Lagrange's Memoirs. 103 



the separation of so many brethren. Je ne sais, said he, pourquoi 

 Us m'ont conserve. But, without being total, it was difficult that 

 the suppresion should extend even to him. The more losses the 

 commission had suffered, the more its concerns was not to be de- 

 prived of the regard attached to the name of Lagrange. He was 

 known in other places wholly devoted to the sciences ; he had no 

 place in the civil order, or in the administration. The moderation 

 of his character had prevented him from expressing what he could 

 not keep himself from thinking in secret. But never shall I forget 

 the conversation that I had with him at this time. It was the next 

 day after that when an atrocious and absurd decision, shocking to 

 every one who had any idea of justice, had thrown the savans into 

 mourning, by smiting the most illustrious physical philosopher of Eu- 

 rope. // ne leur afaller qu' un moment, said he to me, pour f aire tom- 

 bercette tete, et cent annees peut-etre nesuffi,ront pas pourenreprcx/wtVe 

 une semblable. We wept together at the fatal consequences of the 

 dangerous experiment that the French had tried. Some time before, 

 we had held a conversation of the same sort in the study of Lavoi- 

 sier, on account of the process against the unfortunate Bailly. All 

 the futile projects of doing good, seemed to him equivocal proofs of 

 the greatness of the human mind ; Vouler vous le voir veritablement 

 grand; entrer dans le cabinet de Newton decomposant la lumiere, ou 

 devoilant le systeme du monde. 



Long since did he regret not having listened to those friends, that 

 in the beginning of our troubles, advised him to seek an asylum 

 which he could so easily have found. While the revolution appeared 

 to threaten only the treatment he enjoyed in France, he had neg- 

 lected that consideration for the curiosity of seeing, close at hand, 

 one of those grand convulsions which it would be always more pru- 

 dent to witness at a little distance. Tu Vas vouler, repeated he to 

 himself, as he confided to me his regrets. In vain had a special 

 decree, proposed by Dusejour in the constituent assembly, assured 

 him of the payment of his pension. In vain did they keep their 

 word. The depreciation of paper money sufficed to render this 

 decree illusory. He had been nominated member of the board of 

 consultation, charged to examine and reward useful inventions. He 

 was made, too, one of the directors of the mint. But this commis- 

 sion offered him few objects capable of fixing his attention, and could 

 not in any sense expel his uneasiness. They wished anew to draw 

 him to Berlin, and offered him his former living. He gave his con- 



