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KEPLER’S LAWS. . 309 
moderns, from Lucretius and Plutarch down to Kepler, 
Bouillaud, and Borelli. It is to Newton, however, that 
we must award the merit of their solution. ‘This great 
man, like several of his predecessors, conceived the 
celestial bodies to have a tendency to approach towards 
each other in virtue of an attractive force, deduced the 
mathematical characteristics of this force from the laws 
of Kepler, extended it to all the material molecules of 
the solar system, and developed his brilliant discovery in 
a work which, even in the present day, is regarded as 
the most eminent production of the human intellect. 
The heart aches when, upon studying the history of 
the sciences, we perceive so magnificent an intellectual 
movement effected without the codperation of France. 
Practical astronomy increased our inferiority. The means 
of investigation were at first inconsiderately entrusted to 
foreigners, to the prejudice of Frenchmen abounding in 
intelligence and zeal. Subsequently, intellects of a supe- 
rior order struggled with courage, but in vain, against 
the unskilfulness of our artists. During this period, 
Bradley, more fortunate on the other side of the Channel, 
immortalized himself by the discovery of aberration and 
nutation. 
The contribution of France to these admirable revolu- 
tions in astronomical science, consisted, in 1740, of the 
experimental determination of the spheroidal figure of 
the earth, and of the discovery of the variation of grav- 
ity upon the surface of our planet. These were two 
great results; our country, however, had a right to de- 
mand more: when France is not in the first rank she 
has lost her place.* 
* The spheroidal figure of the earth was established by the com- 
parison of an arc of the meridian that had been measured in France, 
