Oeuvres complètes. Tome VII. Correspondance 1670-1675

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N^o 1795.
Fr. Vernon¹⁾ à H. Oldenburg.
25 février 1670.

La lettre se trouve à Londres, Royal Society²⁾.

Sir

Paris, Feb. 25. 1670.

It is not alwaies that I am slow, sometimes I can make quick returnes and keepe Pace with your nimblenesse.

Though is you finde I have beene soe this last winter imputed in part to the vehemency of the weather, wherein there was noe pleasure in any sort of Action. Partly to the barrennesse & suspension of businesse, and partly if you please to Idlenesse which to mee is very natural and is very apt to take advantages of all opportunities to bee quiett.

Yet however I am not soe averse from writing but that whenever any matter of consequence presents it selfe & worthy of a particular intention you shall perceive I will rouse up my diligence & satisfie your curiosity in its Season.

Yours of the 7/17 came to my hands the 13th currt for wich I am oblidged & humbly thanke you for that newes & those kind, & welcome advertisements it containes of new treatises coming abroad which to mee is very gratefull.

I cannot make you any great requitall with what comes from hence There not beeing such a fertility of Pieces of Science, as of those which concerne humaine life & morall transactions among which the latest are Les Revolutions d'Angleterre. Les Plaidoyers³⁾ de Monsieur Patru⁴⁾. A small Panegyrike to the

1) Francis Vernon, né en 1637, fut étudiant de Christ Church. En 1669 il devint secrétaire de l'ambassade britannique à Paris. Depuis lors il entretenait une active correspondance avec ses amis d'Angleterre, sur des sujets scientifiques, et informait Oldenburg de ce qui se passait à l'Académie des Sciences de Paris. En 1672 il devint membre de la Société Royale; il mourut en 1676. A Paris, son chef était:
Ralph Montague, né en 1658, mort en 1709, ambassadeur à Paris depuis le 1^er janvier 1669 jusqu'à la fin de 1672, et plusieurs fois ensuite. Macaulay dans son Histoire d'Angleterre le signale comme un homme sans foi et sans pudeur.

2) Elle a été lue dans la séance de la Société Royale du 24 février (V. st.).

3) Ouvrages dont on a la réimpression dans le recueil:
Oeuvres Diverses de Mr. Patru de l'Academie Françoise, contenant ses Plaidoyers, Harangues, Lettres & Vies de quelques uns de ses Amis. Quatrieme Edition. Considerablement augmentée. II Tomes. A Paris. chez Michel-Estienne David, Quay des Augustins, à la Providence. m.dcc.xxxii. Avec Approbation & Privilege du Roy. in-4^o.

4) Olivier Patru naquit en 1604 à Paris, où il mourut le 16 janvier 1681. Il était avocat renommé, mais pauvre, et entra à l'Académie française en 1660. Il dut vendre sa belle bibliothèque à Boileau, qui lui en laissa l'usage. Louis XIV lui envoya une gratification de 600 francs, qu'il reçut sur son lit de mort.

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King of Monsieur Boyleau⁵⁾ & a new little Piece⁶⁾ of La motthe le Vayer⁷⁾.

Monsieur Picart as I have writt you before hopes to compleat his observations about the measure of the earth. This summer Monsieur Mariotte intends to make an answer⁸⁾ to Monsieur Pecquet⁹⁾ about the subject & seat of Vision which hee will shortly send into England & hee is likewise about a greater worke which will containe the Doctrine of Motion¹⁰⁾. Where hee will examine the manner & force of impulse, the nature of the medium through wich bodies passe, & whether a bullet at the first instant of explosion passe through a Little space of Vacuum according to Galileo's Opinion the contrary to which hee hopes to demonstrate & then besides concerning the acceleration of moved bodies soe that hee hopes to declare the whole Doctrine of Motion with newer Principles & clearer demonstrations then yet hath beene done.

Monsieur Roberval Prints nothing butt discourseth much & is a very plausible speaker & of acute reasonning. Monsieur Beuvot¹¹⁾ is about a great spheare of stone which is to be sett up in the Tuilleries which will bee 12 foot diameter butt not to turne round butt to stand fixt like a massive ornament.

The Royal Academie for their Physicall Exercises have beene considering the nature of cold & for their Mathematical after having examined the nature of Weight & causes of gravity & stated it according to the most probable discoveries they are passed on to treat de vi percussionis upon which subject they are at Pre-

5) Vernon désigne l'Epitre au Roi que Boileau écrivit à cette époque; elle contenait la fable de l'huître, que Boileau supprima ensuite.

6) Fra. de la Mothe le Vayer, Hexameron rustique ou les six journées passées à la campagne. Paris. 1670. in-12^o.

7) François de la Mothe Le Vayer, fils de Félix de la Mothe Le Vayer, naquit en 1588 à Paris, d'une famille noble; il mourut à Paris en 1672. Il fut précepteur de Philippe duc d'Orleans, frère de Louis XIV, et ensuite de Louis XIV.

8) E. Mariotte avait écrit: Nouvelle Descouverte touchant la vue 1668. Cet écrit contient la découverte du punctum caecum de la rétine. Mariotte en conclut que le siège de la vision est la choroïde et non la rétine. A propos de cette conjecture, Pecquet publia l'écrit de la note suivante. Les lettres échangées au cours de cette discussion ont été rassemblées dans les OEuvres de Mariotte (voir la Lettre N^o. 1621, note 2), dans l'ordre suivant:
Lettre de Monsieur Mariotte à Monsieur Pecquet;
Réponse de Monsieur Pecquet à la Lettre de Monsieur Mariotte;
Seconde Lettre de Monsieur Mariotte à Monsieur Pecquet, pour montrer que la choroïde est le principal organe de la vuë;
Lettre de Monsieur Perrault à Monsieur Mariotte;
Réponse de Monsieur Mariotte à la Lettre de Monsieur Perrault.

9) Pecquet, Nouvelle découverte touchant la vue, 1668.

10) E. Mariotte, traité de la Percussion, ou chocq des corps, dans lequel les principales règles du mouvement sont expliquées et demontrées par leurs véritables causes. De ce Traité il existe plusieurs éditions; la troisième est celle de Paris, 1679.

11) Probablement Jacques Buot, membre de l'Académie des Sciences.

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sent. This morning Signor Cassini gave mee the honour of a visitt; his health (God bee thanked) is flourishing & now hee intends to reassume his observations to which the unkindnesse of the Weather made a very sharpe resistance. Particularly this Eclypse¹²⁾ in March hee intends most particularly to observe butt here hee supposeth it will bee small, & lesse discernable then with you in England, & yet lesse then which Monsieur Gregorie¹³⁾ in Scotland to whom I write to intreat the concurrence of his observation to the end that, by comparing, the truth may better come too bee regulated: the same favour hee desires from your Academists in England the exactnesse of whose observations hee hopes will extreamly contribute to the correcting of his. In the meane time his Ephemerides¹⁴⁾ lie not dormant, butt within a moneths time hee told mee hee hoped to have them publisht: as for his other invention about Apogees & excentricities¹⁵⁾, that will not bee digested soe suddainly for hee tells mee it depends upon the orders & determinations of Monsieur Colbert upon whom all the motions of the Royal Academie are to bee calculated; for the measure of their times are sett by him.

Monsieur Huygens.......¹⁶⁾ On Saturday last February 22th about 11 of the clock in the morning there came one from Monsieur Huygens to mee who told mee if it were my convenience that Monsieur Huygens desired to speake with mee. I made answer that I had severall times beene to waite upon him since I had heard of his sicknesse butt because the Porter at the gate had told mee that his sicknesse was very violent & that his Physitians had ordered him rest & that hee spoke with nobody, for that reason I had abstaind butt that I should not faile in the afternoone to waite upon him.

At three a clock I came thither, I found him a bed his head raysed very high & only his servant in the Roome. After I had made my first compliment & was sett downe by his bed side his servant hee commanded to retire & when wee were alone hee turned to mee & having begun with a preface of civility, which expresst more esteeme & affection then I could deserve, hee said, I saw the condition hee was in which was none of the most lively, that his weaknesse & palenesse did sufficiently declare how great a destruction his sicknesse had wrought in his health & vigour & that though all was bad, which I saw, yet there was something worse

12) Cette éclipse de soleil eut lieu le 19 avril 1670.

13) L'auteur désigne James Gregory.

14) Les éphémérides des satellites de Jupiter. Les premières éphémérides furent publiées à Bologne, en 1668, sous le titre:
J.D. Cassini. Ephemerides Mediceorum Syderum ex Hypothesibus & Tabulis Joan. Dominici Cassini Bononiae. in-f^o. Cassini publia ensuite, en 1693, Les Hypotheses et les Tables des Satellites de Jupiter, Réformées sur de nouvelles Observations. Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, depuis 1666 jusqu'à 1699, Tome VIII, page 317.

15) Nouvelle Maniere Geometrique et directe de trouver les Apogées, les Excentricités, et les Anomalies du mouvement des Planetes. Par J.D. Cassini. Journal des Scavants du 2 septembre 1669.

16) Ici suivent dans l'original quelques lignes biffées par Oldenburg de manière à rendre les mots illisibles.

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which the eye could not perceive nor sense discover, which was a great dejection in his vital spirits, an incredible want of sleep, which neither hee, nor those who counceld & assisted him in his sicknesse knew how to remedie & that hee did not know what the end of these things would bee, butt his fancy was ready enough to suggest the worst, & as hee knew himselfe borne to mortality soe his thoughts were apt enough to presage that this was the time. In which however hee was very ready to resigne himselfe to Gods dispose. I here put in betweene his discourse, & said, It was good at all times to live in a resignation to Gods decrees & the determinations of his providence, & that every minute, for every man though never soe healthy might bee the minute of mortality, & Period of his dayes, butt that I presumed the youth in wich hee was & the usefulnesse & consequence a Person of his Parts, & application might bee of to the world, were strong arguments to persuade, that hee might live many & happy yeares, & that God would not sett up soe great a light meerly to extinguish it: hee waved this compliment of mine (as hee calld it) with an oblidging civility & went on with his discourse, saying what ever your affection & love (for wich I thanke you) may speake for my advantage yet it is visible enough that I am mortall and I know not how neare to the very Point of Death, which because I would not willingly bee surprised by it was therefore that I sent for you to the end that while my memorie & strength serve mee for any such Purposes I may communicate something of my mind unto you & leave something in your hands, (wherein I desire your fidelity & a carefull execution & accomplishment of what J shall request at your hands with an earnestnesse which doth not imply doubting because I have made choyse of you among many friends which I have to consigne this trust to your care & integrity butt because you may see by the solemnesse of my intreaty the concerne & Interest which I have in the disposall of these Papers which J shall consigne to your hands) & thereupon hee reacht out his hand to his breeches which lay upon the bed & tooke out from his Pocquet a little Pacquet sealed & told mee in this Pacquet there are 12 Propositions which concerne the Doctrine of Motion with their demonstrations; the anagrams of wich¹⁷⁾ I have formerly sent into England to my Lord Brouncard¹⁸⁾ (a person concerning whom for his great witt & iudgment in Mathematiques J have a long time conceived a very high opinion). I sent them in those disguised caracters because it was agreed on between us, & iudged by the Royal Society as the most proper way of Proposing those secrets. I give this Pacquet to you sealed because if it please God that I recover you shall restore it to mee againe in the same fashion that I deliver it to you but if I die then the seale you shall breake open & the coppy of the Propositions you shall give to Monsieur Galois Secretarie of the Royall Academie here,

17) Consultez la pièce N^o. 1758, laquelle cependant ne contient que 10 propositions relatives à la théorie du mouvement.

18) Lord W. Brouncker.

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the demonstrations there is noe necessity hee should transcribe. There is one Proposition amongst the rest wich Possibly those in England will not iudge sufficiently demonstrated butt the demonstration of that, I have given fully & at large in some other Papers which I have left in Monsieur Carcavi's hands. This was what hee said to mee as concerning the sealed Pacquet. Next hee gave mee a Printed sheet de Parheliis¹⁹⁾. I dont know said hee whether or noe this bee gone into England. If it bee not Pray bee pleased to send this to Monsieur Oldenbourg with my thankes for the great care & paines hee hath taken to send mee the Transactions. Next hee tooke up another bundle of Papers wich hee had laid premeditately on the bed & taking them up in his hands hee studied & consulted some little time with in himselfe whether hee should call for a candle & seale them in my Presence or noe butt having paused a little while noe said hee those I will not seale I will give you them as they are.

I referre myself to your faithfulnesse not to shew them to any body before my death which when you heare of you may read them your selfe & then seale them up & send them into England by a sure conveyance to the Royall Society. I asked him to whom in the Royall Society. hee said hee sent them to the Society in generall, butt Putt principally to my Lord Broncard whom hee said hee knew to have a very cleare insight into the Doctrine of Motion & whom (hee was well assured) did understand those Points by what hee had seene by him already & hee hoped that for his sake & upon his request hee would digest those Papers which were confusedly written & which hee had not time to finish soe that if hee iudged them worthy of the world the world might bee the better for them. These Papers containe some propositions about motion rough cast & in their first draught & on the Paper which wraps them up is written on the outside de Motu per impulsum. This was all hee spoke as concerning his manuscript hee gave to mee & after that I fell into a discourse concerning his sicknesse, concerning what hee tooke, hee complained much of the ignorance, of the timidity, of the Galenical methods & prescriptions with which they administer Physick in these Parts. then said hee Oh if Doctor Willis were here I believe I should recover butt these People have not a right conception of Physick & yet the Ablest²⁰⁾ of them are about mee & they doe their best. Then hee fell into a discourse concerning the Royal Society in England wich hee said was an assembly of the Choisest Witts in Christendome & of the finest Parts: hee said hee chose rather to depositt those little labours of his which God had blesst & those pledges which to him were dearest

19) Il s'agit de l'ouvrage cité dans la Lettre N^o. 1610, note 10. Il ne fut envoyé en Angleterre que quelques mois plus tard. Une traduction parut dans les Phil. Trans. N^o. 60, du 20 juin 1670.

20) Un de ces médecins fut Moise Charas, apothicaire de Monsieur, frère du Roi. Voir la Lettre N^o. 1797, note 4.

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of any thing in this world, in their hands sooner then in any else. Sooner then of those into whose Society hee was here incorporated & from whom hee had received all demonstrations of a most affectionate civilitie because hee judged the Seat of Science to bee fixed there & that the members of it did embrace & promote Philosophy not for interest, not through ambition or a vanity of excelling others not through fancy or a variable curiosity, butt out of naturall principles of generosity, inclination to Learning & a sincere Respect & love for the truth, wich made him Judge that their constitution would bee theresore more durable because their designes & aimes were soe honourable & that God almighty would give a great stability & blessing to their Labours because hee had inspired them with soe Worthy desires.

Whereas hee said hee did foresee the dissolution of this academie because it was mixt with tinctures of Envy because it was supported upon suppositions of profitt because it wholly depended upon the Humour of a Prince & the favour of a minister, either of wich coming toe relent in their Passions the whole frame & Project of their assembly cometh to Perdition. There hee proceeded to name severall of the Royal Society for whom hee expresst a singular esteeme the Bishop of Sarisbury²¹⁾ Doctor Wren, Mister Hooke hee termd a man, of a Vast invention & the Bishop of Chester²²⁾ of a most elevated Judgement & a most profound witt, you Mister Oldenbourg and all the whole Society in generall for a most chearfull & unanimous agreement & harmony in the advancing of knowledge without which hee said it was impossible for the most selected body or the most chosen witts long to subsist.

Here hee fell into a digression concerning their Judgement about some things wich hee had written & hee said you had intimated to him as if one of the Society in his experiments made about Pendulums had iudged them variable & subject to the alterations of Weather²³⁾. this Person hee conjectured to bee Mister Mercator. however, hee said notwithstanding the great ability & capacity of that Person who made those experiments hee durst assure him that a Pendulum was a machine the equality of whose motions one might safely relye upon & if it did not appeare soe to him the defect was either in the Artificer who made it or else that this Pendulum was without a cyclois wich corrects its anomalies or else hee said hee did not Putt weight enough & that hee repeated againe I believe in England they doe not hang weight enough to their Pendulums & soe the air governes their motions butt the great secret to master the air is to hang weight enough & use a cyclois of which the severall experiences of the Pendulums here in Paris have soe convinced mee that of that I make noe longer doubt.

This is the summe of what hee then discourst & of wich I promised to bee a most

21) Seth Ward.

22) John Wilkins.

23) Consultez la Lettre N^o. 1794.

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exact observer & a most punctuall Executor. his last farewell was to have his humble respects & most sincere affections recommended to the Royal Society, wich in his name I make bold to present.

I shall adde nothing farther concerning him. To-night or to-morrow I intend to visitt him and I hope the change of Weather (for our frost now begins to breake) to may conduce to his recovery.

Monsieur Picart makes a particular request to you & I in his behalfe which is that you will bee pleased upon this brasse line where you will find a circle at one end & a scratch at the other to marke the ½ foot of London for this is the ½ foot of Paris Pray Lett it bee done with the greatest exactnesse & markt below the scratch with a scratch parallel to it. I recommend it to you I know you will take care to have it done in its perfection & to send it by the first conveyance. Monsieur Justel our worthy friend kisseth your hands & sends you a paper of seedes with Monsieur Quintinies²⁴⁾ Letter all wich the bearer hereof I hope will bring safe to your hands. To Mister Hooke I have written two Letters to & in one I desired an account concerning Cashou wich is champt soe much in India what It was, how prepared, & from what towne of the Indies it doth come butt as yet I have not beene so happy as to receive any one title from him although I doe not question butt the letters are come safe to his hands for I have answers to others of the same date. Pray give him a word or two concerning this & aske if hee resolves to bee more Idle then I. Sir you see I am not often troublesome butt when I am I am very troublesome. Pray bee pleased to accept the well meaning & excuse the tediousnesse of

Deare Sir

Your oblidgd friend & obedient servant

Francis Vernon.

Sir the duke of Orleans is reconcild to the King & Last night hee was brought to St. Germaines by Monsieur Colbert.

24) Jean de la Quintinie naquit en 1626 à Chabanais et mourut à Versailles en 1688. Il était agronome d'une grande réputation et voyagea beaucoup. Louis XIV, en 1687, le créa directeur des jardins fruitiers et potagers de toutes les maisons royales. On a de lui, sur cet art, l'ouvrage:
Instructions pour les Jardins fruitiers et potagers; avec un traité des Orangers, suivi de quelques reflections sur l'agriculture par le feu Sieur de la Quintinies. Paris 1690. 2 Vol in-4^o. Avec quelques vers et beaucoup de planches.