840 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ities of intellect, scientific cast of imagination, and a will that never 

 faltered in the earnest pursuit of truth for its own sake. In every age 

 these are the true characteristics of a man of science. 



^ 



SKETCH OF MICHEL CHASLES. 



" TN the death of Michel Chasles," said M. J. Bertrand, in his fu- 

 -L neral eulogy of the deceased mathematician, " France has lost 

 one of its glories, and the members of the Academy of Sciences have 

 lost an excellent friend, who, devoted without reserve to the beautiful 

 studies which made his fame, showed an equal and active kindness to 

 all who traveled in different directions along the highways of science." 

 " As far back as the present generation can remember," says Mi\ R. 

 Tucker, in " Nature," " Chasles has been a prince of geometers, and it 

 has come upon many of us as a surprise to hear that he was still 

 walking and working in our midst. ... To many," says the same 

 writer, " the man who had surpassed in age Leibnitz by seventeen, 

 Euler by eleven, Lagrange by ten, Laplace and Gauss by nine, and 

 Newton by two years, was a ' venerabile nomen,'' but yet a ' nomen ' 

 only." 



M. Chasles was born at Epernon, France, November 15, 1793, and 

 died December 18, 1880. His mathematical tastes were exhibited at 

 a very early age ; while a pupil in elementary mathematics in the Im- 

 perial Lyceum, he was accustomed to communicate to the students in 

 the rival colleges the problems and exercises of each week, asking 

 them, in return, to furnish him the questions proposed by their masters. 

 He entered the ficole Polytechnique in 1812, and passed out from it 

 with a diploma in engineering in 1814, after having taken his place in 

 the defense of Paris. He was about to go to Chartres to bid farewell 

 to his mother before proceeding to duty at Metz, when he was waited 

 upon by the father of one of his comrades, who asked him to resign in 

 favor of his son, who had failed to obtain a position, pleading that he 

 had made great sacrifices, which he could not afford to repeat, to prepare 

 the youth for a career suited to his taste. Young Chasles made no 

 reply, but went on to Chartres and told his mother he would stay with 

 her. He returned to the ficole Polytechnique in 1815, but voluntarily 

 renounced public employment, and went to Chartres to spend ten 

 years working quietly at mathematical occupations. " Always," says 

 M. Bertrand, " passionately fond of geometry, he worked out elabo- 

 rate problems, discovered elegant theorems every day, invented gen- 

 eral and fruitful methods, without attracting the attention of the mas- 

 ters of science, or pretending to do so. . . . Without grieving or com- 



