14G EULOGY ON AMPERE. 



The experimeuts of Ampere, from their first appearance, were the ob- 

 ject of the severe critici-soi just cited, and, soou after, of universal ad- 

 miration. The only competent and capable judges of intricate and 

 scientific calculations of nice theoretical deductions of whose almost 

 boundless range I have just tried to give you an idea, were of necessity 

 geometers. Now is it jnst to say the French geometers found fault with 

 our distinguished associate, when, a short time before the discovery of 

 electrodynamics, M. Savary was found completmg a very important 

 point of that theory; when M. Lionville was trying to simphfy its bases 

 and render them more rigorous; when, in the compilation of the most 

 difficult parts of his grand memoir Ampere found in M. Duhamel an 

 earnest collaborator ? 



Is it true that Ampere's formula displayed no features likely to 

 occasion astonishment amongst geometers ? Would not the curiosity of 

 those most famihar with Newtonian theories be awakened by observing 

 the introduction of general expressions of the mutual action of these 

 elements, trigonometrical quantities relative to the respective inclina- 

 tions of the iufiuitisimal elements of the electrical ciuTcnts ? Was not 

 some hesitation natural when new theories seemed to depart so com- 

 l)letely from beaten paths 1 There was nothing extraordinary, excep- 

 tional, nor extravagant on the part of the savants who experienced this 

 hesitation. A few years before the transversal waves of light of Fresnel 

 had created the same doubts, the same uncertainty, and in the minds of 

 the same individuals, although they seemed a still more evident conse- 

 quence, a more direct and immediate translation and one easier to verify, 

 of the facts of interference exhibited by polarized rays. 



Let us not complain in general terms of the worship rendered usually 

 by men to the ideas under whose influence their minds have been devel- 

 oped. In such cases it is just, natural, and proper to make no change 

 of views without a thorough investigation. From a scientific point of 

 view, the criticisms and difficulties, so frequently overwhelming innova- 

 tors, are substantially useful. They arouse the idle to triumph over 

 indolence; even jealousj", with its cruel and hideous acuteness, becomes 

 an incentive to progress. It can be relied upon to discover gaps, blem- 

 ishes, and imperfections that even the most careful author allows un- 

 avoidably to escape him. The control it exercises over him who dis- 

 dains not to profit by it, is worth ten-fold that of the best friend. It 

 commands no gratitude either, for its services are involuntarily rendered ; 

 and on the other hand it would be a weaknessto sympathize too warmly 

 with the vexatious it causes in men of genius; for fame and peace of 

 mind rarely bear each other company. He who is ambitious of high 

 place in the world of matter or of ideas, must expect to find as adver- 

 saries those already occupying the highest places. Small minds aim at 

 trivial objects, and alone are privileged to reach, at will, insignificant 

 points, whose possession no one dreams of dis^iuting with them. 



