Patard's La Verite dans la question Olivier Basselin et Jean le Houx a propos du Vau-de-Vire (1897).
In astronomy he depreciates the merits of Newton and elevates Kepler, accusing Newton particularly, a propos of the distinction of centrifugal and centripetal forces, of leading to a confusion between what is mathematically to be distinguished and what is physically separate.
Two years afterwards the greatest man born since the death of Shakespeare paid homage to the greatest of his predecessors in a volume of magnificent and discursive eloquence which bore the title of William Shakespeare, and might, as its author admitted and suggested, more properly have been entitled A propos de Shakespeare.