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DEATH OF FRESNEL. 279 
are in the inexhaustible range of science, a great number 
of questions of public utility, of which, perhaps, I might 
have had the happiness of finding the solution.” Fresnel 
was still in the country when the Royal Society of Lon- 
don charged me with the office of presenting to him the 
Rumford Medal. His powers, then almost exhausted, 
scarcely permitted him to cast a glance of his eye over 
this testimony, so rarely bestowed, of the estimation of 
that illustrious society. All his thoughts were directed 
towards his approaching end: all were concentrated on 
that object. “I thank you,” he said to me, in a feeble 
voice, “for having undertaken this mission. I guess how 
much it must have cost you, for you have perceived, is it 
not so? that the most beautiful crown is worth little when 
it is only to be deposited on the tomb of a friend!” 
Alas! these melancholy anticipations were not long in 
being accomplished. Eight days more had hardly elapsed 
when our country lost one of its most virtuous citizens ; 
the Academy one of its most illustrious members; and 
the scientific world, a genius of the highest order. 
Newton, on learning the premature death of Cotes, a 
young geometer whose first labours had led to great ex- 
pectations, pronounced those words, so simple, so expres- 
sive, that the history of science has treasured them up: 
“Tf Cotes had lived we should have known something !” 
From the mouth of Newton this short eulogy might pass 
without comment ; it belongs to genius to pronounce such 
sentences, and we shall always believe its word. For 
myself, Gentlemen, devoid of all such authority I have 
felt myself bound laboriously to go through so many de- 
tails, not to affirm, but to prove to you, that we know 
some things although Fresnel lived so short a time. 
