4 Historical Eulogy on the Marquis De Laplace. 
sophique; for he brought back all the laws of equilibrium and of 
motion to a single principle: and that which is not less admirable, 
he submitted them to a single method of calculation of which he, 
himself, was the inventor. All his mathematical compositions are 
remarkable for a striking elegance, for the symmetry of the forms, 
and the generality of the methods, and if we can speak shored for the 
perfection of the analytical style. ) 
Lagrange was no less a philosopher than a great geometer. The 
whole course of his life, proved the truth of the assertion, by the 
moderation of his desires, by his immutable attachment to the gener- 
al interests of humanity, by the noble simplicity of his customs, and 
by the elevation of his character; in fine, by the justness and the 
depth of his scientific works. ‘ 
Laplace had received, from nature, all the force of genius, which 
an immense undertaking can require. Not only has he-reunited in 
his Almageste, du 18e siecle, that which the mathematical and physical 
sciences had already discovered, which serve as the foundation to 
astronomy ; but he has added to this science, some splendid discov- 
eries which are peculiar to himself, and which had escaped all his 
predecessors. He has resolved, either by his own methods, or by © 
those of which Euler and Lagrange had marked out the principles, 
the most important and certainly the most difficult questions of all 
those which had been considered before him. His perseverance 
has triumphed over all obstacles. When his first attempts were un- 
successful, he renewed. them, offen undak shes most imemeonenne the 
most difficult forms. 
Thus we observe in the motions a ie moon an Seaslenians 7 
which we cannot discover the cause. We had thought that this effect 
could proceed from the resistance of the etherial medium in which 
the celestial bodies move. If it were so, the same cause, affecting 
the course of the planets, would tend to change more, and more, the 
primitive order. ‘These stars would be incessantly troubled in their 
course, and would end by being precipitated on the mass of the sun. 
It would be necessary that the creative power should interpose anew, 
to prevent or to repair the immense disorder which the lapse of time 
had cause 
This paeeilaniand question is weneadinse one of the greatest which 
the human understanding can propose to itself ;—it is now resolved. 
The first researches of Laplace upon the invariability of the dimen- 
sions of the solar system, and his explanation of the secular equation 
of the moon, have led to this solution. 
