Eulogy on Laplace: [Baden Powell] Smithsonian Report, 1874, p. 132.
[983]. The great masters of modern analysis are Lagrange, Laplace, and Gauss, who were contemporaries. It is interesting to note the marked contrast in their styles. Lagrange is perfect both in form and matter, he is careful to explain his procedure, and though his arguments are general they are easy to follow. Laplace on the other hand explains nothing, is indifferent to style, and, if satisfied that his results are correct, is content to leave them either with no proof or with a faulty one. Gauss is as exact and elegant as Lagrange, but even more difficult to follow than Laplace, for he removes every trace of the analysis by which he reached his results, and studies to give a proof which while rigorous shall be as concise and synthetical as possible.—Ball, W. W. R.
History of Mathematics (London, 1901), p. 463.
[984]. Lagrange, in one of the later years of his life, imagined that he had overcome the difficulty [of the parallel axiom]. He went so far as to write a paper, which he took with him to the Institute, and began to read it. But in the first paragraph something struck him which he had not observed: he muttered Il faut que j’y songe encore, and put the paper in his pocket.—De Morgan, A.
Budget of Paradoxes (London, 1872), p. 173.
[985]. I never come across one of Laplace’s “Thus it plainly appears” without feeling sure that I have hours of hard work before me to fill up the chasm and find out and show how it plainly appears.—Bowditch, N.
Quoted by Cajori: Teaching and History of Mathematics in the U. S. (Washington, 1896), p. 104.
[986]. Biot, who assisted Laplace in revising it [The Mécanique Céleste] for the press, says that Laplace himself was frequently unable to recover the details in the chain of reasoning, and if satisfied that the conclusions were correct, he was content to insert the constantly recurring formula, “Il est àisé a voir.”—Ball, W. W. R.
History of Mathematics (London, 1901), p 427.
[987]. It would be difficult to name a man more remarkable for the greatness and the universality of his intellectual powers than Leibnitz.—Mill, J. S.