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, was 
anxious to create new resources. The situation, so very 
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