EULOGY OX AMPERE. 159 



celebrated academician for perspicuity. Credulity usually implies a 

 waut of intelligence. This, of course, was not the case in this instance 

 It often arises, too, from a general sluggishness of mind, and is well 

 described by a j)opular adage : " I wotild rather believe than examine for 

 myself.''^ 



Indifference, in order to escape the importunities and contentious it 

 so much dreads, sometimes wears the mask of credulity. But indif- 

 ference cannot be general. Though felt towards certain subjects, it 

 admits in others a wide field for active interest. Such was the case 

 with the grammarian to whom some one was describiug the fancied 

 symptoms of a general conflagration in Europe. He admitted all, ac- 

 cepted all, without a frown or a word ; aud was about being set down 

 as one of the most credulous men of the age, when he broke the silence 

 by exclaiming, " Happen what will, I have not less than three thousand 

 verbs well conjugated in my lists." 



Ampere belonged to another class, infinitely more rare, with whom 

 credulity was the result of imagination and genius. When he heard 

 an extraordinary statement related, his first feeling was that of sur- 

 prise, undoubtedly ; but his penetrating and prolific mind, discerning 

 possibilities where ordinary minds discovered only chaos, would, with- 

 out interval or rest, i)ersevere until he connected the strange phenom- 

 ena, by links more or less solid, to the principles of established science. 



Should I fear being accused of misunderstanding the human heart 

 if I add that the merit of overcoming difficulties had its influence 

 on the tenacity of our learned associate in defending certain theories ? 

 On leaving Lyons, in 1805, Ampere had not weighed well all he was 

 relinquishing in the associations and friends of that city. Soon after his 

 arrival in Paris he was seized with an attack of genuine nostalgia — 

 home-sickness — from which he never entirely recovered. 



In letters of 1813 and 1820, and even of a later date, his acceptance 

 of the situation connecting him with the Polytechnic School is described 

 as an act of egregious folly. His favorite dreams were combinations, 

 always impracticable, to restore him to the haunts of his childhood. 

 His griefs of all kinds always found expression in, " O, had I never 

 left Lyons!" This, then, gentlemen, gives the key to maiiy circum- 

 stances in the life of our friend until now inexplicable. 



Metaphysics, to which I have already referred, were constantly inter- 

 fering with the works on mathematics, physics, and chemistry, on which 

 our associate was engaged. They were suspended, but at short inter- 

 vals, in 1820, 1821, and 1822, during his electro-dynamic researches, the 

 results of which have already been shown. 



In 1813 Ampere consulted his friends in Lyons as to a plan, (I give 

 his own words,) " to devote himself exclusively to psychology." He 

 fancied himself called "to lay the foundation of that science for aU 

 ages." He did not reply to a letter from Sir Humphry Da^y on chem- 



