156 EULOGY ON AMPERE. 



infinitely, and passing successively into different boxes, at tlie will of 

 one of those individuals now called prestidigitators. It was in this way, 

 doubtless, that Ami^ere bad been led to admit that, under certain 

 conditions of nervous excitement, a man might be able to see even at 

 great distances without the aid of his eyes ; that he might, vrith his knee, 

 see stars ; follow the movements of actors on a stage with his back turned, 

 and read a note with his elbow. Is it not possible that we, who even 

 now have no faith in such marvels ; we, who formerly opposed the convic- 

 tions of our friend with all kinds of arguments, even resorting to raillery, 

 might have carried this opposition too far on other points of animal 

 magnetism ? Is an extravagant skepticism more philosophical than an 

 unlindted credulity 1 Have we any right, for example, to sweepingly 

 affirm that no man ever has or ever will be able to read, with his eyes, 

 in the profound darkness which reigns under a depth of twenty-nine 

 meters of earth and rocks — I mean at the bottom of the vaults of the 

 Paris observatory "? Has it been well established that opaque bodies — 

 that is, those impermeable to Ught — allow nothing to pass through them 

 which coidd supply and produce vision? Do sj^stematical ideas au- 

 thorize us to disdain any reference to experiment, the only competent 

 judge in such matters? I present all these doubts as a kind of rei)ara- 

 tion and expiation offered to the manes of Ampere. 



Pardon this digression, gentlemen, rendered necessary by circumstances. 

 Your indulgence will be the more precious to me for having possibly — 

 nay, I will say more, probably — displeased both the advocates and 

 antagonists of magnetism. The latter will blame the extent of my con- 

 cessions; the former, on the contrary, find me too skeptical. Bnt, such 

 reproaches would not be very alarming ; for has magnetism, unless in 

 some few isolated points, any real foundation ? All that its advocates 

 can desire, aU they can rightfully claim at present, are unprejudiced 

 judges, who will refuse neither to see nor to hear. 



Is it necessary, on the other haiid, to side with those who, fanatically 

 devoted to the experimental method, proceed exclusively by means of 

 direct corollaries, and who regard an idea unworthy of being followed np 

 which does not How logically from a previous idea ? I will also remark 

 that to deny, Si priori, belongs to theory; that negative theories are even 

 more to be condemned, as they provoke no trial, no attempt, and there- 

 fore reduce the mind to a state of quietude and somnolence from which 

 science would have much to sidfer. 



I cannot, besides, admit that there would be less pride in saving, not 

 only to the sea but to all natirre, " thoii sJialt go no farther.''^ 



AlMPilRE'S CHARACTER. 



The traits of character which, in the course of this sketch, are 

 found scattered here and there through the scientific analyses, would 

 amply suffice in the eulogies of a large number of the academicians. 

 But this would not answer in Ampere's case. From an early period a 



