478 HISTORY OF OPTICS. 



Almanac subjected him to much minute labour, 

 and many petulant attacks of pamphleteers. On 

 the other hand, he had a leading part in the dis- 

 covery of the long-sought key to the Egyptian hie- 

 roglyphics ; and thus the age which was marked by 

 two great discoveries, one in science and one in 

 literature, owed them both in a great measure 

 to him. Dr. Young died in 1829, when he had 

 scarcely completed his fifty-sixth year. Fresnel 

 was snatched from science still more prematurely, 

 dying, in 1827, at the early age of thirty-nine. 



We need not say that both these great philoso- 

 phers possessed, in an eminent degree, the leading 

 characteristics of the discoverer's mind, perfect 

 clearness of view, rich fertility of invention, and 

 intense love of knowledge. We cannot read with- 

 out great interest a letter of Fresnel to Young 11 , in 

 November, 1824: "For a long time that sensibility, 

 or that vanity, which people call love of glory, is 

 much blunted in me. I labour much less to catch 

 the suffrages of the public, than to obtain an in- 

 ward approval which has always been the sweetest 

 reward of my efforts. Without doubt I have often 

 wanted the spur of vanity to excite me to pursue 

 my researches in moments of disgust and discou- 

 ragement. But all the compliments which I have 



11 I am able to give this, and some other extracts, from the 

 unedited correspondence of Young and Fresnel, by the kindness 

 of (the Dean of Ely) Professor Peacock, of Trinity College, Cam- 

 bridge, who is preparing for the press a Life of Dr. Young. 



