A PROPOSED PRIZE MEMOIR ON HEAT. 415 
handle to geometry!” In matter of inventions, to attempt 
to dive into the future, is to prepare for one’s self strik- 
ing mistakes. One of the competitors, the great Euler, 
took these words in their literal sense; the reveries with 
which his memoir abounds, are not compensated in this 
instance by any of those brilliant discoveries in analysis, 
I had almost said of those sublime inspirations, which 
were so familiar to him. Fortunately Euler appended 
to his memoir a supplement truly worthy of his genius. 
Father Lozeran de Fiesc and the Count of Créqui were 
rewarded with the high honour of seeing their names in- 
scribed beside that of the illustrious geometer, although 
it would be impossible in the present day to discern in 
their memoirs any kind of merit, not even that of polite- 
ness, for the courtier said rudely to the Academy: “the 
question, which you have raised, interests only the curi- 
osity of mankind.” 
Among the competitors less favourably treated, we 
perceive one of the greatest writers whom France has 
produced ; the author of the Henriade. The memoir of 
Voltaire was, no doubt, far from solving the problem 
proposed ; but it was at least distinguished by elegance, 
clearness, and precision of language; I shall add, by a 
severe style of argument; for if the author occasionally 
arrives at questionable results, it is only when he bor- 
rows false data from the chemistry and physics of the 
epoch,—sciences which had just sprung into existence. 
Moreover, the anti-Cartesian colour of some of the parts 
of the memoir of Voltaire was calculated to find little 
favour in a society, where Cartesianism, with its incom- 
prehensible vortices, was everywhere held in high estima- 
tion. 
We should have more difficulty in discovering the 
