172 EULOGY ON QUETELET. 



of letters, and a geometer, and before proceeding to consider him as a 

 physicist, astronomer, and statistician we shall see how he filled the 

 office of j)rofessor. When first appointed to the AthensBum of Brussels, 

 he occupied only a very subordinate j^osition, as professor of elementary 

 mathematics, but he was soon promoted, and his duties much extended. 

 In 1824 we find him teaching at the athenteum the descriptive geometry 

 of Menge, the theory of shades and perspective, the calculation of prob- 

 abilities of La Croix, higher algebra, and analytical geometry ; while he 

 was also giving a public course of lectures at the niu^eum upon experi- 

 mental physics, the elements of astronomy, and of differential and 

 integral calculus. 



He was very highly esteemed by his pupils. There was something 

 about him at once imposing and amiable, while there was a complete 

 absence of anything like pedantry or haughtiness. Although marked 

 with small-pox, his physiognomy was refined and impressive; it was only 

 necessary to fix his large dark eyes, surmounted with heavy black brows, 

 upon the refractory, to insure at once silence and submission. On ac- 

 count of the inefificiency of his assistants, he was obliged each year to 

 commence arithmetic, algebra, and geometry. He separated his pupils, 

 according to their ability, into two classes, occui^jing adjoining rooms, 

 and he would i)ass from one to the other apartmeftt, experiencing no 

 difficulty in preserving silence in both. He was as simple and natural 

 in his teaching as in everything else. He reduced arithmetic to a few 

 general principles, and, as soon as he had initiated his pupils in the 

 notation of algebra, showed how this admirable instrument could be 

 used to resolve all ordinary questions relating to numbers. His talent 

 for drawing was displayed by the geometrical figures he formed with 

 chalk upon the blackboard to illustrate his teachings. At the Athe- 

 naeum his courses attracted numerous auditors from all classes of so- 

 ciety. He had a special talent for exposition, and knew how to use to 

 advantage the few instruments he had at command. He disliked to 

 make experiments with complicated apparatus, which he said was apt 

 to divert the attention from the results exhibited ; he considered that 

 only indispensable articles, such as the scales, an electric machine, a 

 voltaic pile, and a few other simple imstruments need be provided. 



For the use of his public courses he published several elementary 

 works. The first, upon astronomy, appeared in Paris in 1826. It has 

 been reprinted many times in France and Belgium and translated into 

 several languages. It was followed b^' one upon natural philosoi)hy, 

 which was intended to enable his pupils at the museum to correct the 

 notes hurriedly taken at the time of the lecture and often erroneous. We 

 have said that he disliked complicated apparatus in teaching the ele- 

 ments of physics, and he accordingly prepared a small volume, the object 

 of which was to describe observations and experiments which could be 

 easily made by any one. This was published in 1832, and the author 

 intended to follow it with other works of the same kind upon magne- 



