A Biographical Account of [July, 



listened to. It was then that he published his Calcul des Fonctions 

 Anahjtiqucs, his Traite des Fonctions, and his Resolution des 

 Equations Numeriques. These works, composed for the Poly- 

 technic School, were not one of the least causes of its celebrity. 

 When the Institute was formed M. de Lagrange was necessarily 

 named the first member in the section of Geometry. When the 

 Board of Longitude was established he was appointed one of its 

 members ; and till the very last period of his life, nobody was 

 more exact than he in his attendance at the meetings of both 

 these learned bodies. 



At the epoch of the 18th Brumaire he was named Senator, 

 and successively Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour, and 

 Grand Cross of the Order of Reunion. The eclat of rank and 

 fortune did not seduce him for a moment. He retained always 

 the same mode of life, the same habit of study, the same sim- 

 plicity. This wise conduct was the more necessary for him, 

 because he had always been of a feeble constitution ; and it was 

 to this extreme moderation, in every thing but study, that we 

 must ascribe the length of his life, and his old age free from 

 infirmity. He had likewise the rare good fortune to preserve his 

 genius to the end of his life. Indeed, if we examine the whole 

 of his works, we shall find in them marks of the progress of the 

 science, but no indication of old age. He had undertaken at 

 the latter period of his life to give a new edition of the JMeca- 

 nique Analytique considerably augmented. He published the 

 first volume, in which, among other remarkable additions, we 

 admire his fine investigations of the most general questions of 

 astronomy and mechanics. He laboured with the most inde- 

 fatigable industry at the two remaining volumes, in which he 

 intended, it is said, to treat of the great phenomena of the 

 system of the world; but this labour hastened the period of his 

 death. It is said that the manuscript of the second volume 

 exists, written entirely with his own hand. It is to be wished, 

 for the good of the sciences, that the publication of this precious 

 monument be committed to persons who will acquit themselves 

 with promptitude and fidelity. 



The character of the genius of Lagrange has been exactly 

 appreciated by a philosopher whose name in the sciences has 

 been long associated with his own. If we durst add any thing 

 to thai judgment, it would be to confirm it, by recalling to 

 memory the impression made upon the mind by the perusal of the 

 works of Lagrange. It is not only the pleasure that results from 

 a clear and accurate arrangement, it is a ray of light which darts 

 upon the mind, removes the obscurity from the most compli- 

 d objects, and discovers to your astonished eyes the certain 

 and direct road which leads to the object that you wish to obtain. 

 When we have once read and understood a memoir of Lagrange, 



