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: MemMBER 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 
