442 JOSEPH FOURIER. 



if it did not teach us to conquer our passions ? It is not 

 that occasionally the natural disposition of Fourier did 

 not display itself in full relief. " It is strange," said one 

 day a certain very influential personage of the court of 

 Charles X., whom Fourier's servant would not allow to 

 pass beyond the antechamber of our colleague, " it is 

 truly strange that your master should be more difficult of 

 access than a minister ! " Fourier heard the conversa- 

 tion, leaped out of his bed to which he was confined by 

 indisposition, opened the door of the chamber, and ex- 

 claimed, face to face with the courtier : u Joseph, tell 

 Monsieur, that if I was minister, I should receive every- 

 body, because it would be my duty to do so ; but, being 

 a private individual, I receive whomsoever I please, and 

 at what hour soever I please ! " Disconcerted by the 

 liveliness of the retort, the great seignior did not utter 

 one word in reply. We must even believe that from 

 that moment he resolved not to visit any but ministers, 

 for the plain man of science heard nothing more of him. 

 Fourier was endowed with a constitution which held 

 forth a promise of long life ; but what can natural ad- 

 vantages avail against the anti-hygienic habits which 

 men arbitrarily acquire ! In order to guard against 

 slight attacks of rheumatism, our colleague was in the 

 habit of clothing himself, even in the hottest season of 

 the year, after a fashion which is not practised even by 

 travellers condemned to spend the winter amid the snows 

 of the polar regions. " One would suppose me to be 

 corpulent," he used to say occasionally with a smile ; 

 " be assured, however, that there is much to deduct from 

 this opinion. If, after the example of the Egyptian 

 mummies, I was subjected to the operation of disem- 

 bowehnent, from which heaven preserve me, the resi- 

 due would be found to be a very slender body." I might 



