106 Lagrange's Memoirs. 



him. About the end of March fever showed itself, appetite departed, 

 sleep troubled him, his mouth was parched and he underwent alarm- 

 ing swoons, especially when he awoke in the morning. He felt his 

 danger; but keeping his imperturbable serenity, he studied what was 

 going on within him ; and, as if he had only to aid in a grand and 

 rare experiment, he gave to it all his attention. His remarks have 

 not been lost. Friendship brought to him, the 8th April, in the 

 morning, MM. Lacepede and Monge, and M. Chaptal, who con- 

 sidered it a religious duty to collect the principal traits of a conver- 

 sation that was his last. We have followed scrupulously all the in- 

 dications it contains, and the passages that we have italicized in 

 another quotation, are faithfully copied from the manuscript of M. 

 le Comte Chaptal. 



He received them with tenderness and cordiality. J'ai ete Men 

 mal avant hier, mes amis, said he to them, je me sentais mourir ; 

 mon corps s' affaiblissait peu-d-peu, mes facultes morales et physi- 

 ques s' eteignaient insensiblement ; j'observais avec plaisir la pro- 

 gression bien graduee de la diminution de mes forces, et f arrivals 

 au terme sans douleur, sans regrets, et par une pente bien douce. 

 Oh ! la mort ri'est pas a redouter, et lorsqu' elle vient sans douleur, 

 c'est une derniere fonction qui n'est ni penible ni desagreable. 

 Then he explained to them his ideas about life, of which he believed 

 the seat was every where, in all the organs, in the whole mass of 

 the machine, which in his case decayed equally throughout, and by 

 the same degrees. Q;uelques instans de plus, il n'y avait plus de 

 fonctions nulls part, la mort etait par-tout ; la mort n'est que le re- 

 pos absolu du corps. 



Je voulais mourir, added he with more strength, oui, je voulais 

 mourir, et fy trouvais du plaisir ; mais ma femme n'a pas vouler : 

 f eusse prefere en ces momens une femme moins bonne, moins em- 

 pressee a reanimer mes forces, et qui m'eut laisse finir doucement. 

 J'ai fourni ma carriere ; fai acquis quelque celebrite dans les 

 mathematiques. Je n'ai hdi personne, je n' ai point fait de mal, et 

 il faut bien finir : mais ma femme n'a pas vouler. 



As he was very animated, especially at these last words, his 

 friends, notwithstanding all the interest they took in hearing him, 

 wished to v.ithdraw. He began to give them the history of his life^ 

 of his labors, of his success, of his sojourn at Berlin, (where many 

 times he has told us that he had seen close at hand un roi,) of his 

 arrival at Paris, of the tranquillity which he had at first enjoyed, of 



