FIRST SERIES.

BOSTON:

TICKNOR AND FIELDS.

M DCCC LIX.




RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE:

PRINTED BY H.O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY.




TRANSLATORS' PREFACE.


The present volume of the series of English translations of M. Arago's
works consists of his own autobiography and a selection of some of his
memoirs of eminent scientific men, both continental and British.

It does not distinctly appear at what period of his life Arago composed
the autobiography, but it bears throughout the characteristic stamp of
his ardent and energetic disposition. The reader will, perhaps, hardly
suppress a smile at the indications of self-satisfaction with which
several of the incidents are brought forward, while the air of romance