406 JOSEPH FOURIER. 



advantage. He took personal cognizance of the projects 

 which were submitted to him ; he was the indefatigable 

 promoter of all those which narrow-minded persons 

 sought to stifle in their birth ; we may include in this 

 last class, the superb road from Grenoble to Turin by 

 Mount Genevre, which the events of 1814 have so 

 unfortunately interrupted, and especially the drainage of 

 the marshes of Bourgoin. 



These marshes, which Louis XIV. had given to Mar- 

 shal Turenne, were a focus of infection to the thirty- 

 seven communes, the lands of which were partially 

 covered by them. Fourier directed personally the topo- 

 graphic operations which established the possibility of 

 drainage. With these documents in his hand he went 

 from village to village, I might almost say from house 

 to house, to fix the sacrifice which each family ought 

 to impose upon itself for the general interest. By tact 

 and perseverance, taking " the ear of corn always in the 

 right direction, thirty-seven municipal councils were in- 

 duced to contribute to a common fund, without which the 

 projected operation would not even have been commenced. 

 Success crowned this rare perseverance. Rich harvests, 

 fat pastures, numerous flocks, a robust and happy popu- 

 lation now covered an immense territory, where formerly 

 the traveller dared not remain more than a few hours. 



One of the predecessors of Fourier, in the situation of 

 perpetual secretary of the Academy of Sciences, deemed 

 it his duty, on one occasion, to beg an excuse for having 

 given a detailed account of certain researches of Leib- 

 nitz, which had not required great efforts of the intellect: 

 " We ought," says he, " to be very much obliged to a 

 man such as he is, when he condescends, for the public 

 good, to do something which does not partake of genius ! " 



