274 FRESNEL. 



moderately remunerated, of temporary examiner of the 

 pupils at the Ecole Polytechnique offered itself; Fresnel 

 obtained it ; but his friends were not slow to perceive 

 that he had presumed too much on the powers of his 

 constitution ; that the ardour with which he fulfilled his 

 new duties and the anxieties he felt, in fact unduly ex 

 aggerated, in classing the candidates in the order of 

 merit, seriously affected his health, already so precarious ; 

 and yet, how could they advise a resignation, of which 

 the inevitable result would be the abandonment of many 

 glorious labours ? Under these circumstances, one of 

 the most desirable scientific offices, among all those of 

 which the government has the disposal, that of examiner 

 of the pupils in navigation, became vacant. This office 

 requires only moderate labour. The annual journey 

 which it involves was, in the eyes of his medical advisers, 

 a reason why it should be more desirable that Fresnel 

 should obtain it. He determined, therefore, to become a 

 candidate ; as every one would believe, there is no im 

 propriety in asking for an employment, for which long 

 studies peculiarly qualify a person, and which he could 

 conscientiously fulfil. Literary men suppose that after 

 undertaking toilsome labours they can, without reproach, 

 aspire to the enjoyment in their old age of that inde 

 pendence which the most inconsiderable artisan in Paris 

 is sure of obtaining one day, however slight may be his 

 labours or inferior his rank. No one has ever main 

 tained that there is not both propriety and advantage in 

 every case in choosing the most worthy. The glory 

 which such men as Lagrange, Laplace, Legendre, re 

 flected on the board of longitude and on the Academy, 

 seemed to associate itself with the eminent services 

 which, under other other titles, these illustrious geom- 



