BIRTH OF FOURIER.—HIS YOUTH. 277 
from the route which destiny appeared to have traced 
out for him. In ordinary times it would be about Dom * 
Joseph Fourier that the secretary of the Academy 
would have deemed it his duty to have occupied your 
attention. It would be the tranquil, the retired life of a 
Benedictine which he would have unfolded to you. The 
life of our colleague, on the contrary, will be agitated 
and full of perils ; it will pass into the fierce contentions 
of the forum and amid the hazards of war; it will be a 
prey to all the anxieties which accompany a difficult 
administration. We shall find this life intimately asso- 
ciated with the great events of our age. Let us hasten 
to add, that it will be always worthy and honourable, 
and that the personal qualities of the man of science 
will enhance the brilliancy of his discoveries. 
BIRTH OF FOURIER.—HIS YOUTH. 
Fourier was born at Auxerre on the 21st of March, 
1768. His father, like that of the illustrious geometer 
Lambert, was a tailor. This circumstance would form- 
erly have occupied a large place in the éloge of our 
learned colleague; thanks to the progress of enlightened 
ideas, I may mention the circumstance as a fact of no 
importance: nobody, in effect, thinks in the present day, 
nobody even pretends to think, that genius is the privi- 
lege of rank or fortune. 
Fourier became an orphan at the age of eight years. 
A lady who had remarked the amiability of his manners 
and his precocious natural abilities, recommended him to 
the Bishop of Auxerre. Through the influence of this 
prelate, Fourier was admitted into the military school 
* An abbreviation of Dominus, equivalent to the English prefix 
Reverend.— Translator. 
