EULOGY ON GAY-LUSSAC. 169^ 



Gay-Lussac's demeanor was always very grave ; he entered frankly 

 into the bursts of merriment that a well-chosen anecdote created in 

 societies where he was surrounded by his friends, but he never provoked 

 them himself. 



Gay-Lussac carried his love for his native land so far as never to be 

 willing to be witness of a performance of " Pourceaugnac," brought out 

 by Moli^re at Limoges; his joy, therefore, knew no bounds when there 

 appeared, under the name of "Nouveau Pourceaugnac," a vaudeville by 

 M. Scribe, in which the principal character, M. de Roufignac, also a 

 native of Limousin, instead of being mystified, renders all the other 

 actors the sport of his witty mystifications. 



It is related that La Fontaine, at one time, accosted all his friends 

 with, " Have you read Le Prophete Baruch f So it was with Gay-Lus- 

 sac; he never failed, no matter how little the circumstances authorized 

 it, to ask with candor equal to that of the fabulist, "Do you know the 

 ' Xouveau Pourceaugnac?' It is a charming piece ; I advise you to go 

 to see it." And 1 must say for him that, though so saving of his time, 

 he preached bjr example. 



A single fact will sufS.ce to show that Gay-Lussac gave himself up 

 enthusiastically to the honest inspirations of his soul, when necessary, 

 even at his own risk and peril, to baffle an intrigue or defend a friend. 

 At the second restoration it had been decided in high places, it was 

 said, to remove a professor, whose liberal sentiments had rendered him 

 an object of suspicion, from the Polytechnic School. But how effect 

 this dismissal without exciting great opposition ? The professor was 

 zealous, respected, and even, I must say, beloved by all his pupils. The 

 case was embarrassing, when it was discovered that this victim of pub 

 lie animosity had during the hundred days signed the additional act. 

 The professor of literature (it was not, let it be well understood, M, 

 Andrieux, but his successor) undertook to make every use of this dis- 

 covery. In a meeting of the corps of instruction he declared that, in 

 his opinion, those who gave their support to the usurper, that Corsicaa 

 ogre, whatever might be their motives, were not worthy to lecture 

 before the youth to whom the future of the country was to be confided; 

 they should themselves decline to officiate. The member of the corps 

 of professors against whom this attack was directed asked permission 

 to explain himself, when Gay-Lussac arose impetuously, interrupted 

 his friend, and announced in a sonorous voice that he also had signed 

 the additional act; that he would not hesitate in the future to sustain 

 the government, whatever it might be, even the government of Eobes- 

 pierre, when the enemy threatened the frontiers ; that, if the patriotic 

 sentiments which guided him were a subject of reprobation, he formally 

 demanded that the proposed reformation should begin in his person. 



The professor of literature saw, therefore, that his proposition would 

 be followed by consequences which would far exceed the limit within 

 which he wished to confine it, and no more was said. 



