les auteurs en poche," that is, who do not publish, is no unfrequent expression, thus applied, with M. Arago. Fontaine's temper, proud and reserved, presents an additional exception to Lord Brougham's assumed fact of mathematical quietude, if, indeed, we should not invert the characteristics, and generalise the exception. At this, and the immediately consequent period, such was the advance in the field of science, under the co-operating efforts of its cultivators over Europe at large, that Condorcet, long the secretary of the Parisian Academy, in his "Esquisse des Progrès de l'Esprit Humain," asserts, perhaps too confidently, that a student, just emerged from his college course, was, in 1794, when he wrote this work, more forward in mathematics than even Newton was, or could have been, only a century before. And this he has equally affirmed in his "Discourse of Reception" at the French Academy, in 1782, when he defeated his competitor Bailly. In this progressive movement, rather, we may presume, exaggerated,

certainly was the first inventor, and as he said in his letter to the Oratorian, Antonio Conti, in April 1716, "Whether Mr. Leibnitz invented it after me or had it from me, signifies not, for second inventors have no right." Laplace (Précis de l'Histoire de l'Astronomie, page 95, 1821, 8vo.) says that Fermat (the mathematician and magistrate of Toulouse,) may be considered the real inventor of the Differential Calculus. (See Von Humboldt's Kosmos, vol. ii. page 495, note.) Fermat also, like Pascal, had some, though not a fully-developed fore-notion, of the Theory of Probabilities, which nearly two centuries after, was subjected to the strictest analytical process, and raised to the rank of a new science by La Place, in his profound work, "Théorie Analytique des Probabilités," of which the best edition is that of 1820-1825. It was preceded by his "Essai Philosophique sur les Probabilités," (1819, 8vo.) as his "Exposition du Systéme du Monde" was prelusive to his "Mécanique Céleste," the noblest achievement of modern science. The Belgian Astronomer Royal, M. Quetelet's "Lettre au Duc de Saxe-Cobourg et Gotha sur la Théorie des Probabilités, appliquée aux Sciences Morales et Politiques," (1846, 8vo.) is likewise much esteemed on this interesting subject.

though, doubtless, very great, Condorcet claims a large share for his friend D'Alembert, not only as produced by his own contributions, but by those to which he stimulated the young aspirants to scientific fame, including Condorcet himself, who was an enthusiast in the appreciation of mathematics, which he considered paramount to all human acquirements-the conducting road to the perfectibility which he fondly reckoned our earthly nature was destined eventually to reach. Here, truly, our noble biographer may invoke a powerful evidence in support of his alleged preponderance of mathematics in the intellectual scale, to which we can add another instance of similar enthusiasm, though less authoritative, because of less practical weight, that of the poet Novalis, or, more properly, Frederick Von Hardenberg, who, in his "Moral Ansichter," (Paris, 1837, 8vo.,) maintains that no pursuit more than mathematics inspires a profound devotion, without which they cannot be successfully cultivated, while, in unison of effort, and combination of power with philosophy, poetry, and religion, of which he declares pure mathematics the type, they become the sources of instruction and models of imitation, in every department of mental exertion. Another poet, however, and a favorite one of our own, Oliver Goldsmith, in his "Essay on Taste," depreciates, on the other hand, and ranks in a very inferior class of intellectual exercise, the study of mathematics, affirming that a person may have a decided genius for the science, without being able to comprehend a demonstration of Euclid. This assertion is, indeed, rather hard of belief, but he adds, "that he knew a boy who could not comprehend the

properties of a rectangled triangle, and yet by the power of his genius formed a mathematical system of his own, discovered a series of curious theorems, and even applied his deductions to practical machines of surprising construction." Southey, likewise a poet, expresses the strongest aversion to scientific men, who, in his conception, (Life, vol. iii., page 172,) "sacrifice to the study their own feelings, virtue and happiness”—a most unwarranted averment truly, but sufficiently contradicted by the examples of Newton, of Leibnitz, of Humboldt, &c. The Rev. A. H. Wratislaw, of Cambridge, in his recent "Observations on that University's educational system," endeavours to show, and not altogether unsuccessfully, in opposition to Dr. Whewell's maintenance of the superiority of mathematical to classical attainments, that in general application to the purposes of life, the latter are far more conducive to mental cultivation, as well as to practical advantage. In fact, if we review the public career of our most celebrated characters, we shall find very few deeply versed in mathematics, while nearly all were good classical scholars, such as the two Pitts, Fox, Burke, the Grenvilles, Canning, Grattan, Curran, Plunkett, the Marquis of Wellesley, with numerous others. On the debates in the Peers, in 1751, relative to the adoption of the reformed calendar, the Earl of Macclesfield, then President of the Royal Society, and Lord Chesterfield, took prominent parts, when the latter, who owned himself a perfect novice in the exact sciences, produced an infinitely greater effect than the mathematical peer, in advocacy of the bill, because the studies of literature armed him with an eloquence

and means of persuasion, scarcely expected to be the fruit of arid scientific pursuits, which narrow, it is said, and dry up the faculties, while, from the larger field of polite letters, they derived an expansion of power, and a refinement of taste, both in act and expression. "Lord Macclesfield was one of the greatest mathematicians and astronomers in Europe," declares his more popular colleague, (Letter of 18th March, 1751,) “but his words, his periods, and his utterance were not so good as mine, and the preference most unanimously, although most unjustly, was given to me--I convinced, because I pleased the house." Lord Brougham, in his letter of 24th May last, (1850,) to the Duke of Wellington, anxiously desires that Cambridge shall ever place mathematics in the first rank of College studies, "as the best mode of disciplining the mind to reasoning and to habits of close attention," &c., but if we are to judge his lordship by his late acts and compositions, it can hardly be sustained, that his early mathematical acquirements had imparted an enduring strictness of mental discipline to his conduct or reasoning. Indeed we know that even Newton and Lord Napier, when diverting their application from science to scriptural interpretation, lost themselves, and sunk into the absurdities and bigotry of anti-Catholic fanatics.

His lordship's example having betrayed us into these lengthened prefatory observations, we now proceed to the biographical narrative, which various opportunities of communication with D'Alembert's friends or associates, and other means of information, either not open to, or neglected by, Lord Brougham, may enable us to present in a more correct and

enlarged view of acts and character, than that exhibited by his lordship. Jean Le Rond D'Alembert, so named from having been exposed as a foundling on the steps of a church no longer existing, that of St. Jean le Rond, (demolished in 1748,) near the cathedral of Notre Dame* at Paris, was born the 16th or 17th of November, 1717, the fruit of an illegitimate intercourse between a Commissary of Artillery, called Destouches Canon, (to distinguish him from the dramatic writer, Néricault Destouches,) and Madame de Tencin, sister to the Cardinal of that name, for whom our elder Pretender, acknowledged at Rome as James III., obtained that dignity, as he likewise had for Cardinal de Polignac, using the privilege of Catholic royalty. (See Mémoires de St. Simon, vi., 387.) While, though unmarried, this lady was addressed as Madame, his lordship attributes it to her advanced years; but were he better acquainted with the laws and customs of France, he would have known that, as a Canoness, which he represents her and truly, after being relieved from her religious vows, extorted, according to her averment, when very young, the title of Madame was her established right. Age made no difference; for Madame de Genlis became a Canoness of the Chapter of Alix, in 1753, when only seven years old, and as such bore the matronly designation, with that of Countess de Lancy. "Le plaisir

* In the cloister of the cathedral of Notre Dame, at the north angle of the principal gateway or entrance into the church.

+To Polignac the sarcastic duke is by no means favorable; but Tencin and his sister are depicted at volume xviii. chap. 1, in the most odious colors, probably exaggerated, yet we fear, substantially true; while their abilities, however perverted, are acknowledged in fulness of extent. It was in the old church of St. Jean-Le-Rond, that the learned Ménage, the Vadius of Molière's Femmes Savantes, was buried on his death in 1692.