276 SCIENCE AND METHOD. 



collaborator Clairaut. It is not to be despised, how- 

 ever, because his work was necessary ; and if France, 

 after being outstripped by England in the seventeenth 

 century, took such full revenge in the following cen- 

 tury, it was not only to the genius of the Clairauts, 

 the d'Alemberts, and the Laplaces that she owed 

 it, but also to the long patience of such men as 

 Maupertuis and La Condamine. 



We come now to what may be called the second 

 heroic period of Geodesy. France was torn with 

 internal strife, and the whole of Europe was in arms 

 against her. One would suppose that these tre- 

 mendous struggles must have absorbed all her ener- 

 gies. Far from that, however, she had still some left 

 for the service of science. The men of that day 

 shrank before no enterprise — they were men of faith. 



Delambre and M^chain were commissioned to 

 measure an arc running from Dunkirk to Barcelona. 

 This time there is no journey to Lapland or Peru ; 

 the enemy's squadrons would close the roads. But 

 if the expeditions are less distant, the times are so 

 troublous that the obstacles and even the dangers 

 are quite as great. 



In France Delambre had to fight against the ill- 

 will of suspicious municipalities. One knows that 

 steeples, which can be seen a long way off, and ob- 

 served with precision, often serve as signals for 

 geodesists. But in the country Delambre was working 

 through, there were no steeples left. I forget now 

 what proconsul it was who had passed through it and 

 boasted that he had brought down all the steeples 

 that raised their heads arrogantly above the humble 

 dwellings of the common people. 



