It was only occasionally that the real character of Fourier, the French
philosopher, showed itself. "It is strange," said, one day, a certain
very influential person belonging to the court of Charles X., whom the
servant, Joseph, would not allow to get further than Fourier's
ante-chamber--"it is really strange that your master should be more
difficult of access than a minister." Fourier, overhearing this remark,
jumped out of bed, to which he had been confined by indisposition,
opened the room door, and facing the courtier, exclaimed, "Joseph, tell
the gentleman, that if I were a minister, I should receive everybody,
because such would be my duty: as a private individual, I receive whom I
think fit, and when I think fit." The grandee, disconcerted by the
liveliness of the sally, did not answer a word. We must even suppose
that from that instant he determined to visit nobody but ministers, for
the simple _savant_ heard no more of him.
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