LAPLACE. 



HAVING been appointed to draw up the report of a 

 committee of the Chamber of Deputies which was nomi 

 nated in 1842, for the purpose of taking into considera 

 tion the expediency of a proposal submitted to the 

 Chamber by the Minister of Public Instruction, relative 

 to the publication of a new edition of the works of La 

 place at the public expense, I deemed it to be my 

 duty to embody in the report a concise analysis of the 

 works of our illustrious countryman. Several persons, 

 influenced, perhaps, by too indulgent a feeling towards 

 me, having expressed a wish that this analysis should not 

 remain buried amid a heap of legislative documents, but 

 that it should be published in the Annuaire du Bureau 

 des Longitudes, I took advantage of this circumstance to 

 develop it more fully so as to render it less unworthy of 

 public attention. The scientific part of the report pre 

 sented to the Chamber of Deputies will be found here 

 entire. It has been considered desirable to suppress the 

 remainder. I shall merely retain a few sentences con 

 taining an explanation of the object of the proposed law, 

 and an announcement of the resolutions which were 

 adopted by the three powers of the State. 



&quot; Laplace has endowed France, Europe, the scientific 

 world, with three magnificent compositions : the Traite 



