404 M. Cacciatore on the Moveable Star 



his wit. He possessed it in such perfection, that it alone 

 would have raised the reputation of any other person but 

 M. de Lagrange. What a turn of thinking must he have 

 had, who, by way of relaxation from the most abstract 

 studies, made choice of the history of religion and of 

 medicine! It is true, tliat in consequence of this investiga- 

 tion, he lost all confidence in medicine ; but this scepticism 

 was so simple and tolerant, that if it was an error, it was 

 impossible not to forgive it. This philosopher, who knew 

 so many things, was exceedingly ready to acknowledge his 

 ignorance. These simple words, / do not know, were his 

 favourite expression. He generally began and finished in 

 this manner the statement of his doubts. He was not apt 

 to be satisfied with words, nor to stop at the surface of 

 things. He deprived opinions and things of the envelope 

 with which they are usually covered ; and when he had 

 thus exposed them naked, he gave his thoughts respecting 

 them, usually in an original and lively manner, as remark- 

 able for depth of sense, as for fineness of expression. 

 Many of his sayings are well known. One of his friends 

 was speaking to him of an opinion which, alternately 

 adopted and rejected, admitted and modified, by philoso- 

 phers, had become at last, a popular prejudice. *' What!" 

 said M. de Lagrange, " are you astonished at that? It is 

 the very thing which always happens. Prejudices are 

 nothing else than the cast clothes of philosophers, in which 

 the rabble dress themselves." We state this anecdote 

 because it points out well the nature of observations. 



Though his figure was good, he would never permit his 

 portrait to be drawn. He thought, that the productions of 

 the mind were alone entitled to survive. If his face 

 remains unknown, the remembrance of his genius will last 

 as long as civilization continues to dwell upon earth. 



Article II. 



Abstract of a Letter from M. Cacciatore, Director of the 

 Observatory of Palermo, respecting the Moveable Star 

 observed by him in 1835. 



The author began, in 1835, a series of observations on stars, 

 which he proposed to follow out four evenings in succession, 



