LAPIDARY STYLE LAPLACE. 



379 



extremely hard, is cut in a wheel of soft steel turned 

 by a mill, with diamond dust, tempered with olive- 

 oil, which also serves to polish it. 



LAPIDARY STYLE (from the Latin lapis, stone); 

 that which is proper for inscriptions on monuments. 

 Hence the phrase is sometimes used for a laconic, 

 expressive style. 



LAP! OOLITE. See Mica. 



LAPIS LAZULI. This superb mineral, which 

 lias been seen regularly crystalized only in a few 

 instances, occurs massive, of a rich azure-blue 

 colour ; fracture uneven ; scratches glass ; opaque ; 

 easily broken; specific gravity, 2 85. In a strong 

 hent, it intumesces, and melts into a yellowish-black 

 mass. It consists, by one analysis, of 40 silex, 28 

 lime, 14'5 alumine, 3 oxide of iron, 6'5 sulphate of 

 lime, and 2 water ; but a later and more interesting 

 research has given 34 silex, 33 alumine, 3 sulphur 1 , 

 and 22 soda. The finest specimens are brought from 

 China, Persia, and Great Bucharia. It is much 

 esteemed for ornamental purposes, especially for 

 inlayed work. The most splendid exhibition of 

 this rare substance is made in the celebrated marble 

 palace built by Catharine, at St Petersburg, for her 

 favourite Orlof, in which, according to Patrin, there 

 are entire apartments inlayed with lapis lazuli. The 

 ancients were in the habit of engraving upon it, 

 of whose works several specimens are to be seen 

 in the royal library at Paris. But its chief value 

 consists in its affording the very precious pigment 

 called ultramarine, (q. v.) 



L APITH^E ; a people of Thessaly. The chief of 

 the Lapithce assembled to celebrate the nuptials of 

 Pirithous, one of their number. The Centaurs were 

 also invited to partake the festivity, which was 

 interrupted by the violence of the Centaurs. The 

 Lapithae resented the injury. Many of the Cen- 

 taurs were slain, and they, at last, were obliged to 

 retire. (See Pirithous and Centaurs.) Hesiod 

 (Scut) and Ovid (Met. xii.) have described the 

 battle of the Centaurs and Lapithae. 



LAPLACE, PIERRE SIMON, marquis de, a cele- 

 brated mathematician and astronomer, was born at 

 Beaumont-en-Auge, in the department of Calvados, 

 in March, 174!). The circumstances of his parents 

 were extremely humble, and he was indebted for the 

 means of acquiring his early instruction to the gene- 

 rosity of some rich individuals to whom his uncommon 

 talents and astonishing aptitude for mathematical 

 studies had accidentally become known. The ex- 

 pectations which had been formed of him were quickly 

 realized by the great rapidity of his progress, which 

 was such that at a very early age he was appointed a 

 professor of the mathematics in the college of his 

 native town. This field, however, soon appeared too 

 confined for his aspiring views, and he abandoned it 

 in a short time in order to prosecute his studies with 

 greater advantages, and seek his* fortune in Paris. In 

 the capital, the brilliant talents of the young geome- 

 ter soi >n procured him protectors ; among others 

 d'Alembert, who admitted him to his friendship, and 

 in some measure directed his first steps in the career 

 of the sciences. Laplace profited so well' by the 

 counsels and lessons of this illustrious master, that 

 in a short time he signalized himself by the capital 

 discovery of the invariability of the mean distances 

 of the planets from the sun, and by the establishment 

 of some theories of great importance In analysis. 

 His first essays were made under the auspices of the 

 president Saron, to whom he dedicated his works, and 

 who defrayed the expense of their publication. 

 Through this high patronage, which he had sufficient 

 dexterity to turn to the greatest account, he was 

 appointed to succeed Bezout in the situation of exa- 

 n.iner of the royal corps of artillery ; an office which 



left him sufficient leisure to prosecute the studies 

 which lie had commenced with such distinguished 

 success. At the early age of twenty-four he was 

 admitted into the Academy of Sciences, and from 

 this time devoted himself with ardour to the composi- 

 tion of a series of memoirs on the most important 

 questions of physical astronomy, and to the develop- 

 ment in all their details, of the consequences that 

 result from the general laws which regulate the 

 system of the universe. Besides these and other 

 researches connected with the improvement and 

 extension of mathematical science, his attention was 

 turned successfully to the investigation of the prin- 

 ciples, and to the experimental researches of 

 chemistry ; and, associated with his illustrious and 

 unfortunate friend, Lavoisier, he was the first to repeat 

 in France the experiments of Cavendish to effect the 

 decomposition of water. During the Revolution, 

 when distinguished excellence of any kind was con- 

 sidered by those who had possessed themselves of 

 the executive power of the state as a sufficient cause 

 for proscription, Laplace was several times in danger 

 of meeting a premature fate. It must, however, be 

 admitted that he was not one of those retiring unob- 

 trusive sons of genius who gladly relinquish the 

 objects of political ambition for the calm pursuits of 

 philosophy ; on the contrary, he entered into all the 

 frenzies of that distracted period with the same 

 enthusiasm which he displayed in his other occupa- 

 tions ; and the extravagant and even ridiculous excess 

 to which he carried his professions in favour of liberty, 

 equality, and republicanism, especially when con- 

 trasted with the suppleness and subserviency of his 

 subsequent political conduct, greatly diminished the 

 respect which would have been willingly yielded to 

 his profound genius and distinguished services in the 

 cause of science. At the establishment of the Poly- 

 technic School he was appointed one of the professors 

 in that admirably conceived institution. In 1796 he 

 did homage to the Council of Five Hundred by pre- 

 senting to them his Exposition du Systeme de Monde; 

 a work which was received by the scientific world in 

 general with unbounded admiration. In 1799, he 

 was nominated by the Consuls to the ministry of the 

 interior. In this situation he soon found, probably, 

 that the effects of human passions are not so easily 

 submitted to the calculus as those of the forces of 

 nature ; at all events his success as a minister of 

 state was by no means commensurate with his high 

 reputation as a mathematician. Bonaparte, who 

 himself aspired to the renown of science, and who 

 always manifested the most friendly dispositions 

 towards Laplace, said of him, in reference to the 

 inaptitude which he displayed in the management of 

 practical matters, that he never seized any question 

 in its true point of view, that he sought for subtleties 

 in every thing, that his ideas were problematical, and 

 that, in short, he carried into the administration the 

 spirit of the infinitesimal calculus. The same year 

 he was called to a place in the senate: of which body 

 he was subsequently vice-chancellor and president. 

 In 1806, he was raised to the dignity of Count of the 

 Empire. But although he was indebted for all these 

 offices and honours to the personal favour of Bona- 

 parte, yet, on the emperor's reverse of fortune in 

 1)S 14, he was one of the first to push matters to 

 extremity against his ancient benefactor, and to vote 

 for the overthrow of the imperial power, and the 

 establishment of a provisional government. On the 

 re-establishment of the Bourbons, the facility with 

 which he had deserted his former master, and his zeal 

 in the service of the restored dynasty, were rewarded 

 with the title of marquis, and a seat in the chamber 

 of peers. How different the fate of his amiable and 

 more upright and consistent colleague Monge, who, 



