HE ADDRESSES THE ARMY. 401 
_ In effect, transport yourselves mentally back to the 
year 1789, and consider what would be the future pros- 
pects of the humble convert of St. Benoit-sur-Loire. 
No doubt a small share of literary glory; the favour of 
being heard occasionally in the churches of the metropo- 
lis; the satisfaction of being appointed to eulogize such 
or such a public personage. Well! nine years have 
hardly passed and you find him at the head of the Insti- 
tute of Egypt, and he is the oracle, the idol of a society 
which counted among its members Bonaparte, Berthol- 
let, Monge, Malus, Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, Conté, &e. ; 
and the generals rely upon him for overcoming appar- 
ently insurmountable difficulties, and the army of the 
East, itself so rich in adornments of all kinds, would 
desire no other interpreter when it is necessary to re- 
count the lofty deeds of the hero which it had just lost. 
It was upon the breach of a bastion which our troops 
had recently taken by assault, in sight of the most ma- 
jestic of rivers, of the magnificent valley which it ferti- 
lizes, of the frightful desert of Lybia, of the colossal 
pyramids of Gizeh; it was in presence of twenty 
populations of different origins which Cairo unites to- 
gether in its vast basin; in presence of the most valiant 
soldiers that had ever set foot on a land, wherein, how- 
ever, the names of Alexander and of Cesar still resound ; 
it was in the midst of every thing which could move the 
heart, excite the ideas, or exalt the imagination, that 
Fourier unfolded the noble life of Kléber. The orator 
was listened to with religious silence; but soon, address- 
ing himself with a gesture of his hand to the soldiers 
ranged in battle array before him, he exclaims: “ Ah! 
how many of you would have aspired to the honour of 
throwing yourselves between Kléber and his assassin! 
