168 EULOGY ON GAY-LUSSAC. 



There was, in Auxerre, at the beginning of our first revolution, a 

 musical artist who was attached to the four large societies and to the 

 college of that city. The suppression of these establishments, in 1791, 

 brought great pecuniary troubles upon this respectable family. The 

 artist did not, however, lose courage, and devoted the small fortune of 

 his wife to the education of his three daughters, whom he wished to fit 

 for the honorable position of governess. But the eldest of these young 

 girls, Josephine, becoming aware of the narrowness of the means of 

 her parents, and of the sacrifices they would have to endure before 

 attaining their object, earnestly begged to be placed in a mercantile 

 establishment in Paris, to remain there until the ages of her sisters and 

 their education should enable them to realize the hopes entertained for 

 them by their parents. 



It was at a linen-draper's, the usual refuge of women of all conditions 

 and ages, whose lives had been disturbed by revolutions, where 

 Josephine had placed herself, that Gay-Lussac made her acquaintance. 

 He saw, with curiosity, a young girl of seventeen seated behind the 

 counter holding in her hand a small book which seemed to fix her 

 attention deeply. " What are you reading, miss ?" he said. "A work, 

 perhaps, beyond my comprehension; it interests me, however, much — a 

 treatise on chemistry." This singularity excited the interest of our 

 young friend ; from that moment the unusual necessity for linen ware 

 brought him constantly to the draper's, where he entered repeatedly into 

 conversation with the young reader of the chemical treatise; he loved 

 her and was loved in return, and obtained from her a promise of mar- 

 riage. Our illustrious colleague, as a future marriage dower, placed 

 Josephine in a boarding-school to complete her education, and especially 

 to learn English and Italian. Some time after she became his wife. I 

 would not venture to advise this rash fashion of choosing a wife, 

 although our celebrated chemist perfectly succeeded in it. 



Beautiful, sparkling with wit, brilliant, and admired in society, for 

 which nevertheless she cared but little, for the grace and distinction of 

 her manners, Madame Gay-Lussac constituted for more than forty years 

 the happiness of her husband. 



From the beginning, they adopted the amicable custom, the conse- 

 quence of some slight mutual concession, of merging their thoughts, 

 desires, or sentiments into one thought, one desire, one sentiment com- 

 mon to both. This identification in everything was such that they ended 

 by so entirely having the same handwriting that an amateur of auto- 

 graphs might readily believe that a memoir copied by Madame Gay- 

 Lussac had been written by the celebrated academician. 



Three days before his death, touched by the infinite solicitude lavished 

 upon him, Gay-Lussac said to his wife, " We will love each other to the 

 last; the sincerity of attachments is the only happiness." This tender, 

 affectionate language will not spoil the portrait I have desired to draw 

 of our colleague. 



