One of the predecessors of Fourier, in the situation of perpetual secretary of the Academy of Sciences, deemed it his duty, on one occasion, to beg an excuse for having given a detailed account of certain researches of Leibnitz, which had not required great efforts of the intellect:  “We ought,” says he, “to be very much obliged to a man such as he is, when he condescends, for the public good, to do something which does not partake of genius!” I cannot conceive the ground of such scruples; in the present day, the sciences are regarded from too high a point of view, that we should hesitate in placing in the first rank of the labours with which they are adorned, those which diffuse comfort, health, and happiness amidst the working population.

In presence of a part of the Academy of Inscriptions, in an apartment wherein the name of hieroglyph has so often resounded, I cannot refrain from alluding to the service which Fourier rendered to science by retaining Champollion.  The young professor of history of the Faculty of Letters of Grenoble had just attained the twentieth year of his age.  Fate calls him to shoulder the musket.  Fourier exempts him by investing him with the title of pupil of the School of Oriental Languages which he had borne at Paris.  The Minister of War learns that the pupil formerly gave in his resignation; he denounces the fraud, and dispatches a peremptory order for his departure, which seems even to exclude all idea of remonstrance.  Fourier, however, is not discouraged; his intercessions are skilful and of a pressing nature; finally, he draws so animated a portrait of the precocious talent of his young friend, that he succeeds in wringing from the government an order of special exemption.  It was not easy, Gentlemen, to obtain such success.  At the same time, a conscript, a member of our Academy, succeeded in obtaining a revocation of his order for departure only by declaring that he would follow on foot, in the costume of the Institute, the contingent of the arrondissement of Paris in which he was classed.

MATHEMATICAL THEORY OF HEAT.

The administrative duties of the prefect of l’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 honoured me.