408 JOSEPH FOURIER. 



MATHEMATICAL THEORY OF HEAT. 



The administrative duties of the prefect of 1'Isere 

 hardly interrupted the labours of the geometer and the 

 man of letters. It is from Grenoble that the principal 

 writings of Fourier are dated ; it was at Grenoble that 

 he composed the Theorie Mathematique de la Chaleur, 

 which forms his principal title to the gratitude of the 

 scientific world. 



I am far from being unconscious of the difficulty of 

 analyzing that admirable work, and yet I shall attempt 

 to point out the successive steps which he has achieved 

 in the advancement of science. You will listen to me, 

 Gentlemen, with indulgence, notwithstanding several 

 minute details which I shall have to recount, since I 

 thereby fulfil the mission with which you have hon- 

 oured me. 



The ancients had a taste, let us say rather a passion, 

 for the marvellous, which caused them to forget, even 

 the sacred duties of gratitude. Observe them, for exam- 

 ple, grouping together the lofty deeds of a great number 

 of heroes, whose names they have not even deigned to 

 preserve, and investing the single personage of Hercules 

 with them. The lapse of ages has not rendered us 

 wiser in this respect. In our own time the public de- 

 light in blending fable with history. In every career of 

 life, in the pursuit of science especially, they enjoy a 

 pleasure in creating Herculeses. According to vulgar 

 opinion, there is no astronomical discovery which is not 

 due to Herschel. The theory of the planetary move- 

 ments is identified with the name of Laplace ; hardly 

 is a passing allusion made to the eminent labours of 

 D'Alembert, of Clairaut, of Euler, of Lagrange. Watt 



