402 Biography of M. le Comte Lagrange. 



kinds of combinations, and I set myself to learn chemistry, 

 which I now find easy, for it may be learned in the same 

 manner as algebra." It is necessary to be a Lagrange to 

 seek in algebra a model of fticility. It is remarkable, that 

 the taste for mathematics may be thus destroyed, and revive 

 again. D'Alembert seems to have undergone the same 

 kind of change. 



In 1792, M. de Lagrange married, a second time, a young 

 and beautiful lady, daughter of M. Lemonnier, one of his 

 fellow members of the Academy. She rendered his life 

 very happy. He observed in his last moments, that he 

 found death easy, and that his regret in leaving an excellent 

 wife could alone make it painful. When, after the events 

 of Thermidor, public instruction was again re-established, 

 M. de Lagrange was named Professor of the Normal 

 School. The lectures which he there delivered have been 

 printed. When the Polytechnic School was formed, he 

 was likewise one of its first Professors ; and those who had 

 the happiness to hear him know with what respect he was 

 listened to. It was then that he published his Calcul des 

 Fonctions Analytiques, his Traitt des Fonctions, and his 

 Resolution des Equations Numeriques. These works com- 

 posed for the Polytechnic School, were not one of the least 

 causes of its celebrity. When the Institute was formed, 

 M. de Lagrange was necessarily named the first member in 

 the section of Geometry. When the Board of Longitude 

 was established, he was appointed one of its members; and 

 till the very last period of his life, nobody was more exact 

 than he in his attendance at the meetings of both these 

 learned bodies. 



At the epoch of the 18th Brumaire, he was named 

 Senator, and successively Grand Officer of the Legion of 

 Honour, and Grand Cross of the Order of Reunion. The 

 eclat of rank and fortune did not seduce him for a moment. 

 He retained always the same mode of life, the same habit 

 of study, the same simplicity. This wise conduct was the 

 more necessary for him, because he had always been of a 

 feeble constitution ;"and it was to this extreme moderation, 

 in every thing but study, that we must ascribe the length 

 of his life and his old age free from infirmity. He had 

 likewise the rare good fortune to preserve his genius to the 



