chance has put into our hands some unpublished letters
of one of those men of genius, whom nature has endowed with the rare
faculty of seizing at a glance the salient points of an object, we may
be permitted to extract from them two or three brief and characteristic
appreciations of the _Mecanique Celeste_ and the _Traite des
Probabilites_.

On the 27th Vendemiaire in the year X., General Bonaparte, after having
received a volume of the _Mecanique Celeste_, wrote to Laplace in the
following terms:--"The first _six months_ which I shall have at my
disposal will be employed in reading your beautiful work." It would
appear that the words, the first _six months_, deprive the phrase of the
character of a common-place expression of thanks, and convey a just
appreciation of the importance and difficulty of the subject-matter.

On the 5th Frimaire in the year XI., the reading of some chapters of the
volume, which Laplace had dedicated to him, was to the general "a new
occasion for regretting, that the force of circumstances had directed
him into a career which removed him from the pursuit of science."

"At all events," added he, "I have a strong desire that future
generations, upon reading the _Mecanique Celeste_, shall not forget the
esteem and friendship which I have entertained towards its author."

On the 17th Prairial in the year XIII., the general, now become emperor,
wrote from Milan: "The _Mecanique Celeste_ appears to me destined to
shed new lustre on the age in which we live."

Finally, on the 12th of August, 1812, Napoleon, who had just received
the _Traite du Calcul des Probabilites_, wrote from Witepsk the letter
which we transcribe textually:--

"There was a time when I would have read with interest your _Traite du
Calcul des Probabilites_. For the present I must confine myself to
expressing to you the satisfaction which I experience every time that I
see you give to the world new works which serve to improve and extend
the most important of the sciences, and contribute to the glory of the
nation. The advancement and the improvement of mathematical science are
connected with the prosperity of the state."

I have now arrived at the conclusion of the task which I had imposed
upon myself. I shall be pardoned for having given so detailed an
exposition of the principal discoveries for which philosophy, astronomy,
and navigation are indebted to our geometers.

It has appeared to me that in thus tracing the glori