at the secretary of the Academy would have deemed it
his duty to have occupied your attention. It would be the tranquil, the
retired life of a Benedictine which he would have unfolded to you. The
life of our colleague, on the contrary, will be agitated and full of
perils; it will pass into the fierce contentions of the forum and amid
the hazards of war; it will be a prey to all the anxieties which
accompany a difficult administration. We shall find this life intimately
associated with the great events of our age. Let us hasten to add, that
it will be always worthy and honourable, and that the personal qualities
of the man of science will enhance the brilliancy of his discoveries.

FOOTNOTE:

[40] An abbreviation of Dominus, equivalent to the English prefix
Reverend.--_Translator_.

BIRTH OF FOURIER.--HIS YOUTH.

Fourier was born at Auxerre on the 21st of March, 1768. His father, like
that of the illustrious geometer Lambert, was a tailor. This
circumstance would formerly have occupied a large place in the _eloge_
of our learned colleague; thanks to the progress of enlightened ideas, I
may mention the circumstance as a fact of no importance: nobody, in
effect, thinks in the present day, nobody even pretends to think, that
genius is the privilege of rank or fortune.

Fourier became an orphan at the age of eight years. A lady who had
remarked the amiability of his manners and his precocious natural
abilities, recommended him to the Bishop of Auxerre. Through the
influence of this prelate, Fourier was admitted into the military school
which was conducted at that time by the Benedictines of the Convent of
St. Mark. There he prosecuted his literary studies with surprising
rapidity and success. Many sermons very much applauded at Paris in the
mouth of high dignitaries of the Church were emanations from the pen of
the schoolboy of twelve years of age. It would be impossible in the
present day to trace those first compositions of the youth Fourier,
since, while divulging the plagiarism, he had the discretion never to
name those who profited by it.

At thirteen years Fourier had the petulance, the noisy vivacity of most
young people of the same age; but his character changed all at once, and
as if by enchantment, as soon as he was initiated in the first
principles of mathematics, that is to say, as soon as he became sensible
of his real vocation. The hours prescribed for study no longer sufficed
to gratify his insati