Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/50

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[2>" S. NO 3 .. JAN. 19. '5G.

critic as exclaiming, in a burst of indignation, the one of Charles, the other of William, "The Lord's Anointed, truly ! ! No ! A rude, barbarous ruler, a, mere Russian Bear ! "

The last line should be printed with a note of admiration after the words, "Lord's Anointed!" We now rate Quarles above Blackmore, but that Pope held them equally in contempt, we have sufficient proof. S. G. R.

ANECDOTE OF LAPLACE.

Under this title, in the Journal dcs Savons for 1850, M. Biot, then seventy -five years of age, gave an account of the benevolent encouragement of La- place towards a young aspirant to scientific fame. As this journal is but little read in England, the substance of the anecdote may be worthy of inser- tion in your columns. M. Biot gave his account in the character of a person about to make a long voyage, and anxious to pay his debts before setting out. It may be added that he has not yet, taken his departure, and if we may judge from the activity of mind shown in a recent account of Brewster's Life of Newton, in the same journal, he may remain in his place at the French Institute for many years yet.

The aspirant, of course, was M. Biot himself. The first introduction to Lnplace took place in what he calls an VIII. de la Pepubliqua Francaisc, premiere edition. He was then what he terms a tout petit Professor of Mathematics at Beauvais, forgetting that he was on the point of being nomi- nated an associate of the Institute. Fascinated with the Mecanique Celeste, so far as then pub- lished, he wrote to Laplace, without any introduc- tion, begging to have the sheets as fast as they were printed. Laplace politely answered that he would rather the public judged of the whole volume at once. M. Biot replied that he was not of the public which judged, but of the public which studied; and that he might hope, by working through the whole, to correct a few misprints. Lnplace yielded to -this inducement, and M. Biot, at each of his journeys to Paris, used to return the sheets with his corrections, and to receive help in his difficulties. These last generally oc- curred at places where the author had abbreviated a train of thought into " It is easy to sec ; " and M. Biot rememoers an occasion on which Laplace himself was nearly an hour in trying to recover what ho had hidden under the mysterious symbol, " 11 est aise de voir" The Mecanique Celeste may be presumed to be a difficult book : the reader will find it so, if he try. When a student at Cam- bridge, I asked a teacher of mine, who will per- Inps not remember it (if he should see this), what . were the existing h:;Ips to reading Laplace : he answered, " A few reams of paper and five hun- dred of the best quills."

A short time after personal acquaintance had thus commenced, M. Biot had the good fortune to find a method of applying what mathematicians now call equations of mixed differences to the direct and general solution of some problems which Euler had treated only indirectly. He took his solution to Laplace, who heard of it with some apparent surprise, examined the manuscript at- tentively, and pronounced that M. Biot had in- vented the true method. " But," said he, " the aperqus of further progress which you give at the end are seen from too great a distance. Do not go beyond the results you have obtained. You will probably find the subsequent analysis more difficult than you reckon on." After some re- sistance, M. Biot agreed to omit -this portion, ami Laplace desired him to present the memoir to the Institute the next day, and to dine with him after- wards. Accordingly, the next day, M. Biot read and explained his method at a meeting at which, among others, General Bonaparte was present. The paper gave satisfaction to all present, and La- place, Bonaparte (who took especial interest in every thing which came from a pupil of the Poly- technic School), and Lacroix, were appointed a committee of examination. M. Biot walked home with Laplace. When they arrived, Laplace took M. Biot into his cabinet, and producing sheets of paper yellow with age, showed him the very method which he thought he had been the first to invent. Laplace had been stopped at the point at which M. Biot left off, and had put the papers by, hoping at some future time to conquer the ulterior dif- ficulties which he had hinted to M. Biot might perhaps exist. He then required absolute silence on the subject, avoided, in the report, all allusion to what he had done, and would not allow M. Biot to give any hint of his own previous researches in the published memoir. In 1850, twenty-three years after Laplace's death, M. Biot felt himself at liberty to pay the debt of gratitude to his benefac- tor, in amanner which docs honour to both. M.

SCOTCH CHURCH, SWALLOW STREET, PICCADILLY.

The Scotch Church in Swallow Street, Picca- dilly, I do not find to be mentioned either by Cunningham or Tiinbs, and I therefore take the opportunity of communicating the following docu- ment, extracted from the Treasury Crown Lease Book (No. 1. p. 471.), which affords a complete history of the foundation of this church. The French Protestant Chapel, which Mr. Anderson, the petitioner, purchased, and converted into a Presbyterian meeting-house, was founded in the year 1692 ; it is mentioned in Weiss's History of the French Protestant Refugees, and referred to by Timbs in a note at p. G58., under the title Savoy.