that

these fancies which you have so greedily imbibed are a thousand

years old and as musty as they are ancient? I little expected, in

this enlightened and scientific age, to find a disciple of

Albertus Magnus and Paracelsus. My dear sir, you must begin your

studies entirely anew."