82 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FRANCIS ARAGO. 



always flew on before them. After all, his plan made 

 them fall off, and soon after brought on their death." 



Delambre, Legendre, Biot, insisted on the devotion, 

 and what they termed the courage, with which I had 

 combated arduous difficulties, whether in carrying on the 

 observations, or in saving the instruments and the results 

 already obtained. They drew an animated picture of the 

 dangers I had undergone. M. de Laplace ended by 

 yielding when he saw that all the most eminent men of 

 the Academy had taken me under their patronage, and 

 on the day of the election he gave me his vote. It would 

 be, I must own, a subject of regret with me even to this 

 day, after a lapse of forty-two years, if I had become 

 member of the Institute without having obtained the vote 

 of the author of the Mecanique Celeste. 



The Members of the Institute were always presented 

 to the Emperor after he had confirmed their nominations. 

 On the appointed day, in company with the presidents, 

 with the secretaries of the four classes, and with the 

 academicians who had special publications to offer to the 

 Chief of the State, they assembled in one of the saloons 

 of the Tuileries. When the Emperor returned from 

 mass, he held a kind of review of these savans, these 

 artists, these literary men, in green uniform. 



I must own that the spectacle which I witnessed on 

 the day of my presentation did not edify me. I even ex- 

 perienced real displeasure in seeing the anxiety evinced 

 by members of the Institute to be noticed. 



" You are very young," said Napoleon to me on coming 

 near me ; and without waiting for a flattering reply, 

 which it would not have been difficult to find, he added, 

 . " What is your name ? " And my neighbour on the 



