d'alembert. 273 



492. There is some additional matter in the essay. D'Alem- 

 bert notices the calculation of Daniel Bernoulli relative to the 

 small inclination to the ecliptic of the orbits of the planets ; 

 see Art. 394. D'Alembert considers Daniel Bernoulli's result 

 as worthless. 



DAlembert says with respect to Daniel Bernoulli, 



Ce qu'il y a de singulier, c'est que ce grand geometre dont je parle, 

 a trouve ridicules, du moins ^ ce qu'on m'assure, mes raisonnemens 

 sur le calcul des 2^Tobahilites. 



493. D'Alembert introduces an illustration which Laplace 

 afterwards adopted. D'Alembert supposes that we see on a table 

 the letters which form the word Constantinojyolitanensibus, ar- 

 ranged in this order, or arranged in alphabetical order ; and he 

 says that although mathematically these distributions and a third 

 case in which the letters follow at hazard are equally possible, 

 yet a man of sense would scarcely doubt that the first or second 

 distribution had not been produced by chance. See Laplace, 

 Theorie . . . des Proh. page xi. 



494. D'Alembert quotes the article Fatalite in the Ency do- 

 pe die, as supporting him at least partially in one of the opinions 

 which he maintained ; namely that which we have noticed in the 

 latter part of our Art. 474. The name of the writer of the article 

 Fatalite is not given in the Encyclopedia. 



495. The other essay Avhich we find in the first volume 

 of the edition of D'Alembert's literary and philosophical works 

 of 1821, is entitled Reflexions sur T Inoculation ; it occupies 

 pages 463 — 514. 



In the course of the preface D'Alembert refers to the fourth 

 volume of his Opuscules. The fourth volume of the Opuscules is 

 dated 1768 ; in the preface to it D'Alembert refers to his Me- 

 langes de Philosophie, Vol. V. 



We may perhaps infer that the fifth volume of the Melanges.,, 

 and the fourth volume of the Opuscules appeared at about the 

 same date. 



496. The essay may be said to consist of the same matter 



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