402 JOSEPH FOURIER. 



I call you to witness, intrepid cavalry, who rushed to 

 save him upon the heights of Koraim, and dispelled in 

 an instant the multitude of enemies who had surrounded 

 him ! &quot; At these words an electric tremor thrills through 

 out the whole army, the colours droop, the ranks close, 

 the arms come into collision, a deep sigh escapes from 

 some ten thousand breasts torn by the sabre and the 

 bullet, and the voice of the orator is drowned amid sobs. 



A few months after, upon the same bastion, before the 

 same soldiers, Fourier celebrated with no less eloquence 

 the exploits, the virtues of the general whom the people 

 conquered in Africa saluted with the name so flattering 

 of Just Sidtan ; and who sacrificed his life at Marengo 

 to secure the triumph of the French arms. 



Fourier quitted Egypt only with the last wreck of the 

 army, in virtue of the capitulation signed by Menou. 

 On his return to France, the object of his most constant 

 solicitude was to illustrate the memorable expedition of 

 which he had been one of the most active and most use 

 ful members. The idea of collecting together the varied 

 labours of all his colleagues incontestibly belongs to him. 

 I find the proof of this in a letter, still unpublished, 

 which he wrote to Kleber from Thebes, on the 20th 

 Vendemiaire, in the year VII. No public act, in which 

 mention is made of this great literary monument, is of an 

 earlier date. The Institute of Cairo having adopted the 

 project of a work upon Egypt as early as the month of 

 Frimaire, in the year VIII., confided to Fourier the 

 task of uniting together the scattered elements of it, of 

 making them consistent with each other, and drawing up 

 the general introduction. 



This introduction was published under the title of 

 Historical Preface : Fontanes saw in it the graces of 



