' 



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 Traite 



