EVARISTE GALOIS 89 



fair. It is likely that it was not at all unfair, at least according to the 

 accepted rules. Galois knew at one and the same time far more and 

 far less than was necessary to enter Polytechnique; his extra knowl- 

 edge could not compensate for his deficiencies, and examiners will 

 never consider originality with favor. The next year he published 

 his first paper, and sent his first communication to the Academie 

 des Sciences. Unfortunately, the latter got lost through Cauchy's 

 negligence. This embittered Galois even more. A second failure to 

 enter Polytechnique seemed to be the climax of his misfortune, but 

 a greater disaster was still in store for him. On July 7 of this same 

 year, 1829, his father had been driven to commit suicide by the 

 vicious attacks directed against him, the liberal mayor, by his po- 

 litical enemies. He took his life in the small apartment which he 

 had in Paris, in the vicinity of Louis-le-Grand. As soon as his 

 father's body reached the territory of Bourg-la-Reine, the inhabi- 

 tants carried it on their shoulders, and the funeral was the occa- 

 sion of disturbances in the village. This terrible blow, following 

 many smaller miseries, left a very deep mark on Evariste's soul. 

 His hatred of injustice became the more violent, in that he already 

 believed himself to be a victim of it; his father's death incensed 

 him, and developed his tendency to see injustice and baseness 

 everywhere. 



His repeated failures to be admitted to Polytechnique were to 

 Galois a cause of intense disappointment. To appreciate his de- 

 spair, one must realize that the Ecole Polytechnique was then, not 

 simply the highest mathematical school in France and the place 

 where his genius would be most likely to find the sympathy it 

 craved, it was also a daughter of the Revolution who had 

 remained faithful to her origins in spite of all efforts of the govern- 

 ment to curb her spirit of independence. The young Polytech- 

 nicians were the natural leaders of every political rebellion; lib- 

 eralism was for them a matter of traditional duty. This house was 

 thus twice sacred to Galois, and his failure to be accepted was a 

 double misfortune. In 1 829 he entered the Ecole Normale, but he 

 entered it as an exile from Polytechnique. It was all the more diffi- 



