212 Baron Fourier"*s Notice of' the Life of M. Breguet. 



the most simple combinations, and those most accommodated to 

 public use, and of a correct and easy execution, so that they 

 might be acquired at a moderate rale. It was with this view 

 that he invented the repeaters to the touch, and particularly 

 the watches with a single hand, simple, solid, and exact, and 

 uniting to extraordinary precision all the conditions of a long 

 duration. 



The peculiar character of his works, and what eminently 

 distinguishes him even among skilful inventors, is that of 

 having enhanced and improved all the branches of his art. 



He paid particular attention to the selection of external 

 forms the most commodious, the most agreeable to the eye, 

 and the most easily ornamented; and he always succeeded, 

 by an exquisite taste, and by an ingenious arrangement, in 

 satisfying the conditions whicli he wished to unite; for he had 

 received from nature, and from long experience, so prodigious 

 a talent for transforming at his will all the portions of the 

 mechanism, that he resolved without any effort the greatest 

 difficulties. 



Clock-making, considered as a branch of commercial indus- 

 try, owes to him one of the most important steps in its pro- 

 gress, viz. that which consists in making workmen of inferior 

 talent, and even his pupils, attempt the most difficult and ex- 

 act work, reserving the last efforts of the art for finishing and 

 arranging all the parts. 



In this manner he has cultivated his profession in all its ex- 

 tent, and he has given to it, or preserved for it, all the advan- 

 tages which belong to it, for he has combined together accu- 

 racy, solidity, good taste, the interests of commerce, and the 

 applications to the sciences. 



To have placed himself in the first rank of a difficult pro- 

 fession ; — to have invented and improved in an art which had 

 been long studied by Huygens, Leibnitz, and Daniel Bernou- 

 illi ; — to guide navigators ; — to give to science new instru- 

 ments ; — to create his own fortune, by founding it on public 

 utility ; — to enjoy friendship ; — to be unacquainted with in- 

 gratitude, and to escape envy, is a happy and an honourable 

 destiny. Long may the arts reserve such high rewards for 

 those who cultivate them. 



