Sao OO eee 
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. 
“ Laplace has endowed France, Europe, the scientific 
world, with three magnificent compositions: the Zraité 
