NICE ROBBERY.
M. Bachalier, a French florist, kept some beautiful species of the anemone to himself, which he had procured from the East Indies; and he succeeded in withholding them, for ten years, from all who wished to possess them likewise. A counsellor of the parliament, however, one day paid him a visit, while the anemones were in seed, and in walking with him round the garden contrived to let his gown fall upon them. By this means he swept off a good number of the seeds; and his servant, who had been apprised of the scheme, dexterously wrapt up the gown and secured them. Any one must have been a sour moralist who should have considered this to be a breach of the eighth commandment.
FEMALE MATHEMATICIAN.
In the year 1736, the French Academy of Sciences proposed, as a subject for a prize, "the Propagation of Heat," when the Marchioness of Châtelet entered the list of competitors. Her work was not only an elegant account of all the properties of heat at that time known to natural philosophers, but it was also remarkable for various proposals for experiments; one, among others, which was afterwards followed up by Herschel, and from which he derived one of the chief gems in his brilliant scientific crown.
FOURIER'S INDEPENDENCE.
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.