the manuseript 
_-*The historian, 
Oe oe ee 
uuld be given with more care and fidelity. On the 
other hand, it was running too great a risk to intrust 
into the hands of a traveller, who might 
hot be aware of the whole of its’ value. M. la 
made a copy of it, which M. Duchatelet undertook to 
deliver to the Abbé Marie, with whom he was intimately 
connected. Marie fulfilled with honour the confidence 
placed in him. His first care was to find a bookseller who 
would undertake to publish it; and, what it will be diffi- 
cult to believe at this time, he could not find one. The 
newer the methods in it were, and the more sublime 
the theory, the fewer readers would be found capable 
of appreciating it; hence, without entertaining any 
doubts of the merit of the work, the booksellers were 
excusable in hesitating to print a book, the sale of 
which would probably be confined to a small number 
_ of mathematicians, disseminated through Europe. De- 
sain, who was the most enterprising of all those to 
whom application was made, would not undertake to 
blish it, till Marie entered into a formal engagement 
to take all the copies of the edition which were not sold 
by a given time. To this first service, Marie added 
another, of which M. la Grange was not less sensible ; 
he procured him an editor worthy of superintending 
the publication of such a work. M.: e devoted 
the whole of his time to the troublesome task of correct« 
ing the press, and was repaid by the sentiment of ve- 
neration for the author with which he was penetrated ; 
and by the thanks which he received from him in a let- 
ter which I have had in my possession, and which M. la 
Grange had filled with expressions of his esteem and 
his gratitude. 
The book was not yet published when the author 
came to settle in Paris. Several causes determined him 
to take this step; but we must not give credit to all 
that have been stated.» The death of Frederick had oc- 
casioned great changes in Prussia, and still greater were 
to be apprehended. Philosophers were no longer so 
much respected as formerly. “It was natural for M. la 
Grange again to feel that desire which had former] 
condu' him to Paris. These causes, together with 
the publication of the Mecanique Analytique, were suffi- 
cient. It is not necessary to add other causes, which 
several publications that made their appearance in Ger- 
many, and particularly the anonymous historian of the 
court of Berlin, have noticed. We never, during a re- 
pa of 25 years in France, heard M, la Grange pre- 
r the slightest complaint against the minister, who is 
accused in that publication of having disgusted him by 
a treatment full of haughtiness and contempt, which, 
‘out of respect for himself, it was impossible for M. la 
Grange to a ea We might: see that ae 
Grange had sufficient generosity to et or mn 
bad treatment, which he punished in the only way wor- 
thy of himself, by leaving the country where his merit 
was overlooked'; but when he was directly questioned 
on that subject by a member of the Institute, (M. Burck- 
hardt,) he only gave negative answers, and assigned no 
other motives than the misfortunes which it was thought 
were about to fall upon Prussia. M.de Hertzberg was 
dead, and M. dela Grange, a senator and count of the 
empire, could have no interest in concealing the 
truth. Hence we must consider his own statement as 
affording the only true reasons, | 
histo therefore, whom we have quoted, has 
been ill informed, But the spirit of calumny and sa~ 
GRANGE. 
PGA yyealereradied Lier t6 iredupettoHe had com 
, ON a Analytique, Siekena to avons 
pitted at’ Puris, where hie-exjpeoteal ‘chat’ hie-formnlze 
tire, which has so justly rendered his work apenits 
ought not to prevent us from extracting from it the lines 
in which he explains, with that en which is pecu- 
liarly his own, his opinion, which is that of all Europe, 
when he does justice to M. la G 5 
“I think,” says he, ( Hist. Sec. de la Cour de Berlin, 
1789, tom. ii. page he “ that there is at this momerit 
an acquisition worthy of the king of France, the illuss 
trious La Grange, the greatest mathematician who has 
ap since Newton, and who in every point of view 
- theman Soto the most astonished me ;—LaG , 
e wisest, ani aps the only practical phil 
that ever eaieted tnecinocines by his unitietdebable tries 
dom, his manners, his conduct; the object of the most 
tender respect of the small number of men with whom 
he associates :—La Grange is misunderstood ; every 
thing leads him to leave a country where nothing ‘an 
excuse the crime of being a foreigner, and where in fact 
he is merely tolerated. Prince Cardito- de Laffredo; 
Neapolitan minister at C agen, offered him the most 
flattering conditions on the part of his sovereign. The 
Grand Duke, the’king of Sardinia, invited him eagerly ; 
but all their proposals would be easily oblicersted bee 
ours.’ I am very r to see this proposal made,’ be~ 
cause I consider it as noble, and because I tenderly love 
the man who is the object of it. I have induced M: 
la Grange not to accept immediately the proposals made 
to him, and to wait till he receives ours.” 
~ The author whom we quote: ap to fear the op- 
me of M. Breteuil ; but, according to M. la Grange 
imself, it was the Abbé Marie who it to M. 
Breteuil, who on all occasions anticipated the desires of 
the Academy of Sciences, presented the demand to- 
Louis XVI. and induced him to agree to it: 
The successor of Frederick, although he did not much 
interest himself in the sciences, made some difficulty in 
allowing a philosopher to depart whom his ecessor 
had invited! and whom he honoured with. eager 
lar esteem. ‘After'some delay,. M. la Grange obtained 
liberty to depart. ‘It was. stipulated that he should 
still give some memoirs:to the: Berlin Academy. °‘The 
volumes of 1792, 1793, and 1803, show that he faith- 
fully kept his promise. 
It was in 1787, that M. la Grange: came to Paris to 
take his seat in the Academy of Sciences, of which he 
had been a.foreign member-for fifteen years. To give 
him ~~ right of hw - all their deliberations, this title 
was changed into that of veteran’ pensionary.. His new 
associates shewed esa ye ae and in pos- 
sessing him. The queen im 
onto him as a Germian. He had: been recom- 
mended to her from- Vienna. He obtained a lodging 
in the: Louvre, where “he lived happy till the Revolu- 
tion. 
_ The satisfaction which he enjoyed did not show itself 
outwardly. Always affable and kind when in 
ted,*he himself spoke -but little, and appeared absent 
and melancholy. Often in companies which must have 
been suitable to his taste, among the mostydistinguish- 
ed men of all countries who met at the house of the il- 
lustrious Lavoisier, I have: seen him dreaming, as it 
were, with his head against'a window, where however 
nothing attracted his attention. He remained a stranger 
to what was passing around him. ‘Heacknowl him- 
self that his enthusiasm ‘was gone, that he lost his 
taste for mathematics. When informed that a mathe- 
matician was employed atsuch a task, “so much the 
better,” he would say ; “ I had begun it, now it will be 
unnecessary for me. to:finish it.” But he merely chan, 
451 
with regard, and - 
“se 
—— 
