I 



EULOGY ON AMPERE. 163 



way of winning; when fortune seemed against them, tliey would declare, 

 in very positive terms, that after very mature reflection it seemed to 

 them that chlorine was undoubtedly oxygenated muriatic acid; that 

 the idea of explaining the properties of the magnet by means pf electri- 

 cal currents was truly chimerical ; that sooner or later physicists would 

 return to the system of emission and consign luminous waves to their 

 place among the rusty old lumber of Cartesianism. Ampere had thus 

 the double vexation of finding pretended adversaries of his favorite 

 theories and himself cheek-mated. 



Philosophers, even those whose whole lives have been passed in digest- 

 ing codes of wisdom for all the nations of the world, frequently, in regu- 

 lating their own lives, fail to steer clear of the shoals evident to the 

 eyes of the most casual observers. Ampere, for example, never seemed 

 to understand how much both his health and science would suffer from 

 the isolation to which he had condemned himself. He fancied he was 

 yielding to iieremptor}' medical prescriptions, or to the urgent entreaties 

 of friendship, and he really believed he was resting his mind, when, 

 during the day, he i)assed several hours either in profound darkness, or 

 without book, pen, or pencil in hand. Such a delusion could not de- 

 ceive us ; and it was not strange, therefore, that we desired to lure our 

 friend, for real distraction, to the Oomedie-Frangaise ; we were anxious 

 that he, who, in his youth had composed tragedies, should partici- 

 pate in the pure and elevated pleasure excited by the master-i^ieces 

 of Corneille, Eacine, Moliere, and at a time, too, when these im- 

 mortal poets had for interpreters such artists as Talma, Fleury, and 

 Mademoiselle Mars. Fearing our friend might be restrained by the 

 powerful influence of his religious scruples, we concluded to relate to 

 him the instance of the lady at the court of Louis XIY who, in con- 

 sulting her confessor as to whether she committed a sin in going to the 

 theater, received this reply : " Madame, it is for you to tell me." These 

 admirable words could not fail to make an impression on so quick and 

 discriminating a mind as Ampere's. For a moment we thought our 

 cause gained; in fact, his mind and heart were convinced ; but how could 

 we insist when we saw he hesitated from the very praiseworthy fear of 

 wounding the feelings of those whose opinions he regarded"? 



I shall have displayed a great want of skill, gentlemen, if in the char- 

 acter of Ampere, presented to you under so many different phases, I 

 have not seemed to offer, at least within certain bounds, a very natural 

 explanation of the despondency to which our friend so often abandoned 

 himself, and given the principal causes of the distaste so frequently inspired 

 by studies that a slight perseverence would have crowned with a bril- 

 liant success. A careful glance over the later years of Ampere's life 

 will detect numberless instances of this despondency and distaste. 



He who in his youth had devoured books of every description, even 

 the twenty volumes in folio of the encyclopedia, after reaching a certain 

 age seemed no longer to have the energy to read. With only a few ex- 



