Lagrange’s Memoirs. 103 
the separation of so many brethren. Je ne sais, said he, pourquot 
ils m’ont conservé. - But, without being total, it was difficult that 
the suppresion should extend even to him. The more losses the 
commission had suffered, the more its concerns was not to be de- 
prived of the regard attached to the name of Lagrange. He was 
known in other places wholly devoted to the sciences; he had no 
place in the.civil order, or in the administration. The moderation 
of his character had prevented him from expressing what he could 
not keep himself from thinking in secret. But never shall I forget 
the conversation that I had with him at this time. It was the next 
day after that when an atrocious and absurd decision, shocking to 
every one who had any idea of justice, had thrown the savans into 
mourning, by smiting the most illustrious physical philosopher of Eu- 
rope. Il ne leur a faller qu un moment, axe ” to me, pour aes tom- 
ber cette téte, t t ut-étre 
une semblable. We wept -tipether’s at t the fatal bonneyedacer of ‘the 
dangerous experiment that the French had tried. Some time before, 
we had held a conversation of the same sort in the study of Lavoi- 
sier, on account of the process against the unfortunate Bailly. All 
the futile projects of doing good, seemed to him equivocal proofs of 
the greatness of the human mind; Vouler vous le voir veritablement 
grand; entrer dans le cabinet de Newton decomposant la Satis ou 
dévotlant le systéme du monde. 
Long since did he regret not having listened to those friends, that 
in the begining of our troubles, advised him to seek an asylum 
which he could so easily have found. While the revolution appeared 
to threaten only the treatment he enjoyed in France, he had neg- 
lected that consideration for the curiosity of seeing, close at hand, 
one of those grand convulsions which it would be always more pru- 
dent to witness at a little distance. Tu Pas vouler, repeated he to 
himself, as he confided to me his regrets. In vain had a special 
decree, proposed by Duséjour in the constituent assembly, assured 
him of the payment of his pension. In vain did they keep ‘their 
word. The depreciation of paper money sufficed to render this 
decree illusory. He had been nominated member of the board of 
consultation, charged to examine and reward useful inventions. He 
was made, too, one of the directors of the mint. But this commis- 
sion offered him few objects capable of fixing his attention, and could 
not in any sense expel his uneasiness. ‘They wished anew to draw 
him to Berlin, tl offered bien: bie-formaee: Tenia He gave his con- 
