114 ^^^ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



those who read the criticism can themselves be in a position to esti- 

 mate the full extent of its impudence ; and for this reason I have 

 taken the trouble to show how, as a criticism, it is beneath contempt 

 — useful only as a warning to those whom it concerns to abstain from 

 meddling with any subject which, neither by mental constitution, 

 thought, nor training, are they in the lowest degree competent to 

 treat. — Fortnightly Mevieio. 



THE INAUGURATION OF ARAGO'S STATUE. 



THE statue to Arago recently unveiled at Perpignan is not the first 

 erected to that great astronomer and greater physicist. In 1867 

 M. Isaac Pereire, then representative of the native place of Arago in 

 the Imperial Chamber of Deputies, erected one at his own expense at 

 Estagel. The inauguration was accompanied by speeches delivered 

 by the generous donor, M. Bertrand, the Perpetual Secretary of the 

 Academy of Sciences, and others. It was stated then that Arago had 

 supported against his own party the construction of the railways by 

 public companies, and had been grossly abused by some of his political 

 friends. Although a political leader, it must be said, to the glory of 

 Arago, that he never was influenced by party considerations. He was 

 always writing, and speaking, and voting according to the dictamina 

 of his own judgment. These facts should be remembered, as efforts 

 have been made, in the recent Arago celebration, to degrade him into 

 a mere politician, which never was the case. Arago was made a mem- 

 ber of the Provisional Government of France in Februarj^, 1848 ; it 

 was owing to his personal exertion that the abolition decree was pro- 

 claimed before the convocation of the National Assembly. It is true 

 that he was appointed in the beginning of May one of the qidnquem- 

 virs of the Executive Commission. But this Government was over- 

 thrown by the popular rising of the end of June, and from that time 

 he abstained from taking any prominent part in politics. 



Arago was not rich, his works having been mostly published in the 

 " Annuaire du Bureau des Longitudes " without any copyright, and 

 sold for the benefit of the Bureau, of which he was the most influential 

 member. His paying works were all of them posthumous, and edited 

 by M. Barras, the Perpetual Secretary of the Agricultural Society of 

 France. The sale was not so large as anticipated, and the publisher 

 who purchased the copyright fi-om the inheritors failed. The sale of 

 the " Annuaire " was so large during Arago's lifetime that the Bureau 

 had a profit by it. Since his death it has become necessary to provide 

 special funds for the publication of that useful work. 



Arago had no salary at all as director of the Observatory. He was 



