244 Biographical Account of [April, 



engaged so large a portion of his thoughts, the cause of gravity, 

 or physical attraction. Several circumstances of a minute, and 

 apparently trifling nature, led him to this topic; but it seems to 

 have been the perusal of Lucretius's poem which produced the 

 tirst distinct conception of his future hypothesis ; and from this 

 time he carefully abstracted and treasured up 'everv idea which 

 had any bearing upon it, or connexion with it. An instance of 

 this is on record, which deserves to be related, as a remarkable 

 example of the principle which forms so distinguishing a feature 

 in his character, as well as of his youthful sagacity. He com- 

 menced about this period the study of geometry, and he informs 

 us that it enabled him to demonstrate the fallacy of a method, 

 which had been proposed by M. Combes, for the quadrature of 

 the circle, and that the reasoning which he employed on this 

 occasion formed the basis of the first solutions that he disco- 

 vered of a specious objection which had been opposed against 

 every explanation of gravity by mechanical impulse. We learn 

 from this circumstance that he had advanced so far in his hypo- 

 thesis, while still employed in the elementary part of his studies, 

 as to have formed a distinct notion of the effect of impulse. 

 Deluc, who was a contemporary of Le Sage, relates a conver- 

 sation which took place between them on the same subject, 

 in which the latter attempted to prove to his youthful companion 

 that the horse does not draw a carriage, but pushes it forwards 

 with his chest. The mathematical studies in which he was now 

 chiefly occupied appear to have been congenial to his taste and 

 feelings ; that devoted attachment to order and method, which 

 he so early manifested, he had an opportunity of indulging; and 

 he found that he was better able to render himself respectable in 

 the eyes of his schoolfellows, than when he was engaged in those 

 pursuits which more immediately depended upon the exercise 

 of his memory, which, as we have already observed, was so 

 peculiarly defective. Of this deficiency he was himself perfectly 

 aware ; and, indeed, one of the great objects of his subsequent 

 exertions was to supply this defect by artificial methods, and by 

 the most scrupulous attention to accuracy, in arranging every 

 fact, and every additional piece of information, which he ob- 

 tained. Re so far succeeded as to be able, on all occasions, to 

 recall at pleasure any ideas which had previously been stored 

 up ; but he always found an insuperable difficulty in the acquisi- 

 tion of languages, or in those studies which depend immediately 

 upon the exercise of memory. 



The time was now arrived when it became necessary for the 

 young Le Sage to make choice of a profession, a determination 

 which was rendered extremely difficult and painful, both in con- 

 sequence of the natural indecision and timidity of his disposition, 

 and because on this, as on so many former occasions, his wishes 

 and those of his parents were directly in opposition to each 

 jther. He had already acquired so strong a passion for philo- 



