EXAMINER IN THE ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE. 275 
eters had rendered to the Ecole Polytechnique. In the 
public courses, the pupils claim that the professors should 
be earnest, lucid, and methodical; but it is no concern 
of theirs to inquire whether other audiences in other 
establishments receive instruction from the same men. 
The sciences will not appear an idle superfluity ; and we 
may admit that Papin, in inventing the steam-engine ; 
Pascal, in pointing out the principle of the hydraulic 
press ; Lebon, in imagining lighting by gas; Berthollet, 
in inventing bleaching by chlorine ; Leblanc in teaching 
us to extract from sea-water the soda which. formerly had 
to be imported at high prices; have nobly paid to soci- 
ety the debt of science. 
If we ought to believe some persons, whose intentions 
I would rather commend than their enlightenment, I 
should have to enumerate a long series of prejudices, and 
should have to defend the author of so many beautiful 
discoveries, the originator of a new system of light- 
houses, the man of science whose name navigators will 
eternally bless, from the charge of having desired, by the 
union of two offices, to procure for himself an annual 
life-income of 12,000 francs, of which the greatest part 
would certainly have been devoted to the expenses of 
new researches. The defence of our colleague would, 
without doubt, be an easy task; but I may omit it; 
Fresnel did not obtain the employment he sought, and 
that from causes which I would willingly pass over in 
silence, if they were not such as to give me occasion for 
showing that men of letters,—whose character there 
have recently been attempts to dishonour, by represent- 
ing them as harpies rushing without rule or moderation 
to prey upon the public purse——know well how to 
renounce nobly the most desirable offices, even those 
