BIRTH OF FOURIER. HIS YOUTH. 277 



from the route which destiny appeared to have traced 

 out for him. In ordinary times it would be about Dom * 

 Joseph Fourier that the secretary of the Academy 

 would have deemed it his duty to have occupied your 

 attention. It would be the tranquil, the retired life of a 

 Benedictine which he would have unfolded to you. The 

 life of our colleague, on the contrary, will be agitated 

 and full of perils ; it will pass into the fierce contentions 

 of the forum and amid the hazards of war ; it will be a 

 prey to all the anxieties which accompany a difficult 

 administration. We shall find this life intimately asso- 

 ciated with the great events of our age. Let us hasten 

 to add, that it will be always worthy and honourable, 

 and that the personal qualities of the man of science 

 will enhance the brilliancy of his discoveries. 



BIRTH OF FOURIER. HIS YOUTH. 



Fourier was born at Anxerre on the 21st of March, 

 1768. His father, like that of the illustrious geometer 

 Lambert, was a tailor. This circumstance would form- 

 erly have occupied a large place in the eloge of our 

 learned colleague ; thanks to the progress of enlightened 

 ideas, I may mention the circumstance as a fact of no 

 importance : nobody, in effect, thinks in the present clay, 

 nobody even pretends to think, that genius is the privi- 

 lege of rank or fortune. 



Fourier became an orphan at the age of eight years. 

 A lady who had remarked the amiability of his manners 

 and his precocious natural abilities, recommended him to 

 the Bishop of Auxerre. Through the influence of this 

 prelate, Fourier was admitted into the military school 



* An abbreviation of Dominus, equivalent to the English prefix 

 Eeverend. Translator. 



