286 M. Arago's Biographical Memoir of James Watt. 



have been erected in a short time to the memory of Watt. 

 And must we now confess, that these tributes of filial love, and 

 public gratitude, have excited the disapprobation of some nar- 

 row-minded beings, who, remaining stationary themselves, fancy 

 they thereby arrest the advance of ages. According to them, 

 warriors, and magistrates, and statesmen (though I venture 

 to assert they will surely not include all of this latter class), 

 have alone a right to statues. I do not know if Homer and 

 Aristotle, if Descartes and Newton, wovdd appear in the eyes 

 of these new Aristarcuses worthy of a simple bust; but assuredly 

 they would refuse even a modest medal to our Papins and 

 Vaucansons, our Watts and Arkwrights, and to other mecha- 

 nists, unknown, perhaps, in a certain circle, but whose renown 

 will go on augmenting from age to age with the progress of 

 knowledge. Since such heresies as these are openly avowed, 

 we must not disdain to combat them. It is not without 

 reason that public opinion has been styled a sponge for pre- 

 judices. But prejudices are like hurtful plants : the shght- 

 est effort suffices to eradicate them, if they be at once at- 

 tended to ; on the contrary, they grow with time, become 

 invetei'ate, extend far and near, and their numerous ramifica 

 tions seize upon every thing that comes within their reach. 



If this discussion offend the self-love of some, I must re- 

 mark it has been provoked. The men of science of our day 

 are not those who have complained that they saw not the great 

 authors, whose inheritance they cultivate, figure in the long 

 ranges of colossal statues, which the authorities proudly elevate 

 <>a our parapets, and places of public resort ; for well they know 

 that these monuments are fragile, that hurricanes shake and 

 overturn them, and that the very vicissitudes of the seasons 

 suffice to destroy their contours, and to reduce them to shape- 

 less blocks. But they too have their statuary and their paint- 

 ings in the printing-press. Thanks to this admirable invention 

 when the works of science and imagination possess real value, 

 they may defy time and political revolutions. Neither fiscal 

 regulations, nor commotions, nor all the terrors of despots, can 

 hinder such productions from crossing the most carefully 

 guarded frontiers. A thousand vessels transport them, under 

 a variety of forms, from hemisphere to hemisphere. They are 



