$ 238] Life of Laplace 307 



Laplace's personality seems to have been less attractive 

 than that of Lagrange. He was vain of his reputation as 

 a mathematician and not always generous to rival dis- 

 coverers. To Lagrange, however, he was always friendly, 

 and he was also kind in helping young mathematicians of 

 promise. While he was perfectly honest and courageous 

 in upholding his scientific and philosophical opinions, his 

 politics bore an undoubted resemblance to those of the 

 Vicar of Bray, and were professed by him with great 

 success. He was appointed a member of the Commission 

 for Weights and Measures, and afterwards of the Bureau des 

 Longitudes, and was made professor at the Ecole Normale 

 when it was founded. When Napoleon became First 

 Consul, Laplace asked for and obtained the post of Home 

 Secretary, but fortunately for science was considered 

 quite incompetent, and had to retire after six weeks 

 (1799)*; as a compensation he was made a member of 

 the newly created Senate. The third volume of the 

 Mecanique Celeste, published in 1802, contained a dedication 

 to the " Heroic Pacificator of Europe," at whose hand he 

 subsequently received various other distinctions, and by whom 

 he was created a Count when the Empire was formed. On 

 the restoration of the Bourbons in 1814 he tendered his 

 services to them, and was subsequently made a Marquis. 

 In 1816 he also received a very unusual honour for a 

 mathematician (shared, however, by D'Alembert) by being 

 elected one of the Forty " Immortals " of the Academic 

 Fran$aise ; this distinction he seems to have owed in great 

 part to the literary excellence of the Systeme du Monde. 



Notwithstanding these distractions he worked steadily 

 at mathematics and astronomy, and even after the com- 

 pletion of the Mecanique Celeste wrote a supplement to it 

 which was published after his death (1827). 



His last words, " Ce que nous connaissons est peu de chose, 

 ie i 2 u: nous ignorons est immense" coming as they did from 

 one who had added so much to knowledge, shew his 

 character in a pleasanter aspect than it sometimes pre- 

 sented during his career. 



* The fact that the post was then given by Napoleon to his brother 

 Lucien suggests some doubts as to the unprejudiced character of 

 the verdict of incompetence pronounced by Napoleon against Laplace. 



