1820.] Royal Academy of Sciences. 61 



reason would have prescribed As he was the father of his 



pupils in the school, so he was in camp the father of the 

 soldier." 



" In traversing Italy to collect the statues and pictures that 

 had been ceded to France, Monge was struck with the singular 

 contrast between the Grecian monuments of the arts and those 

 of the Egyptians, transported by Augustus and his successors to 

 the shores of the Tiber. The comparative characters of the 

 ancient monuments were the frequent subject of conversation 

 between the conqueror of Italy and the commissary who collected 

 ■for his country the most precious fruits of victory. Monge con- 

 ceived the idea of extending the domain of history beyond the 

 fabulous ages of Greece ; of learning with the certainty of a 

 ■areometer what were the labours of the ancient sages of the East; 

 of discovering afresh, by the contemplation of their monuments, 

 what had been the processes of their arts, the usages of their 

 public hfe, the order and the majesty of their feasts, and of their 

 ceremonies." 



" Monge, charged by the General in Chief to carry to the 

 Directory the treaty of Campo Formio, was a short time after- 

 wards placed in the first rank of the literary men who composed 

 the Commission of Sciences and Arts which were to accompany 

 the expedition to Egypt. He was the first that was appointed 

 President of the Institute of Egypt formed on the model of the 

 French Institute. He visited the pyramids twice, he saw the 

 'Obelisk and the grand ruins of Heliopolis, he studied the remains 

 of antiquity scattered round Cairo and Alexandria. It was dur- 

 ing a tedious march in the middle of the desert that he discovered 

 the cause of that wonderful phenomenon known by the name of 

 rnirnge. At the time of the revolt of Cairo, there were in the 

 city only a few detachments of the troops. The palace of the 

 Institute was guarded by the members themselves ; and it was 

 proposed to sally out and join the main guard ; but Monge and 

 Berthollet, considering that the palace contained the books, 

 manuscripts, plans, and antiquities, which were the fruits of the 

 expedition, maintained that it was the duty of the members to 

 guard this precious deposit, and that they ought to defend that 

 treasure at the hazard of their lives." 



" Monge presided in the Commission of the Sciences and the 

 Arts in Egypt ; he contributed by his councils to form that wise 

 plan, and by arranging and proportioning the various parts endea- 

 voured to execute it in the utmost perfection." 



" Monge had an inimitable method of exposing the most 

 abstract truths, and of rendering them plain by the language of 

 action. Nevertheless it was only by combating with nature that 

 he was able to become an excellent professor : he spoke with 

 difficulty, and almost stammered ; the prosody of his discourse 

 ■was vicious, for he lengthened some syllables falsely, and short- 

 ened others. His physiognomy, naturally calm, exhibited the 



