1818.] M. Le Sage. 243 



they were of an indirect nature, and very different from what 

 was intended or expected by his parents. As he had no one to 

 whom he could open his heart or unbosom his ideas and emo- 

 tions, his mind recoiled upon itself; and being of a nature not 

 to be repressed, its energies displayed themselves in a different 

 direction. He spent his solitary and silent hours in musing on 

 the causes of what he saw around him ; his reasoning powers 

 became strengthened by this intellectual exercise ; and as he 

 was debarred from applying to his parents for the information 

 which he was anxious to obtain on various topics, he very early 

 began to question nature herself. Some of his puerile experi- 

 ments, which are recorded, are strong indications of his powerful 

 mind ; and there is one, made when he was only about 10 years 

 of age, which is so characteristic that it deserves to be selected. 

 The religious system of his parents enjoined a considerable degree 

 of strictness in the observance of Sunday, especially in abstain- 

 ing from all kinds of occupation ; and in order to discover 

 whether the Deity on that day ceased from his labours, in the 

 same way that the human race were commanded to do, he care- 

 fully ascertained the daily rate of the growth of some plants, and 

 examined whether there was any difference between the growth 

 of Sunday and of the other days of the week. The chief work 

 on natural philosophy, to which Le Sage had access during this 

 part of his education, was that of Bernard Palissy, a work, in 

 some degi-ee, adapted to inspire him with a turn for inquiry, 

 although not well fitted to give him very accurate ideas : he 

 likewise profited by the lectures that were given in the college of 

 Geneva, and studied under Calandrini and Cramer ; the one 

 Professor of Natural Philosophy, the other of Mathematics. 

 But although these circumstances, in some measure turned his 

 attention to experimental science, yet he remained most attached 

 to abstruse and abstract reasoning ; and it is remarkable how 

 the natural, or, at least, the early acquired bent of his mind 

 operated upon every thing connected with his education, so as 

 to deduce from it a contrary effect to that which was designed. 

 A remarkable case of this kind occurred when he was about 13 

 years of age : some one having lent his father the work of Mont- 

 iaucon, entitled " L'Antiquite Expliquee," he gave it to his son, 

 hoping to excite in his mind a turn for objects of that descrip- 

 tion. The young man studied the work with attention ; but 

 instead of the effect expected by his father, Le Sage was 

 entirely occupied with detecting the fallacy of the author's reason- 

 ing respecting the use of certain ancient instruments that are 

 described ; and the Ideas which he then acquired, after being 

 matured by some years' reflection, gave rise to his ingenious 

 remarks on final causes, entitled, " Teleologie de la Nature et 

 de l'Art." 



It would appear that at a very early period of his life our phi- 

 losopher began to meditate upon that subject which afterwards 



