322 ARAGO. 



mathematics and geometry, he resigned the portfolio of 

 his office to Lucien Bonaparte, lie was then created a 

 senator, then vice-chancellor, and at length chamberlain 

 of the conservative senate. 



Of his various scientific writings, especially of his 

 immortal work, the Traite de Mecanique Celeste, we shall 

 not speak here; neither shall we pursue him through 

 his subsequent career. An anecdote of his last days, 

 and we have done with Pierre Simon Laplace. 



" You have made many splendid discoveries, mar- 

 quis," said a friend to him as he lay on his death-bed. 



" What we know is a little matter," the dying philo- 

 sopher murmured, " what we do not know is immense." 



Of Dominique Francois Jean Arago, the celebrated 

 astronomer, and equally celebrated friend of Humboldt, 

 no sketch is necessary here, as most readers are familiar 

 with his biography. It will be sufficient to say that he 

 was at this time engaged in measuring the arc of the 

 meridian, a famous and dangerous epoch in his life. Of 

 Biot, and Gay-Lussac — their balloon ascensions, and mag- 

 netic experiments, we have already spoken. 



Among these men, and others of less note, minor 

 lights in the constellation of science, Humboldt took his 

 place, as a star of the first magnitude. He was undoubt- 

 edly surpassed by some of them in particular departments 

 of stud} 7 , but in general knowledge, a knowledge of all 

 branches of science, and all literatures, he had no sup - 

 rior, if indeed an equal. There was no sense of in- 

 feriority on his part; he was a king among his peers. 



Once fairly settled in Paris, he sat down and mapped 

 out his great work. Had a book of travels been his object, 

 it would not have been difficult for him to have written 



