92 THE LIFE OF SCIENCE 



questions, you must be transcendently clear/' Instead of that, 

 Galois enveloped his thought in additional secrecy by his efforts 

 to attain greater conciseness, that coquetry of mathematicians. 



It is intensely tragic that this boy already sufficiently harassed 

 by the turmoil of his own thoughts, should have been thrown into 

 the political turmoil of this revolutionary period. Endowed with 

 a stronger constitution, he might have been able to cope with one 

 such; but with the two, how could he — how could anyone do it? 

 During the holidays he was probably pressed by his friend, 

 Chevalier, to join the Saint-Simonists, but he declined, and pre- 

 ferred to join a secret society, less aristocratic and more in keep- 

 ing with his republican aspirations — the "Societe des amis du 

 peuple." It was thus quite another man who re-entered the Ecole 

 Normale in the autumn of 1830. The great events of which he 

 had been a witness had given to his mind a sort of artificial ma- 

 turity. The revolution had opened to him a fresh source of dis- 

 illusion, the deeper because the hopes of the first moment had been 

 so sanguine. The government of Louis-Philippe had promptly 

 crushed the more liberal tendencies; and the artisans of the new 

 revolution, who had drawn their inspiration from the great events 

 of 1789, soon discovered to their intense disgust that they had 

 been fooled. Indeed under a more liberal guise, the same oppres- 

 sion, the same favoritism, the same corruption soon took place 

 under Louis-Philippe as under Charles X. Moreover, nothing can 

 be more demoralizing than a successful revolution (whatever it 

 be) for those who, like Galois, were too generous to seek any 

 personal advantage and too ingenuous not to believe implicitly in 

 their party shibboleths. It is such a high fall from one's dearest 

 ideal to the ugliest aspect of reality — and they could not help 

 seeing around them the more practical and cynical revolutionaries 

 eager for the quarry, and more disgusting still, the clever ones, 

 who had kept quiet until they knew which side was gaining, and 

 who now came out of their hiding places to fight over the spoils 

 and make the most of the new regime. Political fermentation did 

 not abate and the more democratic elements, which Galois had 



