CONVERSATIONAL POWERS. 439 
life in retirement and in the discharge of academic duties. 
To converse had become the half of his existence. Those 
who have been disposed to consider this the subject of 
just reproach, have no doubt forgotten that constant re- 
flection is no less imperiously forbidden to man than the 
abuse of physical powers. Repose, in every thing, re- 
cruits our frail machine ; but, Gentlemen, he who desires 
repose may not obtain it. Interrogate your own recol- 
lections and say, if, when you are pursuing a new truth, 
a walk, the intercourse of society, or even sleep, have 
the privilege of distracting you from the object of your 
thoughts? The extremely shattered state of Fourier’s 
health enjoined the most careful attention. After many 
attempts, he only found one means of escaping from the 
contentions of mind which exhausted him: this consisted 
in speaking aloud upon the events of his life; upon his 
scientific labours, which were either in course of being 
planned, or which were already terminated; upon the 
acts of injustice of which he had reason to complain. 
Every person must have remarked, how insignificant 
was the state which our gifted colleague assigned to those 
who were in the habit of conversing with him; we are 
now acquainted with the cause of this. 
Fourier had preserved, in old age, the grace, the 
urbanity, the varied knowledge which, a quarter of a 
century previously, had imparted so great a charm to 
his lectures at the Polytechnic School. There was a 
pleasure in hearing him relate the anecdote which the 
listener already knew by heart, even the events in which 
the individual had taken a direct part. I happened to be 
a witness of the kind of fascination which he exercised 
upon his audience, in connection with an incident which 
deserves to be known, for it will prove that the word 
Which I have just employed is not in anywise exaggerated. 
