Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/322

Rh 302 A E A G that lie was entrusted with the discharge of two most important functions, that had never before been united in one person, viz., the Ministry of War and of Marine. Energetically and faithfully the philosopher of forty years standing applied himself to his new duties ; and however ignominious may have been the ultimate failure of the Provisional Government, there can be little question that Arago struggled honestly in the cause of social liberty and improvement. While Minister of Marine he effected some salutary reforms, such as the improvement of rations in the navy and the abolition of flogging; he abolished political oaths of all kinds, and, against an array of monied interests, he succeeded in procuring the abolition of negro slavery in the colonies. During the insurrection of June, Arago s courage was conspicuously! displayed in his entreaties to the mob to stop their murderous outrages. For the first time in his life Arago failed, and he himself narrowly escaped with his life. With his mental and physical energies shattered by fatigue and disappointment, he terminated here his active political career, though he continued to the last to take an interest in the affairs of his country, and to watch for the dawn of a brighter future. Failing eye and trembling hand could now be of little use in the service of science ; but warned by the disease (diabetes) that had attacked him, he determined to occupy his few remaining years in preparing for the press some MSS. of original researches which his political duties had prevented his communicating to the Institute. In the beginning of May 1852 proclamation was made that the oath of allegiance to the Government of Louis Napoleon would be required from all its functionaries, including the Board of Longitude. Arago peremptorily refused, choosing to sacrifice his office and home of nearly half a century rather than violate the dictates of his con science, which he would be doing if he complied, seeing that, as a member of the Provisional Government of 1848, he con tributed to the abolition of all political oaths. In a letter to the Minister of Public Instruction, he intimated his resigna tion of his post as astronomer at the Bureau de Longitude, at the same time stating the services he had rendered to his country in the cause of science, and the grief which this separation from the scene of his labours of so many years would impose. To the credit of the Prince President, he respected the sentiments so boldly declared by the half- blind old philosopher, and made &quot; an exception in favour of a savant whose works had thrown lustre on France, and whose existence his Government would regret to embitter.&quot; The tenure of office thus granted did not prove of long duration. Arago was now on his death-bed, under a complication of diseases, induced, no doubt, by the hard ships and labours of his earlier years. In the summer of 1853 he was advised by his physicians to try the effect of his native air, and he accordingly set out for the Eastern Pyrenees, accompanied by his affectionate niece, Madame Langier. But the change was unavailing, and he returned to Paris to die. After a lingering illness, in which he. suffered first from diabetes, then from Bright s disease, and lastly from dropsy, he breathed his last on the 2d Oct. 1853, at the age of 67. The day before his death he had been visited by Lord Brougham, his old and intimate friend, and the interview had excited him much. M. Biot also had an interview with him only three hours before his death. Arago said to his veteran colleague and collaborates; &quot;I intend to resign my situation of per petual secretary to the Academy, since I can no longer discharge its duties.&quot; Biot s reply must have smoothed the pillow of the dying savant, &quot; If you do, we will all come to you in a body to bring it back to you, and reproach you for your ingratitude.&quot; A public funeral was, with good taste, decreed to Arago by the emperor, notwithstanding his refused allegiance to the Imperial Government, and it took place on the 5th Oct. with all the pomp and parade of an Imperial act. A beautiful and eloquent eulogy was pronounced over his tomb by the distinguished M. Flourens, who succeeded him as per petual secretary of the Academy, while M. Barral per formed the duty entrusted to him by the young philo sophers of the public schools of the metropolis of giving utterance to their last adieu. Thus closed perhaps the most singular career in the annals of science. Of Arago s moral character it is difficult to form a true estimate, extolled as it is on the one side by his countrymen, and too severely criticised as it often is on the other side by British writers. Allowance must be made for the Spanish blood that flowed in his veins. The ardour of his temperament, his quick and far darting intellect, the powerful love of country which his youthful vicissitudes had only inten sified, all combined to produce a consciousness of power, which, in the Academy of Sciences or in the management of the Observatory, might stamp his bearing as dictatorial, and which, in questions of national priority of invention, might render his judgment partial. With the imperious- ness, perhaps, of a powerful intellect, Arago was free from that selfishness that has so often been exhibited by men who have enjoyed such high offices of trust during times of national disorder. He cared for money only as it supplied the wants of his experimental researches and the means of educating his family; he lived a simple and a frugal life; his income never exceeded 500 a year; and, refusing to accept any reward for his four months services as Minister of Marine, he sacrificed fortune for the sake of his country and of science. From he personal history of Arago we turn to his literary and scientific labours and discoveries. It has been already shown that, as editor of the Annuaire or Almanac of the Board of Longitude, he commenced, in 1822, a series of regular contributions of scientific articles to that Annual, remarkable for their lucidity of style, united with mathematical accuracy of detail; that, as perpetual secretary of the Academy of Sciences, his eloges alone would have secured him lasting reputation ; and that, as director of the Observatory, he rapidly restored its efficiency and completely remodelled it. He has, indeed, been often accused of doing little or nothing for the practical advancement of astronomy; and of shrinking from the steady and regular drudgery of observation as too tame to be congenial to his versatile mind. To reproach a man who has done much, because he has not done more, or because he has riot followed in the beaten track, is, to say the least, far from generous criticism. His applications of physics to astro nomical research such as to his photometric measurements of lunar and stellar brightness, of the polar snows of Mars, and of the belts of Jupiter and Saturn, to the structure of the sun as revealed by his spots, to the effect of atmos pheric refraction on astronomical observations, to irradia tion and variable stars are surely in themselves not despicable contributions to the science. But apart alto gether from his labours in the Observatory, he has rendered vastly greater service to astronomy by his popular exposi tions of it than hundreds of the most assiduous observers put together. Few have had, in such a degree as he, the gift of reducing the abstract conceptions of pure science to the level of the popular apprehension without descending to the puerile and frivolous. In 1820, when the subject of steam boilers was attracting attention, Arago was employed by Government to execute,