108 LECTURE X. 



may be ascertained, have suggested," says Mr. Laplace, in his account of 

 the system of the world, " the idea of employing this length as a universal 

 measure. We cannot reflect on the prodigious number of measures in use, 

 not only among different nations, but even in the same country, their ca- 

 pricious and inconvenient divisions, the difficulty of determining and com- 

 paring them, the embarrassment and the frauds which they occasion ,in com- 

 merce, without regarding, as one of the greatest benefits, that the improve- 

 ments of the sciences and the ordinances of civil governments can render to 

 humanity, the adoption of a system of measures, of which the divisions, being 

 uniform, may be easily employed in calculations, and which may be derived, 

 in a manner the least arbitrary, from a fundamental magnitude indicated by 

 nature itself. A nation that would introtluce such a system of measures, 

 would unite to the advantage of reaping the first fruits of the improvement, 

 the pleasure of seeing its example followed by other countries, of which it 

 would thus become. the benefactor: for the slow but irresistible empire of 

 reason must at length prevail over national jealousies, and over all other ob- 

 stacles that are opposed to a measure, of which the convenience is universally 

 felt, -Such were the motives that determined the constituent assembly to in- 

 trust tlifi Academy of Sciences with this important charge. The new system 

 of 'weights and measures is the result of the labours of the Committee, seconded 

 by the zeal and information of several members of the national representa- 

 tion. 



" The ideiitity of the calculation of decimal fractions and of whole num- 

 bers, leaves no doubt with respect to the advantage of the division of mea- 

 sures of all kinds into decimal parts: it is sufficient^ in order to be convinced 

 of this, to compare the difficulty of compound multiplication and division, 

 with the facility of the same operations where whole numbers only are con- 

 cerned, a facility that becomes still greater by means of logarithms, of which 

 the use may also be rendered extremely popular by simple and cheap instru- 

 ments. The decimal division was therefore adopted without hesitation; and 

 in order to preserve the uniformity of the whole system, it was resohed to 

 deduce every thing from the same linear measure, and its decimal divisions. 

 The question was then reduced to the choice of this universal measure, to 

 v/liich the name of metre was to be given. 



