Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Obituary.
OBITUARY .
LATELY , at Leyden , the learned advocate F . lia . Lusac , author of various performances in legUUttKra : Among these may be distinguished a French Translation of the Institutes of the Plights of Nature and Man , by Wolf , n-voi-ipanied by n"iner .. us notes , in 2 vi . ' s . 4 : 0 . A Treatise on the Riches of
HOIIVIIKI , in which our author exhibits the origin of the commerce and power of the Dutch ; the gradual growth of their commerce end navigation ; . the causes which * have contributed to their progress , and those which tend to destroy them ; and llie means which may serve fo im . i . Kain them , in 2 vols . Svo .
He is known also fur some writings , which show him to have been 3 zealous defender of the Stsihholderian government , which he must have grieved to have survived . Among his pleadings , i . s one in favour of the planters of the coiunv at Surinam , and another for the liberty of the press . He had been a printer himself , ami had made enemies by the publication of La Mcttie ' s atheistical treatise of VHomme Machine , Jor
which he acquired the nick-name of L'Homtne Machine . On the i- th Floreal 179 6 , aged 87 , the venerable Alexander Guy Pingre , ] . ibrarian of the French Pantheon . He devoted himself to science from his earliest youth . In O 27 , !> c entered into the ci-devant congregation of the canons
regular of France . Theology for a considerable time occupied his researches ; but he had the art of connecting it with the study of history , chronology , and the learned languages . A life wholly consecrated to study and retirement " , was disturbed even by those whose peculiar duty it was to respect and to imitolerantand the
tate it . Pingre was , bishops of France cherished the sentiments of the Papistical court . Our author was well known as the assertor of the Ii ! evtics of the Gallic-. n . church . In i 7 . fi , lie gav'e proofs of that zeal for freedom which illumined the twilight of his life . He was among those who were persecuted by the ecclesiastical party , because he preferred the exposition of
the Christian doctrine as given by the fathers , to that one more recently dictated by the Jesuit Molina . His enemies first attempted his degradation , by compelling him to descend from the chair of a professor to the form of a pedagogue . But Pingre felt no humiliation ; he ever considered himself in his proper place ,
when he found himself useful . Calumny aspersed his conduct , for teaching a more enlightened doctrine than was supposed to be necessary for youth . In the space of four years Pingre received five lettres de cachet . But philosophy , even in that day ., stood forth the friend and advocate of
this virtuous student . Pingre at the age of thirty-eight , applied himself to astronomy . His first production was a calculation of an eclipse of the moon on the 2 ; clof December , 1749 . Lacaille had calculated it at Paris ; but the
calculations differed by four minutes ; ' and the veteran Lacaille confessed his error , and received a pupil as a friend and rival . He now distinguished himself by a close attachment to the science of astronomy . In 1754 , he calculated his state of the heavens , where the situation of
the moon was determined by the tables of llalley for noon and midnight . But in the following year , he calculated its situations with the precision of seconds . Though perhaps no other man but himself could perform an equal experiment , he delivers his opinion with great modesty : " I doubted ( says he ) last year
, that a single person were sufficient to calculate with the most possible precision the . motions of the moon ; but now I have ceased to doubt , and I speak after my own experience . " He now opened a bolder and more extensive career—that of thecalcttlation
of comets . 10 determine . 011 comctary orbit ,, is-the-most difficult problem in astronomy ; that which exacts the greatest number of calculations , and the most , vigilant sagacity ; for here . arc involved great diversity of facts which embarrass every calculation . But the industry of Pingre could meet 11 b obstacles ;
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Obituary.
OBITUARY .
LATELY , at Leyden , the learned advocate F . lia . Lusac , author of various performances in legUUttKra : Among these may be distinguished a French Translation of the Institutes of the Plights of Nature and Man , by Wolf , n-voi-ipanied by n"iner .. us notes , in 2 vi . ' s . 4 : 0 . A Treatise on the Riches of
HOIIVIIKI , in which our author exhibits the origin of the commerce and power of the Dutch ; the gradual growth of their commerce end navigation ; . the causes which * have contributed to their progress , and those which tend to destroy them ; and llie means which may serve fo im . i . Kain them , in 2 vols . Svo .
He is known also fur some writings , which show him to have been 3 zealous defender of the Stsihholderian government , which he must have grieved to have survived . Among his pleadings , i . s one in favour of the planters of the coiunv at Surinam , and another for the liberty of the press . He had been a printer himself , ami had made enemies by the publication of La Mcttie ' s atheistical treatise of VHomme Machine , Jor
which he acquired the nick-name of L'Homtne Machine . On the i- th Floreal 179 6 , aged 87 , the venerable Alexander Guy Pingre , ] . ibrarian of the French Pantheon . He devoted himself to science from his earliest youth . In O 27 , !> c entered into the ci-devant congregation of the canons
regular of France . Theology for a considerable time occupied his researches ; but he had the art of connecting it with the study of history , chronology , and the learned languages . A life wholly consecrated to study and retirement " , was disturbed even by those whose peculiar duty it was to respect and to imitolerantand the
tate it . Pingre was , bishops of France cherished the sentiments of the Papistical court . Our author was well known as the assertor of the Ii ! evtics of the Gallic-. n . church . In i 7 . fi , lie gav'e proofs of that zeal for freedom which illumined the twilight of his life . He was among those who were persecuted by the ecclesiastical party , because he preferred the exposition of
the Christian doctrine as given by the fathers , to that one more recently dictated by the Jesuit Molina . His enemies first attempted his degradation , by compelling him to descend from the chair of a professor to the form of a pedagogue . But Pingre felt no humiliation ; he ever considered himself in his proper place ,
when he found himself useful . Calumny aspersed his conduct , for teaching a more enlightened doctrine than was supposed to be necessary for youth . In the space of four years Pingre received five lettres de cachet . But philosophy , even in that day ., stood forth the friend and advocate of
this virtuous student . Pingre at the age of thirty-eight , applied himself to astronomy . His first production was a calculation of an eclipse of the moon on the 2 ; clof December , 1749 . Lacaille had calculated it at Paris ; but the
calculations differed by four minutes ; ' and the veteran Lacaille confessed his error , and received a pupil as a friend and rival . He now distinguished himself by a close attachment to the science of astronomy . In 1754 , he calculated his state of the heavens , where the situation of
the moon was determined by the tables of llalley for noon and midnight . But in the following year , he calculated its situations with the precision of seconds . Though perhaps no other man but himself could perform an equal experiment , he delivers his opinion with great modesty : " I doubted ( says he ) last year
, that a single person were sufficient to calculate with the most possible precision the . motions of the moon ; but now I have ceased to doubt , and I speak after my own experience . " He now opened a bolder and more extensive career—that of thecalcttlation
of comets . 10 determine . 011 comctary orbit ,, is-the-most difficult problem in astronomy ; that which exacts the greatest number of calculations , and the most , vigilant sagacity ; for here . arc involved great diversity of facts which embarrass every calculation . But the industry of Pingre could meet 11 b obstacles ;