194 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FRANCIS ARAGO. 



I can render this amount of justice to myself, that, excepting iu three 

 or four instances, my vote and interest were always iu favor of the most 

 deserving candidate, and more than once I succeeded in preventing the 

 Academy from making a deplorable choice. Who could blame me for 

 having maintained with energy the election of Mains, considering that 

 his competitor, M. Girard, nnknown as a physicist, obtained twenty-two 

 votes out of lifty-three, and that au addition of five votes would have 

 given him the victory over the savant who had just discovered the 

 phenomenon of polarization by reflection, over the savant whom Europe 

 would have named by acclamation ? The same remarks are ai)plicable 

 to the nomination of Poisson, who would. have failed against this same 

 M. Girard if four votes had been otherwise given. Does not this suffice 

 to justify the unusual ardor of my conduct'? Although iu a third trial 

 the majority of the Academy was decided in favor of the same engineer, 

 I cannot regret tliat I supported up to the last moment with conviction 

 and warmth the election of his competitor, M. Dulong. 



I do not suppose that, in the scientific world, any one will be disposed 

 to blame me for having preferred M. Liouville to M. de Pontecoulant. 



Sometimes it happened that the government wished to influence the 

 choice of the Academy ; with a strong sense of my rights I invariably 

 resisted all dictation. Once this resistance acted unfortunately on one 

 of my friends — the venerable Legendre : as to myself, I had prepared 

 myself beforehand for all the persecutions of which I could be made the 

 object. Having received from the minister of the interior an invitation 

 to vote for M. Binet against M. Navier on the occurrence of a vacant 

 place iu the section of mechanics, Legendre nobly answered that he 

 would vote according to his soul and his conscience. He was immediately 

 deprived of a ijension which his great age and his long services rendered 

 due to him. ThG 2^'^ofege of the authorities failed ; and, at the time, this 

 result was attributed to the activity with which I enlightened the mem- 

 bers of the Academy as to the impropriety of the minister's proceedings. 



Ou another occasion the King wished the Academy to name Dupuytren, 

 the eminent surgeon, but whose character at the time lay under grave 

 imputations. Dupuytren was nominated, but several blanks protested 

 against the interference of the authorities in academic elections. 



I said above that I had saved the Academy from some deplorable choices ; 

 I will only cite a single instance, on which occasion I had the sorrow of 

 finding myself in opposition to M. de Laplace. The illustrious geometer 

 wished a vacant place in the astronomical section to be granted to M. 

 Nicollet — a man without talent. At the close of a contest, which I 

 maintained undisguisedly, notwithstanding the danger which might 

 follow from thus braving the powerful j)rotectors of M. Nicollet, the 

 Academy proceeded to the ballot ; the respected M. Damoiseau, whose 

 election I had supported, obtained forty -five votes out of forty-eight. 

 Thus M. Nicollet had collected but three. 



" I see," said M. de Laplace to me, " that it is useless to struggle 



