JOSEPH FOURIER. 155 



by Mount Geuevre, which the events of 1814 have so uiifortuuately 

 interrupted, and especially the drainage of the marshes of Bourgoin. 



These marshes, which Louis XIV had given to Marshal Turenne, 

 were a focus of infection to the thirty-seven communes, the lands of 

 which were partially covered by them. Fourier directed personally 

 the topographic operations which established the possibility of drainage. 

 With these documents in his hand he went from village to village — I 

 might almost say from house to house — to fix the sacrifice which each 

 family ought to impose upon itself for the general interest. By tact 

 and perseverance, taking " the car of corn always in the right direction,''^ 

 thirty-seven municipal councils were induced to contribute to a common 

 fund, without which the projected operation would not even have been 

 commenced. Success crowned this rare x)erseverance. Eich harvests, 

 fat pastures, numerous flocts, a robust and happy population now 

 covered an immense territory, where formerly the traveler dared not 

 remain more than a few hours. 



One of the predecessors of Fourier, in the situation of per])etual 

 secretary of the Academy of Sciences, deemed it his duty, on one 

 occasion, to beg an excuse for having given a detailed account of certain 

 researches of Leibnitz, which had not required great efforts of the 

 intellect: " We ought," says he, ^' to be very much obliged to a mau 

 such as he is, when he condescends, for the public good, to do some- 

 thing which does not partake of genius !" I cannot conceive the ground 

 3f such scruples j in the present day the sciences are regarded fi'om too 

 high a point of view, that we should hesitate in placing in the first rank 

 of the labors with which they are adorned those which diffuse comfort, 

 health, and happiness amidst the working poi)ulation. 



In presence of a part of the Academy of Inscriptions, in an apartment 

 wherein the name of hieroglyph has so often resounded, I cannot refrain 

 from alluding to the service which Fourier rendered to science by retain- 

 ing Champollion. The young professor of history of the faculty of 

 letters of Grenoble had just attained the twentieth year of his age. 

 Fate calls him to shoulder the musket. Fourier exempts him by investing 

 him with the title of pupil of the School of Oriental Languages which he 

 had borne at Paris. The minister of war learns that the pupil formerly 

 gave in his resignation ; he denounces the fraud, and dispatches a peremp- 

 tory order for his departure, which seems even to exclude all idea of 

 remonstrance. Fourier, however, is not discouraged ; his intercessions 

 are skillful and of a pressing nature; finally, he draws so animated a 

 portrait of the ])recocious talent oi his young friend^ that he succeeds in 

 wringing from the government an order of S])ecial exemption. It was 

 not easy, gentlemen, to obtain such success„ At the same time, a con- 

 scri[)t, (I member of our Academy^ succeeded in obtaining a revocation of 

 his order for dei)arture only by declaring that he would follow on foot 

 in the costume of the Institute the contingent of the arrondissement of 

 Paris in whi<;h he was classed. 



