384 JOSEPH FOURIER. 
PART PLAYED BY FOURIER IN OUR REVOLUTION.— 
HIS ENTRANCE INTO THE CORPS OF PROFESSORS 
OF THE NORMAL SCHOOL AND THE POLYTECHNIC 
SCHOOL.—EXPEDITION TO EGYPT. 
We had just left Fourier at Paris, submitting to the 
Academy of Sciences the analytical memoir of which I 
have just given a general view. Upon his return to 
Auxerre, the young geometer found the town, the sur- 
rounding country, and even the school to which he be- 
longed, occupied intensely with the great questions rela- 
tive to the dignity of human nature, philosophy, and 
politics, which were then discussed by the orators of the 
different parties of the National Assembly. Fourier 
abandoned himself also to this movement of the human 
mind. He embraced with enthusiasm the principles of 
the Revolution, and he ardently associated himself with 
every thing grand, just, and generous which the popular 
impulse offered. His patriotism made him accept the 
most difficult missions. We may assert, that never, even 
when his life was at stake, did he truckle to the base, 
covetous, and sanguinary passions which displayed them- 
selves on all sides. 
A member of the popular society of Auxerre, Fourier 
exercised there an almost irresistible ascendency. One 
day—all Burgundy has preserved the remembrance of 
it—on the occasion of a levy of three hundred thousand 
men, he made the words honour, country, glory, ring so 
eloquently, he induced so many voluntary enrolments, 
that the ballot was not deemed necessary. At the com- 
mand of the orator the contingent assigned to the chief 
town of the Yonne formed in order, assembled together 
within the very enclosure of the Assembly, and marched 
