M. Arago, in his brilliant _eloge_ on Fourier, observes:--"The ancients
had a taste, or rather a passion, for the marvellous, which made them
forget the sacred ties of gratitude. Look at them, for instance,
collecting into one single group the high deeds of a great number of
heroes, whose names they have not even deigned to preserve, and
attributing them all to Hercules. The lapse of centuries has not made us
wiser. The public in our time also delight in mingling fiction with
history. In all careers, particularly in that of the sciences, there is
a design to create Herculeses. According to the vulgar opinion, every
astronomical discovery is attributable to Herschel. The theory of the
motions of the planets is identified with the name of Laplace, and
scarcely any credit is allowed to the important labours of D'Alembert,
Clairaut, Euler, and Lagrange. Watt is the sole inventor of the
steam-engine, whilst Chaptal has enriched the chemical arts with all
those ingenious and productive processes which secure their prosperity."
To countervail this error, Arago continues: "Let us hold up to
legitimate admiration those chosen men whom nature has endowed with the
valuable faculty of grouping together isolated facts, and deducing
beautiful theories from them; but do not let us forget that the sickle
of the reaper must cut down the stalks of corn, before any one can think
of collecting them into sheaves."
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