EPISTLE.

will it be able to believe that such a prodigious work only began with the conquests of LOUIS THE GREAT original: "LOUIS LE GRAND." Louis XIV (reigned 1643–1715), who founded the Royal Academy of Sciences in 1666., your august Founder, whose History will be unable to trace his brilliant career without making you share in the Laurels consecrated to the Great men who contributed to making his Reign flourishing. The reign under which we now live Louis XV (reigned 1715–1774). is no less glorious for you; being equally protected by the Monarch original: "Monarque" who governs us with as much justice as wisdom, what fruit is there not reason to hope for from the continuation of your works, and from the new Observations that you are currently making by order of His Majesty original: "Sa Majeſté", in Climates so opposite and so distant from our own This likely refers to the French Geodesic Missions sent to Lapland and Peru in the 1730s to measure the shape of the Earth.. The scholarly riches that your illustrious Members are to bring back from there are of a much greater value, and concern our hopes much more than all those material riches that people are accustomed to go seeking there.

Is it surprising, after this, GENTLEMEN, if the Persons most distinguished by their birth are eager to occupy a place among You, and if the Greatest Emperor that Russia original: "Ruſſie" has ever had Peter the Great (reigned 1682–1725), who visited the Academy in 1717 and was elected as a member. made it a point of particular merit? This Prince, born to fulfill the most glorious of all destinies, had conceived the vast project of creating...