148 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FRANCIS ARAGO. 



At last the moment of examination arrived, and I went to Toulonse 

 in company with a candidate who liad studied at the public college. It 

 was the first time that jiupils from Perpignan had appeared at the com- 

 petition. My intimidated comrade was completely discomfited. When 

 1 repaired after him to the board, a very singular conversation took 

 place between M. IMonge, the examiner, and me. 



"If yon are going to answer like jour comrade, it is useless for me 

 to question you." 



"Sir, my comrade knows much more than he has shown; I hope I 

 shall be more fortunate than he; but what you have just said to me 

 might well intimidate me and deprive me of all my powers." 



"Timidity is always the excuse of the ignorant; it is to save you 

 from the shame of a defeat that I make you the proposal of not exam- 

 ining you." 



" I know of no greater shame than that which you now inflict upon 

 me. Will you be so good as to question me? It is your duty." 



"You carry yourself very high, sir; we shall see presently whether 

 this be a legitimate pride." 



"Proceed, sir; I wait for you." 



M. Monge then put to me a geometrical question, which I answered 

 in such a way as to diminish his prejudices. From this he passed on to 

 a question in algebra, to the resolution of a numerical equation. I had 

 the work of Lagrange at my fingers' ends; I analyzed all the known 

 methods, pointing out their advantages and defects; Newtoji's method, 

 the method of recurring series, the method of depression, the method 

 of continued fractions; all were passed in review; the answer had 

 lasted an entire hour. Monge, brought over now to feelings of great 

 kindness, said to me, " I could, from this moment, consider the exam- 

 ination at an end. I will, however, for my own pleasure, ask you two 

 more questions. What are the relations of a curved line to the straight 

 line which is a tangent to it "? " I looked upon this question as a particular 



one of the admiaistrators of thedepartment of Ihe Eastern Pyrenees. Later, in 18C3, 

 Avlien the question Avas agitated as to tbc continuation of the measure of tlie meridian 

 line as far as the Balearic Islands, M. Mechain went again to Perpignan, and came to 

 pay mj father a visit. As I was ahout setting elf to undergo the examination for ad- 

 mission at the Polytechnic School, my father ve-ntnred to ask hini whether he could 

 not recommend me to M. Monge. '•"Willingly," answered he ; "biit, with the frank- 

 ness which is my characteristic, I ought not to leave you luiawarc that it ap^iears to 

 me imin'obable that your son, left to himself, can have rendered himself completely 

 master of the subjects of which the programme cousists. It', however, he be admitted 

 let him be destined for the artillery or for the engineers. The career of the sciences of 

 which you have talked to me is really too difdcult to go through, and, unless he had 

 a special calling for it, your sou would only find it deceptive." Anticipating a little 

 the order of dates, let us compare this advice with what occurred. I went to Tou- 

 louse, underwent the examination, and was admitted. Oue year and a half afterward 

 I tilled the situation of secretary at the Observatory, which had become \acant by the 

 resignation of M. M6chain's sou. One year and a half later, that is to say, four years 

 after the Perpignan " horoscope," associated with M. Biot, I filled the place, in Spain, 

 of the celebrated acadeuuciau who had died there, a victim to his labors. 



