EXAMINER IN THE ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE. 273 



any negligence will deprive these beautiful instruments 

 of any part of their power. Such inheritances of national 

 glory will surely never be allowed to suffer neglect. 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF FRESNEL. HIS DEATH. 



The numerous discoveries which I have just described 

 were all made in the short interval between 1815 and 1826, 

 without occasioning any neglect of the duties confided to 

 Fresnel, either as engineer of the pavements of Paris, or 

 as secretary of the commission of light-houses. But our 

 colleague, at the same time, entirely withdrew from the 

 temptations to idleness, which abound more in Paris than 

 any other city, and which those who yield themselves to 

 them call the duties of society, in order to appease their 

 consciences, and to explain to themselves how their time 

 is so ill employed. A life in the study, a life altogether 

 intellectual, however, was but ill suited to the frail con- 

 stitution of Fresnel. However, the anxious cares of his 

 estimable family were abundantly bestowed on him ; 

 the thoroughly contented disposition of this simple- 

 minded man, than whom no one ever better deserved 

 the title, reacted powerfully in preserving his health ; 

 and lastly, his extreme temperance led to the hope that 

 he might be long spared to the sciences. 



The emoluments of the two offices held by Fresnel, 

 that of engineer and academician, would have amply 

 sufficed for his moderate desires, if the craving for scien- 

 tific research had not been with him a second nature. 

 The construction and purchase of those delicate instru- 

 ments, without which, at the present day, we cannot pro- 

 duce any thing exact in physics, absorbed every year a 

 considerable part of his fortune. He, therefore, w^s 

 anxious to create new resources. The situation, so very 



