444 JOSEPH FOURIER. 



recall here the grief which the Institute experienced!! 

 upon losing one of its most important members ; anc 

 those obsequies, on the occasion of which so many per 

 sons, usually divided by interests and opinions, united 

 together, in one common feeling of admiration and regret 

 around the mortal remains of Fourier ; and the Poly 

 technic School swelling in a mass the cortege, in order! 



CJ Q / 



to render homage to one of its earliest, of its most cele-\ 

 brated professors ; and the words which, on the brink OL . 

 the tomb, depicted so eloquently the profound mathe- 

 matician, the elegant writer, the upright administrator, 

 the good citizen, the devoted friend. We shall merely) 

 state that Fourier belonged to all the great learned socie-r 

 ties of the world, that they united with the most touch- 

 ing unanimity in the mourning of the Academy, in the 

 mourning of all France : a striking testimony that tht 

 republic of letters is no longer, in the present day, merelj 

 a vain name ! What, then, was wanting to the memory- 

 of our colleague ? A more able successor than I have 

 been to exhibit in full relief the different phases of a life 

 so varied, so laborious, so gloriously interlaced with the 

 greatest events of the most memorable epochs of our; 

 history. Fortunately, the scientific discoveries of thO 

 illustrious secretary had nothing to dread from the in-' 

 competency of the panegyrist. My object will have bee# 

 completely attained if, notwithstanding the imperfection^ 

 of my sketches, each of you will have learned that the'' 

 progress of general physics, of terrestrial physics, and o's , 

 geology, will daily multiply the fertile applications of the?- 

 Theorie Analytique de la Chaleur, and that this wort; ' 

 will transmit the name of Fourier down to the remotest* 

 posterity. n 



THE END. 



