The book was not yet published when the author came to settle in Paris. Several causes determined him to take this step; but we must not give credit to all that have been stated. The death of Frederick had occasioned great chan ges in Prussia, and still greater were to be apprehended. Philosophers were no longer so much respected as former ly. It was natural for M. la Grange again to feel that de sire which had formerly conducted him to Paris. These causes, together with the publication of the illecaniguc ?inalytiquc, were sufficient. It is not necessary to add other causes, which several publications that made their appearance in Germany, and particularly the anonymous historian of the court of Berlin, have noticed. We never, during a residence of 25 years in France, heard M. la Grange prefer the slightest complaint against the minis ter, who is accused in that publication of having disgusted him by a treatment hill of haughtiness and contempt, which, out of respect for himself, it was impossible for M. la Grange to overlook. We might suspect that M. la Grange had sufficient generosity to forget or pardon bad treatment, which he punished in the only way worthy of himself, by leaving the country where his merit was overlooked ; but when he was directly questioned on that subject by a member of the Institute, (M. Burckhardt,) he only gave negative answers, and assigned no other motives than the misfortunes which it was thought were about to fall upon Prussia. M. de Hertzberg was dead, and M. de la Grange, a senator and count of the French empire, could have no interest in concealing the truth. Hence we must consider his own statement as affording the only true reasons.
The historian, therefore, whom we have quoted, has been ill informed. But the spirit of calumny and satire, which has so justly rendered his work suspected, ought not to prevent us from extracting from it the lines, in which he explains, with that energy which is peculiarly his own, his opinion, which is that of all Europe, when he does justice to M. la Grange.
66 I think," says he, (Hist. Sec. de la Cour de Berlin, 1789, tom. ii. page 173) " that there is at this moment an acquisition worthy of the king of France, the illustrious La Grange, the greatest mathematician who has appeared since Newton, and who in every point of view is the man that has the most astonished me ;—La Grange, the wisest, and perhaps the only practical philosopher that ever exist ed, meritorious by his undisturbable wisdom, his manners, his conduct ; the object of the most tender respect of the small number of men with whom he associates:—La Grange is misunderstood ; every thing leads him to leave a country where nothing can excuse the crime of being a foreigner, and where in fact he is merely tolerated. Prince Cardito de Laffredo, Neapolitan minister at Copenhagen, offered him the most flattering conditions on the part of his sove reign. The Grand Duke, the king of Sardinia, invited him eagerly ; but all their proposals would be easily obliterated by ours. I am very eager to see this proposal made, be cause I consider it as noble, and because I tenderly love the man who is the object of it. I have induced M. la Grange not to accept immediately the proposals made to him, and to wait till he receives ours?' The author whom we quote appears to fear the opposi tion of M. Brcteuil ; but, according to M. la Grange him self, it was the Abbe Marie who proposed it to M. Breteuil, who on all occasions anticipated the desires of the Acade my of Sciences, presented the demand to Louis XVI. and induced him to agree to it.
The successor of Fredorick, although he did not much interest himself in the sciences, made some difficulty in al lowing a philosopher to depart whom his prodecessor had invited, and whom he honoured with his particular esteem.
After some delay, M. la GrangoiRitained liberty to depart. It was stipulated that he should still give some memoirs to the Berlin Academy. The volumes of 1792,1793, and 1803, show that he faithfully kept his promise.
It was in 1787, that M. la Grange came to Paris to take his seat in the Academy of Sciences, of which he had been a foreign member for fifteen years. To give him the right of voting in all their deliberations, this title was changed into that of veteran pensionary. His new associates sheav ed themselves happy and proud in possessing him. The queen treated him with regard, and considered him as a German. He had been recommended to her from Vienna. He obtained a lodging in the Louvre, where he lived hap py till the Revolution.
The satisfaction which he enjoyed did not show itself outwardly. Always affable and kind when interrogated, he himself spoke but little, and appeared absent and melan choly. Often in companies which must have been suitable to his taste, among the most distinguished men of all coun tries who met at the house of the illustrious Lavoisier, I have seen him dreaming, as it were, with his head against a window, where however nothing attracted his attention. He remained a stranger to what was passing around him. He acknowledged himself that his enthusiasm was gone, that he had lost his taste for mathematics. When inform ed that a mathematician was employed at such a task," so much the better," be would say ; " I had begun it, now it will be unnecessary for me to finish it." But he merely changed the object of his studies. Metaphysics, the his tory of human nature, that of different religions, the gene ral theory of languages, medicine, botany, divided his lei sure hours. When the conversation turned upon subjects with which it was supposed lie was unacquainted, we were struck by an unexpected observation, a fine thought, a pro found view, which excited long reflections. Surrounded by chemists who were reforming the theory and even the language of the science, he made himself acquainted with their discoveries, which gave to facts formerly isolated that connection which distinguishes the different parts of ma thematics. He undertook to make himself acquainted with this branch of knowledge, which formerly appeared to him so obscure, but which he found on trial as easy as algebra. People have been surprised at this comparison, and have thought that it could come from no one else titan La Grange. It appears to us as simple as just ; but it must be taken in its true sense. Algebra, which presents so many insoluble problems, so many difficulties against which La Grange himself struggled in vain, could not in that sense appear to him an easy study. But he compares the new elements of chemistry with those of algebra. They constituted a body, they were intelligible, they offered more certainty ; they resembled algebra, which in the part of it that is complete presents nothing difficult to concieve, no truth to which we may not arrive by the most palpable reasoning. The commencement of the science of chemistry appeared to him to offer the same advantages, perhaps with somewhat less stability and certainty ; but, like algebra, it has no doubt also its difficulties, its paradoxes, which will require, to explain them, much sagacity, reflection, and time. It has likewise its problems which never will be resolved.