Lagrange' s Memoirs. 101 



to the Academy of Berlin. The volumes of 1792, 1793, and 1803, 

 prove that he was faithful to his promise. 



It was in 1787, that Lagrange came to Paris to take his seat in 

 the Academy of Sciences, of which for fifteen years he was associe 

 etranger. To give him the right of suffrage in all his deliberations, 

 this title was changed into that of peMsionnaire veteran. His new 

 fellows vied in appearing happy and glorious of possessing him : la 

 reine V accueillit avec bienveillance ; elle le considerait comme alle- 

 mand ; il lui avait etc recommande de Vienne. — Ou lui donna un 

 logement au Louvre ; il y vecut heureux jusgu^ a la revolution. The 

 satisfaction which he enjoyed appeared but little outwardly. Always 

 affable when interrogated, he was however under some constraint in 

 speaking, and seemed absent and melancholy ; often in a society which 

 must have been according to his taste, in the midst of those savans for 

 whose sake he had come from so great a distance — among the most 

 distinguished men of all countries who assembled whole weeks at the 

 house of the illustrious Lavoisier, I have seen him melancholy, and 

 standing up against a window where nothing could draw his atten- 

 tion. He there remained deaf to all that was said around him ; he 

 avowed himself, that his enthusiasm was quenched, and that he had 

 lost all taste for mathematical researches. If he learned that a geom- 

 eter was engaged on some work, " so much the better," said he, " I 

 began it, and shall be exempted from ending it." But this thinking 

 head could only change the object of its thoughts. Metaphysics, 

 the history of the human mind, that of different religions, the gene- 

 ral theory of languages, medicine, botany, shared his leisure. When 

 conversation turned upon subjects that seemed as if they must be 

 most foreign to him, we were struck with a sudden trait, a fine thought, 

 a deep view, that disclosed long reflections. Surrounded by chemists, 

 that had just reformed all the theories, and even the language of 

 their science, he grasped the current of their discoveries, gave to 

 facts previously isolated and inexplicable, that connection which the 

 different branches of mathematics have to each other ; he consented 

 to acquire knowledge that had formerly seemed so obscure to him, 

 and that had become as easy as algebra. We were astonished at 

 this comparison ; we thought it could come to the mind only of a 

 Lagrange. It appeared to us as simple as just. But it must be taken 

 in its real sense. Algebra, which presents so many insoluble prob- 

 lems; so many difficulties, against which all the efforts of Lagrange 

 himself, had just proved futile, could not appear so easy a study. 



