15G EULOGY ON AMPERE. 



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

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

 doubtless, that Ampere had 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, with 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, eyen resorting to raillery, 

 might have carried this oj)positiou too far on other points of animal 

 magnetism ? Is an extravagant skepticism more philosophical than an 

 unlimited credulity ? Have we any right, for example, to sweepingly 

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

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

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

 Paris observatory 1 Has it been well established that opaque bodies — 

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

 which coidd supply and produce vision? Do systematical 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 repara- 

 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. But, such 

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

 some few^ isolated j)oints, any real foundation *? All that its advocates 

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

 judges, w^ho will refuse neither to see nor to hear. 



Is it necessary, on the other hand, 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 behig followed up 

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

 that to deny, a j;Won, 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 woidd have much to suffer. 



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

 only to the sea but to all nature, " thou slialt go no farther P 



AMPi^EE'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 sufl&ce in the eidogies of a large number of the academicians. 

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



