1814.] M. Lagrange. 40D 



" He received them with tenderness and cordiality. I was very 

 ill, my friends (said he), the day before yesterday: I perceived myself 

 dying, my body became weaker, my moral and physical powers 

 were gradually declining ; I observed with pleasure the gradual 

 diminution of my strength, and 1 arrived at the point without pain, 

 without regret, and by a very gentle declivity. Death is not to be 

 feared, and when it comes without violence it is a last fViuction which 

 is neither painful nor disagreeable." Then he explained to them his 

 idtas respecting life, the seat of which he considered as spread over 

 the whole body, in every organ and all parts of the machine, 

 which in his case became equably feebler in every part by the same 

 degrees. "A little longer, and tliere would have been no func- 

 tions, death would have overspread the whole body, for death is 

 merely the absolute repose of the body; 1 wished to die," added he 

 with greater force, " 1 found a pleasure in it ; but my wife did not 

 >vish it. 1 should have prefcMied at that time a wife less kind, less 

 eager to restore my strength, and wlio would have allowed me 

 gently to have finished my career. I have performed my ta^k, I 

 have acquired some celebrity in the matliematics, I have hated no- 

 body, 1 have done no ill ; it is now proper to finish." 



As h.e was very animated, especially at these last words, his 

 friends, notwithstanding the interest with which they listened to 

 liim, proposed to retire. He retained them, began to relate to 

 tliem the history of his lil'e, of his labours, of his success, of his 

 residence at Berlin, where he had oiten told us what he had seen 

 Dear a King ; of his arrival at Paris, tiie tranquillity he had enjoyed 

 at first, the anxiety occasioned to him by the Revolution, and how 

 l)e had been finally rewarded by a powerful monarch, ca].able of 

 appreciating his worth, who had loaded him with honours and dig- 

 nities, and who had even lately scut him the Grand Ribbon of the 

 Impel ial Order of Re-union. Let us add likewise, who after 

 having given him during his life the most unequivocal proofs of the 

 highest esteem, has since done more for his widow and his brother 

 than ever Frederick had done for him while he was Director of his 

 Academy. 



lie had neither been ambitious of rielics nor honour; but he liad 

 received both with respectful gratitude, and rejoiced at the acquisi- 

 tion f<;r the advantage of the sciences. He meant to affix these 

 titles to the frontispiece of his work, " in order to show th.e universe 

 to what a degree tlie Emperor loved and honoured philo^oj)hers." 



From these last words we see that he had not Io>t all hope of 

 cure ; he believed only that his convalescence would he long. He 

 ofli-'red, when he recovered his strength, to go and dine at IVl. 

 ]^aci pc'dc'b country house with MM. ISionge and Ch:;pt:il, and pro- 

 posed to give them details lespecting bis life which could lie fuvmd 

 nowhere else. These details are irretrievably lost. We do not 

 even know to what he tilhided, nor what he could have added to the 

 wcond volume of the Mecaniquc Analyiicjiie, v.hich was then in 

 ll.epiess. We have just learned that the Countess J^agrange has 



