406 Biographical Accoiint of [Jcne, 



number 1 1 merely to get rid of the number 12, which more in- 

 trepid innovators would have wished to substitute in place of the 

 number 10, that constitutes the base of the whole of our nume- 

 ration. 



When the Academy was suppressed, the commission charged 

 with the establishment of the new system was retained for a time. 

 Three months liad scarcely elapsed wlien, in order to purify that 

 commission, the names of Lavoisier, Borda, Liplace, Coulomb, 

 Brisson, and Delambre, were struck out. Lagrange was retained. 

 In quality of Pres-ident, he informed me, in a long letter full of 

 kmdness, that I should receive official information of my removal. 

 As soon as he saw me on my return to Paris, he expressed to me 

 his regret at the dismis-sion of so many associates. " I do not 

 know," said he, " why they have retained me." But unless the 

 suppression had been total, it could scarcely have extended to him. 

 The more losses the commission had sustained, of the more im- 

 portance was ir not to deprive it of the consideration attached to the 

 iiame of Lagrange. Besides, he was known to be wliolly devoted 

 to the sciences ; he had no place either in the civil dejxirtment or 

 the administration. The moderation of his character had prevented 

 him from expressing what he could not but think in secret : but I 

 shall never forget the conversation which I had with him at that 

 period. It was the day after the atrocious and absurd sentence, 

 contrary to every thing like justice, had thrown all lovers of the 

 sciences into mourning, by cutting off the most illustrious phi- 

 losopher in Europe. " It has cost them but a moment," said he, 

 *' to cut off that head, and a hundred years perhaps will not be 

 sufficient to produce another like it." Some months before we had 

 had a similar conversation in the cabinet of Lavoisier, on account 

 of the death of the unfortunate Bailly. We lamented together the 

 dreadful consequences of the dangerous experiment which the 

 French had attempted. All these chimerical project? of ameliora- 

 tion appeared to him very equivocal proofs of the greatness of the 

 human mind. " if you wish to see ii truly great," added he, 

 '•' enter into the cabinet of Newton employed in decomposu)g light, 

 or in explaining the system of the world." 



Already for some time he had regretted not having listened to the 

 advice of his friends, who at the commencement of our troubles had 

 recommended him to seek an asylum, which it would have been so 

 easy for liim to lind. As long as the revolution seemed only to 

 threaten the pension which he enjoyed in France, he had neglected 

 that consideration, out of curiosity to be upon the spot of one of 

 those great convulsions which it is always more prudent to observe 

 at a distance. " it was your own choice," said he several times to 

 himself when he entrusted me with his regret. It was to no purpose 

 that a special decree of the Constituent Assembly had ensured the 

 payment of his pension. The decree was of no value, because the 

 depreciation of the paper currency was sufficient to render it illu- 

 sory. He had been named member of the Board of Consultation^ 



6 



