Laplace's personality seems to have been less attractive than that of Lagrange. He was vain of his reputation as a mathematician and not always generous to rival discoverers. To Lagrange, however, he was always friendly, and he was also kind in helping young mathematicians of promise. While he was perfectly honest and courageous in upholding his scientific and philosophical opinions, his politics bore an undoubted resemblance to those of the Vicar of Bray, and were professed by him with great success. He was appointed a member of the Commission for Weights and Measures, and afterwards of the Bureau des Longitudes, and was made professor at the École Normale when it was founded. When Napoleon became First Consul, Laplace asked for and obtained the post of Home Secretary, but—fortunately for science—was considered quite incompetent, and had to retire after six weeks (1799)[1]; as a compensation he was made a member of the newly created Senate. The third volume of the Mécanique Céleste, published in 1802, contained a dedication to the "Heroic Pacificator of Europe," at whose hand he subsequently received various other distinctions, and by whom he was created a Count when the Empire was formed. On the restoration of the Bourbons in 1814 he tendered his services to them, and was subsequently made a Marquis. In 1816 he also received a very unusual honour for a mathematician (shared, however, by D'Alembert) by being elected one of the Forty "Immortals" of the Académie Française; this distinction he seems to have owed in great part to the literary excellence of the Système du Monde.
Notwithstanding these distractions he worked steadily at mathematics and astronomy, and even after the completion of the Mécanique Céleste wrote a supplement to it which was published after his death (1827).
His last words, "Ce que nous connaissons est peu de chose, ce que nous ignorons est immense," coming as they did from one who had added so much to knowledge, shew his character in a pleasanter aspect than it sometimes presented during his career.
- ↑ The fact that the post was then given by Napoleon to his brother Lucien suggests some doubts as to the unprejudiced character of the verdict of incompetence pronounced by Napoleon against Laplace.
