Biographies of Distinguished Scientific Men Part 34

Restored at length, after so many vicissitudes, to his favourite pursuits, Fourier pa.s.sed the last years of his life in retirement and in the discharge of academic duties. _To converse_ had become the half of his existence. Those who have been disposed to consider this the subject of just reproach, have no doubt forgotten that constant reflection is no less imperiously forbidden to man than the abuse of physical powers. Repose, in every thing, recruits our frail machine; but, Gentlemen, he who desires repose may not obtain it. Interrogate your own recollections and say, if, when you are pursuing a new truth, a walk, the intercourse of society, or even sleep, have the privilege of distracting you from the object of your thoughts? The extremely shattered state of Fourier's health enjoined the most careful attention.

After many attempts, he only found one means of escaping from the contentions of mind which exhausted him: this consisted in speaking aloud upon the events of his life; upon his scientific labours, which were either in course of being planned, or which were already terminated; upon the acts of injustice of which he had reason to complain. Every person must have remarked, how insignificant was the state which our gifted colleague a.s.signed to those who were in the habit of conversing with him; we are now acquainted with the cause of this.

Fourier had preserved, in old age, the grace, the urbanity, the varied knowledge which, a quarter of a century previously, had imparted so great a charm to his lectures at the Polytechnic School. There was a pleasure in hearing him relate the anecdote which the listener already knew by heart, even the events in which the individual had taken a direct part. I happened to be a witness of the kind of _fascination_ which he exercised upon his audience, in connection with an incident which deserves to be known, for it will prove that the word which I have just employed is not in anywise exaggerated.

We found ourselves seated at the same table. The guest from whom I separated him was an old officer. Our colleague was informed of this, and the question, "Have you been in Egypt?" served as the commencement of a conversation between them. The reply was in the affirmative.

Fourier hastened to add: "As regards myself, I remained in that magnificent country until the period of its complete evacuation.

Although foreign to the profession of arms, I have, in the midst of our soldiers, fired against the insurgents of Cairo; I have had the honour of hearing the cannon of Heliopolis." Hence to give an account of the battle was but a step. This step was soon made, and we were presented with four battalions drawn up in squares in the plain of Quoubbeh, and manoeuvring, with admirable precision, conformably to the orders of the ill.u.s.trious geometer. My neighbour, with attentive ear, with immovable eyes, and with outstretched neck, listened to this recital with the liveliest interest. He did not lose a single syllable of it: one would have sworn that he had for the first time heard of those memorable events. Gentlemen, it is so delightful a task to please! After having remarked the effect which he produced, Fourier reverted, with still greater detail, to the princ.i.p.al fight of those great days: to the capture of the fortified village of Mattaryeh, to the pa.s.sage of two feeble columns of French grenadiers across ditches heaped up with the dead and wounded of the Ottoman army. "Generals ancient and modern, have sometimes spoken of similar deeds of prowess," exclaimed our colleague, "but it was in the hyperbolic style of the bulletin: here the fact is materially true,--it is true like geometry. I feel conscious, however,"

added he, "that in order to induce your belief in it, all my a.s.surances will not be more than sufficient."

"Do not be anxious upon this point," replied the officer, who at that moment seemed to awaken from a long dream. "In case of necessity, I might guarantee the accuracy of your statement. It was I who, at the head of the grenadiers of the 13th and 85th semi-brigades, forced the entrenchments of Mattaryeh, by pa.s.sing over the dead bodies of the Janissaries!"

My neighbour was General Tarayre: you may imagine much better than I can express, the effect of the few words which had just escaped from him.

Fourier made a thousand excuses, while I reflected upon the seductive influence, upon the power of language, which for more than half an hour had robbed the celebrated general even of the recollection of the part which he had played in the battle of giants he was listening to.

The more our secretary had occasion to converse, the greater repugnance he experienced to verbal discussions. Fourier cut short every debate as soon as there presented itself a somewhat marked difference of opinion, only to resume afterwards the same subject upon the modest pretext of making a small step in advance each time. Some one asked Fontaine, a celebrated geometer of this Academy, how he occupied his thoughts in society, wherein he maintained an almost absolute silence: "I observe,"

he replied, "the vanity of mankind, to wound it as occasion offers." If, like his predecessor, Fourier also studied the baser pa.s.sions which contend for honours, riches, and power, it was not in order to engage in hostilities with them: resolved never to compromise matters with them, he yet so calculated his movements beforehand, as not to find himself in their way. We perceive a wide difference between this disposition and the ardent impetuous character of the young orator of the popular society of Auxerre. But what purpose would philosophy serve, if it did not teach us to conquer our pa.s.sions? It is not that occasionally the natural disposition of Fourier did not display itself in full relief.

"It is strange," said one day a certain very influential personage of the court of Charles X., whom Fourier's servant would not allow to pa.s.s beyond the antechamber of our colleague,--"it is truly strange that your master should be more difficult of access than a minister!" Fourier heard the conversation, leaped out of his bed to which he was confined by indisposition, opened the door of the chamber, and exclaimed, face to face with the courtier: "Joseph, tell Monsieur, that if I was minister, I should receive everybody, because it would be my duty to do so; but, being a private individual, I receive whomsoever I please, and at what hour soever I please!" Disconcerted by the liveliness of the retort, the great seignior did not utter one word in reply. We must even believe that from that moment he resolved not to visit any but ministers, for the plain man of science heard nothing more of him.

Fourier was endowed with a const.i.tution which held forth a promise of long life; but what can natural advantages avail against the anti-hygienic habits which men arbitrarily acquire! In order to guard against slight attacks of rheumatism, our colleague was in the habit of clothing himself, even in the hottest season of the year, after a fashion which is not practised even by travellers condemned to spend the winter amid the snows of the polar regions. "One would suppose me to be corpulent," he used to say occasionally with a smile; "be a.s.sured, however, that there is much to deduct from this opinion. If, after the example of the Egyptian mummies, I was subjected to the operation of disembowelment,--from which heaven preserve me,--the residue would be found to be a very slender body." I might add, selecting also my comparison from the banks of the Nile, that in the apartments of Fourier, which were always of small extent, and intensely heated even in summer, the currents of air to which one was exposed resembled sometimes the terrible simoon, that burning wind of the desert, which the caravans dread as much as the plague.

The prescriptions of medicine which, in the mouth of M. Larrey, were blended with the anxieties of a long and constant friendship, failed to induce a modification of of this mortal regime. Fourier had already experienced, in Egypt and Gren.o.ble, some attacks of aneurism of the heart. At Paris, it was impossible to be mistaken with respect to the primary cause of the frequent suffocations which he experienced. A fall, however, which he sustained on the 4th of May, 1830, while descending a flight of stairs, aggravated the malady to an extent beyond what could have been ever feared. Our colleague, notwithstanding pressing solicitations, persisted in refusing to combat the most threatening symptoms, except by the aid of patience and a high temperature. On the 16th of May, 1830, about four o'clock in the evening, Fourier experienced in his study a violent crisis the serious nature of which he was far from being sensible of; for, having thrown himself completely dressed upon his bed, he requested M. Pet.i.t, a young doctor of his acquaintance who carefully attended him, not to go far away, in order, said he, that we may presently converse together. But to these words succeeded soon the cries, "Quick, quick! some vinegar! I am fainting!"

and one of the men of science who has shed the brightest l.u.s.tre upon the Academy had ceased to live.

Gentlemen, this cruel event is too recent, that I should recall here the grief which the Inst.i.tute experienced upon losing one of its most important members; and those obsequies, on the occasion of which so many persons, usually divided by interests and opinions, united together, in one common feeling of admiration and regret, around the mortal remains of Fourier; and the Polytechnic School swelling in a ma.s.s the cortege, in order to render homage to one of its earliest, of its most celebrated professors; and the words which, on the brink of the tomb, depicted so eloquently the profound mathematician, the elegant writer, the upright administrator, the good citizen, the devoted friend. We shall merely state that Fourier belonged to all the great learned societies of the world, that they united with the most touching unanimity in the mourning of the Academy, in the mourning of all France: a striking testimony that the republic of letters is no longer, in the present day, merely a vain name! What, then, was wanting to the memory of our colleague? A more able successor than I have been to exhibit in full relief the different phases of a life so varied, so laborious, so gloriously interlaced with the greatest events of the most memorable epochs of our history.

Fortunately, the scientific discoveries of the ill.u.s.trious secretary had nothing to dread from the incompetency of the panegyrist. My object will have been completely attained if, notwithstanding the imperfection of my sketches, each of you will have learned that the progress of general physics, of terrestrial physics, and of geology, will daily multiply the fertile applications of the _Theorie a.n.a.lytique de la Chaleur_, and that this work will transmit the name of Fourier down to the remotest posterity.

THE END.

BOSTON, 135 WASHINGTON STREET JANUARY, 1859.

A LIST OF BOOKS

published by

TICKNOR AND FIELDS.

Sir Walter Scott.

The paper is of fine quality; the stereotype plates are not old ones repaired, the type having been cast expressly for this edition. The Novels are ill.u.s.trated with capital steel plates engraved in the best manner, after drawings and paintings by the most eminent artists, among whom are Birket Foster, Darley, Billings, Landseer, Harvey, and Faed.

This Edition contains all the latest notes and corrections of the author, a Glossary and Index; and some curious additions, especially in "Guy Mannering" and the "Bride of Lammermoor;" being the fullest edition of the Novels ever published. _The notes are at the foot of the page_,--a great convenience to the reader.

WAVERLEY, 2 vols.

GUY MANNERING, 2 vols.

THE ANTIQUARY, 2 vols.

ROB ROY, 2 vols.

OLD MORTALITY, 2 vols.

BLACK DWARF, ) LEGEND OF MONTROSE, ) 2 vols.

HEART OF MID LOTHIAN, 2 vols.

BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR, 2 vols.

IVANHOE, 2 vols.

THE MONASTERY, 2 vols.

THE ABBOT, 2 vols.

KENILWORTH, 2 vols.

THE PIRATE, 2 vols.

THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL, 2 vols.

PEVERIL OF THE PEAK, 2 vols.

QUENTIN DURWARD, 2 Vols.

ST. RONAN'S WELL, 2 vols.

REDGAUNTLET, 2 vols.

THE BETROTHED, ) THE HIGHLAND WIDOW, ) 2 vols.

THE TALISMAN, ) TWO DROVERS, ) MY AUNT MARGARET'S MIRROR, ) 2 vols.

THE TAPESTRIED CHAMBER, ) THE LAIRD'S JOCK, ) WOODSTOCK, 2 vols.

THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH, 2 vols.

ANNE OF GEIERSTEIN, 2 vols.

COUNT ROBERT OF PARIS, 2 vols.

THE SURGEON'S DAUGHTER, ) CASTLE DANGEROUS, ) 2 vols.

INDEX AND GLOSSARY. )