M. Arago's Historical Eloge of Joseph Fourier. 13 



services, for which the advancement of the sciences is indebted 

 to the first normal school, has detained me longer than I intend- 

 ed. I hope I shall be pardoned for it. The example, at any 

 rate, will not be contagious. Praise of time past, as you know, 

 gentlemen, is no longer in fashion. Whatever is said or print- 

 ed tends to the belief that the world is of yesterday. This opi- 

 nion, which allows each to attribute to himself a more or less 

 brilliant part in the great cosmogonic drama, is too much sup- 

 ported by vanity to have any thing to fear from the effects of 

 logic. 



We have already said that the brilliant success of Fourier in 

 the normal school, obtained for him a distinguished place among 

 those whom nature has endowed in the highest degree with ta- 

 lents for teaching. Thus he was not forgotten by the founders 

 of the Polytechnic School : to which celebrated establishment 

 he was attached, at first witli the title of superintendent of the 

 course of fortification, and afterwards entrusted with the course 

 of analysis. Here he left behind him a vetierated memory, and 

 the reputation of a professor remarkable for clearness, method, 

 and erudition ; I may even add the reputation of a professor 

 full of grace ; for our fellow member has proved that this kind 

 of merit may be considered as not foreign to the teaching of 

 mathematics. 



The lectures of Fourier have not been preserved. The jour- 

 nal of the Polytechnic School contains only one memoir by him 

 on the Principle (if Virtual Velocities. This memoir, which 

 had probably been the substance of a lecture, shews that the se- 

 cret of the great success of this celebrated professor, consisted 

 in the skilful combination of abstract truths, of interesting ap- 

 plications, and of little known historical details, drawn from the 

 original sources, a most uncommon thing in our time. 



We are now arrived at the epoch when the peace of Leoben 

 brought back towards the capital the chief remarkable men of 

 our armies. Then the professors and pupils of the Polytech- 

 nic School had sometimes the high honour of being seated be- 

 side Generals Dessaix and Bonaparte. Thus every thing pre- 

 saged for them an active participation in the events which each 

 foresaw, and which, indeed, were not long delayed. 



Notwithstanding the precarious state of Europe, the Direc- 



