MEMOIR OF LEGENDEE. 



157 



the bases of that science, ho has confeiTed upon it greater force, at the same time 

 that by his immortal discoveries he has extended its domain. One of our greatest 

 geometers has dwelt with admiration on the perfection of his analytical style.* 

 C'lear and smooth as the verses of Racine, the formulas of Lagrange have aug- 

 mented the number of the adepts of science, while they have facilitated their 

 labors. Laplace, in applying to the laws of the universe the faculties of a 

 geometer of the first order, advances a claim to be considered as the lawgiver 

 of the celestial movements. By his vast acquisitions in the empire of nature, he 

 lias earned a title to be styled the Newton of France.f Legendre, more pro- 

 found than popular, was our Euler; like Enler and after his example, he has 

 bequeathed to the future a multitude of those analytical results which genius 

 alone knows how to obtain, and which enrich in perpetuity the domain of the 

 human intellect. 



ClaimuU, cVAJembcrt, Eider were the continuers of Newton and Leibnitz. 

 After them, Lagrange, Laplace, Legendre have held with a gi-asp not less finn 

 the sceptre of mathematics. The Academy may be congTatulated that it has 

 counted in its ranks and can still count at the present day more than one suc- 

 cessor of these great men. 



* In his Elogc of Laplace, pronounced June 15, 1829, before the Academy, where M. 

 Legendre still occupied a seat, M. Fourier took occasion to make some interesting remarks 

 on the discoveries of Lagrange and the character of his works. The following words occur : 

 "All his mathematical compositions are remarkable for a singular elegance, for the sym- 

 metry of forms and the generality of methods, and, if we may so say, for the perfection of 

 the analytic style." (M^m. de I' Acad, des Sciences, t. x, p. 6, 1830.) 



t It was M. Cuvier who, in one of his academic discourses, conferred on him this proud 

 qualification. 



