248 Biography of M. Le Comte Lagrange, 



must be entire numbers. The memoir, printed like the 

 preceding among those of the Academy of Turin, is never- 

 theless dated at Berlin, the 20th September, 1768. This 

 date points out to us one of the events, (few indeed,) vi^hich 

 show that the life of Lagrange is not all in his works. 



His residence at Turin pleased him little. He saw there 

 no one who cultivated mathematics with success : he was 

 impatient to see the philosophers of Paris with whom he 

 corresponded. M. de Caraccioli, with whom he lived in 

 the greatest intimacy, had just been nominated to the em- 

 bassy of England, and was to pass through Paris where he 

 purposed making a short stay. He proposed this journey 

 to Lagrange. Lagrange consented to it with joy, and as 

 might have been expected, was welcomed by D'Alembert, 

 Clairaut, Condorcet, Fontaine, Nollet, Marie, and other 

 philosophers. Having fallen dangerously sick in the course 

 of a dinner, when Nollet had served to him only dishes 

 prepared a T Italienne, he could not follow his friend, M. 

 Caraccioli, to London, who suddenly received an order to 

 repair to his post, and was obliged to leave him in a fur- 

 nished hotel, to the care of a confidential person, directed 

 to supply all his wants. 



This event changed his purpose. He dreamed of nothing 

 but of returning to Turin. He gave himself up to mathe- 

 matics with a new ardour, when he learned that the aca- 

 demy of Berlin was threatened with the loss of Euler, who 

 was intending to return to St. Petersburg. D'Alembert 

 spoke of this intention of Euler in a letter to Voltaire, the 

 3d of March, MQQ-, jen serais fache, added he, cest un 

 homme peu amusant, mats un tres-grand geometre. It was of 

 little consequence to D'Alembert that the homme peu 

 amusant should remove seven degrees from Paris towards 

 the pole. He could read the works of the great geometer in 

 the Transactions of the Academy at St. Petersburg, as well 

 as in those of the one at Berlin. What troubled D'Alem- 

 bert was, the fear of seeing himself called upon to re-place 

 him ; and the embarrassment of replying to offers which 

 he was well resolved not to accept. Frederic, in fact, 

 proposed anew to D'Alembert the place of president of his 

 academy, which he held for him in reserve after the death 

 of Maupertuis. D'Alembert suggested to him the idea of 



