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 Lemontey, 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 eloges of Delambre, of Breguet, 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 



