M. Arago's Historical Eloge cjf Joseph Fourier. 11 



and useful meetings, sufficed to make him remarked. Thus 

 when the necessity of creating maitres de conference was felt, 

 all eyes were turned to the pupil of Saint Florentin. The pre- 

 cision, the clearness, and the elegance of his lectures, soon ac- 

 quired for him the^^unanimous applause of the fastidious and 

 numerous audience which was intrusted to his care. 



When at the height of his scientific and literary fame, Fou- 

 rier fondly carried back his thoughts to the year 1794, and to 

 the sublime efforts which the French nation at that time made 

 for forming an establishment of teachers. If he had dared, the 

 title of pupil of the old normal school would have been the one 

 which he would have preferred to take. This school, gentlemen, 

 perished from neglect and want of support, and not, whatever 

 might be said, on account of some defects of organization, which 

 time and reflection would easily have remedied. Although its 

 existence was so short, it gave to scientific studies an entirely 

 new direction, which was attended hy the most important re- 

 sults. In supporting this opinion by som^ additional remarks, 

 I shall fulfil a task which Fourier would assuredly have im- 

 posed on me, could he have suspected that, along with eloquent 

 praises of his character and his works, there would be inter- 

 mingled, within these very precincts, and by one of his succes- 

 sors, warm criticisms on his dear normal school. 



It is to the normal school of the Convention alone that we 

 must go back, if we wish to find the first public teaching of the 

 geomelrie descriptive, that beautiful discovery of Monge. It is 

 from it that it passed, almost without modification, to the Poly* 

 technic School, to all kinds of manufactories, and even the most 

 humble workshops. 



From the normal school is also to be dated a true revolution 

 in the study of pure mathematics. Demonstrations, methods, 

 and important theories, buried in the academical collections, 

 then, for the first time, made their appearance before the pupils, 

 and incited them to remodel, on new bases, the works destined 

 for instruction. 



With some few exceptions, the learned men capable of ad- 

 vancing the sciences, formerly formed in France a class totally 

 distinct from that of the professors. In calling to the profes- 

 sorships the first geometricians, the first natural philosophers. 



