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



Caesar assigned to the several events of war, has been point- 

 ed out ; w^hat he chiefly boasted of was a moral influence. 

 " Caesar harangued his army," is almost always the first 

 clause of his description of a battle won. " Caesar did not ar- 

 rive in time to address his soldiers, and exhort them to good 

 conduct," is the habitual accompaniment of the recital of a 

 surprise, or of a temporary defeat. The general invariably 

 disappears before the orator, and truly, remarks the judicious 

 Montaigne, his tongue often did him wondrous service. 



And now, without transition, without dwelling upon the 

 well-known exclamation of the great Frederick — " I had ra- 

 ther have written Voltaire's Siecle de Louis XIF. than gained 

 a hundred battles ;" — I come to Napoleon. I must be brief, 

 not even alluding to the celebrated proclamation, written un- 

 der the shade of the Pyramids, by a member of the Institute, 

 and General-in-Chief of the Army of the East ; nor to the 

 treaties of peace, in which the monuments of art and of 

 science were the ransom-price of the vanquished ; nor to the 

 high esteem in which the General, now become Emperor, ever 

 held Lagrange, Laplace, Monge, and Berthollet, and the riches 

 and honours with which he loaded them. An anecdote which 

 is little known, will conduct us more directly to the point. 



Most people know something of the decennial prizes. The 

 four classes of the Institute had drawn up rapid analyses of 

 the progress of science, literatm-e, and the arts ; and the Pre- 

 sidents and Secretaries were to be called upon to read these 

 documents to Napoleon, before the Dignitaries of the Empire 

 and the Council of State. The 27th of February 1808 was the 

 day appointed for the assembling of the Academie Francaise ; 

 and, as may be supposed, the meeting was more numerous than 

 usual, for who does not suppose himself a sufficient judge in 

 matters of taste ? M. Chenier was the appointed orator. He 

 was listened to with religious silence ; but on a sudden the 

 Emperor interrupted him, and with his hand upon his heart, 

 and his body inclined, his voice trembling with manifest emo- 

 tion, he exclaimed, " This is too much gentlemen, too much ; 

 you overwhelm me ; I cannot find words to express my gra- 

 titude ?" 



I will leave it to yourselves to conceive the deep surprise of 



