FOURIER APPOINTED PREFECT OF L’ISERE. 407 
I cannot conceive the ground of such scruples; in the 
present day, the sciences are regarded from too high a 
point of view, that we should hesitate in placing in the 
first rank of the labours with which they are adorned, 
those which diffuse comfort, health, and happiness amidst 
the working population. 
In presence of a part of the Academy of Inscriptions, 
in an apartment wherein the name of hieroglyph has so 
often resounded, I cannot refrain from alluding to the 
service which Fourier rendered to science by retaining 
Champollion. The young professor of history of the 
Faculty of Letters of Grenoble had just attained the 
twentieth year of his age. Fate calls him to shoulder 
the musket. Fourier exempts him by investing him 
with the title of pupil of the School of Oriental Lan- 
guages which he had borne at Paris. The Minister of 
War learns that the pupil formerly gave in his resigna- 
tion ; he denounces the fraud, and dispatches a peremp- 
tory order for his departure, which seems even to 
exclude all idea of remonstrance. Fourier, however, is © 
not discouraged ; his intercessions are skilful and of a 
pressing nature ; finally, he draws so animated a portrait 
of the precocious talent of Ais young friend, that he suc- 
ceeds in wringing from the government an order of special 
exemption. It was not easy, Gentlemen, to obtain such 
success. At the same time, a conscript, a member of our 
Academy, succeeded in obtaining a revocation of his 
order for departure only by declaring that he would fol- 
low on foot, in the costume of the Institute, the contin- 
gent of the arrondissement of Paris in which he was 
classed. 
