246 On the ^application of Telescopes, <^c. 



Ihe cause of truth alone obliges me to relate in this meinoir, 

 should cast the least suspicivjn of plagiarism on the memory 

 of M. I'Abbe Picard.- Whatever we have ot his shows him 

 to be very much above this meanness : but he had most 

 probably never read Morin's book ; and this event may 

 teach all those who give themselves up to the study ot the 

 sciences, that they never should neglect lo read all that has 

 the least relation to the object of their inquiry. It is only 

 by reading a book that we can acquire the right to neglect 

 it) and that of Morin surely did not deserve this contempt. 

 In finishing this memoir, let me be permitted lo say a 

 few words more respecting Morin, to whom it appears that 

 justice has never been done in several respects. He had 

 given himself up to reveries in judiciary astrology, v^ hich 

 was certainly an obstacle to his reputalion : but as an astro- 

 nomer he was very far from bgnifr without merir. lo ap- 

 pretiate him vyith justice, it is nut wiih the astronomers of 

 the present age Uiat we must compare him. It is well 

 known how nmch the sciences, and above all astronomy, 

 have been improved during the last hur.dred and fifty years ; 

 hut if we compare him with his contemporaries, we shall see 

 that he was a man of some consideration, and corresponded 

 with the most illustrious men of his time. He could not 

 of course be acquainted with those subhme theories which 

 only became known a long time alter him ; but he pos- 

 sessed all that then constituted the great merit of an astro- 

 nomer. We find by the letters which Gassendi, -Longo- 

 montanus, and many others, wrote to him, that they con- 

 sidered him as one of the best mathematicians of his age. 

 He was professor of mattiematics at the Royal College ; he 

 published, in 1633, A treatise of plane and spheric trigono- 

 metry, accompanied by tables of logarithms, sines, tan- 

 gents, &c. He was the first who collected, completed, 

 and demonstrated, what had been said before him on the 

 science of the longitude, and laid the foundation of all that 

 has since been done on that subject. He certainly has not 

 carried it, nor could he carry it, to the degree of perfection 

 which it has attained in our tiipe, since many things were 

 then wanting: and notwithstanding the very serious injury 

 which many of the commissioners suffered on his account, 

 they had reason to decide, that he had not conipletely re- 

 soivcd the problem of the longitude: but this did not hin- 

 der his book on the science of the longitude from being a 

 very good one ; and if in the present day it is only read by 

 a few persons, it is probable that the reason is, because it 

 is overcharged with irrelevant subjects, and above all with 



tho 



