20 M. Arago's Historical Eloge of Joseph Fourier. 



prayer and fasting, inflicted a mortal wound on the hero of 

 Heliopolis, at the very instant he was, with his usual kindness, 

 listening, without distrust, to the recital of pretended wrongs, 

 and promising redress. 



This ever-to-be-lamented misfortune plunged our colony in 

 -deep affliction. The Egyptians themselves mingled their tears 

 with those of the French soldiers. From a delicacy of senti- 

 ment, which we are wrong in supposing the Mahometans des- 

 titute of, they did not forget at that time, indeed they have 

 never since forgotten, to state that the assassin and his three 

 accomplices were not born on the banks of the Nile. 



The army, in order to assuage its grief, desired that the ob- 

 sequies of Kleber should be performed with great pomp. It also 

 wished that, on that solemn day, they should receive an account 

 of the long series of brilliant actions, which will hand down the 

 name of the illustrious general to our latest posterity. By una- 

 nimous agreement, this honourable and difficult duty was en- 

 trusted to Fourier. 



There are very few men, gentk/.ien, who have not seen the 

 brilliant dreams of their youth vanish, one after the other, 

 amid the sad realities of advanced age. Fourier was one of 

 these rare exceptions to this rule. 



Carry back your thoughts to the year 1789, and inquire what 

 the future promised for the humble neophyte of Saint Benoit 

 sur Loir. Undoubtedly a little literary glory ; the good for- 

 tune to be allowed to speak occasionally in the public places of 

 the capital ; or the satisfaction of being entrusted with the pane- 

 gyric of some person or other of official celebrity. Well ! nine 

 years have scarcely passed away, and you find him at the head 

 of the Institute of Egypt, the oracle and idol of a body which 

 numbered among its members Bonaparte, BerthoUet, IMonge, 

 Malus, GeofFroy Saint-Hilaire, Conte, &c. You see the generals 

 continually entrusting him with the charge of relieving them 

 from difficulties apparently insurmountable, and even the army 

 of the cast, so I'ichly supplied with men of talent, desiring no 

 other orator when they wish to celebrate the great actions of 

 the hero whom they had just lost. 



It was on the breach of a bastion recently carried by assault 

 by our troops, in view of the most majestic of rivers, of the 



