Account of M. Delambrcj the Mathematician. 



J 823. J 



«f the Holy Sepulchre." Such, he 



thinks, was the origin of tbe Saxon 



architecture, 



" Whatsoever," says Mr. Milner, a 

 far higher authority than the bishop on 

 this subject, " has been advanced in 

 support of the system of those persons 

 who derive tlie elegant pointed style, 

 improperly named Gothic, from the 

 Goths and Vandals of the North, or 

 from the Saracens of the East ; or, 

 finally, from the Moors of the West, 

 is the produce of mere conjecture, 

 without a shadow of historical evi- 

 dence. We no-where read of any 

 architect from Arabia, Morocco, or 

 ^pain, arriving in England, France, 

 ■or Italy, to teach the inhabitants how 

 to construct their churches : nor do we 

 hear of any Englishman, Frenchman, 

 ov Italian, that ever travelled into 

 those countries in order to learn archi- 

 tecture. 



233 



The first, or grand, Crusade took 

 place at the latter end of the eleventh 

 century, long before the appearance of 

 the pointed architecture in England, 

 France, or Italy ; but, what absolutely 

 decides this question, is, that, through- 

 out all Syria, Arabia, &c. there is not 

 a Gothic building to be discovered, 

 except such as were raised by the 

 Latin Christians subsequent to the 

 perfection of that style in Europe." 

 And he draws from the whole, the 

 general, and apparently just, conclu- 

 sion, " that the authority of Sir Chris- 

 topher Wren had seduced Lowth, 

 Warton, and most other writers upon 

 this subject. But why," says he, 

 " need we recur to the caravansaries of 

 Arabia, or to the forests of Scandinavia, 

 for a discovery, the gradations of 

 which we trace at home in an age of 

 improvement and magnificence I" 



BIOGRAPHY OF EMINENT PERSONS. 



ACCOUNT of M. DELAMBRE, the FRENCH 

 MATHEMATICIAN. 



."jVT- DELAMBRE was born at Amiens in 

 -'■"•'■ 1749, where he received the rudiments 

 of his education. He became, successively, 

 an excellent Latinist, and one of the best 

 Greek scholars, long before he applied 

 himself to mathematical studies. While 

 young Delambre was finishing his studies, 

 the Jesuits were banished from France, by 

 a decree of the Parliament, and other pro- 

 fessors sent from Paris to replace them in 

 the College of Amiens. Among these, as 

 a grammatical teacher, was the Abbe 

 l)elille, from the College of Beauvais, who 

 had then made some progress in his Trans- 

 lation of the Georgics. The inhabitants of 

 Amiens, considering this an intrusion, shut 

 their doors in the face of the strangers, 

 and DeUUe had no other society than that 

 «f his pupils. From that time an unalter- 

 able friendship between (he master and 

 Lis scholar took its rise. The world had 

 not then foreseen the successive specimens 

 of prolific genius which these accomplished 

 men were one day to afford, by the splen- 

 «^ur of their abilities; or that, by labouring 

 together, as professors, in the College of 

 France, one should become the historian, 

 judge, and panegyrist, of the learned of his 

 nation;and theother, by his valuable contri- 

 butions to the stock of classical lore, should 

 obtain immortal honour among posterity. 



At that early season oflifc, M. Delambre 

 displayed a vigour and clearness of intel- 

 lect in his acquaintance with the authors 

 (Of anti<|uit> ; to this he afterwards added a 

 competent knowledge of most of llic mo- 

 ^rn Euroi»tau languages : heuce he aC' 

 , Mo.NTUtv Mau. No. 3U0. 



quired great proficiency in all those stu- 

 dies. A part of his time was passed in 

 collating the original editions and transla- 

 tions of Euclid, and the books of Archi- 

 medes and Ptolemy. His valuable and 

 important emendations rank him as a mo- 

 del for the imitation of critics and com- 

 mentators in philology and geometry. A 

 still more conspicuous trait in his character 

 was the unwearied industry exemplified in 

 his singular attachment to astronomy. He 

 did not, however, apply himself to this 

 study until he was at the age of thirty-six, 

 when Lalande gave an impulse to his la- 

 tent passion, and often took a pleasure in 

 lepresenting Delambre as his best work. 



On entering into this new sphere, he 

 constructed the tables of the movements of 

 Uranus, a planet Just then discovered by 

 Herschel. Thenceforward, he continued 

 writing in the Conniiissimce des Terns; and 

 his efforts, in improving the system at 

 large, will long be recorded. He pre- 

 sented, also, several Memoirs to the Aca- 

 demy of Sciences ; and, in 1790 and 1792, 

 he sained the prize of that Academy for 

 his Tables of Uranus, and those of the .Sa- 

 tellites of Jupiter. He afterwards pre- 

 sented his tables of Jupiter and Saturn. 



At length, in the beginning of 1792, he 

 was unanimously elected a member of that 

 Academy. It was now that, in concert 

 with Mechain, he w-as commissioned to 

 measure an arc of the meridian, — an ope- 

 ration which, from constant interruption, 

 could not be completed till 17119. In 

 1795, M. D. was placed among the astro- 

 nomers of the Bureau of Longitude, and 

 among the nicmbers of the first dw^ of 

 H h the 



