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 honoured 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 example, 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 delight 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 movements 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 is the sole inventor of the steam-engine.
Chaptal has enriched the arts of Chemistry with the totality of the
fertile and ingenious processes which constitute their prosperity. Even
within this apartment has not an eloquent voice lately asserted, that
before Fourier the phenomenon of heat was hardly studied; that the
celebrated geometer had alone made more observations than all his
predecessors put together; that he had with almost a single effort
invented a new science.

Although he runs the risk of being less lively, the organ of the Academy
of Sciences cannot permit himself such bursts of enthusiasm. He ought to
bear in mind, that the object of these solemnities is not merely to
celebrate the discoveries of academicians; that they are also designed
to encourage modest merit; that an observer forgotten by his
contemporaries, is frequently supported in his laborious researches by
the thought that he will obtain a benevolent look from posterity. Let us
act, so far as it depends upon us, in such a manner that a hope so just,
so natural, may not be frustrated. Let us award a just, a brilliant
homage to those rare