LAPLACE. 131 



of Europe, was born at Beaumonten-Ange, of parents belonging to the 

 class of small farmers, on the 28tli day of March, 1749. He died on the 

 5th of March, 1827. 



The first and second volumes of the Mecanique Celeste were pub- 

 lished in 1799; the third volume appeared in 1802; the fourth volume 

 in 18U5. As regards the fifth volume, books XI and XII were pub- 

 lished in 1823; books XIII, XIV, and XV in 1824, and book XVI in 

 1825. The Theorie des Probabilites was published in 1812. We shall 

 now present the reader with the history of the principal asLronomical 

 discoveries contained in these immortal works. 



Astronomy is the science of which the human mind may most justly 

 boast. It owes this indisputable pre-eminence to the elevated nature of 

 its object, to the grandeur of its means of investigation, to the certainty, 

 the utility, and the unparalleled magnificence of its results. 



From the earliest iieriod of the social existence of mankind, the study 

 of the movements of the heavenly bodies has attracted the attention of 

 governments and peoples. To several great captains, illustrious states- 

 men, philosophers, and eminent orators of Greece and Eome it formed 

 a subject of delight. Yet, let us be permitted to state, astronomy truly 

 worthy of the name is quite a modern science. It dates only from the 

 sixteenth century. Three great, three brilliant phases have marked its 

 progress. In 1543, Copernicus overthrew, with a firm and bold hand, 

 the greater part of the antique and venerable scaffolding with which 

 the illusions of the senses and the pride of successive generations had 

 filled the universe. The earth ceased to be the center, the pivot of the 

 celestial movements. It henceforward modestly ranged itself among 

 the planets; its material imjjortance, amid the totality of the bodies of 

 which our solar system is composed, found itself reduced almost to that 

 of a grain of sand. 



Twenty-eight years had elapsed from the day when the Canon of 

 Thorn expired, while holding in his faltering hands the first copy of the 

 work which was to diffuse so bright and pure a flood of glory upon 

 Poland, when Wiirtemberg witnessed the birth of a man who was des- 

 tined to achieve a revolution in science not less fertile in consequences, 

 and still more difficult of execution. This man was Kepler. Endowed 

 with two qualities which seemed incompatible with each other, a vol- 

 canic imagination and a i)ertinacity of intellect which the most tedious 

 numerical calculations could not daunt, Kepler conjectured that the 

 movements of the celestial bodies must be connected together by simi)le 

 laws, or, to use his own expression, by harmonic laws. These laws he 

 undertook to discover. A thousand fruitless attempts, errors of calcu- 

 lation inseparable from a colossal undertaking, did not prevent him a 

 single instant from advancing resolutely toward the goal of which he 

 imagined he had obtained a glimpse. Twenty-two years were employed 

 by him in this investigation, and still he was not weary of it! What, 



