^4 M. Arago's Historical Eloge of' Joseph Fourier, 



the congregation of Notre Dame, was his grand uncle. This 

 circumstance effected a reconciliation which was every day more 

 and more strengtliened by the steady respect shewn by the 

 chief magistrate of Grenoble to all conscientious opinions. 



As soon as he was assured of a truce between the religious 

 and political parties, Fourier was enabled to devote himself 

 without reserve [to the duties of his office. He did not consi- 

 der these duties to consist merely in accumulating documents 

 without limit and without utility. He took personal cogni- 

 zance of the projects which were submitted to him, and became 

 the indefatigable promoter of all those which were objected to 

 from prejudiced motives. We ought to rank among this latter 

 class the splendid road from Grenoble to Turin by Mount Ge- 

 nevre, which the events of 1814 so unfortunately interrupted ; 

 and especially the draining of the marshes of Burgoin. 



These marshes, which Louis XIV. had given to Marshall 

 Turenne, were a focus of infection to the thirty-seven communes 

 whose lands they partly covered. Fourier directed in person 

 the topographical operations which proved the possibility of 

 draining them. With the documents in his hand, he went from 

 village to village, — I might almost say from house to house, to 

 arrange about the sacrifice which each family ought to make 

 for the general interest. By means of discretion, tact, and pa- 

 tience, " en prenant Vepi dans son sens et jamais a rebours^'' 

 thirty-seven municipal councils were induced to sign a common 

 document, without which the projected operations could not 

 even have been commenced. Success rewarded this extraordi- 

 nary perseverance. Rich crops and pastures, numerous flocks, 

 and a robust and happy population, now cover an immense dis- 

 trict, where formerly the traveller did not dare to stop even a 

 few hours. 



One of the predecessors of Fourier in the office of Perpetual 

 Secretary to the Academy, once thought it necessary to offer 

 an excuse for having given a detailed account of certain re- 

 searches of Leibnitz which had not required great efforts of in- 

 tellect : " We ought,"*' said he, " to be much obliged to such a 

 man, when he deigns, for the public advantage, to do something 

 which does not require genius." I do not understand such 

 scruples : in the present day, the sciences are too highly valued 



