130 EULOGY ON AMPERE. 



you iioloiiCK'v thiiik as I do. * * * This creates a friglitful void iu 

 ray soul." 



Ampere's friends in Lyons had found his psychology somewhat diy 

 and minute. Thej' tried to induce him to return to the exact sciences, 

 but our associate replied to them in a lyrical strain, " How cau I abandon 

 a country full of flowers and fresh, running waters ; how give up streams 

 and groves for deserts scorched by the rays of a mathematical sun, 

 which, diffusing over all surrounding objects the most brilliant light, 

 withers and dries them down to the very roots ? * * * How niucli 

 more agreeable to wander under flitting shades than walk in straight 

 paths, v/here the eye embraces all at a glance, and where nothing seems 

 to fly before us to incite us to pursue !" 



It was my desire to seek the fresh groves discovered by Ampere and 

 to try to persuade you to enter them wifh me ; but, alas ! accustomed 

 by your advice and exa^mple to prize above all things in matters of sci- 

 ence, straight and well-lighted paths, my dazzled eyes found but pro- 

 found darkness Avhere the piercing eyes of our ingenious friend were 

 privileged to see brilliant semi- tints. Without the guide of Ariadne's clue 

 it would be in vain to attempt Ampere's manuscripts, I should be afraid, I 

 must acknowledge, of being forced, as Voltaire was formerly, to place at the 

 end of each metaphysical proposition the two letters iST. L., traced by the 

 style of the Eoman magistrate, when the cases seemed too obscure to 

 allow a well-grounded judgment. But non liquet, (it is not clear,) too fre- 

 quently repeated, in spite of perfect sincerity, would have Morn an air 

 of affected modesty to be avoided at any price. 



Is my extreme diffidence to be condemned ? It would not be difficult 

 to justify it by pointing alone to the arrogant contempt each psychologi- 

 cal school casts upon its rival, and that through the organ of its most 

 eloquent propagandists. 



Listen to what I will read to you from the lectures of one of its most 

 celebrated teachers, Laromiguiere, '' What is a science which has 

 neither fixed nor invariable methods ; w^hich changes its nature and its 

 form at the will of those who x^i'ofess it ! What is a science which is 

 no longer to-day what it was yesterday ; which by turns boasts as its 

 oracles Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Locke, Leibnitz, and so many others 

 whose doctrines and methods seem to have nothing iu common? In a 

 word, what is a science, not only whose existence, but whose possibility 

 Ls questioned ? " 



But Ampere bespoke in advance all my reserve when he exclaimed, 

 These last have only uttered what is eminently just and true, when iu 

 comparing the true metaphysicians of the schools of Kant and Schel- 

 ling with the followers of Ecid and Dugald Stewart, they said, the last 

 are to the first what good cooks are to chemists. 



I will leave to the most competent judges of future times to assign to 

 Ampere a place amongst psychologists. Nevertheless, I may now affirm 

 tJinl the wond'nTul powers of penetration and the rare faculty of reach- 



