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



recollection of the most important and glorious services, was 

 not likely to affect ministers, at that time under the influence 

 of political passions and the caprices of foreigners. A petition 

 for a pension was, therefore, refused with harshness. Do not 

 be alarmed ! France will not have occasion to blush for having 

 left one of her greatest men in want. The Prefect of Paris, 

 M. de Chabrol, learns that his old professor at the Polytechnic 

 School, the Perpetual Secretary of the Institute of Egypt, the 

 author of the Analytical Theory of Heat, is about to be reduced 

 to the necessity of giving instructions for his subsistence. This 

 news grieves him ; he shews himself regardless of party cla- 

 mour, and Fourier receives from him the chief charge of the 

 Bureau de la Statistique of the Seine, with a salary of 6000 

 francs. I have thought it right, gentlemen, not to suppress 

 these details. The sciences may shew gratitude towards all 

 those who give them support and protection when there is any 

 danger in doing so, without fearing that the burden should 

 ever become too heavy ! 



Fourier made a suitable return for the confidence of M. de 

 Chabrol. The memoirs with which he enriched the interesting 

 volumes published by the Prefecture of the Seine, will hence- 

 forth serve as a guide to all those who have the good sense to 

 see in statistics something more than a crude mass of figures 

 and tables. 



The Academy of Sciences seized on the first opportunity 

 which offered to include Fourier among its members. On the 

 S7th of May 1816, it named him academician. This election 

 was not confirmed. The endeavours, the sohcitations, and the 

 prayers of the inhabitants of Dauphiny, who were then in 

 Paris, had almost prevailed with the authorities, when a courtier 

 exclaimed that they were going to grant an amnesty to the Lor- 

 hedoyere civil ! This word, for during many ages the human 

 race has been governed by words, decided the fate of our fel- 

 low-member. From political motives, the ministers of Louis 

 XVIII decreed that one of the most learned men of France 

 should not belong to the Academy ; and that a citizen, the 

 friend of all the distinguished persons in the capital, should be 

 publicly disgraced. 



In our country absurdity does not last long. Thus, in 



