90 THE LIFE OF SCIENCE 



cult for him to forget the object of his former ambition, because 

 the Ecole Normale was then passing through the most languid 

 period of its existence. It was not even an independent institution, 

 but rather an extension of Louis-le-Grand. Every precaution had 

 been taken to ensure the loyalty of this school to the new regime. 

 Yet there, too, the main student body inclined toward liberalism, 

 though their convictions were very weak and passive as com- 

 pared with the mood prevailing at Polytechnique; because of the 

 discipline and the spying methods to which they were submitted, 

 their aspirations had taken a more subdued and hypocritical form 

 only relieved once in a while by spasmodic upheavals. Evariste 

 suffered doubly, for his political desires were checked and his 

 mathematical ability remained unrecognized. Indeed he was easily 

 embarrassed at the blackboard, and made a poor impression upon 

 his teachers. It is quite possible that he did not try in the least to 

 improve this impression. His French biographer, P. Dupuy, very 

 clearly explains his attitude : 



There was in him a hardly disguised contempt for whosoever 

 did not bow spontaneously and immediately before his superiority, 

 a rebellion against a judgment which his conscience challenged 

 beforehand and a sort of unhealthy pleasure in leading it further 

 astray and in turning it entirely against himself. Indeed, it is fre- 

 quently observed that those people who believe that they have 

 most to complain of persecution could hardly do without it and, 

 if need be, will provoke it. To pass oneself off for a fool is another 

 way and not the least savory, of making fools of others. 



It is clear that Galois' temper was not altogether amiable, yet 

 we should not judge him without making full allowance for the 

 terrible strain to which he was constantly submitted, the violent 

 conflicts which obscured his soul, the frightful solitude to which 

 fate had condemned him. 



In the course of the ensuing year, he sent three more papers to 

 mathematical journals and a new memoir to the Academic The 

 permanent secretary, Fourier, took it home with him, but died 

 before having examined it, and the memoir was not retrieved 



