72 CARNOT. 



Pierre, Fontenelle had already, by a courageous stroke, 

 protested against the powers attempting to confound that 

 which the interests of science, of literature, and of art 

 bid us keep for ever apart. If, in the year V. of the 

 Republic, fifty-three voters had had the manliness to 

 imitate Fontenelle, the Institute would not have suffered 

 such cruel mutilations at the Restoration ; deprived of 

 the support afforded by unfortunate precedents, certainly 

 not many ministers would have entertained the unpar- 

 donable thought of creating an Academy of Sciences at 

 Paris without Monge, an Academy of Fine Arts with- 

 out David ! 



You are surprised, no doubt, that I have not yet 

 informed you of the name of the person who succeeded 

 Carnot in the first class of the Institute ; well, Gentle- 

 men, it is because I have refrained, as much as possible, 

 from performing a painful duty. When it proceeded to 

 elect a successor to one of its founders, to one of its 

 most illustrious members, the Institute obeyed, at least, 

 an established law proceeding from the powers of the 

 State ; but is there, I ask you, any consideration in the 

 world that should induce a man to accept the academic 

 spoils of a learned victim of party rage, and especially 

 so, when that man is General Bonaparte ? Like all of 

 you, Gentlemen, I have often indulged in a just feeling 

 of pride, on seeing the admirable proclamations of the 

 army of the East, signed : MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE, 

 General-in-Chief; but a heart-grief followed the first 

 sensation, when it occurred to my mind, that the Member 

 of the Institute had arrayed himself with a title which 

 had been torn from his first patron and friend. 



I have never thought, Gentlemen, that it was useful 

 to create beings of ideal perfection, at the expense of 



