M. Arago's Historical Eloge of Joseph Fourier, 3 



it is necessary to speak to the soldiers, to the citizens, to the 

 factions, or to strangers, a language worthy of France. He 

 spares no party, but continually calls to them " to think a little 

 less about themselves and a little more about the public affairs." 

 Finally, he replies to unjust accusations of weakness by acts 

 which leave, as his only alternative, poison or the scaffold. 



The French revolution also drove the learned geometrician, 

 whose discoveries I am this day to celebrate, far from the path 

 which fate appeared to have marked out for him. In ordinary 

 times, it is of Do7n Joseph Fourier that the secretary of the 

 academy would have had to speak ; it is the tranquil and re- 

 tired life of a Benedictine which he would have unfolded to 

 your view. The life of our fellow member will be, on the con- 

 trary, stirring and full of perils ; it will be passed in the dan- 

 gerous disputes of the Forum ; amidst the chances of war ; a 

 prey to all the cares of a troublesome administration. This 

 life we shall find closely entwined with the great events of our 

 epoch. Let us hasten to add that it will be always praiseworthy 

 and honourable, and that his personal qualities will enhance 

 the brilliancy of his discoveries. 



Fourier was born at Auxerre, on the 21st of March 1768. 

 His father, like that of the illustrious geometrician Lambert, 

 was nothing more than a tailor. This circumstance would 

 have formerly occupied a conspicuous place in the eloge of our 

 learned brother, — thanks to the progress of light, I can men- 

 tion it as an unimportant fact. Indeed, nobody now-a-days 

 believes, nobody pretends to believe, that genius is a privilege 

 attached to rank or fortune. 



Fourier became an orphan at the age of eight years. A lady 

 who had remarked his engaging manners and happy disposition 

 recommended him to the bishop of Auxerre. By the influence 

 of this prelate, Fourier was admitted into the military school, 

 which was at that time under the direction of the Benedictines 

 of the congregation of St Maur. There he prosecuted his lite- 

 rary studies with astonishing rapidity and success. Several 

 sermons preached by the high dignitaries of the church, and 

 much admired at Paris, were from the pen of the scholar, then 

 twelve years old. It would now be impossible to revert to these 



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