Lagrange’s Memoirs. 101 
to the Academy of Berlin. The volumes of 1792, 1793, and 1803, 
prove that he was faithful to his promise. 
It was in 1787, that Lagrange came to Paris to take his seat in 
the Academy of Sciences, of which for fifteen years he was associe 
etranger. To give him the right of suffrage in all his deliberations, 
this title was changed into that of penstonnaire vétéran. His new 
fellows vied in appearing happy and glorious of possessing him: Ja 
reine [ accueillit avec bienveillance ; elle le considerait comme alle- 
mand ; il lui avait été recommandé de Vienne.-—Ou lui donna un 
logement au Louvre ; il y vécut heureux jusqu’a la révolution. The 
satisfaction which he enjoyed appeared but little outwardly. Always 
affable when interrogated, he was however under some constraint in 
speaking, and seemed absent and melancholy ; often in a society which 
must have been according to his taste, in the midst of those savans for 
whose sake he had come from so great a distance—among the most 
distinguished men of all countries who assembled whole weeks at the 
house of the illustrious Lavoisier, I have seen him melancholy, and 
standing up against a window where nothing could draw his atten- 
tion. He there remained deaf to all that was said around him ; he 
avowed himself, that his enthusiasm was quenched, and that he had 
lost all taste for mathematical researches. If he learned that a geom- 
eter was engaged on some work, “so much the better,” said he, “I 
began it, and shall be exempted from ending it.” But this thinking 
head could only change the object of its thoughts. Metaphysics, 
the history of the human mind, that of different religions, the gene- 
ral theory of languages, medicine, botany, shared his leisure. When 
conversation turned upon subjects that seemed as if they must be 
most foreign to him, we were struck with a sudden trait, a fine thought, 
a deep view, that disclosed long reflections. Surrounded by chemists, 
that had just reformed all the theories, and even the language of 
their science, he grasped the current of their discoveries, gave to 
facts previously isolated and inexplicable, that connection which the 
different branches of mathematics have to each other ; he consented 
to acquire knowledge that had formerly seemed so obscure to him, 
and that had become as easy as algebra. We were astonished at 
this comparison ; we thought it could come to the mind only of a 
Lagrange. It appeared to us as simple as just. But it must be taken 
in its real sense. Algebra, which presents so many insoluble prob- 
lems; so many difficulties, against which all the efforts of Lagrange 
himself, had just proved futile, could not appear so easy a study. 
