He
at once recognized and acknowledged the merits of Thomas Young.
Indeed, it was he, and his fellow-countryman Arago, who first startled
England into the consciousness of the injustice done to Young in the
'Edinburgh Review.'
I should like to read to you a brief extract from a letter written by
Fresnel to Young in 1824, as it throws a pleasant light upon the
character of the French philosopher. 'For a long time,' says Fresnel,
'that sensibility, or that vanity, which people call love of glory has
been much blunted in me. I labour much less to catch the suffrages of
the public, than to obtain that inward approval which has always been
the sweetest reward of my efforts. Without doubt, in moments of
disgust and discouragement, I have often needed the spur of vanity to
excite me to pursue my researches. But all the compliments I have
received from Arago, De la Place, and Biot never gave me so much
pleasure as the discovery of a theoretic truth or the confirmation of
a calculation by experiment.'
* * * * *
This, then, is the core of the whole matter as regards science. It
must be cultivated for its own sake, for the pure love of truth,
rather than for the applause or profit that it brings.
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