OF
FIRST SERIES.
BOSTON:
TICKNOR AND FIELDS.
M DCCC LIX.
PRINTED BY H.O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY.
The present volume of the series of English translations of M. Arago'sworks consists of his own autobiography and a selection of some of hismemoirs of eminent scientific men, both continental and British.
It does not distinctly appear at what period of his life Arago composedthe autobiography, but it bears throughout the characteristic stamp ofhis ardent and energetic disposition. The reader will, perhaps, hardlysuppress a smile at the indications of self-satisfaction with whichseveral of the incidents are brought forward, while the air of romancewhich invests some of the adventures may possibly give rise to somesuspicion of occasional embellishment; on these points, however, weleave each reader to judge for himself. In relation to the history ofscience, this memoir gives some interesting particulars, which discloseto us much of the interior spirit of the Academy of Sciences, not alwaysof a kind the most creditable to some of Arago's former contemporaries.
But a far higher interest will be found to belong to those eloquentmemoirs, or éloges of eminent departed men of science, who had attainedthe distinction of being members of the Academy.
In these the reader will find a luminous, eminently simple, and popularaccount of the discoveries of each of those distinguished individuals,of a kind constituting in fact a brief history of the particular branchof science to which he was devoted. And in the selection included in thepresent volume, which constitutes but a portion of the entire series, wehave comprised the accounts of men of such varied pursuits as to conveyno inadequate impression of the progress of discovery throughout aconsiderable range of the whole field of the physical sciences withinthe last half century.
The account given by the author, of the principal discoveries made bythe illustrious subjects of his memoirs, is in general very luminous,but at the same time presupposes a familiarity with some parts ofscience which may not really be possessed by all readers. For the sakeof a considerable class, then, we have taken occasion, wherever the useof new technical terms or other like circumstances seemed to require it,to introduce original notes and commentaries, sometimes of considerableextent, by the aid of which we trust the scientific principles advertedto in the text will be rendered easily intelligible to the generalreader.
In some few instances also we have found ourselves called upon to adopta more critical tone; where we were disposed to dissent from the viewtaken by the author on particular questions of a controversial kind, orwhen he is arguing in support, or in refutation, of opposing theories onsome points of science not yet satisfactorily cleared up.
We could have wished that our duty as translators and editors had notextended beyond such mere occasional scientific or literary criticism.But there unfortunately seemed to be one or two points where, inpronouncing on the claims of distinguished individuals, or criticizingtheir inventions, a doubt could not but be felt as to the perfectfairness of Arago's judgment, and in which we were constrained toexpress an unfavourable opinion on