120 EULOGY ON AMPERE. 



fixed on pistils, stamens, and nerves of leaves that he was unable to 

 observe at some distance two young and pretty girls, of modest de- 

 meanor, who were gathering flowers in a vast meadow. 



This accidental meeting decided the fate of our associate. Until then 

 the idea of marriage had never even presented itself to his mind. You 

 fancy, perhaps, the idea will quietly take root there, and germinate by 

 degrees ; but romantic imaginations do not proceed in this way. Am- 

 pere would have been married that very day. The woman of his choice 

 — the only one he ever would have married — was one of those two young 

 girls seen in the distance, with whose family he was not acquainted, of 

 whose name he was ignorant, and whose voice had never reached his 

 ear. But the aft'air was not so speedily disposed of. It was not until 

 three years afterward that the young girl of the solitary stream and 

 meadow, Mademoiselle Julie Carron, became Madame Ampere. 



But Ampere was without fortune, and before giving their daughter 

 to him the parents of Mademoiselle Carron prudently exacted that he 

 should consider the expenses entailed by marriage, and, as is commonly 

 said in the world, establish himself in some business. You will smile, 

 I am sure, to hear that, entirely engrossed by his passion, Ampere 

 allowed them seriously to propose his applying for a position in some 

 shop, where, from morning until night, he would unfold and fold and 

 unfold again the beautiful Lyonnese silks ; where his duty would con- 

 sist principally in detaining the purchasers by engaging them in agree- 

 able conversation, in adhering strictly to a fixed price, but without 

 impatience; in descanting at large on the quality of the fabrics, the 

 taste of the trimmings, and the fastness of the colors. 



Ampere, without having taken any i)art in the discussion, escaped 

 this great danger. Science winning the day in a family council, he left 

 his beloved mountains and proceeded to Lyons to give private lessons 

 in mathematics. 



AMPi:RE, PRIVATE PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS AT LYONS — CHEM- 

 ICAL STUDIES — MARRIAGE — A CHOSEN PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS AT 

 THE CENTRAL SCHOOL OF BOURG. 



The period now reached in the life of Ampere is marked by more 

 than one memorable event. In this he formed those intimate friend- 

 ships which stood the test of, without being shaken by, the i)olitical 

 crises and disorders of more than half a century. The new friends, 

 animated by the same tastes, met every morning, at an early hom^, at the 

 house of one of the number, M. Lenoir, who cannot be described more 

 clearly than as one of the best, gentlest, and most benevolent men who 

 Jias eyer honored the human race. There, in the Flace dcs Cordeliers, 

 before suniise, in the filth story of the house, seven or eight young men 

 compensated themselves, in adA^ance, for the weariness of the day de- 

 voted to business, bj- reading aloud the chemistry of Lavoisier; a work 



