EULOGY ON AMPERE. 153 



THE INFLUENCE EXERCISED BY A PRIVATE EDUCATION ON A3IPI:RE'S 



MIND AND MANNERS. 



Ampere, enjoying the wide reputation we have indicated, suggests 

 in himself too striking a comparison between the advantages of a 

 piivate education and one acquired in the tumult of i^ubUc schools not 

 to excite eager discussion. I only refer to this discussion, however, to 

 deny its utihty. At the time of his departure from the mountains of 

 Poleymeus, our future associate possessed an immense amount of infor- 

 mation, an extraordinary memory, a strong intellect, and a rare aptitude 

 in mastering all subjects ; but who would dare afiirm that these qualities 

 woidd not have been as well developed at a public school? An isolated 

 fact could lead to no positive conclusion on so nice a i)oint. 



The adversaries of private education remembered that Ampere con- 

 tracted in his secluded life habits which they tax with singidarity. 

 Amongst others is cited the impossibility he found in giving a clear ex- 

 i)lanation, when professor, of subjects with which he was perfectly 

 familiar ; without calling, as it were, to his aid peculiar movements of 

 the body. This is undeniably true. There was always, intellectually 

 speaking, a great difference between Am^iere in repose and Ampere in 

 action. I, especially, have always sincerely regretted that' the illustrious 

 savant, in his riper years, should have felt his eminent powders and all 

 enthusiasm decline as soon as seated at his desk, without having, how- 

 ever, the temerity to ascribe it to the solitude in which his youth had 

 been passed. 



What is knowTi, in fact, of the mental struggle accompanying the 

 birth and development of an idea? Like the first uncertain glimmer- 

 ings of a star, an idea begins its dawn on the very verge of the intel- 

 lectual horizon, at first so small and faint that its unsteady, wavering 

 light seems to reacu us through an almost imj)enetrable mist. It in- 

 creases in size, until sufficiently developed to display a delicate outhne; 

 and finally, its contour clearly defined, it stands sharply out li-om all 

 around — from all that is not itself. At this last stage language seizes it, 

 clofhes and stamps it with the definite, the impressive form which will 

 engrave it indelibly upon the memory of future generations. 



The causes accelerating or retarding the birth of a thought, and its 

 various transformations, are numerous and evanescent; and there is, 

 moreover, neither regularity nor consistency in their mode of action. 

 Paesiello composed wrapped up in his bed-covers. Cimerosa, on the 

 contrary, received the inspirations that gave to the world the beautifnl 

 themes with which his operas abound in the midst of the mirth and 

 bustle of a crowd. The historian Mezerai wrote, even at mid-day in 

 the month of July, hy the light of wax candles. Rousseau, on the 

 other hand, gave himself up to his most profound meditations in the 

 full light of the sun, while engaged in herborizing. 



If Ampere were only insjiired while standing and in motion, Descartes 



