A PROPOSED PRIZE MEMOIR ON HEAT. 415 



handle to geometry ! " In matter of inventions, to attempt 

 to .dive into the future, is to prepare for one's self strik- 

 ing mistakes. One of the competitors, the great Euler, 

 took these words in their literal sense ; the reveries with 

 which his memoir abounds, are not compensated in. this 

 instance by any of those brilliant discoveries in analysis, 

 I had almost said of those sublime inspirations, which 

 were so familiar to him. Fortunately Euler appended 

 to his memoir a supplement truly worthy of his genius. 

 Father Lozeran de Fiesc and the Count of Crequi were 

 rewarded with the high honour of seeing their names in- 

 scribed beside that of the illustrious geometer, although 

 it would be impossible in the present day to discern in 

 their memoirs any kind of merit, not even that of polite- 

 ness, for the courtier said rudely to the Academy '. " the 

 question, which you have raised, interests only the curi- 

 osity of mankind." 



Among the competitors less favourably treated, we 

 perceive one of the greatest writers whom France has 

 produced ; the author of the Henriade. The memoir of 

 Voltaire was, no doubt, far from solving the problem 

 proposed ; but it was at least distinguished by elegance, 

 clearness, and precision of language ; I shall add, by a 

 severe style of argument ; for if the author occasionally 

 arrives at questionable results, it is only when he bor- 

 rows false data from the chemistry and physics of the 

 epoch, sciences which had just sprung into existence. 

 Moreover, the anti-Cartesian colour of some of the parts 

 of the memoir of Voltaire was calculated to find little 

 favour in a society, where Cartesianism, with its incom- 

 prehensible vortices, was everywhere held in high estima- 

 tion. 



We should have more difficulty in discovering the 



