A
Huntress
of the eyes, by night-time came; and I cried,
"Turn in peace!
"Turn in peace!
Warner - World's Best Literature - v02 - Aqu to Bag
Verily they who read the book of GOD, and are con-
stant at prayer, and give alms out of what we have bestowed on
them, both in secret and openly, hope for a merchandise which
shall not perish: that God may fully pay them their wages, and
make them a superabundant addition of his liberality; for he is
ready to forgive the faults of his servants, and to requite their
endeavors. That which we have revealed unto thee of the book
of the Korán is the truth, confirming the scriptures which were
revealed before it: for GOD knoweth and regardeth his servants.
And we have given the book of the Korán in heritage unto such
of our servants as we have chosen: of them there is one who
injureth his own soul; and there is another of them who keepeth
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the middle way; and there is another of them who outstrippeth
others in good works, by the permission of GOD. This is the
great excellence. They shall be introduced into gardens of per-
petual abode; they shall be adorned therein with bracelets of gold
and pearls, and their clothing therein shall be of silk: and they
shall say, Praise be unto GOD, who hath taken away sorrow from
us! verily our LORD is ready to forgive the sinners, and to
reward the obedient: who hath caused us to take up our rest in a
dwelling of eternal stability, through his bounty, wherein no labor
shall touch us, neither shall any weariness affect us. But for the
unbelievers is prepared the fire of hell: it shall not be decreed
them to die a second time; neither shall any part of the punish-
ment thereof be made lighter unto them. Thus shall every infi-
del be rewarded. And they shall cry out aloud in hell, saying,
LORD, take us hence, and we will work righteousness, and not
what we have formerly wrought. But it shall be answered
them, Did we not grant you lives of length sufficient, that who-
ever would be warned might be warned therein; and did not
the preacher come unto you? Taste therefore the pains of hell.
And the unjust shall have no protector. Verily GOD knoweth
the secrets both of heaven and earth, for he knoweth the inner-
most parts of the breasts of men.
It is he who hath made you
to succeed in the earth. Whoever shall disbelieve, on him be his
unbelief; and their unbelief shall only gain the unbelievers greater
indignation in the sight of their LORD; and their unbelief shall
only increase the perdition of the unbelievers. Say, what think
ye of your deities which ye invoke besides GOD? Show me
what part of the earth they have created. Or had they any share
in the creation of the heavens? Have we given unto the idola-
ters any book of revelations, so that they may rely on any proof
therefrom to authorize their practice? Nay; but the ungodly
make unto one another only deceitful promises. Verily GOD
sustaineth the heavens and the earth, lest they fail: and if they
should fail,
none could support the same besides him; he is gra-
cious and merciful.
The Koreish swore by GOD, with a most
solemn oath, that if a preacher had come unto them, they would
surely have been more willingly directed than any nation: but
preacher is come unto them, it hath only increased in
them their aversion from the truth, their arrogance in the earth,
and their contriving of evil; but the contrivance of evil shall only
encompass the authors thereof. Do they expect any other than
now a
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the punishment awarded against the unbelievers of former times?
For thou shalt not find any change in the ordinance of GOD;
neither shalt thou find any variation in the ordinance of GOD.
Have they not gone through the earth, and seen what hath been
the end of those who were before them; although they were
more mighty in strength than they? GOD is not to be frustrated
by anything either in heaven or on earth; for he is wise and
powerful. If GOD should punish men according to what they
deserve, he would not leave on the back of the earth so much as
a beast; but he respiteth them to a determined time; and when
their time shall come, verily GOD will regard his servants.
CHAPTER LV. : INTITLED "THE MERCIFUL. "
REVEALED AT MECCA
IN THE name of the most merciful GOD. The Merciful hath
taught his servant the Korân. He created man: he hath taught
him distinct speech. The sun and the moon run their courses
according to a certain rule: and the vegetables which creep on
the ground, and the trees submit to his disposition. He also
raised the heaven; and he appointed the balance, that ye should
not transgress in respect to the balance: wherefore observe a
just weight; and diminish not the balance. And the earth hath
he prepared for living creatures: therein are various fruits, and
palm-trees bearing sheaths of flowers; and grain having chaff,
and leaves. Which, therefore, of your LORD'S benefits will ye
ungratefully deny? He created man of dried clay like an earthen
vessel: but he created the genii of fire clear from smoke. Which,
therefore, of your LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully deny?
He is the LORD of the east, and the LORD of the west. Which,
therefore, of your LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully deny?
He hath let loose the two seas, that they meet each another:
between them is placed a bar which they cannot pass. Which,
therefore, of your LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully deny?
From them are aken forth unions and lesser pearls. Which,
therefore, of your LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully deny?
His also are the ships, carrying their sails aloft in the sea like.
mountains. Which, therefore, of your LORD'S benefits will ye
ungratefully deny? Every creature which liveth on the earth is
subject to decay: but the glorious and honorable countenance of
thy LORD shall remain for ever. Which, therefore, of your
LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully deny? Unto him do all
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creatures which are in heaven and earth make petition; every
day is he employed in some new work. Which, therefore, of your
LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully deny? We will surely
attend to judge you, O men and genii, at the last day. Which,
therefore, of your LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully deny?
O ye collective body of genii and men, if ye be able to pass out
of the confines of heaven and earth, pass forth: ye shall not pass
forth but by absolute power. Which, therefore, of your LORD'S
benefits will ye ungratefully deny? A flame of fire without
smoke, and a smoke without flame shall be sent down upon you;
and ye shall not be able to defend yourselves therefrom. Which,
therefore, of your LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully deny?
And when the heaven shall be rent in sunder, and shall become
red as a rose, and shall melt like ointment: (Which, therefore, of
your LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully deny? ) On that day
neither man nor genius shall be asked concerning his sin. Which,
therefore, of your LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully deny?
The wicked shall be known by their marks; and they shall be
taken by the forelocks, and the feet, and shall be cast into hell.
Which, therefore, of your LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully
deny? This is hell which the wicked deny as a falsehood: they
shall pass to and fro between the same and hot boiling water.
Which, therefore, of your LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully
deny? But for him who dreadeth the tribunal of his LORD are
prepared two gardens: (Which, therefore, of your LORD'S bene-
fits will ye ungratefully deny ? ) In each of them shall be two
fountains flowing. Which, therefore, of your LORD'S benefits
will ye ungratefully deny? In each of them shall there be of
every fruit two kinds. Which, therefore, of your LORD'S bene-
fits will ye ungratefully deny? They shall repose on couches,
the linings whereof shall be of thick silk interwoven with gold;
and the fruit of the two gardens shall be near at hand to gather.
Which, therefore, of your LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully
deny? Therein shall receive them beauteous damsels, refraining
their eyes from beholding any besides their spouses: whom no
man shall have deflowered before them, neither any Jinn:
(Which, therefore, of your LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully
deny? ) Having complexions like rubies and pearls. Which, there-
fore, of your LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully deny? Shall
the reward of good works be any other good? Which, therefore,
of your LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully deny? And besides
these there shall be two other gardens: (Which, therefore, of
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ARABIC LITERATURE
your LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully deny? ) Of a dark
green. Which, therefore, of your LORD'S benefits will ye
ungratefully deny? In each of them shall be two fountains pour-
ing forth plenty of water. Which, therefore, of your LORD'S
benefits will ye ungratefully deny? In each of them shall be
fruits, and palm-trees, and pomegranates. Which, therefore, of
your LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully deny? Therein shall
be agreeable and beauteous damsels: Which, therefore, of your
LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully deny? Whom no man
shall have deflowered before their destined spouses, nor any Jinn.
Which, therefore, of your LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully
deny? Therein shall they delight themselves, lying on green cush-
ions and beautiful carpets. Which, therefore, of your LORD'S
benefits will ye ungratefully deny? Blessed be the name of thy
LORD, possessed of glory and honor!
CHAPTER LXXXIV. : INTITLED "THE RENDING IN SUNDER. " REVEALED
AT MECCA
IN THE
name of the most merciful GOD. When the heaven
shall be rent in sunder, and shall obey its LORD, and shall be
capable thereof; and when the earth shall be stretched out, and
shall cast forth that which is therein, and shall remain empty,
and shall obey its LORD, and shall be capable thereof: O man,
verily laboring thou laborest to meet thy LORD, and thou shalt
meet him. And he who shall have his book given into his right
hand shall be called to an easy account, and shall turn unto his
family with joy: but he who shall have his book given him
behind his back shall invoke destruction to fall upon him, and he
shall be sent into hell to be burned; because he rejoiced inso-
lently amidst his family on earth. Verily he thought he should
never return unto God: yea verily, but his LORD beheld him.
Wherefore I swear by the redness of the sky after sunset, and
by the night, and the animals which it driveth together, and by
the moon when she is in the full; ye shall surely be transferred
successively from state to state. What aileth them, therefore,
that they believe not the resurrection; and that, when the Korân
is read unto them, they worship not? Yea: the unbelievers
accuse the same of imposture: but GOD well knoweth the malice
which they keep hidden in their breasts. Wherefore denounce
unto them a grievous punishment, except those who believe and
do good works: for them is prepared a never-failing reward.
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W*
THE PRAYER OF AL-HARIRI
From the 'Makamat' of al-Hariri of Basra: Translation of Theodore Preston
E PRAISE thee, O God,
For whatever perspicuity of language thou hast taught us,
And whatever eloquence thou hast inspired us with,
As we praise thee
For the bounty which thou hast diffused,
And the mercy which thou hast spread abroad:
And we pray thee to guard us
From extravagant expressions and frivolous superfluities
As we pray Thee to guard us
From the shame of incapacity and the disgrace of hesitation:
And we entreat thee to exempt us from temptation
By the flattery of the admirer or connivance of the indulgent,
As we entreat thee to exempt us from exposure
To the slight of the detractor or aspersion of the defamer:
And we ask thy forgiveness
Should our frailties betray us into ambiguities,
As we ask thy forgiveness
Should our steps advance to the verge of improprieties:
And we beg thee freely to bestow
Propitious succor to lead us aright,
And a heart turning in unison with truth,
And a language adorned with veracity,
And style supported by conclusiveness,
And accuracy that may exclude incorrectness,
And firmness of purpose that may overcome caprice,
And sagacity whereby we may attain discrimination;
That thou wilt aid us by thy guidance unto right conceptions,
And enable us with thy help to express them with clearness,
And thou wilt guard us from error in narration,
And keep us from folly even in pleasantry,
So that we may be safe from the censure of sarcastic tongues,
And secure from the fatal effects of false ornament,
And may not resort to any improper source,
And occupy no position that would entail regret,
Nor be assailed by any ill consequences or blame,
Nor be constrained to apology for inconsideration.
O God, fulfill for us this our desire,
And put us in possession of this our earnest wish,
And exclude us not from thy ample shade,
Nor leave us to become the prey of the devourer:
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For we stretch to thee the hand of entreaty,
And profess entire submission to thee, and contrition of spirit,
And seek with humble supplication and appliances of hope
The descent of thy vast grace and comprehensive bounty.
THE WORDS OF HARETH IBN-HAMMAM
From the Makamat' of al-Hariri of Barra: Translation of Theodore Preston
ON
NA night whose aspect displayed both light and shade,
And whose moon was like a magic circlet of silver,
I was engaged in evening conversation at Koufa
With companions who had been nourished on the milk of eloquence,
So the charms of conversation fascinated us,
While wakefulness still prevailed among us,
Until the moon had at length disappeared in the West.
But when the gloom of night had thus drawn its curtain,
And nothing but slumber remained abroad,
We heard from the door the low call of a benighted traveler,
And then followed the knock of one seeking admission;
And we answered, "Who comes here this darksome night? »
And the stranger replied:-
·-
"Listen ye who here are dwelling!
May you so be kept from ill!
So may mischief ne'er befall you,
Long as life your breast shall fill!
Gloom of dismal night and dreary
Drives a wretch to seek your door,
Whose disheveled hoary tresses
All with dust are sprinkled o'er;
Who, though destitute and lonely,
Far has roamed on hill and dale,
Till his form became thus crooked,
And his cheek thus deadly pale;
Who, though faint as slender crescent,
Ventures here for aid to sue,
Hospitable meal and shelter
Claiming first of all from you.
Welcome then to food and dwelling
One so worthy both to share,
Sure to prove content and thankful,
Sure to laud your friendly care. "
Fascinated then by the sweetness of his language and delivery,
And readily inferring what this prelude betokened,
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699
·
We hasted to open the door, and received him with welcome,
Saying to the servant, "Hie! Hie! Bring whatever is ready! »
But the stranger said, "By Him who brought me to your abode,
I will not taste of your hospitality, unless you pledge to me
That you will not permit me to be an incumbrance to you,
Nor impose on yourselves necessity of eating on my account. "
Now it was just as if he had been informed of our wishes,
Or had shot from the same bow as our sentiments;
So we gratified him by acceding to the condition,
And highly commended him for his accommodating disposition.
But when the servant had produced what was ready,
And the candle was lighted up in the midst of us,
I regarded him attentively, and lo! it was Abu-Zeid;
Whereupon I addressed my companions in these words: —
"May you have joy of the guest who has repaired to you:
For though the moon of the heavens has set,
The full moon of poetry has arisen;
And though the moon of the eclipse has disappeared,
The full moon of eloquence has shone forth. "
So the wine of joy infused itself into them,
And sleep flew away from the corners of their eyes,
And they rejected the slumber which they had contemplated,
And began to resume the pleasantry which they had laid aside,
While Abu-Zeid remained intent on the business in hand.
―――――
But as soon as he desired the removal of what was before him,
I said to him, "Entertain us with one of thy strange anecdotes,
Or with an account of one of thy wonderful journeys. "
And he said: "The result of long journeys brought me to this land,
Myself being in a state of hunger and distress,
And my wallet light as the heart of the mother of Moses;
So I arose, when dark night had settled on the world,
Though with weary feet, to seek a lodging, or obtain a loaf;
Till, being driven on by the instigation of hunger,
And by fate, so justly called 'the parent of adventures,'
I stood at the door of a house and improvised these words:
-
"Inmates of this abode, all hail! all hail!
Long may you live in plenty's verdant vale.
Oh, grant your aid to one by toil opprest,
Way-worn, benighted, destitute, distrest;
Whose tortured entrails only hunger hold
(For since he tasted food two days are told);
A wretch who finds not where to lay his head,
Though brooding night her weary wing hath spread,
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ARABIC LITERATURE
But roams in anxious hope a friend to meet,
Whose bounty, like a spring of water sweet,
May heal his woes; a friend who straight will say,
"Come in! 'Tis time thy staff aside to lay. ">
"But there came out to me a boy in a short tunic, who said:-
"By Him who hospitable rites ordained,
And first of all, and best, those rites maintained,
I swear that friendly converse and a home
Is all we have for those who nightly roam. '
"And I replied, 'What can I do with an empty house,
And a host who is himself thus utterly destitute?
But what is thy name, boy? for thy intelligence charms me. '
He replied, 'My name is Zeid, and I was reared at Faid;
And my mother Barrah (who is such as her name implies),
Told me she married one of the nobles of Serong and Ghassân,
Who deserted her stealthily, and there was an end of him. '
Now I knew by these distinct signs that he was my child,
But my poverty deterred me from discovering myself to him. "
Then we asked if he wished to take his son to live with him;
And he replied, "If only my purse were heavy enough,
It would be easy for me to undertake the charge of him. "
So we severally undertook to contribute a portion of it,
Whereupon he returned thanks for this our bounty,
And was so profusely lavish in his acknowledgments,
That we thought his expression of gratitude excessive.
And as soon as he had collected the coin into his scrip,
He looked at me as the deceiver looks at the deceived,
And laughed heartily, and then indited these lines:-
"O thou who, deceived
By a tale, hast believed
A mirage to be truly a lake,
―
Though I ne'er had expected
My fraud undetected,
Or doubtful my meaning to make!
I confess that I lied
When I said that my bride
And my first-born were Barrah and Zeid;
But guile is my part,
And deception my art,
And by these are my gains ever made.
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701
Such schemes I devise
That the cunning and wise
Never practiced the like or conceived;
Nor Asmai nor Komait
Any wonders relate
Like those that my wiles have achieved.
But if these I disdain,
I abandon my gain,
And by fortune at once am refused:
Then pardon their use,
And accept my excuse,
Nor of guilt let my guile be accused. "
Then he took leave of me, and went away from me,
Leaving in my heart the embers of lasting regret.
THE CALIPH OMAR BIN ABD AL-AZIZ AND THE POETS
A Semi-Poetical Tale: Translation of Sir Richard Burton, in Supplemental
Nights to the Book of The Thousand Nights and A Night
I'
T IS said that when the Caliphate devolved on Omar bin Abd
al-Aziz, (of whom Allah accept! ) the poets resorted to him,
as they had been used to resort to the Caliphs before him,
and abode at his door days and days; but he suffered them
not to enter till there came to him 'Adi bin Artah, who stood
high in esteem with him. Jarir [another poet] accosted him, and
begged him to crave admission for them to the presence; so
'Adi answered, "Tis well," and going in to Omar, said to him,
"The poets are at thy door, and have been there days and days;
yet hast thou not given them leave to enter, albeit their sayings
abide, and their arrows from the mark never fly wide. " Quoth
Omar, "What have I to do with the poets? " And quoth 'Adi,
"0 Commander of the Faithful, the Prophet (Abhak! ) was praised
by a poet, and gave him largesse-and in him is an exemplar to
every Moslem. ” Quoth Omar, "And who praised him? " And
quoth 'Adi, "Abbás bin Mirdás praised him, and he clad him with
a suit and said, 'O Generosity! Cut off from me his tongue! '"
Asked the Caliph, "Dost thou remember what he said? " And
'Adi answered, "Yes. " Rejoined Omar, "Then repeat it;" so
'Adi repeated:-
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"I saw thee, O thou best of the human race, | Bring out a book
which brought to graceless, grace.
Thou showedst righteous road to men astray | From right, when
darkest wrong had ta'en its place:-
Thou with Islâm didst light the gloomiest way, | Quenching
with proof live coals of frowardness:
I own for Prophet, my Mohammed's self, and men's award
upon his word we base.
Thou madest straight the path that crooked ran | Where in old
days foul growth o'ergrew its face.
Exalt be thou in Joy's empyrean! | And Allah's glory ever grow
apace! "
"And indeed," continued 'Adi, "this Elegy on the Prophet
(Abhak! ) is well known, and to comment on it would be
tedious. "
Quoth Omar, "Who [of the poets] is at the door? " And
quoth 'Adi, "Among them is Omar ibn Rabí'ah, the Korashi;"
whereupon the Caliph cried, "May Allah show him no favor,
neither quicken him! Was it not he who spoke impiously [in
praising his love]? –
'Could I in my clay-bed [the grave] with Ialma repose, | There
to me were better than Heaven or Hell! '
Had he not [continued the Caliph] been the enemy of Allah,
he had wished for her in this world; so that he might, after,
repent and return to righteous dealing. By Allah! he shall not
come in to me! Who is at the door other than he? "
Quoth 'Adi, "Jamil bin Ma'mar al-Uzri is at the door. " And
quoth Omar, "Tis he who saith in one of his love-Elegies:-
'Would Heaven, conjoint we lived! and if I die, | Death only
grant me a grave within her grave!
For I'd no longer deign to live my life | If told, "Upon her head
is laid the pave. ">
Quoth Omar, "Away with him from me! Who is at the door? "
And quoth 'Adi, "Kutthayir 'Azzah": whereupon Omar cried,
"Tis he who saith in one of his [impious] Odes:
'Some talk of faith and creed and nothing else, | And wait for
pains of Hell in prayer-seat;
But did they hear what I from Azzah heard, They'd make
prostration, fearful, at her feet. '
I
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703
Leave the mention of him. Who is at the door? " Quoth 'Adi,
"Al-Ahwas al-Ansari. " Cried Omar, "Allah Almighty put him
away, and estrange him from His mercy! Is it not, he who
said, berhyming on a Medinite's slave girl, so that she might
outlive her master:-
-
Allah be judge betwixt me and her lord | Whoever flies with
her and I pursue. '
He
He shall not come in to me! Who is at the door other than
he? " 'Adi replied, "Hammam bin Ghalib al-Farazdak. " And
Omar said, "Tis he who glories in wickedness.
shall not come in to me! Who is at the door other than he? "
'Adi replied, "Al-Akhtal al-Taghlibi. " And Omar said, "He is
the [godless] miscreant who saith in his singing:-
'Ramazan I ne'er fasted in lifetime; nay | I ate flesh in public
at undurn day!
―
Nor chid I the fair, save in word of love, | Nor seek Meccah's
plain in salvation-way:
Nor stand I praying, like rest, who cry, "Hie salvation-
wards! " at the dawn's first ray.
By Allah! he treadeth no carpet of mine. Who is at the door
other than he? " Said 'Adi, "Jarir Ibn al-Khatafah. " And Omar
cried, "Tis he who saith:-
:-
'But for ill-spying glances, had our eyes espied | Eyes of the.
antelope, and ringlets of the Reems!
A Huntress of the eyes, by night-time came; and I cried,
"Turn in peace! No time for visit this, meseems. ">
So 'Adi went
But if it must be, and no help, admit Jarir.
forth and admitted Jarir, who entered saying:-
'Yea, He who sent Mohammed unto men | A just successor of
Islâm assigned.
His ruth and his justice all mankind embrace | To daunt the
bad and stablish well-designed.
Verily now, I look to present good, | for man hath ever tran-
sient weal in mind. '
Quoth Omar, "O Jarir! keep the fear of Allah before thine
eyes, and say naught save the sooth. " And Jarir recited these
Couplets:-
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704
DOMINIQUE FRANÇOIS ARAGO
'How many widows loose the hair, in far Yamamah land, |
How many an orphan there abides, feeble of voice and eye,
Since faredst thou, who wast to them instead of father lost |
when they like nestled fledglings were, sans power to creep
or fly.
And now we hope-since broke the clouds their word and
troth with us- -"| Hope from the Caliph's grace to gain a
rain that ne'er shall dry. '
When the Caliph heard this, he said, "By Allah, O Jarir:
Omar possesseth but an hundred dirhams. Ho boy! do thou
give them to him! " Moreover, he gifted Jarir with the orna-
ments of his sword; and Jarir went forth to the other poets,
who asked him, "What is behind thee? " [What is thy news? "]
and he answered, "A man who giveth to the poor, and who
denieth the poets; and with him I am well pleased. "
DOMINIQUE FRANÇOIS ARAGO
(1786-1853)
BY EDWARD S. HOLDEN
D
SOMINIQUE FRANÇOIS ARAGO was born February 26th, 1786, near
Perpignan, in the Eastern Pyrenees, where his father held
the position of Treasurer of the Mint. He entered the École
Polytechnique in Paris after a brilliant examination, and held the first
places throughout the course. In 1806 he was sent to Valencia in
Spain, and to the neighboring island of Iviza, to make the astronom-
ical observations for prolonging the arc of the meridian from Dunkirk
southward, in order to supply the basis for the metric system.
Here begin his extraordinary adventures, which are told with inim-
itable spirit and vigor in his 'Autobiography. ' Arago's work required
him to occupy stations on the summits of the highest peaks in the
mountains of southeastern Spain. The peasants were densely ignor-
ant and hostile to all foreigners, so that an escort of troops was
required in many of his journeys. At some stations he made friends
of the bandits of the neighborhood, and carried on his observations
under their protection, as it were. In 1807 the tribunal of the Inqui-
sition existed in Valencia; and Arago was witness to the trial and
punishment of a pretended sorceress,—and this, as he says, in one
of the principal towns of Spain, the seat of a celebrated university.
Yet the worst criminals lived unmolested in the cathedrals, for the
"right of asylum" was still in force. His geodetic observations were
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DOMINIQUE FRANÇOIS ARAGO
705
mysteries to the inhabitants, and his signals on the mountain top.
were believed to be part of the work of a French spy. Just at this
time hostilities broke out between France and Spain, and the astron-
omer was obliged to flee disguised as a Majorcan peasant, carrying
his precious papers with him. His knowledge of the Majorcan lan-
guage saved him, and he reached a Spanish prison with only a slight
wound from a dagger. It is the first recorded instance, he says, of a
fugitive flying to a dungeon for safety. In this prison, under the
care of Spanish officers, Arago found sufficient occupation in calculat-
ing observations which he had made; in reading the accounts in the
Spanish journals of his own execution at Valencia; and in listening.
to rumors that it was proposed (by a Spanish monk) to do away
with the French prisoner by poisoning his food.
The Spanish officer in charge of the prisoners was induced to con-
nive at the escape of Arago and M. Berthémie (an aide-de-camp of
Napoleon); and on the 28th of July, 1808, they stole away from the
coast of Spain in a small boat with three sailors, and arrived at Al-
giers on the 3d of August. Here the French consul procured them
two false passports, which transformed the Frenchmen into strolling
merchants from Schwekat and Leoben. They boarded an Algerian
vessel and set off. Let Arago describe the crew and cargo:-
"The vessel belonged to the Emir of Seca. The commander was a Greek
captain named Spiro Calligero. Among the passengers were five members of
the family superseded by the Bakri as kings of the Jews; two Maroccan
ostrich-feather merchants; Captain Krog from Bergen in Norway; two lions
sent by the Dey of Algiers as presents to the Emperor Napoleon; and a great
number of monkeys. "
As they entered the Golfe du Lion their ship was captured by a
Spanish corsair and taken to Rosas. Worst of all, a former Spanish
servant of Arago's - Pablo - was a sailor in the corsair's crew! At
Rosas the prisoners were brought before an officer for interrogation.
It was now Arago's turn. The officer begins:-
<<<Who are you? '
"A poor traveling merchant. '
«From whence do you come ? >
From a country where you certainly have never been. '
«‹Well — from what country? >
"I feared to answer; for the passports (steeped in vinegar to prevent
infection) were in the officer's hands, and I had entirely forgotten whether I
was from Schwekat or from Leoben. Finally I answered at a chance, 'I am
from Schwekat;' fortunately this answer agreed with the passport.
"You're from Schwekat about as much as I am,' said the officer: 'you're
a Spaniard, and a Spaniard from Valencia to boot, as I can tell by your
accent. >
11-45
## p. 706 (#116) ############################################
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DOMINIQUE FRANÇOIS ARAGO
«Sir, you are inclined to punish me simply because I have by nature the
gift of languages. I readily learn the dialects of the various countries where
I carry on my trade. For example, I know the dialect of Iviza. '
<<<Well, I will take you at your word. Here is a soldier who comes from
Iviza. Talk to him. '
«Very well; I will even sing the goat-song. '
"The verses of this song (if one may call them verses) are separated by
the imitated bleatings of the goat. I began at once, with an audacity which
even now astonishes me, to intone the song which all the shepherds in Iviza
sing: -
Ah graciada Señora,
Una canzo bouil canta,
Bè bè bè bè.
No sera gaiva pulida,
Nosé si vos agradara,
Bè bè bè bè.
"Upon which my Ivizan avouches, in tears, that I am certainly from
Iviza. The song had affected him as a Switzer is affected by the Ranz des
Vaches. I then said to the officer that if he would bring to me a person
who could speak French, he would find the same embarrassment in this case
also. An emigré of the Bourbon regiment comes forward for the new experi-
ment, and after a few phrases affirms without hesitation that I am surely a
Frenchman. The officer begins to be impatient.
«Have done with these trials: they prove nothing. I require you to tell
me who you are. '
"My foremost desire is to find an answer which will satisfy you.
the son of the innkeeper at Mataro. '
"I know that man: you are not his son. '
«You are right: I told you that I should change my answers till I found
one to suit you. I am a marionette player from Lerida. '
"A huge laugh from the crowd which had listened to the interrogatory
put an end to the questioning. "
I am
Finally it was necessary for Arago to declare outright that he was
French, and to prove it by his old servant Pablo. To supply his
immediate wants he sold his watch; and by a series of misadventures
this watch subsequently fell into the hands of his family, and he was
mourned in France as dead.
After months of captivity the vessel was released, and the prisoner
set out for Marseilles. A fearful tempest drove them to the harbor
of Bougie, an African port a hundred miles east of Algiers. Thence
they made the perilous journey by land to their place of starting,
and finally reached Marseilles eleven months after their voyage
began. Eleven months to make a journey of four days!
The intelligence of the safe arrival, after so many perils, of the
young astronomer, with his packet of precious observations, soon
reached Paris. He was welcomed with effusion. Soon afterward (at
## p. 707 (#117) ############################################
DOMINIQUE FRANÇOIS ARAGO
707
the age of twenty-three years) he was elected a member of the sec-
tion of Astronomy of the Academy of Sciences, and from this time
forth he led the peaceful life of a savant. He was the Director of
the Paris Observatory for many years; the friend of all European
scientists; the ardent patron of young men of talent; a leading physi-
cist; a strong Republican, though the friend of Napoleon; and finally
the Perpetual Secretary of the Academy.
In the latter capacity it was part of his duty to prepare éloges of
deceased Academicians. Of his collected works in fourteen volumes,
'Euvres de François Arago,' published in Paris, 1865, three volumes
are given to these 'Notices Biographiques. ' Here may be found the
biographies of Bailly, Sir William Herschel, Laplace, Joseph Fourier,
Carnot, Malus, Fresnel, Thomas Young, and James Watt; which,
translated rather carelessly into English, have been published under
the title 'Biographies of Distinguished Men,' and can be found in the
larger libraries. The collected works contain biographies also of
Ampère, Condorcet, Volta, Monge, Porson, Gay-Lussac, besides shorter
sketches. They are masterpieces of style and of clear scientific expo-
sition, and full of generous appreciation of others' work. They pre-
sent in a lucid and popular form the achievements of scientific men
whose works have changed the accepted opinion of the world, and
they give general views not found in the original writings them-
selves. Scientific men are usually too much engrossed in advancing
science to spare time for expounding it to popular audiences. The
talent for such exposition is itself a special one. Arago possessed it
to the full, and his own original contributions to astronomy and phys-
ics enabled him to speak as an expert, not merely as an expositor.
The extracts are from his admirable estimate of Laplace, which
he prepared in connection with the proposal, before him and other
members of a State Committee, to publish a new and authoritative
edition of the great astronomer's works. The translation is mainly
that of the 'Biographies of Distinguished Men' cited above, and
much of the felicity of style is necessarily lost in translation; but the
substance of solid and lucid exposition from a master's hand remains.
Arago was a Deputy in 1830, and Minister of War in the Provis-
ional Government of 1848. He died full of honors, October 2d, 1853.
Two of his brothers, Jacques and Étienne, were dramatic authors of
Another, Jean, was a distinguished general in the service of
Mexico. One of his sons, Alfred, is favorably known as a painter;
another, Emmanuel, as a lawyer, deputy, and diplomat.
note.
Edward S. Holden
## p. 708 (#118) ############################################
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DOMINIQUE FRANÇOIS ARAGO
LAPLACE
THE
HE Marquis de Laplace, peer of France, one of the forty of
the French Academy, member of the Academy of Sciences
and of the Bureau of Longitude, Associate of all the great
Academies or Scientific Societies of Europe, was born at Beau-
mont-en-Auge, of parents belonging to the class of small farmers,
on the 28th of March, 1749; he died on the 5th of March, 1827.
The first and second volumes of the 'Mécanique Céleste' [Mech-
anism of the Heavens] were published in 1799; the third volume
appeared in 1802, the fourth in 1805; part of the fifth volume
was published in 1823, further books in 1824, and the remainder
in 1825. The Théorie des Probabilités was published in 1812.
We shall now present the history of the principal astronomical
discoveries contained in these immortal works.
Astronomy is the science of which the human mind may justly
feel proudest. It owes this pre-eminence to the elevated nature
of its object; to the enormous scale of its operations; to the cer-
tainty, the utility, and the stupendousness of its results. From the
very beginnings of civilization the study of the heavenly bodies
and their movements has attracted the attention of governments
and peoples. The greatest captains, statesmen, philosophers, and
orators of Greece and Rome found it a subject of delight. Yet
astronomy worthy of the name is a modern science: it dates from
the sixteenth century only. Three great, three brilliant phases
have marked its progress. In 1543 the bold and firm hand of
Copernicus overthrew the greater part of the venerable scaffold-
ing which had propped the illusions and the pride of many gen-
erations. The earth ceased to be the centre, the pivot, of celestial
movements. Henceforward it ranged itself modestly among the
other planets, its relative importance as one member of the solar
system reduced almost to that of a grain of sand.
Twenty-eight years had elapsed from the day when the Canon
of Thorn expired while holding in his trembling hands the first
copy of the work which was to glorify the name of Poland, when
Würtemberg witnessed the birth of a man who was destined to
achieve a revolution in science not less fertile in consequences,
and still more difficult to accomplish. This man was Kepler.
Endowed with two qualities which seem incompatible,-a volcanic
imagination, and a dogged pertinacity which the most tedious
calculations could not tire,- Kepler conjectured that celestial
## p. 709 (#119) ############################################
DOMINIQUE FRANÇOIS ARAGO
709
movements must be connected with each other by simple laws;
or, to use his own expression, by harmonic laws. These laws
he undertook to discover. A thousand fruitless attempts — the
errors of calculation inseparable from a colossal undertaking-
did not hinder his resolute advance toward the goal his imagina-
tion descried. Twenty-two years he devoted to it, and still he
was not weary. What are twenty-two years of labor to him who
is about to become the lawgiver of worlds; whose name is to be
ineffaceably inscribed on the frontispiece of an immortal code;
who can exclaim in dithyrambic language, "The die is cast: I
have written my book; it will be read either in the present age
or by posterity, it matters not which; it may well await a reader
since God has waited six thousand years for an interpreter of his
works"?
These celebrated laws, known in astronomy as Kepler's laws,
are three in number. The first law is, that the planets describe
ellipses around the sun, which is placed in their common focus;
the second, that a line joining a planet and the sun sweeps over
equal areas in equal times; the third, that the squares of the
times of revolution of the planets about the sun are proportional
to the cubes of their mean distances from that body. The first
two laws were discovered by Kepler in the course of a laborious
examination of the theory of the planet Mars. A full account of
this inquiry is contained in his famous work, 'De Stella Martis'
[Of the Planet Mars], published in 1609. The discovery of the
third law was announced to the world in his treatise on Har-
monics (1628).
To seek a physical cause adequate to retain the planets in
their closed orbits; to make the stability of the universe depend
on mechanical forces, and not on solid supports like the crys-
talline spheres imagined by our ancestors; to extend to the
heavenly bodies in their courses the laws of earthly mechan-
ics, such were the problems which remained for solution after
Kepler's discoveries had been announced. Traces of these great
problems may be clearly perceived here and there among ancient
and modern writers, from Lucretius and Plutarch down to Kep-
ler, Bouillaud, and Borelli. It is to Newton, however, that we
must award the merit of their solution. This great man, like
several of his predecessors, imagined the celestial bodies to have
a, tendency to approach each other in virtue of some attractive
force, and from the laws of Kepler he deduced the mathematical
――
## p. 710 (#120) ############################################
710
DOMINIQUE FRANÇOIS ARAGO
characteristics of this force. He extended it to all the material
molecules of the solar system; and developed his brilliant dis-
covery in a work which, even at the present day, is regarded as
the supremest product of the human intellect.
The contributions of France to these revolutions in astronom-
ical science consisted, in 1740, in the determination by experi
ment of the spheroidal figure of the earth, and in the discovery
of the local variations of gravity upon the surface of our planet.
These were two great results; but whenever France is not first
in science she has lost her place. This rank, lost for a moment,
was brilliantly regained by the labors of four geometers. When
Newton, giving to his discoveries a generality which the laws of
Kepler did not suggest, imagined that the different planets were
not only attracted by the sun, but that they also attracted each
other, he introduced into the heavens a cause of universal per-
turbation. Astronomers then saw at a glance that in no part of
the universe would the Keplerian laws suffice for the exact repre-
sentation of the phenomena of motion; that the simple regular
movements with which the imaginations of the ancients were
pleased to endow the heavenly bodies must experience numerous,
considerable, perpetually changing perturbations. To discover a
few of these perturbations, and to assign their nature and in
a few rare cases their numerical value, was the object which
Newton proposed to himself in writing his famous book, the
'Principia Mathematica Philosophiæ Naturalis' [Mathematical Prin-
ciples of Natural Philosophy]. Notwithstanding the incomparable
sagacity of its author, the 'Principia' contained merely a rough
outline of planetary perturbations, though not through any lack
of ardor or perseverance.
The efforts of the great philosopher
were always superhuman, and the questions which he did not.
solve were simply incapable of solution in his time.
Five geometers-Clairaut, Euler, D'Alembert, Lagrange, and
Laplace shared between them the world whose existence New-
ton had disclosed. They explored it in all directions, penetrated
into regions hitherto inaccessible, and pointed out phenomena
hitherto undetected. Finally and it is this which constitutes
their imperishable glory-they brought under the domain of a
single principle, a single law, everything that seemed most occult
and mysterious in the celestial movements. Geometry had thus
the hardihood to dispose of the future, while the centuries as
they unroll scrupulously ratify the decisions of science.
- -
## p. 711 (#121) ############################################
DOMINIQUE FRANÇOIS ARAGO
711
If Newton gave a complete solution of celestial movements
where but two bodies attract each other, he did not even attempt
the infinitely more difficult problem of three. The "problem of
three bodies (this is the name by which it has become cele-
brated) the problem of determining the movement of a body
subjected to the attractive influence of two others- was solved
for the first time by our countryman, Clairaut. Though he enu-
merated the various forces which must result from the mutual
action of the planets and satellites of our system, even the great
Newton did not venture to investigate the general nature of
their effects. In the midst of the labyrinth formed by incre-
ments and diminutions of velocity, variations in the forms of
orbits, changes in distances and inclinations, which these forces
must evidently produce, the most learned geometer would fail to
discover a trustworthy guide. Forces so numerous, so variable in
direction, so different in intensity, seemed to be incapable of
maintaining a condition of equilibrium except by a sort of mir-
acle. Newton even suggested that the planetary system did not
contain within itself the elements of indefinite stability. He
was of opinion that a powerful hand must intervene from time
to time to repair the derangements occasioned by the mutual
action of the various bodies. Euler, better instructed than New-
ton in a knowledge of these perturbations, also refused to admit
that the solar system was constituted so as to endure forever.
Never did a greater philosophical question offer itself to the
inquiries of mankind. Laplace attacked it with boldness, persever-
ance, and success. The profound and long-continued researches
of the illustrious geometer completely established the perpetual
variability of the planetary ellipses. He demonstrated that the
extremities of their major axes make the circuit of the heavens;
that independent of oscillation, the planes of their orbits undergo
displacements by which their intersections with the plane of the
terrestrial orbit are each year directed toward different stars.
But in the midst of this apparant chaos, there is one element
which remains constant, or is merely subject to small and peri-
odic changes; namely, the major axis of each orbit, and conse-
quently the time of revolution of each planet. This is the element
which ought to have varied most, on the principles held by New-
ton and Euler. Gravitation, then, suffices to preserve the stability
of the solar system. It maintains the forms and inclinations of
the orbits in an average position, subject to slight oscillations
________________
>>>>
## p. 712 (#122) ############################################
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DOMINIQUE FRANÇOIS ARAGO
only; variety does not entail disorder; the universe offers an
example of harmonious relations, of a state of perfection which
Newton himself doubted.
This condition of harmony depends on circumstances disclosed
to Laplace by analysis; circumstances which on the surface do
not seem capable of exercising so great an influence. If instead
of planets all revolving in the same direction, in orbits but
slightly eccentric and in planes inclined at but small angles toward
each other, we should substitute different conditions, the stability
of the universe would be jeopardized, and a frightful chaos would
pretty certainly result. The discovery of the actual conditions.
excluded the idea, at least so far as the solar system was con-
cerned, that the Newtonian attraction might be a cause of dis-
order. But might not other forces, combined with the attraction
of gravitation, produce gradually increasing perturbations such as
Newton and Euler feared? Known facts seemed to justify the
apprehension. A comparison of ancient with modern observations
revealed a continual acceleration in the mean motions of the
moon and of Jupiter, and an equally striking diminution of the
mean motion of Saturn. These variations led to a very import-
ant conclusion. In accordance with their presumed cause, to say
that the velocity of a body increased from century to century
was equivalent to asserting that the body continually approached
the centre of motion; on the other hand, when the velocity.
diminished, the body must be receding from the centre. Thus,
by a strange ordering of nature, our planetary system seemed
destined to lose Saturn, its most mysterious ornament; to see the
planet with its ring and seven satellites plunge gradually into
those unknown regions where the eye armed with the most pow-
erful telescope has never penetrated. Jupiter, on the other hand,
the planet compared with which the earth is so insignificant,
appeared to be moving in the opposite direction, so that it would.
ultimately be absorbed into the incandescent matter of the sun.
Finally, it seemed that the moon would one day precipitate itself
upon the earth.
There was nothing doubtful or speculative in these sinister
forebodings. The precise dates of the approaching catastrophes
were alone uncertain. It was known, however, that they were
very distant.
Accordingly, neither the learned dissertations of
men of science nor the animated descriptions of certain poets
produced any impression upon the public mind. . The members
## p. 713 (#123) ############################################
DOMINIQUE FRANÇOIS ARAGO
713
of our scientific societies, however, believed with regret the
approaching destruction of the planetary system. The Academy
of Sciences called the attention of geometers of all countries to
these menacing perturbations. Euler and Lagrange descended
into the arena. Never did their mathematical genius shine with
a brighter lustre. Still the question remained undecided, when
from two obscure corners of the theories of analysis, Laplace,
the author of the 'Mécanique Céleste,' brought the laws of these
great phenomena clearly to light. The variations in velocity of
Jupiter, Saturn, and the moon, were proved to flow from evi-
dent physical causes, and to belong in the category of ordinary
periodic perturbations depending solely on gravitation. These
dreaded variations in orbital dimensions resolved themselves
into simple oscillations included within narrow limits. In a word,
by the powerful instrumentality of mathematical analysis, the
physical universe was again established on a demonstrably firm
foundation.
Having demonstrated the smallness of these periodic oscilla-
tions, Laplace next succeeded in determining the absolute dimen-
sions of the orbits. What is the distance of the sun from the
earth? No scientific question has occupied the attention of man-
kind in a greater degree.
stant at prayer, and give alms out of what we have bestowed on
them, both in secret and openly, hope for a merchandise which
shall not perish: that God may fully pay them their wages, and
make them a superabundant addition of his liberality; for he is
ready to forgive the faults of his servants, and to requite their
endeavors. That which we have revealed unto thee of the book
of the Korán is the truth, confirming the scriptures which were
revealed before it: for GOD knoweth and regardeth his servants.
And we have given the book of the Korán in heritage unto such
of our servants as we have chosen: of them there is one who
injureth his own soul; and there is another of them who keepeth
## p. 693 (#103) ############################################
ARABIC LITERATURE
693
the middle way; and there is another of them who outstrippeth
others in good works, by the permission of GOD. This is the
great excellence. They shall be introduced into gardens of per-
petual abode; they shall be adorned therein with bracelets of gold
and pearls, and their clothing therein shall be of silk: and they
shall say, Praise be unto GOD, who hath taken away sorrow from
us! verily our LORD is ready to forgive the sinners, and to
reward the obedient: who hath caused us to take up our rest in a
dwelling of eternal stability, through his bounty, wherein no labor
shall touch us, neither shall any weariness affect us. But for the
unbelievers is prepared the fire of hell: it shall not be decreed
them to die a second time; neither shall any part of the punish-
ment thereof be made lighter unto them. Thus shall every infi-
del be rewarded. And they shall cry out aloud in hell, saying,
LORD, take us hence, and we will work righteousness, and not
what we have formerly wrought. But it shall be answered
them, Did we not grant you lives of length sufficient, that who-
ever would be warned might be warned therein; and did not
the preacher come unto you? Taste therefore the pains of hell.
And the unjust shall have no protector. Verily GOD knoweth
the secrets both of heaven and earth, for he knoweth the inner-
most parts of the breasts of men.
It is he who hath made you
to succeed in the earth. Whoever shall disbelieve, on him be his
unbelief; and their unbelief shall only gain the unbelievers greater
indignation in the sight of their LORD; and their unbelief shall
only increase the perdition of the unbelievers. Say, what think
ye of your deities which ye invoke besides GOD? Show me
what part of the earth they have created. Or had they any share
in the creation of the heavens? Have we given unto the idola-
ters any book of revelations, so that they may rely on any proof
therefrom to authorize their practice? Nay; but the ungodly
make unto one another only deceitful promises. Verily GOD
sustaineth the heavens and the earth, lest they fail: and if they
should fail,
none could support the same besides him; he is gra-
cious and merciful.
The Koreish swore by GOD, with a most
solemn oath, that if a preacher had come unto them, they would
surely have been more willingly directed than any nation: but
preacher is come unto them, it hath only increased in
them their aversion from the truth, their arrogance in the earth,
and their contriving of evil; but the contrivance of evil shall only
encompass the authors thereof. Do they expect any other than
now a
## p. 694 (#104) ############################################
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ARABIC LITERATURE
the punishment awarded against the unbelievers of former times?
For thou shalt not find any change in the ordinance of GOD;
neither shalt thou find any variation in the ordinance of GOD.
Have they not gone through the earth, and seen what hath been
the end of those who were before them; although they were
more mighty in strength than they? GOD is not to be frustrated
by anything either in heaven or on earth; for he is wise and
powerful. If GOD should punish men according to what they
deserve, he would not leave on the back of the earth so much as
a beast; but he respiteth them to a determined time; and when
their time shall come, verily GOD will regard his servants.
CHAPTER LV. : INTITLED "THE MERCIFUL. "
REVEALED AT MECCA
IN THE name of the most merciful GOD. The Merciful hath
taught his servant the Korân. He created man: he hath taught
him distinct speech. The sun and the moon run their courses
according to a certain rule: and the vegetables which creep on
the ground, and the trees submit to his disposition. He also
raised the heaven; and he appointed the balance, that ye should
not transgress in respect to the balance: wherefore observe a
just weight; and diminish not the balance. And the earth hath
he prepared for living creatures: therein are various fruits, and
palm-trees bearing sheaths of flowers; and grain having chaff,
and leaves. Which, therefore, of your LORD'S benefits will ye
ungratefully deny? He created man of dried clay like an earthen
vessel: but he created the genii of fire clear from smoke. Which,
therefore, of your LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully deny?
He is the LORD of the east, and the LORD of the west. Which,
therefore, of your LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully deny?
He hath let loose the two seas, that they meet each another:
between them is placed a bar which they cannot pass. Which,
therefore, of your LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully deny?
From them are aken forth unions and lesser pearls. Which,
therefore, of your LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully deny?
His also are the ships, carrying their sails aloft in the sea like.
mountains. Which, therefore, of your LORD'S benefits will ye
ungratefully deny? Every creature which liveth on the earth is
subject to decay: but the glorious and honorable countenance of
thy LORD shall remain for ever. Which, therefore, of your
LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully deny? Unto him do all
## p. 695 (#105) ############################################
ARABIC LITERATURE
695
creatures which are in heaven and earth make petition; every
day is he employed in some new work. Which, therefore, of your
LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully deny? We will surely
attend to judge you, O men and genii, at the last day. Which,
therefore, of your LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully deny?
O ye collective body of genii and men, if ye be able to pass out
of the confines of heaven and earth, pass forth: ye shall not pass
forth but by absolute power. Which, therefore, of your LORD'S
benefits will ye ungratefully deny? A flame of fire without
smoke, and a smoke without flame shall be sent down upon you;
and ye shall not be able to defend yourselves therefrom. Which,
therefore, of your LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully deny?
And when the heaven shall be rent in sunder, and shall become
red as a rose, and shall melt like ointment: (Which, therefore, of
your LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully deny? ) On that day
neither man nor genius shall be asked concerning his sin. Which,
therefore, of your LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully deny?
The wicked shall be known by their marks; and they shall be
taken by the forelocks, and the feet, and shall be cast into hell.
Which, therefore, of your LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully
deny? This is hell which the wicked deny as a falsehood: they
shall pass to and fro between the same and hot boiling water.
Which, therefore, of your LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully
deny? But for him who dreadeth the tribunal of his LORD are
prepared two gardens: (Which, therefore, of your LORD'S bene-
fits will ye ungratefully deny ? ) In each of them shall be two
fountains flowing. Which, therefore, of your LORD'S benefits
will ye ungratefully deny? In each of them shall there be of
every fruit two kinds. Which, therefore, of your LORD'S bene-
fits will ye ungratefully deny? They shall repose on couches,
the linings whereof shall be of thick silk interwoven with gold;
and the fruit of the two gardens shall be near at hand to gather.
Which, therefore, of your LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully
deny? Therein shall receive them beauteous damsels, refraining
their eyes from beholding any besides their spouses: whom no
man shall have deflowered before them, neither any Jinn:
(Which, therefore, of your LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully
deny? ) Having complexions like rubies and pearls. Which, there-
fore, of your LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully deny? Shall
the reward of good works be any other good? Which, therefore,
of your LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully deny? And besides
these there shall be two other gardens: (Which, therefore, of
## p. 696 (#106) ############################################
696
ARABIC LITERATURE
your LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully deny? ) Of a dark
green. Which, therefore, of your LORD'S benefits will ye
ungratefully deny? In each of them shall be two fountains pour-
ing forth plenty of water. Which, therefore, of your LORD'S
benefits will ye ungratefully deny? In each of them shall be
fruits, and palm-trees, and pomegranates. Which, therefore, of
your LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully deny? Therein shall
be agreeable and beauteous damsels: Which, therefore, of your
LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully deny? Whom no man
shall have deflowered before their destined spouses, nor any Jinn.
Which, therefore, of your LORD'S benefits will ye ungratefully
deny? Therein shall they delight themselves, lying on green cush-
ions and beautiful carpets. Which, therefore, of your LORD'S
benefits will ye ungratefully deny? Blessed be the name of thy
LORD, possessed of glory and honor!
CHAPTER LXXXIV. : INTITLED "THE RENDING IN SUNDER. " REVEALED
AT MECCA
IN THE
name of the most merciful GOD. When the heaven
shall be rent in sunder, and shall obey its LORD, and shall be
capable thereof; and when the earth shall be stretched out, and
shall cast forth that which is therein, and shall remain empty,
and shall obey its LORD, and shall be capable thereof: O man,
verily laboring thou laborest to meet thy LORD, and thou shalt
meet him. And he who shall have his book given into his right
hand shall be called to an easy account, and shall turn unto his
family with joy: but he who shall have his book given him
behind his back shall invoke destruction to fall upon him, and he
shall be sent into hell to be burned; because he rejoiced inso-
lently amidst his family on earth. Verily he thought he should
never return unto God: yea verily, but his LORD beheld him.
Wherefore I swear by the redness of the sky after sunset, and
by the night, and the animals which it driveth together, and by
the moon when she is in the full; ye shall surely be transferred
successively from state to state. What aileth them, therefore,
that they believe not the resurrection; and that, when the Korân
is read unto them, they worship not? Yea: the unbelievers
accuse the same of imposture: but GOD well knoweth the malice
which they keep hidden in their breasts. Wherefore denounce
unto them a grievous punishment, except those who believe and
do good works: for them is prepared a never-failing reward.
## p. 697 (#107) ############################################
ARABIC LITERATURE
697
W*
THE PRAYER OF AL-HARIRI
From the 'Makamat' of al-Hariri of Basra: Translation of Theodore Preston
E PRAISE thee, O God,
For whatever perspicuity of language thou hast taught us,
And whatever eloquence thou hast inspired us with,
As we praise thee
For the bounty which thou hast diffused,
And the mercy which thou hast spread abroad:
And we pray thee to guard us
From extravagant expressions and frivolous superfluities
As we pray Thee to guard us
From the shame of incapacity and the disgrace of hesitation:
And we entreat thee to exempt us from temptation
By the flattery of the admirer or connivance of the indulgent,
As we entreat thee to exempt us from exposure
To the slight of the detractor or aspersion of the defamer:
And we ask thy forgiveness
Should our frailties betray us into ambiguities,
As we ask thy forgiveness
Should our steps advance to the verge of improprieties:
And we beg thee freely to bestow
Propitious succor to lead us aright,
And a heart turning in unison with truth,
And a language adorned with veracity,
And style supported by conclusiveness,
And accuracy that may exclude incorrectness,
And firmness of purpose that may overcome caprice,
And sagacity whereby we may attain discrimination;
That thou wilt aid us by thy guidance unto right conceptions,
And enable us with thy help to express them with clearness,
And thou wilt guard us from error in narration,
And keep us from folly even in pleasantry,
So that we may be safe from the censure of sarcastic tongues,
And secure from the fatal effects of false ornament,
And may not resort to any improper source,
And occupy no position that would entail regret,
Nor be assailed by any ill consequences or blame,
Nor be constrained to apology for inconsideration.
O God, fulfill for us this our desire,
And put us in possession of this our earnest wish,
And exclude us not from thy ample shade,
Nor leave us to become the prey of the devourer:
## p. 698 (#108) ############################################
698
ARABIC LITERATURE
For we stretch to thee the hand of entreaty,
And profess entire submission to thee, and contrition of spirit,
And seek with humble supplication and appliances of hope
The descent of thy vast grace and comprehensive bounty.
THE WORDS OF HARETH IBN-HAMMAM
From the Makamat' of al-Hariri of Barra: Translation of Theodore Preston
ON
NA night whose aspect displayed both light and shade,
And whose moon was like a magic circlet of silver,
I was engaged in evening conversation at Koufa
With companions who had been nourished on the milk of eloquence,
So the charms of conversation fascinated us,
While wakefulness still prevailed among us,
Until the moon had at length disappeared in the West.
But when the gloom of night had thus drawn its curtain,
And nothing but slumber remained abroad,
We heard from the door the low call of a benighted traveler,
And then followed the knock of one seeking admission;
And we answered, "Who comes here this darksome night? »
And the stranger replied:-
·-
"Listen ye who here are dwelling!
May you so be kept from ill!
So may mischief ne'er befall you,
Long as life your breast shall fill!
Gloom of dismal night and dreary
Drives a wretch to seek your door,
Whose disheveled hoary tresses
All with dust are sprinkled o'er;
Who, though destitute and lonely,
Far has roamed on hill and dale,
Till his form became thus crooked,
And his cheek thus deadly pale;
Who, though faint as slender crescent,
Ventures here for aid to sue,
Hospitable meal and shelter
Claiming first of all from you.
Welcome then to food and dwelling
One so worthy both to share,
Sure to prove content and thankful,
Sure to laud your friendly care. "
Fascinated then by the sweetness of his language and delivery,
And readily inferring what this prelude betokened,
## p. 699 (#109) ############################################
ARABIC LITERATURE
699
·
We hasted to open the door, and received him with welcome,
Saying to the servant, "Hie! Hie! Bring whatever is ready! »
But the stranger said, "By Him who brought me to your abode,
I will not taste of your hospitality, unless you pledge to me
That you will not permit me to be an incumbrance to you,
Nor impose on yourselves necessity of eating on my account. "
Now it was just as if he had been informed of our wishes,
Or had shot from the same bow as our sentiments;
So we gratified him by acceding to the condition,
And highly commended him for his accommodating disposition.
But when the servant had produced what was ready,
And the candle was lighted up in the midst of us,
I regarded him attentively, and lo! it was Abu-Zeid;
Whereupon I addressed my companions in these words: —
"May you have joy of the guest who has repaired to you:
For though the moon of the heavens has set,
The full moon of poetry has arisen;
And though the moon of the eclipse has disappeared,
The full moon of eloquence has shone forth. "
So the wine of joy infused itself into them,
And sleep flew away from the corners of their eyes,
And they rejected the slumber which they had contemplated,
And began to resume the pleasantry which they had laid aside,
While Abu-Zeid remained intent on the business in hand.
―――――
But as soon as he desired the removal of what was before him,
I said to him, "Entertain us with one of thy strange anecdotes,
Or with an account of one of thy wonderful journeys. "
And he said: "The result of long journeys brought me to this land,
Myself being in a state of hunger and distress,
And my wallet light as the heart of the mother of Moses;
So I arose, when dark night had settled on the world,
Though with weary feet, to seek a lodging, or obtain a loaf;
Till, being driven on by the instigation of hunger,
And by fate, so justly called 'the parent of adventures,'
I stood at the door of a house and improvised these words:
-
"Inmates of this abode, all hail! all hail!
Long may you live in plenty's verdant vale.
Oh, grant your aid to one by toil opprest,
Way-worn, benighted, destitute, distrest;
Whose tortured entrails only hunger hold
(For since he tasted food two days are told);
A wretch who finds not where to lay his head,
Though brooding night her weary wing hath spread,
## p. 700 (#110) ############################################
700
ARABIC LITERATURE
But roams in anxious hope a friend to meet,
Whose bounty, like a spring of water sweet,
May heal his woes; a friend who straight will say,
"Come in! 'Tis time thy staff aside to lay. ">
"But there came out to me a boy in a short tunic, who said:-
"By Him who hospitable rites ordained,
And first of all, and best, those rites maintained,
I swear that friendly converse and a home
Is all we have for those who nightly roam. '
"And I replied, 'What can I do with an empty house,
And a host who is himself thus utterly destitute?
But what is thy name, boy? for thy intelligence charms me. '
He replied, 'My name is Zeid, and I was reared at Faid;
And my mother Barrah (who is such as her name implies),
Told me she married one of the nobles of Serong and Ghassân,
Who deserted her stealthily, and there was an end of him. '
Now I knew by these distinct signs that he was my child,
But my poverty deterred me from discovering myself to him. "
Then we asked if he wished to take his son to live with him;
And he replied, "If only my purse were heavy enough,
It would be easy for me to undertake the charge of him. "
So we severally undertook to contribute a portion of it,
Whereupon he returned thanks for this our bounty,
And was so profusely lavish in his acknowledgments,
That we thought his expression of gratitude excessive.
And as soon as he had collected the coin into his scrip,
He looked at me as the deceiver looks at the deceived,
And laughed heartily, and then indited these lines:-
"O thou who, deceived
By a tale, hast believed
A mirage to be truly a lake,
―
Though I ne'er had expected
My fraud undetected,
Or doubtful my meaning to make!
I confess that I lied
When I said that my bride
And my first-born were Barrah and Zeid;
But guile is my part,
And deception my art,
And by these are my gains ever made.
## p. 701 (#111) ############################################
ARABIC LITERATURE
701
Such schemes I devise
That the cunning and wise
Never practiced the like or conceived;
Nor Asmai nor Komait
Any wonders relate
Like those that my wiles have achieved.
But if these I disdain,
I abandon my gain,
And by fortune at once am refused:
Then pardon their use,
And accept my excuse,
Nor of guilt let my guile be accused. "
Then he took leave of me, and went away from me,
Leaving in my heart the embers of lasting regret.
THE CALIPH OMAR BIN ABD AL-AZIZ AND THE POETS
A Semi-Poetical Tale: Translation of Sir Richard Burton, in Supplemental
Nights to the Book of The Thousand Nights and A Night
I'
T IS said that when the Caliphate devolved on Omar bin Abd
al-Aziz, (of whom Allah accept! ) the poets resorted to him,
as they had been used to resort to the Caliphs before him,
and abode at his door days and days; but he suffered them
not to enter till there came to him 'Adi bin Artah, who stood
high in esteem with him. Jarir [another poet] accosted him, and
begged him to crave admission for them to the presence; so
'Adi answered, "Tis well," and going in to Omar, said to him,
"The poets are at thy door, and have been there days and days;
yet hast thou not given them leave to enter, albeit their sayings
abide, and their arrows from the mark never fly wide. " Quoth
Omar, "What have I to do with the poets? " And quoth 'Adi,
"0 Commander of the Faithful, the Prophet (Abhak! ) was praised
by a poet, and gave him largesse-and in him is an exemplar to
every Moslem. ” Quoth Omar, "And who praised him? " And
quoth 'Adi, "Abbás bin Mirdás praised him, and he clad him with
a suit and said, 'O Generosity! Cut off from me his tongue! '"
Asked the Caliph, "Dost thou remember what he said? " And
'Adi answered, "Yes. " Rejoined Omar, "Then repeat it;" so
'Adi repeated:-
## p. 702 (#112) ############################################
702
ARABIC LITERATURE
"I saw thee, O thou best of the human race, | Bring out a book
which brought to graceless, grace.
Thou showedst righteous road to men astray | From right, when
darkest wrong had ta'en its place:-
Thou with Islâm didst light the gloomiest way, | Quenching
with proof live coals of frowardness:
I own for Prophet, my Mohammed's self, and men's award
upon his word we base.
Thou madest straight the path that crooked ran | Where in old
days foul growth o'ergrew its face.
Exalt be thou in Joy's empyrean! | And Allah's glory ever grow
apace! "
"And indeed," continued 'Adi, "this Elegy on the Prophet
(Abhak! ) is well known, and to comment on it would be
tedious. "
Quoth Omar, "Who [of the poets] is at the door? " And
quoth 'Adi, "Among them is Omar ibn Rabí'ah, the Korashi;"
whereupon the Caliph cried, "May Allah show him no favor,
neither quicken him! Was it not he who spoke impiously [in
praising his love]? –
'Could I in my clay-bed [the grave] with Ialma repose, | There
to me were better than Heaven or Hell! '
Had he not [continued the Caliph] been the enemy of Allah,
he had wished for her in this world; so that he might, after,
repent and return to righteous dealing. By Allah! he shall not
come in to me! Who is at the door other than he? "
Quoth 'Adi, "Jamil bin Ma'mar al-Uzri is at the door. " And
quoth Omar, "Tis he who saith in one of his love-Elegies:-
'Would Heaven, conjoint we lived! and if I die, | Death only
grant me a grave within her grave!
For I'd no longer deign to live my life | If told, "Upon her head
is laid the pave. ">
Quoth Omar, "Away with him from me! Who is at the door? "
And quoth 'Adi, "Kutthayir 'Azzah": whereupon Omar cried,
"Tis he who saith in one of his [impious] Odes:
'Some talk of faith and creed and nothing else, | And wait for
pains of Hell in prayer-seat;
But did they hear what I from Azzah heard, They'd make
prostration, fearful, at her feet. '
I
## p. 703 (#113) ############################################
ARABIC LITERATURE
703
Leave the mention of him. Who is at the door? " Quoth 'Adi,
"Al-Ahwas al-Ansari. " Cried Omar, "Allah Almighty put him
away, and estrange him from His mercy! Is it not, he who
said, berhyming on a Medinite's slave girl, so that she might
outlive her master:-
-
Allah be judge betwixt me and her lord | Whoever flies with
her and I pursue. '
He
He shall not come in to me! Who is at the door other than
he? " 'Adi replied, "Hammam bin Ghalib al-Farazdak. " And
Omar said, "Tis he who glories in wickedness.
shall not come in to me! Who is at the door other than he? "
'Adi replied, "Al-Akhtal al-Taghlibi. " And Omar said, "He is
the [godless] miscreant who saith in his singing:-
'Ramazan I ne'er fasted in lifetime; nay | I ate flesh in public
at undurn day!
―
Nor chid I the fair, save in word of love, | Nor seek Meccah's
plain in salvation-way:
Nor stand I praying, like rest, who cry, "Hie salvation-
wards! " at the dawn's first ray.
By Allah! he treadeth no carpet of mine. Who is at the door
other than he? " Said 'Adi, "Jarir Ibn al-Khatafah. " And Omar
cried, "Tis he who saith:-
:-
'But for ill-spying glances, had our eyes espied | Eyes of the.
antelope, and ringlets of the Reems!
A Huntress of the eyes, by night-time came; and I cried,
"Turn in peace! No time for visit this, meseems. ">
So 'Adi went
But if it must be, and no help, admit Jarir.
forth and admitted Jarir, who entered saying:-
'Yea, He who sent Mohammed unto men | A just successor of
Islâm assigned.
His ruth and his justice all mankind embrace | To daunt the
bad and stablish well-designed.
Verily now, I look to present good, | for man hath ever tran-
sient weal in mind. '
Quoth Omar, "O Jarir! keep the fear of Allah before thine
eyes, and say naught save the sooth. " And Jarir recited these
Couplets:-
## p. 704 (#114) ############################################
704
DOMINIQUE FRANÇOIS ARAGO
'How many widows loose the hair, in far Yamamah land, |
How many an orphan there abides, feeble of voice and eye,
Since faredst thou, who wast to them instead of father lost |
when they like nestled fledglings were, sans power to creep
or fly.
And now we hope-since broke the clouds their word and
troth with us- -"| Hope from the Caliph's grace to gain a
rain that ne'er shall dry. '
When the Caliph heard this, he said, "By Allah, O Jarir:
Omar possesseth but an hundred dirhams. Ho boy! do thou
give them to him! " Moreover, he gifted Jarir with the orna-
ments of his sword; and Jarir went forth to the other poets,
who asked him, "What is behind thee? " [What is thy news? "]
and he answered, "A man who giveth to the poor, and who
denieth the poets; and with him I am well pleased. "
DOMINIQUE FRANÇOIS ARAGO
(1786-1853)
BY EDWARD S. HOLDEN
D
SOMINIQUE FRANÇOIS ARAGO was born February 26th, 1786, near
Perpignan, in the Eastern Pyrenees, where his father held
the position of Treasurer of the Mint. He entered the École
Polytechnique in Paris after a brilliant examination, and held the first
places throughout the course. In 1806 he was sent to Valencia in
Spain, and to the neighboring island of Iviza, to make the astronom-
ical observations for prolonging the arc of the meridian from Dunkirk
southward, in order to supply the basis for the metric system.
Here begin his extraordinary adventures, which are told with inim-
itable spirit and vigor in his 'Autobiography. ' Arago's work required
him to occupy stations on the summits of the highest peaks in the
mountains of southeastern Spain. The peasants were densely ignor-
ant and hostile to all foreigners, so that an escort of troops was
required in many of his journeys. At some stations he made friends
of the bandits of the neighborhood, and carried on his observations
under their protection, as it were. In 1807 the tribunal of the Inqui-
sition existed in Valencia; and Arago was witness to the trial and
punishment of a pretended sorceress,—and this, as he says, in one
of the principal towns of Spain, the seat of a celebrated university.
Yet the worst criminals lived unmolested in the cathedrals, for the
"right of asylum" was still in force. His geodetic observations were
## p. 705 (#115) ############################################
DOMINIQUE FRANÇOIS ARAGO
705
mysteries to the inhabitants, and his signals on the mountain top.
were believed to be part of the work of a French spy. Just at this
time hostilities broke out between France and Spain, and the astron-
omer was obliged to flee disguised as a Majorcan peasant, carrying
his precious papers with him. His knowledge of the Majorcan lan-
guage saved him, and he reached a Spanish prison with only a slight
wound from a dagger. It is the first recorded instance, he says, of a
fugitive flying to a dungeon for safety. In this prison, under the
care of Spanish officers, Arago found sufficient occupation in calculat-
ing observations which he had made; in reading the accounts in the
Spanish journals of his own execution at Valencia; and in listening.
to rumors that it was proposed (by a Spanish monk) to do away
with the French prisoner by poisoning his food.
The Spanish officer in charge of the prisoners was induced to con-
nive at the escape of Arago and M. Berthémie (an aide-de-camp of
Napoleon); and on the 28th of July, 1808, they stole away from the
coast of Spain in a small boat with three sailors, and arrived at Al-
giers on the 3d of August. Here the French consul procured them
two false passports, which transformed the Frenchmen into strolling
merchants from Schwekat and Leoben. They boarded an Algerian
vessel and set off. Let Arago describe the crew and cargo:-
"The vessel belonged to the Emir of Seca. The commander was a Greek
captain named Spiro Calligero. Among the passengers were five members of
the family superseded by the Bakri as kings of the Jews; two Maroccan
ostrich-feather merchants; Captain Krog from Bergen in Norway; two lions
sent by the Dey of Algiers as presents to the Emperor Napoleon; and a great
number of monkeys. "
As they entered the Golfe du Lion their ship was captured by a
Spanish corsair and taken to Rosas. Worst of all, a former Spanish
servant of Arago's - Pablo - was a sailor in the corsair's crew! At
Rosas the prisoners were brought before an officer for interrogation.
It was now Arago's turn. The officer begins:-
<<<Who are you? '
"A poor traveling merchant. '
«From whence do you come ? >
From a country where you certainly have never been. '
«‹Well — from what country? >
"I feared to answer; for the passports (steeped in vinegar to prevent
infection) were in the officer's hands, and I had entirely forgotten whether I
was from Schwekat or from Leoben. Finally I answered at a chance, 'I am
from Schwekat;' fortunately this answer agreed with the passport.
"You're from Schwekat about as much as I am,' said the officer: 'you're
a Spaniard, and a Spaniard from Valencia to boot, as I can tell by your
accent. >
11-45
## p. 706 (#116) ############################################
706
DOMINIQUE FRANÇOIS ARAGO
«Sir, you are inclined to punish me simply because I have by nature the
gift of languages. I readily learn the dialects of the various countries where
I carry on my trade. For example, I know the dialect of Iviza. '
<<<Well, I will take you at your word. Here is a soldier who comes from
Iviza. Talk to him. '
«Very well; I will even sing the goat-song. '
"The verses of this song (if one may call them verses) are separated by
the imitated bleatings of the goat. I began at once, with an audacity which
even now astonishes me, to intone the song which all the shepherds in Iviza
sing: -
Ah graciada Señora,
Una canzo bouil canta,
Bè bè bè bè.
No sera gaiva pulida,
Nosé si vos agradara,
Bè bè bè bè.
"Upon which my Ivizan avouches, in tears, that I am certainly from
Iviza. The song had affected him as a Switzer is affected by the Ranz des
Vaches. I then said to the officer that if he would bring to me a person
who could speak French, he would find the same embarrassment in this case
also. An emigré of the Bourbon regiment comes forward for the new experi-
ment, and after a few phrases affirms without hesitation that I am surely a
Frenchman. The officer begins to be impatient.
«Have done with these trials: they prove nothing. I require you to tell
me who you are. '
"My foremost desire is to find an answer which will satisfy you.
the son of the innkeeper at Mataro. '
"I know that man: you are not his son. '
«You are right: I told you that I should change my answers till I found
one to suit you. I am a marionette player from Lerida. '
"A huge laugh from the crowd which had listened to the interrogatory
put an end to the questioning. "
I am
Finally it was necessary for Arago to declare outright that he was
French, and to prove it by his old servant Pablo. To supply his
immediate wants he sold his watch; and by a series of misadventures
this watch subsequently fell into the hands of his family, and he was
mourned in France as dead.
After months of captivity the vessel was released, and the prisoner
set out for Marseilles. A fearful tempest drove them to the harbor
of Bougie, an African port a hundred miles east of Algiers. Thence
they made the perilous journey by land to their place of starting,
and finally reached Marseilles eleven months after their voyage
began. Eleven months to make a journey of four days!
The intelligence of the safe arrival, after so many perils, of the
young astronomer, with his packet of precious observations, soon
reached Paris. He was welcomed with effusion. Soon afterward (at
## p. 707 (#117) ############################################
DOMINIQUE FRANÇOIS ARAGO
707
the age of twenty-three years) he was elected a member of the sec-
tion of Astronomy of the Academy of Sciences, and from this time
forth he led the peaceful life of a savant. He was the Director of
the Paris Observatory for many years; the friend of all European
scientists; the ardent patron of young men of talent; a leading physi-
cist; a strong Republican, though the friend of Napoleon; and finally
the Perpetual Secretary of the Academy.
In the latter capacity it was part of his duty to prepare éloges of
deceased Academicians. Of his collected works in fourteen volumes,
'Euvres de François Arago,' published in Paris, 1865, three volumes
are given to these 'Notices Biographiques. ' Here may be found the
biographies of Bailly, Sir William Herschel, Laplace, Joseph Fourier,
Carnot, Malus, Fresnel, Thomas Young, and James Watt; which,
translated rather carelessly into English, have been published under
the title 'Biographies of Distinguished Men,' and can be found in the
larger libraries. The collected works contain biographies also of
Ampère, Condorcet, Volta, Monge, Porson, Gay-Lussac, besides shorter
sketches. They are masterpieces of style and of clear scientific expo-
sition, and full of generous appreciation of others' work. They pre-
sent in a lucid and popular form the achievements of scientific men
whose works have changed the accepted opinion of the world, and
they give general views not found in the original writings them-
selves. Scientific men are usually too much engrossed in advancing
science to spare time for expounding it to popular audiences. The
talent for such exposition is itself a special one. Arago possessed it
to the full, and his own original contributions to astronomy and phys-
ics enabled him to speak as an expert, not merely as an expositor.
The extracts are from his admirable estimate of Laplace, which
he prepared in connection with the proposal, before him and other
members of a State Committee, to publish a new and authoritative
edition of the great astronomer's works. The translation is mainly
that of the 'Biographies of Distinguished Men' cited above, and
much of the felicity of style is necessarily lost in translation; but the
substance of solid and lucid exposition from a master's hand remains.
Arago was a Deputy in 1830, and Minister of War in the Provis-
ional Government of 1848. He died full of honors, October 2d, 1853.
Two of his brothers, Jacques and Étienne, were dramatic authors of
Another, Jean, was a distinguished general in the service of
Mexico. One of his sons, Alfred, is favorably known as a painter;
another, Emmanuel, as a lawyer, deputy, and diplomat.
note.
Edward S. Holden
## p. 708 (#118) ############################################
708
DOMINIQUE FRANÇOIS ARAGO
LAPLACE
THE
HE Marquis de Laplace, peer of France, one of the forty of
the French Academy, member of the Academy of Sciences
and of the Bureau of Longitude, Associate of all the great
Academies or Scientific Societies of Europe, was born at Beau-
mont-en-Auge, of parents belonging to the class of small farmers,
on the 28th of March, 1749; he died on the 5th of March, 1827.
The first and second volumes of the 'Mécanique Céleste' [Mech-
anism of the Heavens] were published in 1799; the third volume
appeared in 1802, the fourth in 1805; part of the fifth volume
was published in 1823, further books in 1824, and the remainder
in 1825. The Théorie des Probabilités was published in 1812.
We shall now present the history of the principal astronomical
discoveries contained in these immortal works.
Astronomy is the science of which the human mind may justly
feel proudest. It owes this pre-eminence to the elevated nature
of its object; to the enormous scale of its operations; to the cer-
tainty, the utility, and the stupendousness of its results. From the
very beginnings of civilization the study of the heavenly bodies
and their movements has attracted the attention of governments
and peoples. The greatest captains, statesmen, philosophers, and
orators of Greece and Rome found it a subject of delight. Yet
astronomy worthy of the name is a modern science: it dates from
the sixteenth century only. Three great, three brilliant phases
have marked its progress. In 1543 the bold and firm hand of
Copernicus overthrew the greater part of the venerable scaffold-
ing which had propped the illusions and the pride of many gen-
erations. The earth ceased to be the centre, the pivot, of celestial
movements. Henceforward it ranged itself modestly among the
other planets, its relative importance as one member of the solar
system reduced almost to that of a grain of sand.
Twenty-eight years had elapsed from the day when the Canon
of Thorn expired while holding in his trembling hands the first
copy of the work which was to glorify the name of Poland, when
Würtemberg witnessed the birth of a man who was destined to
achieve a revolution in science not less fertile in consequences,
and still more difficult to accomplish. This man was Kepler.
Endowed with two qualities which seem incompatible,-a volcanic
imagination, and a dogged pertinacity which the most tedious
calculations could not tire,- Kepler conjectured that celestial
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DOMINIQUE FRANÇOIS ARAGO
709
movements must be connected with each other by simple laws;
or, to use his own expression, by harmonic laws. These laws
he undertook to discover. A thousand fruitless attempts — the
errors of calculation inseparable from a colossal undertaking-
did not hinder his resolute advance toward the goal his imagina-
tion descried. Twenty-two years he devoted to it, and still he
was not weary. What are twenty-two years of labor to him who
is about to become the lawgiver of worlds; whose name is to be
ineffaceably inscribed on the frontispiece of an immortal code;
who can exclaim in dithyrambic language, "The die is cast: I
have written my book; it will be read either in the present age
or by posterity, it matters not which; it may well await a reader
since God has waited six thousand years for an interpreter of his
works"?
These celebrated laws, known in astronomy as Kepler's laws,
are three in number. The first law is, that the planets describe
ellipses around the sun, which is placed in their common focus;
the second, that a line joining a planet and the sun sweeps over
equal areas in equal times; the third, that the squares of the
times of revolution of the planets about the sun are proportional
to the cubes of their mean distances from that body. The first
two laws were discovered by Kepler in the course of a laborious
examination of the theory of the planet Mars. A full account of
this inquiry is contained in his famous work, 'De Stella Martis'
[Of the Planet Mars], published in 1609. The discovery of the
third law was announced to the world in his treatise on Har-
monics (1628).
To seek a physical cause adequate to retain the planets in
their closed orbits; to make the stability of the universe depend
on mechanical forces, and not on solid supports like the crys-
talline spheres imagined by our ancestors; to extend to the
heavenly bodies in their courses the laws of earthly mechan-
ics, such were the problems which remained for solution after
Kepler's discoveries had been announced. Traces of these great
problems may be clearly perceived here and there among ancient
and modern writers, from Lucretius and Plutarch down to Kep-
ler, Bouillaud, and Borelli. It is to Newton, however, that we
must award the merit of their solution. This great man, like
several of his predecessors, imagined the celestial bodies to have
a, tendency to approach each other in virtue of some attractive
force, and from the laws of Kepler he deduced the mathematical
――
## p. 710 (#120) ############################################
710
DOMINIQUE FRANÇOIS ARAGO
characteristics of this force. He extended it to all the material
molecules of the solar system; and developed his brilliant dis-
covery in a work which, even at the present day, is regarded as
the supremest product of the human intellect.
The contributions of France to these revolutions in astronom-
ical science consisted, in 1740, in the determination by experi
ment of the spheroidal figure of the earth, and in the discovery
of the local variations of gravity upon the surface of our planet.
These were two great results; but whenever France is not first
in science she has lost her place. This rank, lost for a moment,
was brilliantly regained by the labors of four geometers. When
Newton, giving to his discoveries a generality which the laws of
Kepler did not suggest, imagined that the different planets were
not only attracted by the sun, but that they also attracted each
other, he introduced into the heavens a cause of universal per-
turbation. Astronomers then saw at a glance that in no part of
the universe would the Keplerian laws suffice for the exact repre-
sentation of the phenomena of motion; that the simple regular
movements with which the imaginations of the ancients were
pleased to endow the heavenly bodies must experience numerous,
considerable, perpetually changing perturbations. To discover a
few of these perturbations, and to assign their nature and in
a few rare cases their numerical value, was the object which
Newton proposed to himself in writing his famous book, the
'Principia Mathematica Philosophiæ Naturalis' [Mathematical Prin-
ciples of Natural Philosophy]. Notwithstanding the incomparable
sagacity of its author, the 'Principia' contained merely a rough
outline of planetary perturbations, though not through any lack
of ardor or perseverance.
The efforts of the great philosopher
were always superhuman, and the questions which he did not.
solve were simply incapable of solution in his time.
Five geometers-Clairaut, Euler, D'Alembert, Lagrange, and
Laplace shared between them the world whose existence New-
ton had disclosed. They explored it in all directions, penetrated
into regions hitherto inaccessible, and pointed out phenomena
hitherto undetected. Finally and it is this which constitutes
their imperishable glory-they brought under the domain of a
single principle, a single law, everything that seemed most occult
and mysterious in the celestial movements. Geometry had thus
the hardihood to dispose of the future, while the centuries as
they unroll scrupulously ratify the decisions of science.
- -
## p. 711 (#121) ############################################
DOMINIQUE FRANÇOIS ARAGO
711
If Newton gave a complete solution of celestial movements
where but two bodies attract each other, he did not even attempt
the infinitely more difficult problem of three. The "problem of
three bodies (this is the name by which it has become cele-
brated) the problem of determining the movement of a body
subjected to the attractive influence of two others- was solved
for the first time by our countryman, Clairaut. Though he enu-
merated the various forces which must result from the mutual
action of the planets and satellites of our system, even the great
Newton did not venture to investigate the general nature of
their effects. In the midst of the labyrinth formed by incre-
ments and diminutions of velocity, variations in the forms of
orbits, changes in distances and inclinations, which these forces
must evidently produce, the most learned geometer would fail to
discover a trustworthy guide. Forces so numerous, so variable in
direction, so different in intensity, seemed to be incapable of
maintaining a condition of equilibrium except by a sort of mir-
acle. Newton even suggested that the planetary system did not
contain within itself the elements of indefinite stability. He
was of opinion that a powerful hand must intervene from time
to time to repair the derangements occasioned by the mutual
action of the various bodies. Euler, better instructed than New-
ton in a knowledge of these perturbations, also refused to admit
that the solar system was constituted so as to endure forever.
Never did a greater philosophical question offer itself to the
inquiries of mankind. Laplace attacked it with boldness, persever-
ance, and success. The profound and long-continued researches
of the illustrious geometer completely established the perpetual
variability of the planetary ellipses. He demonstrated that the
extremities of their major axes make the circuit of the heavens;
that independent of oscillation, the planes of their orbits undergo
displacements by which their intersections with the plane of the
terrestrial orbit are each year directed toward different stars.
But in the midst of this apparant chaos, there is one element
which remains constant, or is merely subject to small and peri-
odic changes; namely, the major axis of each orbit, and conse-
quently the time of revolution of each planet. This is the element
which ought to have varied most, on the principles held by New-
ton and Euler. Gravitation, then, suffices to preserve the stability
of the solar system. It maintains the forms and inclinations of
the orbits in an average position, subject to slight oscillations
________________
>>>>
## p. 712 (#122) ############################################
712
DOMINIQUE FRANÇOIS ARAGO
only; variety does not entail disorder; the universe offers an
example of harmonious relations, of a state of perfection which
Newton himself doubted.
This condition of harmony depends on circumstances disclosed
to Laplace by analysis; circumstances which on the surface do
not seem capable of exercising so great an influence. If instead
of planets all revolving in the same direction, in orbits but
slightly eccentric and in planes inclined at but small angles toward
each other, we should substitute different conditions, the stability
of the universe would be jeopardized, and a frightful chaos would
pretty certainly result. The discovery of the actual conditions.
excluded the idea, at least so far as the solar system was con-
cerned, that the Newtonian attraction might be a cause of dis-
order. But might not other forces, combined with the attraction
of gravitation, produce gradually increasing perturbations such as
Newton and Euler feared? Known facts seemed to justify the
apprehension. A comparison of ancient with modern observations
revealed a continual acceleration in the mean motions of the
moon and of Jupiter, and an equally striking diminution of the
mean motion of Saturn. These variations led to a very import-
ant conclusion. In accordance with their presumed cause, to say
that the velocity of a body increased from century to century
was equivalent to asserting that the body continually approached
the centre of motion; on the other hand, when the velocity.
diminished, the body must be receding from the centre. Thus,
by a strange ordering of nature, our planetary system seemed
destined to lose Saturn, its most mysterious ornament; to see the
planet with its ring and seven satellites plunge gradually into
those unknown regions where the eye armed with the most pow-
erful telescope has never penetrated. Jupiter, on the other hand,
the planet compared with which the earth is so insignificant,
appeared to be moving in the opposite direction, so that it would.
ultimately be absorbed into the incandescent matter of the sun.
Finally, it seemed that the moon would one day precipitate itself
upon the earth.
There was nothing doubtful or speculative in these sinister
forebodings. The precise dates of the approaching catastrophes
were alone uncertain. It was known, however, that they were
very distant.
Accordingly, neither the learned dissertations of
men of science nor the animated descriptions of certain poets
produced any impression upon the public mind. . The members
## p. 713 (#123) ############################################
DOMINIQUE FRANÇOIS ARAGO
713
of our scientific societies, however, believed with regret the
approaching destruction of the planetary system. The Academy
of Sciences called the attention of geometers of all countries to
these menacing perturbations. Euler and Lagrange descended
into the arena. Never did their mathematical genius shine with
a brighter lustre. Still the question remained undecided, when
from two obscure corners of the theories of analysis, Laplace,
the author of the 'Mécanique Céleste,' brought the laws of these
great phenomena clearly to light. The variations in velocity of
Jupiter, Saturn, and the moon, were proved to flow from evi-
dent physical causes, and to belong in the category of ordinary
periodic perturbations depending solely on gravitation. These
dreaded variations in orbital dimensions resolved themselves
into simple oscillations included within narrow limits. In a word,
by the powerful instrumentality of mathematical analysis, the
physical universe was again established on a demonstrably firm
foundation.
Having demonstrated the smallness of these periodic oscilla-
tions, Laplace next succeeded in determining the absolute dimen-
sions of the orbits. What is the distance of the sun from the
earth? No scientific question has occupied the attention of man-
kind in a greater degree.
