ADMINISTRATIVE TALENTS OF FOURIER. 599 
the naturalist collected unknown plants, determined the 
geological constitution of the soil, occupied himself with 
troublesome dissections; that the antiquary measured 
the dimensions of edifices, that he attempted to take a 
faithful sketch of the fantastic images with which every 
thing was covered in that singular country,—from the 
smallest pieces of furniture, from the simple toys of chil- 
dren, to those prodigious palaces, to those immense fa- 
cades, beside which the vastest of modern constructions 
would hardly attract a look. 
The two learned commissions studied with scrupulous 
eare the magnificent temple of the ancient Tentyris, and 
especially the series of astronomical signs which have 
excited in our days such lively discussions ; the remark- 
able monuments of the mysterious and sacred Isle of 
Elephantine; the ruins of Thebes, with her hundred 
gates, before which (and yet they are nothing but ruins) 
our whole army halted, in a state of astonishment, to 
applaud. 
Fourier also presided in Upper Egypt over these 
memorable works, when the Commander-in-Chief sud- 
denly quitted Alexandria and returned to France with 
his principal friends. ‘Those persons then were very 
much mistaken who, upon not finding our colleague on 
board the frigate Mucron beside Monge and Berthollet, 
imagined that Bonaparte did not appreciate his eminent 
qualities. If Fourier was not a passenger, this arose 
from the circumstance of his having been a hundred 
leagues from the Mediterranean when the Muiron set 
sail. The explanation contains nothing striking, but it 
is true. In any case, the friendly feeling of Kléber to- 
wards the Secretary of the Institute of Egypt, the in- 
fluence which he justly granted to him on a multitude of 
