438 JOSEPH FOURIER. 
servedly applauded the happy choice which you made of 
the learned geometer to replace Delambre as perpetual 
secretary. They even went so far as to offer him the 
Directorship of the Fine Arts; but our colleague had 
the good sense to refuse the appointment. 
Upon the death of Lémontey, the French Academy, 
where Laplace and Cuvier already represented the sci- 
ences, called also Fourier into its bosom. The literary 
titles of the most eloquent of the writers connected with 
the work on Egypt were incontestable ; they even were 
not contested, and still this nomination excited violent 
discussions in the journals, which profoundly grieved our 
colleague. And yet after all, was it not a fit subject for 
discussion, whether, these double nominations are of any 
real utility? Might it not be maintained, without incur- 
ring the reproach of paradox, that it extinguishes in youth 
an emulation which we are bound by every consideration 
to encourage? Besides, with double, triple, and quad- 
ruple academicians, what would eventually become of 
the justly boasted unity of the Institute? Without in- 
sisting further on these remarks, the justness of which 
you will admit if I mistake not, I hasten to repeat that 
the academic titles of Fourier did not form even the 
subject of a doubt. The applause which was lavished 
upon the eloquent éloges of Delambre, of Bréguet, of 
Charles, and of Herschel, would sufficiently evince that, 
if their author had not been already one of the most dis- 
tinguished members of the Academy of Sciences, the 
public would have invited him to assume a place among 
the judges of French literature. 
CHARACTER OF FOURIER.—HIS DEATH. 
Restored at length, after so many vicissitudes, to his 
favourite pursuits, Fourier passed the last years of his 
