APPOINTED TO THE CHAIR OF ANALYSIS. 85 



produce on the Emperor, himself a member of the Insti- 

 tute, and hastened, under fear of my threat, to confirm 

 the decision of General Lacuee. 



In the year 1809, I was chosen by the " conseil du 

 perfectionnement " of the Polytechnic School, to succeed 

 M. Monge, in his chair of Analysis applied to Geometry. 

 The circumstances attending that nomination have re- 

 mained a secret ; I seize the first opportunity which offers 

 itself to me to make them known. 



M. Monge took the trouble to come to me one day, at 

 the Observatory, to ask me to succeed him. I declined 

 this honour, because of a proposed journey which I was 

 going to make into Central Asia with M. de Humboldt. 

 " You will certainly not set off for some months to come," 

 said the illustrious geometer ; " you could, therefore, take 

 my place temporarily." " Your proposal," I replied, 

 " flatters me infinitely ; but I do not know whether I 

 ought to accept it. I have never read your great work 

 on partial differential equations ; I do not, therefore, feel 

 certain that I should be competent to give lessons to the 

 pupils of the Polytechnic School on such a difficult the- 

 ory." "Try," said he, "and you will find that that 

 theory is clearer than it is generally supposed to be." 

 Accordingly, I did try ; and M. Monge's opinion appeared 

 to me to be well founded. 



The public could not comprehend, at that time, how it 

 was that the benevolent M. Monge obstinately refused to 

 confide the delivery of his course to M. Binet, (a private 

 teacher under him,) whose zeal was well known. It is 

 this motive which I am going to reveal. 



There was then in the " Bois de Boulogne " a resi- 

 dence named the Grey House, where there assembled 

 round M. Coessin, the high-priest of a new religion, a 



