TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION. xv 



dely) called Szekelyfrld. He studied first at 

 Enyed, afterward at Klausenburg (Kolozsvar), 

 then went with Baron Simon Kemeny to Jena 

 and afterward to Goettingen. Here he met 

 Gauss, then in his 19th year, and the two 

 formed a friendship which lasted for life. 



The letters of Gauss to his friend were sent 

 by Bolyai in 1855 to Professor Sartorius von 

 Walterhausen, then working on his biography 

 of Gauss. Everyone who met Bolyai felt that 

 he was a profound thinker and a beautiful 

 character. 



Benzenberg said in a letter written in 1801 

 that Bolyai was one of the most extraordinary 

 men he had ever known. 



He returned home in 1"7% and in January, 

 1804, was made professor of mathematics in 

 the Reformed College of Maros-Vasarhely. 

 Here for 47 years of active teaching he had 

 for scholars nearly all the professors and no- 

 bility of the next generation in Erdely. 



Sylvester has said that mathematics is poesy. 



Bolyai' s first published works were dramas. 



His first published book on mathematics was 

 an arithmetic: 



Az arithmetica eleje. 8vo. i-xvi, 1-162 pp. 

 The copy in the library of the Reformed Col- 

 lege is enriched with notes by Bolyai Janos. 



