M. Arago's Historical Eloge of Joseph Fourier. 233 



tiating on this result. You know how certain he felt of lia- 

 ving shewn the temperature of space to within eight or ten de- 

 grees. By what fatality has the memoir been lost, in which 

 our fellow member had doubtless given all the elements of this 

 important determination. May this irreparable loss at least 

 teach observers, that, ihstead of striving after an ideal perfection 

 which man cannot attain, they will act wisely in making the 

 public acquainted with their works as speedily as possible. 



I should still have a great field to go over, if, after having 

 mentioned some of the problems whose numerical solutions the 

 state of the sciences allowed our learned fellow member to give, 

 I should enter into an analysis of all those which, being still 

 included within general formulae, only await the data of ex- 

 periment, in order to rank among the most curious acquisitions 

 of modern physics. The time at my command is not suffi- 

 cient for such illustrations. However, I should be guilty of 

 an unpardonable omission, did I not mention that, among 

 Fourier's formulae, there is one intended to give the amount of 

 the secular cooling of the globe, and to determine the number 

 of centuries which have elapsed since the commencement of 

 this cooling. The warmly disputed question as to the age of 

 our globe, including also its period of incandescence, is thus re- 

 duced to a thermometric determination. Unfortunately this 

 theoretical point is subject to serious difficulties. Besides, 

 the thermometric determination, on account of its excessive 

 minuteness, should be reserved for future ages. 



I have shewn you the results of the relaxations of the Pre- 

 fect of Isere. Fourier still occupied this situation when Na- 

 poleon arrived at Cannes. His conduct, during this critical 

 time, has been the object of numberless misrepresentations. I 

 shall, therefore, fulfil my duty, by giving the facts, in all their 

 truth, as I heard them from the lips of our fellow member. 



On the news of the Emperor's landing, the principal autho- 

 rities of Grenoble assembled at the prefecture. There, as Fourier 

 related, all present were occupied in considering, with much 

 ingenuity, and in great detail, the difficulties by which their 

 situation was surrounded. As for the means of overcoming them, 

 they seemed much more at a loss. There was not much confi- 

 dence placed at that time in administrative eloquence. It was 



VOL. XXVI. NO. LIT.— APRIL 1839. Q. 



