FRESNEL. 
PRELIMINARY NOTICE. 
Tue Biography of Fresnel, the first which I had to 
read, as Perpetual Secretary, at a public meeting of the 
Academy, gave rise to incidents which several historians 
of our Revolution of 1830 reported incorrectly. I thus 
feel myself bound to give the true version of the facts. 
On arriving at the Academy, July the 26th, 1830, I read 
in the Moniteur the famous ordinances.* I understood 
in an instant all the political consequences which these 
acts would bring in their train; I considered them as a 
national misfortune, and I at once resolved to take no 
part in the literary solemnity for which we had been con- 
voked. I announced my resolution in these lines, which 
were to be substituted for the prepared éloge :— 
“Gentlemen,—If you have read the Monitewr your 
thoughts must doubtless be impressed with a deep sad- 
ness, and you will not feel astonished that, for my part, 
I have not sufficient calmness of mind to be able to take 
part in this ceremony.” 
I committed the fault of communicating this resolution 
to several of my colleagues. From that moment difficul- 
* In allusion to the abrogation of the Charter by the ministers of 
Charles X. 
