M. Matthieu Dumas, who succeeded him, looked at the question from an
entirely different point of view; he enjoined me either to furnish a
substitute, or else to set off myself with the contingent of the twelfth
arrondissement of Paris.

All my remonstrances and those of my friends having been fruitless, I
announced to the honourable General that I should present myself in the
Place de l'Estrapade, whence the conscripts had to depart, in the
costume of a member of the Institute; and that thus I should march on
foot through the city of Paris. General Matthieu Dumas was alarmed at
the effect which this scene would produce on the Emperor, himself a
member of the Institute, and hastened, under fear of my threat, to
confirm the decision of General Lacuée.

In the year 1809, I was chosen by the "conseil du perfectionnement" of
the Polytechnic School, to succeed M. Monge, in his chair of Analysis
applied to Geometry. The circumstances attending that nomination have
remained a secret; I seize the first opportunity which offers itself to
me to make them known.

M. Monge took the trouble to come to me one day, at the Observatory, to
ask me to succeed him. I declined this honour, because of a proposed
journey which I was going to make into Central Asia with M. de Humboldt.
"You will certainly not set off for some months to come," said the
illustrious geometer; "you could, therefore, take my place temporarily."
"Your proposal," I replied, "flatters me infinitely; but I do not know
whether I ought to accept it. I have never read your great work on
partial differential equations; I do not, therefore, feel certain that I
should be competent to give lessons to the pupils of the Polytechnic