The experiments of Ampère, from their first appearance, were the object of the severe criticism 
just cited, and, soon after, of universal admiration. The only competent and capable judges of 
intricate and scientific calculations of nice theoretical deductions of whose almost boundless range 
I have just tried to give you an idea, were of necessity geometers. Now is it just to say the French 
geometers found fault with our distinguished associate, when, a short time before the discovery of 
electrodynamics, M. Savary was found completing a very important point of that theory; when M. 
Lionville was trying to simplify its bases, and render them more rigorous, when, in the compilation 
of the most difficult parts of his grand memoir Ampère found in M. Duhamel an earnest collaborator? 

Is it true that Ampère’s formula displayed no features likely to occasion astonishment amongst 
geometers? Would not the curiosity of those most familiar with Newtonian theories be awakened by 
observing the introduction of general expressions of the mutual action of these elements, 
trigonometrical quantities relative to the respective inclinations of the infinitesimal elements of 
the electrical currents? Was not some hesitation natural when new theories seemed to depart so 
completely from beaten paths? There was nothing extraordinary, exceptional, nor extravagant on the 
part of the savants who experienced this hesitation. A few years before the transversal waves of 
light of Fresnel had created the same doubts, the same uncertainty, and in the minds of the same 
individuals, although they seemed a still more evident consequence, a more direct and immediate 
translation and one easier to verify, of the facts of interference exhibited by polarized rays. 
Let us not complain in general terms of the worship rendered usually by men to the ideas under 
whose influence their minds have been developed. In such cases it is just, natural, and proper to 
make no change of views without a thorough investigation. From a scientific point of view, the 
criticisms and difficulties, so frequently overwhelming innovators, are substantially useful. They 
arouse the idle to triumph over indolence; even jealousy, with its cruel and hideous acuteness, 
becomes an incentive to progress. It can be relied upon to discover gaps, blemishes, and 
imperfections that even the most careful author allows unavoidably to escape him. The control it 
exercises over him who disdains not to profit by it, is worth ten-fold that of the best friend. It 
commands no gratitude either for its services are, involuntarily rendered; and on the other hand it 
would be a weakness to sympathize too warmly with the vexatious it causes in men of genius; for fame 
and peace of mind rarely bear each other company. He who is ambitious of high place in the world of 
matter or of ideas, must expect to find as adversaries those already occupying the highest places. 
Small minds aim at trivial objects, and alone are privileged to reach, at will, insignificant 
points, whose possession no one dreams of disputing with them.