436 JOSEPH FOURIER. 



directed works of such an expensive nature ; who, in the 

 affair of the marshes of Bourgoin, had to contract en- 

 gagements for so many millions, with private individuals, 

 with the communes and with public companies, had not 

 twenty thousand francs in his possession. This honour- 

 able poverty, as well as the recollection of glorious and 

 important services, was little calculated to make an im- 

 pression upon ministers influenced by political passion, 

 and subject to the capricious interference of foreigners. 

 A demand for a pension was accordingly repelled with 

 rudeness. Be reassured, however, France will not have 

 to blush for having left in poverty one of her principal 

 ornaments. The Prefect of Paris, I have committed a 

 mistake, Gentlemen, a proper name will not be out of 

 place here, M. Chabrol, learns that his old professor at 

 the Polytechnic School, that the Perpetual Secretary of 

 the Institute of Egypt, that the author of the T/ieorie 

 Analytique de la Chaleur, was reduced, in order to obtain 

 the means of living, to give private lessons at the resi- 

 dences of his pupils. The idea of this revolts him. He 

 accordingly shows himself deaf to the clamours of party, 

 and Fourier receives from him the superior direction of 

 the Bureau de la Statistique of the Seine, with a salary 

 of 6,000 francs. It has appeared to me, Gentlemen, that 

 I ought not to suppress these details. Science may show 

 herself grateful towards all those who give her support 

 and protection, when there is some danger in doing so, 

 without fearing that the burden should ever become too 

 heavy. 



Fourier responded worthily to the confidence reposed 

 in him by M. de Chabrol. The memoirs with which he 

 enriched the interesting volumes published by the Pre- 

 fecture of the Seine, will serve henceforth as a guide to 

 all those who have the good sense to see in statistics, 



