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OBITUARY.
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M . Laplace . This celebrated geometrician was at the period of his death entering his seventy-ninth year . He was the son of a gardener , and was born at Beaumonten-Auge , near Pont l'Ev&que , ou the 27 th- March , 1749 . After having for some time studied mathematics in the
military school of that town , he went to Paris , where his talents obtained him some powerful patrons . He succeeded Bezont as inspector of the royal artillery corps , became a member of the Academy of Sciences , and subsequently of the
Institute , and of the Board of Longitude . He filled no public situation before the 18 th Brumaire , at which period he was nominated Ministre de PInte * rieur ; but he retained this post Only six weeks , being then called to the senate . In 1814 , he was made a member of the Chambfe
des Pairs . We abstain from any remarks ou his political life , for M . Laplace was not a political character , and he Would never have fixed public attention , but from his previous renown * We shall , therefore , consider him only as a philo * sopher , and shall give a brief summary of those labours which have placed him first in the rank of those of whom France has reason to be proud .
In 1796 , appeared the Exposition of the Mundane System , a celebrated work , which , even in a literary point of view , is a masterpiece , for its elegant simplicity of style , and for the clearness with which the author has given the most abstruse demonstrations . Among the number of new and important results which this book contains , we must
remark especially the explanation of the courses of Saturn and Jupiter . These two planets , in fact , present so singular an inequality in their motion , that some astronomers have founded upon it an objection to the theory of attraction , While others , in attempting to explain it by that theory * have considered themselves under the necessity of admitting the existence of a celestial body , invisible , yet of
vast dimensions * whose influence" had the power of causing an irregularity in the motion of the two planets . It is true that since the epoch of this conjecture , Hefschel has discovered the planet which bears his name , but the distance of this body renders it Incapable of producing such a perturbation ; and it was reserved for M . Laplace to shew , by a more rigorous ' calculation of the mutual effects of
the attraction of Jupiter and Saturn , that the remarkable inequality observable in their movements ! far from furnishing an
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objection to the theory of attraction , presents , On the contrary ., a striking conr hrmation of its truth . Every body is aware of the precision with which astronomers can now determine the elevation of the tides , for any , distant period whatever , and every body is aware , too , that we are indebted to M . Laplace for this admirable acquisition . Newton had demonstrated , it is true , although rather vaguely , that the phenomenon of the tides is the result of the
attraction of the moon ; but he furnished no means of calculating exactly to what height the tides would rise in every given , position of the planets . M . Laplace , by ; reducing to calculation the influence of the planets on the sea , has rendered the world a service analogous to that of D'Alembert , relative to the calculation of the precession of the equinoxes . In both
cases , the question related to a blank left by Newton , which genius alone could supply . The science of physics is not less indebted than astronomy to M . Laplace ; he has , in particular , enriched it with one important truth : we allude to the pains which he has taken to demonstrate , that the particles of bodies affect each
other , by means of forces different from those which govern the attraction of large masses , —of forces to which the law of attraction , varying inversely as the squares of the distance , is inapplicable . The hunlan mind has so strong a teudency to generalize ideas—the adoption of a single principle is so favourable to the natural indolence of the mind , that it has ever
been the fate of the greatest discoverers to lead to error , by being exaggerated . Thus the followers of Descartes were desirous of explaining every thing by a single principle of action , impact . At a later period , Newton demonstrated tlmr , in addition to that unquestionable force , it was impossible not to allow the existence of another , viz . attraction , the influence of which acts in the inverse ratio
of the square of the distance , and from that period this was the ouly accepted theory . M . Laplace opened a new way , by demonstrating that there are powers which decrease much more rapidly than attraction , and bo much so , as to become insensible at any assignable distance . The most evident of these forces is the
molecular attraction ; and the true theory of capillary attraction , the credit of which is due entirel y to M . Laplace , is an application of his ideas upon this subject . M . Lftplaee had the the honour , while yet very young , of sharing the l&bcmra of
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( 375 )
Obituary.
OBITUARY .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1827, page 375, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1796/page/63/
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