Lad, Oe —T es o 
ry <—_— bos 
274 FRESNEL, 
moderately remunerated, of temporary examiner of the 
pupils at the Ecole Polytechnique offered itself; Fresnel 
obtained it; but his friends were not slow to perceive 
that he had presumed too much on the powers of his 
constitution ; that the ardour with which he fulfilled his 
new duties and the anxieties he felt,—in fact unduly ex- 
aggerated,—in classing the candidates in the order of 
merit, seriously affected his health, already so precarious ; 
and yet, how could they advise a resignation, of which 
the inevitable result would be the abandonment of many 
glorious labours? Under these circumstances, one of 
the most desirable scientific offices, among all those of 
which the government has the disposal, that of examiner 
of the pupils in navigation, became vacant. This office 
requires only moderate labour. The annual journey 
which it involves was, in the eyes of his medical advisers, 
a reason why it should be more desirable that Fresnel 
should obtain it. He determined, therefore, to become a 
candidate ; as every one would believe, there is no im- 
propriety in asking for an employment, for which long 
studies peculiarly qualify a person, and which he could 
conscientiously fulfil. Literary men suppose that after 
undertaking toilsome labours they can, without reproach, 
aspire to the enjoyment in their old age of that inde- 
pendence which the most inconsiderable artisan in Paris 
is sure of obtaining one day, however slight may be his 
labours or inferior his rank. No one has ever main-. 
tained that there is not both propriety and advantage in 
every case in choosing the most worthy. The glory 
which such men as Lagrange, Laplace, Legendre, re- 
flected on the board of longitude and on the Academy, 
seemed to associate itself with the eminent services 
which, under other other titles, these illustrious geom- 
