A Great Scientist

New Zealand Tablet, Volume 14, Issue 24, 14 June 1906, Page 15

A Great Scientist

The two most prominent names connected with electricity at the present day are Volta and Ampere, 'both of whom ha\e given terms by which we designate the unit of pressure (volt) and the unit of electnea) measurement (ampere). Both of these scientists were men of deep piety and practkal Catholics. After Ampere's discoveries in electricity (says a writer in the ' Catholic World ') he came to be acknowledged as one, of the greatest of living scientists, and was honored as such by most of the distinguished scientific societies' of Europe. His work was not confined to electricity alone, however, and late in life he prepared what has been well called a remarkable work on the classification of the sciences. This showed that, far from being a mere electrical specialist, or even a profound thinker in physics, he understood better probably than any man of his generation tlie relation of the sciences to one ancther. He was a broad mui'led, profound thinker in the highest sense of the words, and in many things < seemed to have had almost an intuition into the processes ol nature, though he was at the same time an untiring experimenter, eminently successful in arranging experiments to answer cvuestions he put to nature. 'In addition to his scientific achievements,' says Ozanam, ' this brilliant genius has other claims upon the admiration and affection, of Catholics. He was our brother in the same faith. It was religion which guided the labors of his mind and illuminated his contemplations ; he judged all things, science itself, by the exalted standard of reli-

gion. . . This venerable head, which was crowned by achievements and honors, bowed without reserve beforetho mysteries of the failh, down even below the line which the Church has niana-d for us. He prayed before the same altars before which Descartes and Pascal kneltbesicfc? the (poor widow and the a.nall child who may have been less humble in mind th nhe was. Nobody 1 observed the regulations of the Church more conscientiously— the regulations which are so hard on nature, and yet so sweet in the habit. *

Above all things, howe.er, it is beautiful to s,ee what sublime things Christianity wrought in his great soul ; this admirable simplicity, the unassumingness of a mind that recognised everyth.ng except its own geniusthis high rectitude in matters of science— now so rareseeking nothing but the truth and never rewards and distinction ; this pleasant and ungrudging amiability • and, lastly, this kindliness with which h& met every one' especially young people. We know several towards whom he showed the thoufchtfulness and the ohjliaing care of a father. I can say that those who know only the intelligence of the man, know only the less perfect part. If he thought much, he loved more.

The reliigious' exercises to which Ampere was most davot-d weie the Rosary and the reading of the ' Imitation of Christ.' Oanam relates two incidents with regard to these which are exemplary indices of Ampere's rtfijLious character. Ozanam himself on one occasion was troubled very much by doubts with regard to the mysteries, of Christianity, and in t>he midst of them vent into a church in the ho^e that prayer would help him, or at least that the quiet and seclusion of the holy edifice might be an inspiration. In a quiet corner of the edifice he found Ampere all by himself reciting his 'beads. It can readily be understood what an effect the sitrht of this distinguished old scientist thus humbly and relig'iotisly employed would have upon the young man Ozanam's doubis vanished at once.

Ampere was much more, then, than a merely devotional Christian, or one who sought only his own personal satisfaction in relis'orfi feelings. He wrote a book, in which were collected all the historical proofs of the divinity of Christianity, and devoted not a little of his time to e\ery form of effort calculated to bring the great truths of Chrisli nity prominently before the men of his generation- 11 is no wonder, then, that in accepting the dedication of Vrlson's life and works of Ampeie, the Arch.bif.hot) of Lyons said that ' Ampere was at once a great scientist and a great Christian.'