Robert Simpson Woodward on Joseph Louis Lagrange

“The value of his work [Mécanique Analytique] consists in the exposition of a general method by which every mechanical question may be stated in a single algebraic equation. The entire history of any mechanical system, as for example, the solar system, may thus be condensed into a single sentence; and its detailed interpretation becomes simply a question of algebra. No one who has not tried to cope with the difficulties presented by almost any mechanical problem can form a just appreciation of the great utility of such a labor-saving and thought-saving device. It has been well called 'a stupendous contribution to the economy of thought.'”

“Lagrange... was the first to draw sharply the line of demarcation between physics and metaphysics. The mechanical ideas of Descartes, Leibnitz, Maupertius, and even of Euler, had proved to be more or less hazy and unfruitful from a failure to separate those two distinct regions of thought. Lagrange put an end to this confusion, for no serious attempt has since been made to derive the laws of mechanics from a metaphysical basis.”