318 



LAGO NERO LAGRANGE. 



and pleasure grounds, with palaces erected on them, 

 adorned with paintings, sculptures, &c. Isola de' 

 1'e^catori is inhabited by fishermen. See Borromei 

 Island*. 



LAGO NERO, or NEGRO; a town in Naples, in 

 Uasilicata, at the foot of the Appenines, near a lake 

 from winch it receives its name ; twelve miles north 

 east of Policastro ; population, 5000. In March, 

 1806, a battle was fought here between the French 

 and the troops of the king of Naples, in which the 

 former were victorious. 



LAGOON (from the Latin lacuna, a ditch) means 

 a morass. The name is given particularly to those 

 < ,< rks which extend along the coast of the Adriatic, 

 in the present government of Venice, and which are 

 formed by water running up in the land. They con- 

 tain many islands ; Venice, for instance, is built on 

 sixty of them. In some places, they are deep ; in 

 others so shallow, that their exhalations are offensive 

 and dangerous. The Austrian government does less 

 towards clearing them out than the former Venetian 

 government did; and Venice, in consequence, is 

 considerably less healthy than it was. Towards the 

 sea, the islets are secured by dams, natural or arti- 

 ficial. 



LAGRANGE, JOSEPH Lotus, a celebrated mathe- 

 matician, was born in 1736, at Turin, and originally 

 directed his attention to philosophy. But his natural 

 taste for mathematics soon unfolded itself, and he 

 studied with such ardour, that, in his eighteenth year, 

 in a letter to the celebrated Fagnano, he communi- 

 cated to him a number of mathematical discoveries 

 which he had made. He also solved the questions, 

 which had been proposed a long time before, by 

 Euler, on the calculation of isoperimetrical figures, 

 and on the theory of the least action. When scarcely 

 nineteen years of age, Lagrange was made mathe- 

 matical professor in the artillery school at Turin; and 

 the memoirs of the scientific association, which he 

 established with the approbation of the government, 

 and in conjunction with the celebrated Cigna and the 

 marquis oi Saluces, excited such attention in the 

 literary world, that he was elected a fellow of the 

 academy at Berlin, and Euler, and D'Alembert 

 entered into a constant correspondence with this 

 young man. During a journey to Paris, which he 

 made in company with his friend Caraccioli, who was 

 sent as an ambassador to London, Lagrange became 

 personally acquainted with the Parisian savants, and 

 was received with general respect. But ill health soon 

 obliged him to return home, where he applied him- 

 self with renewed diligence to his scientific labours. 

 At this time, he obtained the prize of the academy of 

 sciences in Paris, for a treatise on the theory of the 

 satellites of Jupiter, and, at the same time, by his expo- 

 sition of the leading features of his doctrine in regard 

 to the planetary system, rendered his name immortal. 

 He soon after received an invitation from Frederic the 

 Great, to go to Berlin, with the title of director of 

 the academy, in place of Euler, who had gone to St 

 Petersburg. The king of Sardinia was, however, 

 very reluctant to permit his distinguished subject to 

 depart. Esteemed by the great Frederic, who pre- 

 ferred his independent spirit to the somewhat too 

 submissive character of Euler, and valued highly by 

 all who became acquainted with him, Lagrange 

 lived in Berlin in pleasant circumstances (which were 

 interrupted, however, by the continual sickness of 

 his wife), during the lifetime of the king. After 

 Frederic's death, the regard which had been paid to 

 men of genius and talent at the Prussian court de- 

 clined, and Lagrange began to look about for another 

 situation. At this period, Mirabeau saw him in 

 Berlin, and resolved to obtain this renowned geome- 

 trician for France. Lagrange accepted the offers 



made him from Paris, and declined the proposals O f 

 the ambassadors of Naples, Sardinia, and Tuscany, 

 lie was received at Paris, in 1787, with the highest 

 tokens of respect. But a deep melancholy seemed to 

 have taken entire possession of him, and to have 

 palsied his mind, notwithstanding all the efforts 

 which his friends made to remove it. He suffered 

 the same inconvenience which D'Alembert had once 

 before experienced, viz. of having lost all love tor 

 his science. Lagrange now zealously employed him. 

 self upon the history of religion, the theory of ancient 

 music, languages, and even the medical sciences. 

 His own favourite science alone had no attractions 

 for him, and he even suffered his most celebrated 

 work, La Mecanique analytique (for which Du Cha- 

 telet, to whom Lagrange had given the manuscript, 

 was for a long time unable to find a publisher), to lie 

 untouched for two years after its publication. At 

 the proposal of Du Sejour, he was, in 1791, confirm- 

 ed by the national assembly in his pension of 6000 

 francs, and, in order to indemnify him for the deprecia- 

 tion of the paper currency, lie was first appointed a 

 member of the committee for rewarding useful inven- 

 tions, and, afterwards (in March, 1792), one of the 

 directors of the mint. Dissatisfied with this station, 

 although Cicero and Newton had discharged similar 

 offices, he soon resigned it, considering it as an oppres- 

 sive burden. In the same year, he was married, for 

 the second time, to a daughter of the academician 

 Lemonnier, hoping to lead a tranquil life in the midst 

 of the storms of the revolution. The decree of 

 October 16, 1793, commanding all foreigners to leave 

 France, and the execution of Bailly, Lavoisier, and 

 other distinguished men, soon, however, destroyed his 

 illusions. Through the instrumentality of Guyton 

 Morveau, the severe law of banishment from the 

 country was not put in force against him ; but the 

 danger of becoming a victim to the rage of the infu- 

 riated populace remained. He'rault de Sechelles 

 offered to procure him a place in an embassy to 

 Prussia, but Lagrange, who had conceived a warm 

 affection for his new country, preferred to remain 

 there in spite of the danger. Peace and quiet at 

 length returned. It was proposed to restore the 

 institutions for the promotion of learning, which had 

 been destroyed during the reign of anarchy, and 

 Lagrange was appointed professor in the newly 

 established normal school at Paris. In this new 

 sphere of influence, his former love for his science 

 returned with all its strength. At the. formation of 

 the institute, the name of Lagrange was the first on 

 the list of members, and he was, likewise, the first 

 member of the newly constituted bureau of longitude. 

 His fame now increased from day to day, and France, 

 feeling honoured in the possession of such a man, 

 determined to give him a public mark of her esteem. 

 By the command of the directory, the minister of 

 foreign affairs, Talleyrand, commissioned the French 

 charge d'affaires in Turin, citizen D'Eymar, to visit 

 Lagrange 's father, and congratulate him, in the name 

 of France, in having such a son. This commission 

 was performed by D'Eymar in the most brilliant 

 manner, accompanied by several generals and other 

 distinguished persons. Napoleon respected the tal- 

 ents and services of Lagrange not less than the 

 republic had done ; and while consul and emperor, 

 he never ceased to show him distinguished tokens ot 

 his favour in every possible way. Member of the 

 senate, grand officer of the legion of honour, and 

 count of the empire, Lagrange saw himself surrounded 

 with every external honour ; but neither this, nor 

 the confidence reposed in him by the head of the 

 state, could make him vain, and, as modest and 

 retiring as ever, he devoted himself with- the same 

 zeal and industry to his studies. His application 



