105 EULOGY ON ALEXANDER VOLTA. 



stration, of wliich descriptions and drawings, even those best executed, 

 could give but an imperfect idea. 



Accepting an invitation from General Bonaparte, the conqueror of 

 Italy, Volta returned to Paris in 1801. He there repeated his experi- 

 ments on electricity by contact, before a large committee of the Insti- 

 tute. The First Consul wished to be present at the meeting where the 

 committee were to give a detailed account of these wonderful phe- 

 nomena. Their conclusions were scarcely reached when he proposed 

 to confer upon Volta a gold medal to commemorate the gratitude of the 

 French scientists. Custom, or, we may add, academic regulations, 

 scarcely sanctioned such a request, but rules are made for ordinary 

 occasions, and the professor of Pavia had just placed himself outside of 

 this line The medal was therefore voted by acclamation, and as Bona- 

 parte did nothing by halves, the learned traveler received the same day, 

 from the public fund, the sum of 2,000 crowns to defray his traveling 

 expenses. The creation of a prize of 00,000 francs to be awarded to 

 him who would give to the sciences of electricity and magnetism an im- 

 pulse comparable to that received by the first of these sciences from Frank- 

 lin and Volta, is not a less characteristic evidence of the enthusiasm of 

 the great captain. This impression was lasting. The i)rofessor of Pavia 

 became Napoleon's type of genius. Thus, step by step, we see him dec- 

 orated Vv'ith the crosses of the legion of honor and the iron crown, ele(;ted 

 member of the Italian consulate, and elevated to the dignity of count 

 and senator of the kingdom of Louibardy. When the Italian Institute 

 appeared at the palace, if Volta, accidentally, was not in the front 

 ranks, the abrupt questions, where is Volta; can he be sick ; why did 

 he not come ? proved, only too evidently, perhaps, that, in the eyes of the 

 sovereign, notwithstanding all their learning, the other members were 

 but mere satellites of the inventor of the pile. " I cannot consent,'' said 

 Napoleon in 1804, " to Volta's withdrawal. If his duties as professor 

 are too fatiguing, they must be lessened. Let him deliver but one 

 lecture during the year, if desired ; but the University of Pavia would 

 receive its death-blow tlie moment I allowed so illustrious a name to dis- 

 appear from the list of its meml)ers ; besides," added he, "a good gen- 

 eral should die on the field of honor." The good general. found the 

 arf-ument unanswerable, and the youth of Italy, whose idol he was, 

 were thus enabled to enjoy a few more years of his delightful lectures. 



Newton, during his parliamentary career, it is said, never spoke but 

 once, and that was to ask the doorkeeper of the Ilouse of Commons to 

 close a window to prevent a current of air giving cold to an orator 

 when speaking. If the doorkeepers of Lyons, during the Italian consul- 

 ate, and those of the senate at Milan, had been less careful, Volta, per- 

 haps, from mere goodness of heart, if but for a moment, might have 

 overcome his extreme reserve; but the opportunity not otlering, the 

 distinguished physicist will be inevitably classed with those personages 

 who, whether from timidity or indifference, during long revolutions, are 



