The Immortal

Astier, commonly called Astier-Réhu (Pierre Alexandre Léonard), Member of the Académie Fran?aise, was born in 1816 at Sauvagnat (Puy-de-D?me). His parents belonged to the class of small farmers. He displayed from his earliest years a remarkable aptitude for the study of history. His education, begun at Riom and continued at Louis-le-Grand, where he was afterwards to re-appear as professor, was more sound than is now fashionable, and secured his admission to the Ecole Normale Supérieure, from which he went to the Chair of History at the Lycée of Mende.