JOSEPH FOURIER. 147 



active participation iu the events wliicli each foresaw, and wbieh in fact 

 were not long in occurring. 



[N'otwitbstanding the precarious condition of Europe, the Directory 

 decided upon denuding the country of its best troops, and launching 

 them upon an adventurous expedition. The five chiefs of the republic 

 were then desirous of removing from Paris the conqueror of Italy, of 

 thereby putting an end to the popular demonstrations of which he every- 

 where formed the object, and which sooner or later would become a real 

 danger. 



On the other hand, the illustrious general d id not dream merely of the mo- 

 mentary conquest of Egypt; he wished to restore to that country its ancient 

 splendor; he wished to extend its cultivation, to improve its system of 

 irrigation, to create new branches of industry, to open to commerce 

 numerous outlets, to stretch out a helping hand to the unfortunate in- 

 habitants, to rescue them from the galling yoke under Vvhicli they had 

 groaned for ages — in a word, to bestow upon them without delay all the 

 benefits of European civilization. Designs of such magnitude could not 

 have been accomplished with the mere personnel of an ordinary army. 

 It was necessary to appeal to science, to literature, and to the fine arts ; 

 it was necessary to ask the cooperation of several men of judgment and 

 of experience. Mouge and Berthollet, both members of the Institute 

 and professors in the Polytechnic School, became, with a view to this 

 object, the principal recruiting aids to the chief of the expedition. Were 

 our-colleagues really acquainted with the object of this expedition ? I 

 dare not reply in the affirmative; but I know at all events that they 

 were not permitted to divulge it. We are going to a distant country ; 

 we shall embark at Toulon ; we shall be constantly with you; General 

 Bonaparte will command the army, such was in form and substance the 

 limited amount of confidential information which had been imperiously 

 traced out to them. Upon the faith of words so vague, with the chances 

 of a naval battle, with the English hulks in perspective, go in the pres- 

 ent day and endeavor to enroll a father of a family, a savant already 

 known by useful labors and placed in some honorable position, an artist 

 in possession of the esteem and confidence of the public, and I am much 

 mistaken if you obtain anything else than refusals ; but in 1798, France 

 had hardly emerged from a terrible crisis, during which her very ex- 

 istence was frequently at stake. Who, besides, had not encountered 

 imminent personal danger % Who had not seen with his own eyes enter- 

 prises of a truly desperate nature brought to a fortunate issue ? Is any- 

 thing more wanted to explain that adventurous character, that absence 

 of all care for the morrow, which appears to have been one of the most 

 distinguishing features of the epoch of the Directory. Fourier accepted 

 then, without hesitation, the proposals which his colleagues brought to 

 him in the name of the commander-in-chief; he quitted the agreeable 

 duties of a professor of the Polytechnic School to go — he knew not where; 

 to do — he knew not what. 



