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ARAGO 301 which, in Arago s words, " lasted over forty years without a single cloud ever having troubled it." Through all the vicissitudes of this long campaign Arago had succeeded in preserving the records of his survey ; and his first act on his return home was to deposit them in the Bureau de Longitude at Paris. As a reward for his adventurous conduct in the cause of science, he was shortly afterwards (17th Sept. 1809) voted a member of the Academy of Sciences, in room of the deceased Lalande, at the remarkably early age of twenty-three, being, to the vexation of Laplace, elected by a large majority of votes over his friend Poisson. Before the close of the same year (1809) Arago was chosen by the council of the Polytechnic school to succeed M. Monge in the chair of analytical geo metry; and about the same time he was named by the emperor one of the astronomers of the Royal Observatory, which was accordingly his residence till his death. He was also made one of the examiners in connection with the Ecole d 1 Application for engineers and artillery at Metz. In all these situations he rapidly attained very great popu larity, gaining the esteem of his pupils by the charming clearness of his style in lecturing and the personal interest he showed in their progress. In 1816, along with Gay-Lussac, Arago commenced a monthly journal of science, the Annales de Chimie et de Physique, which soon acquired that high scientific reputa tion which it has always maintained. In the same year the two philosophers visited England, and made the per sonal acquaintance of some of the most eminent men of that country, meeting among others Dr Thomas Young, a memoir of whom was afterwards written by Arago. In 1818 or 1819, Arago proceeded along with Biot to execute, on the coasts of France, England, and Scotland, the geodetic operations which the Board of Longitude had directed. They also measured the length of the seconds pendulum at Leith, and in Unst, one of the Shetland isles ; the results of the observations being published in 1821, along with those made in Spain. He was elected a member of the Board of Longitude immediately afterwards, and proved a valuable addition to the society, contributing to each of its Annuals, for about twenty-two years, most important scientific notices on astronomy and meteorology, and occasionally on civil engineering, as well as interesting memoirs of members of the Academy. After his appointment to the Observatory, Arago had commenced, at the request of the Board of Longitude, a series of popular lectures on astronomy, which were con tinued from 1812 to 1845. His success as a lecturer was almost unparalleled, and can only be compared to that of Faraday. All ranks flocked to hear him, fascinated by his graceful eloquence and his crystalline clearness of explana tion. He used to remark, what many lecturers often forget, that " clearness is politeness in public speakers." His manner in lecturing is said to have been to fix his eye on some one of his audience, whose intellect had apparently the minimum of development, and to keep it fixed till the face should brighten up with intelligence. When Buonaparte s hopes of empire in Europe had begun to wane, and he was turning to America as a land of refuge, where he might still have scope for his ambition, he suggested to M. Monge that, with a scientific guide, he should explore the new continent from Canada to Cape Horn, study the great physical wonders of that territory, and leave behind him works and discoveries worthy of himself. Monge named Arago as the proper associate and assistant in the enterprise, and had even negotiated with Napoleon for a handsome allowance to be granted to Arago, and for a fund to be devoted to the purchase of a complete set of astronomical and physical instruments. But Arago would not for a moment entertain the proposal. He pointed the emperor to the march of the English and Prussian armies on his capital as a matter demanding more pressing consideration, and declined to leave the Old World to study science in the New, " when France might perhaps lose its independence and disappear from the map of Europe." Subsequent events prevented a renewal oi Napoleon s scientific negotiations and projects. After the Restoration Arago took no very prominent part in the politics of the day, though he at all times maintained with boldness and ardour liberal opinions of the extreme republican type. By the revolution of 1830, however, he was summoned from the studies of the obser vatory and the laboratory to the field of political strife in the Chamber of Deputies, and in the Municipal Council of Paris. Elected a member of the Chamber of Deputies for the Lower Seine, he employed his splendid gifts of elo quence and scientific knowledge in all questions connected with public education, the rewards of inventors, and the encouragement of the mechanical and practical sciences. Many of the most creditable national enterprises, dating from this period, are due to the advocacy of Arago such as the reward to Daguerre for his wonderful invention of photography, the grant for the publication of the works of Fermat and Laplace, the acquisition of the museum of Cluny (one of the sights of Paris), the development of railroads and electric telegraphs, the improvement of the- navigation of the Seine, and the boring of the Artesian wells at Grenelle. The year 1830 was a remarkable epoch in his life on account of several other offices to which he was appointed. He now received the chief direction of the Observatory, and from his position in the Chamber of Deputies he obtained grants of money for the rebuilding of part of the Observa tory and for the addition of magnificent instruments, which raised it to be a model, in place of a public disgrace, as it had been before. In the same year, too, his zeal in the cause of science was rewarded with the highest honour any philosopher might aspire to the perpetual secretaryship of the Academy of Sciences, in room of the distinguished Fourier. On the 7th June (1830) he was elected by 39 out of 44 votes. This appointment inspired new life into the Academy. Arago threw his whole soul into its service, and by his pleasing faculty of securing friendship and life long attachments, he gained at once for himself and for the Academy a world-wide reputation. As perpetual secre tary it fell to him to pronounce historical eloges on the decease of resident or foreign members of the Academy; and for this duty his rapidity and facility of thought, his happy piquancy of style, and his extensive knowledge peculiarly adapted him. Some of his 6loges are master pieces of elegant biography. When M. Flourens pronounced Arago s own funeral eulogy, he said, " In the eulogies of the eloquent secretary are found all the qualities of his spirit, d une verve brillante, de la vigueur, de Velan, un certain charme de bonJtomie." (Comptes Rendus de VAcademie, t. xxxvii. p. 513.) In 1834 Arago visited England for the second time, to attend the third meeting of the British Association, held that year in Edinburgh. From this time till the stirring events of 1848, Arago led a life of comparative quiet, not the qxiiet of inactivity, however, for his incessant labours within the Academy and the Observatory produced a multitude of contributions to all departments of physical science, which make him one of the most voluminous of authors in this subject. But the change came. Louis Philippe, having failed to satisfy the extreme republican party, and to grant them those social advantages that they imagined a republic alone could yield, was swept from his throne, and Arago left his laboratory to join in forming

an extempore government. His popularity was so great