INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 305 



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tintie to exist as objects of private property. Upon the 

 State devolves the duty of preserving them from indif- 

 ference and oblivion : of continually holding them up to 

 attention, of diffusing a knowledge of them through a 

 thousand channels ; in a word, of rendering them sub- 

 servient to the public interests. 



" Doubtless the Minister of Public Instruction was 

 influenced by these considerations, when upon the occa- 

 sion of a new edition of the works of Laplace having 

 become necessary, he demanded of you to substitute the 

 great French family for the personal family of the illus- 

 trious geometer. We give our full and unreserved ad- 

 hesion to this proposition. It springs from a feeling of 

 patriotism which will not be gainsayed by any one in 

 this assembly." 



In fact, the Chamber of Deputies had only to examine 

 and solve this single question : " Are the works of La- 

 place of such transcendent, such exceptional merit, that 

 their republication ought to form the subject of delibera- 

 tion of the great powers of the State ? " An opinion 

 prevailed, that it was not enough merely to appeal to 

 public notoriety, but that it was necessary to give an 

 exact analysis of the brilliant discoveries of Laplace in 

 order to exhibit more fully the importance of the reso- 

 lution about to be adopted. Who could hereafter pro- 

 pose on any similar occasion that the Chamber should 

 declare itself without discussion, when a desire was felt, 

 previous to voting in favour of a resolution so honourable 

 to the memory of a great man, to fathom, to measure, to 

 examine minutely and from every point of view monu- 

 ments such as the Mecanique Celeste and the Exposition 

 du Systeme du Monde ? It has appeared to me that the 

 report drawn up in the name of a committee of one of 



