1808.] 
sixteenth centuries, The abstract the- 
orems of pure algebra, (beyond what may 
be applied to any practical end,) upon 
which very great talents have been, and 
are still employed, are perhaps entitled to 
little more respect than the subtleties 
and dark distinctions which engaged the 
theologians and metapbysicians three 
hundred years ago. The memory of Wa- 
Ting may probably suffer the same fate 
as those of Scotus and Aquinas; or if 
posterity may think some credit due to 
the judgment of an enlightened age, his 
name, like that of Mirandola, may be re- 
membered and admired while his works 
are scarcely known to exist. We sneer 
at the understandings of men, whose 
time was spent in such enquiries as these 
* Quiditates habent ab «eterno suum esse 
formale ase, non ab extrinseco;”* but if 
these had been the studies of our univer- 
sities, and we had been accustomed to 
give to these barbarous terms the signifi- 
cations which were at that time given to 
them by common consent, we should 
have no more right to ridicule sucha 
proposition, than the following “ Si equa- 
tio quadratica duas habeat radices im- 
possibiles, &c.” 
John Pica, Prince of Mirandola and 
Concordia, was born in the year 1463, 
under the pontificate of Pius 11. He was 
the youngest son of John Francis of Mi- 
randola, and Julia, a lady of the noble 
family of Boiard. Some of the credulous 
historians of the time have related, that 
at his birth a globe of fire was seen to 
rest upon his mother’s bed, portending, 
say they, by its shape the perfection of 
his genius, and by its element, the celes- 
‘tial turn of his mind. As soon as he was 
capable of receiving instruction, he was 
placed by his mother’s care under the 
most able masters, and very early distin- 
guished himself by the vigour of his ap- 
plication, and the strength of his memory; 
of which such prodigies are related as 
would be very difficult to credit, were we 
‘not assured by some modern instances, 
of the perfection to which that faculty 
may be carried. At the age of fourteen 
he was sent by his mother’s direction, 
was desirous that he should assume 
the clerical functions, to Bologna, at that 
time the principal resort of those who 
Studied the pontificallaw. After spend- 
‘ing two years there, he became disgusted 
with this pursuit, although such was his 
industry, even at that early age, that be 
* One of the conclusiones or questivns pro- 
posed tor dispute by Mirandola, 
we 4 
Memoirs of John Pica, Prince of Mirandola. 
936, 
compiled an Epitome of the Pontifical 
Epistles or Decretals. His disposition, 
however, strongly led him to the pursuit 
of philosophy, with an eager curiosity to 
penetrate the secrets of nature and sci- 
euce: with this view he travelled over 
Ttaly and France, visited the most cele- 
brated schools of each, and studied under 
the most famous teachers of both coun- 
tries. After seven years spent in this 
couyse of instruction, and at the age of 
twenty-three, he went to Rome, and, 
after the fashion of the ‘scholars of that 
time, brought himself into notice by pub- 
licly proposing literary questions for dis- 
putation. ‘This sort of challenge was 
very common in that age, and, when 
printing was scarcely practised, and the 
name of a man of Jearning less rapidly 
extended than itis now,was almost the only 
method that a person of superior attain- 
ments had to make himself known. Mi- 
randola proposed nine hundred ques- 
tions, or as they were called Conclusi- 
enes, in dialectics, mathematics, natural 
philosophy, and divinity, drawn not only 
fro the stores of the Latin and Greek, 
but from the mysteries of the Hebrews 
and the arcana of the Chaldzans and 
Arabians. In addition to the endless to- 
pics of metapliysics, theology, and the 
ordinary subjects of disputation, inte 
which he entered very profoundly, the 
Conclusiones involved the ancient and 
obscure philosophy of Pythagoras, Tris- 
megistus, and Orpheus; the doctrines of 
the Cabala or mystic interpretation of 
the sacred writings, according to the He- 
brews, taught by Origen and Hilarius ; 
the extent, uses, and learning of natural 
magic, which was vindicated from the 
vulgar reproach of impiety and necro- 
mancy. Seventy-two new physical and 
metaphysical dogmata of the author’s in- 
vention were likewise proposed and de- 
fended, These propositions, according 
to the ostentatious practice on these oc- 
casions, were fixed in the most public 
places in Rome, and the proposer en- 
gaged to defray the expences of any one 
who should come from a distance for the 
purpose of disputing with him. This 
challenge did not bring forward any dig- 
putants, hut exposed Mirandola to much 
envy and jealousy, particularly from the 
professors of science at Rome, who felt 
the reflection that would he cast upon: 
their credit by their declining a compe 
tition which they durst not encoun- 
ter. Unable .to injare his fame as a 
scholar; they made a much more dange-” 
reus attack upon che suundiess of his 
faitir ; 
? 
