JOSEPH FOURIER. 139 



Fourier was born at Auxerre on the 21.st of March, 17GS. His father, 

 like that of the illustrious geometer Lambert, was a tailor. This cir- 

 cumstance would formerly have occupied a large place in the elof/e of 

 our learned colleague ; thanks to the progress of enlightened ideas, I 

 may mention the circumstance as a fact of no importance : uol)ody, in 

 effect, thinlcs in the present day, nobody even pretends to think, that 

 genius is the privilege of r;ink or fortune. 



Fourier became an orphan at the age of eight years. A lady who 

 had remarked the amiability of his manners and his precocious natural 

 abilities, recommended him to the bishop of iVuxerre. Through the 

 influence of this prelate, Fourier was admitted into the mUitary school 

 which was conducted at that time by the Benedictines of the Convent 

 of St. Mark. There he prosecuted his literary studies with surprising 

 rapidity aud success. ]\Iany sermons very much applauded at Paris in 

 the month of high dignitaries of the church were emanations from the 

 pen of the schoolboy of twelve years of age. It would be impossible in 

 the present day to trace those first compositions of the youth Fourier, 

 since, while divulging the plagiarism, he had the discretion never to 

 name those who profited by it. 



At thirteen years Fourier had the petulence, the noisy vivacity of 

 most young people of the same age; but his character changed all at 

 once, and as if by enchantment, as soon as he was initiated in the first 

 principles of mathematics, that is to say, as soon as he became sensible 

 of his real vocation. The hours prescribed for study no longer sufficed 

 to gratify his insatiable curiosity. Ends of candles carefully collected 

 in the kitchen, the corridors and the refectory of the college, and placed 

 on a hearth concealed by a screen, served during the night to illuminate 

 the solitary studies by which Fourier prei)ared himself for those labors 

 which were destined, a few years afterward, to adorn his name and his 

 country. 



In a military school directed by monks, the minds of the pupils neces- 

 sarily waver only between two careers in life — the church and the sword. 

 Like Descartes, Fourier wished to be a soldier; like that philosopher, 

 he Avould doubtless have found the life of a garrison very wearisome. 

 But he was not permitted to make the experiment. His demand to 

 undergo the examination for the artillery, although strongly sui)ported 

 by our illustrious colleague Legendre, was rejected with a severity of 

 expression of which you may judge yourselves: "Fourier," replied the 

 minister, " not being noble, could not enter the artillery, although he 

 were a second I^^ewton." 



Gentlemen, there is in the strict enforcement of regulations, even 

 when they are most absurd, something respectable, which 1 have a 

 pleasure in recognizing; in the present instance nothing could soften 

 the odious character of the minister's words. It is not true in reality 

 that no one could formerly enter into the artillery who did not possess 

 a title of nobility : a certain fortune frequently supplied the want of 



