ABEL, NIELS 1IKNK1K. 



MlMbofiU< 





r of ih. Sulun. Whoa ho appealed to 

 i and England, and they embarked in a war of 

 _ Jtende, to miimemert. M a necessary cons*- 

 Wtolnotr hand*; but it may b* hoped, that when it 

 i to a lletKnry ooooUston. an important result of 

 I U to OMBM to UM tells* what UM Wootern Power* declared 

 to hoabadms oh}*** of their tasstawoa-hb rlffate as a ""fen 

 wiUJn hb own tamwry; due security being token for th* eaUUUh- 

 msn* of UMM *Hal nfhts which hav* boen prombed to all classes of 



.ft SBVlBBBBBBB^Sst. 



AWel Mejid b dosoribod M somewhat above UM middle height; 

 lender early bun*, bat now Inclining to oorpuleooe ; slightly 



b (aid to be oalm and mild, with 

 oly. Tho Earl of CarUaU (' Diary in 



fit* and One* Waters.' n. *) peaking of an interview with him 

 . i IU1. *y, " Th l|ee<jn his aspect conveys is of a man gentle, 

 tins, ft i>iK onstmng. doomed ; no energy of purpose gleamed 



MUMtMtoftoMe; DO augnry of victory sat on that still brow." 

 Bnt tUs nbfi&ty of bearing at an interview, is th* first leason in 

 lUsjaoMi whidh UM MMS; Twk ha. to lean, and through life he is 

 lwy osnfeJ to n ifililn it; to exhibition UMrafor* at UM formal 

 miBtin of ilbHnMbhed English nobleman, whan thora was 

 noUung to oat. peesion of enykind, b otrtainly no evidence of 

 eoeosof Mrpo**. U would appear however, from what U said 

 MM who have bad opportonitie. of fairly estimating his character, 

 UM ftsJtoa b of enhewteelly mOd dbpo^ticoTiind prone to leave 

 iMHiaalof oJUrs to hb minister, and the relative, who sur- 



tf and deoisfen of psvpena. Tho refusal to surrender the Hun- 

 end Poobh rWbfMs. after th. Hongarian revolution of 1848, U 

 . 1 to havohoM UM fir, anal act of Abdu-l-Mejid ; and he 

 to UM imporioos demand* of Kuatia and 

 rL^PalsMntasvthonfaro^nminUter, 

 of UM Salun'. resolution by moving UM Bnglwh 

 , and thu. etttkd the dispute During the 



I in thai nfamJ. 



oontiBMsw* of UM nrssant war. to trying to the resources of his 

 Msyl m k UM SBndo> of UM SoJtan has bera invariably firm, frank, 

 *Jha.onTh>s ahto towards hb nabjoaU and UM alliec 



ABEL, tho aoond aon of Adam. Hb bbtory b contained in the 

 pMtthonasferof OOMSM, whor* wo ar. informed, that, ho being a 

 U>f*r of tkftf, whfl* Cain was UUer of UM ground, the two 

 nthiH of r*d snorUea* tototbsr to UM Lord ; the fonaor bringing 

 n**t of UM oomd for that pmrnoos, and the latter of the dr*t- 

 hbtock. Tho o&rbic of Abtl aloo* was accepted 



f Ik* frvit of UM 



; and the 



of UM sufleriog and glory of the 

 of UM World. Tbb nrisHbaos of faith pervaded his life, 

 OwhtoBMd Lord (lUiL. xti.l 15) rlubpstes him -righteous Abet 

 U wo are told (I John, tti IS) that Cain aUw hb brother * t 

 hb brother's righucus.- 



own woras were evfl. and hb brother' 

 LBBL, CHARLES KSEDEWCK. a 



natire of Germany, and _ 



ba*Ua Beetu WM neh dbUoguisbed as a eompW and 

 h UM mtddb and towards UM dose of the lastoentury. 



of rated, at Dread*; hot hb teloots Uing very "inadequauiy 

 ''I*'*. 1<tod Us* service in 174*. with only throTdonar. in 

 h*. nnslMt, and reacn*d Enclaad UM following year, whore he soon 

 M wah n , .,; tUdid not end in empty pnbe. When 

 UM OOMI of Oeolf* III. bed her estahlbhnMot fixed, Abel was 

 iMsfaHl ehombsr **Um on h, at salary of SOOt per annum; 

 Aortly after be unitej with 1. ChrisUao Bath In formmg a weekl/ 



continue.! to be highly 

 chief instrument was the 

 itrings, now fallen into 

 auditor, which scarcely 



lowed instruments, and 



y * kb dagio*. or slow movement*. " His com- 



heartntb* concert, whioh for many years i 

 ill Mil 1 1 end hUrally soMwrtei. HU chi 

 *l da samU. a small vlolonoaUo with sis 

 Vssm VithU^heprodaeedaneftVotoohb 



W MsWsW ssMM IMWA dKts* IA utkl**A nn W 



^"f ^^*^ nwn^nw e^nwii Wfej t*9 BsUsTTV QQ D" 



vwwveowe i UJUKIV eUUB. *U 1U 



itwiitt.z'ttj' "S^w*" mot p*"' > Wned 



tfcw. the rbheet harmony, and the most elegant and polished 

 iffil" 1 " 1 wilh _* >. taste, and science, that 

 pnrioctioa or Dtrformanoe with which iW then 



TT^JlH! 1 ^* BMm l P rf ati n -" ('Hist of 

 f !?* ""^ kowOTer of the present day, who has 

 ~* ** kmd by Haydn, Mosmrt, Beethoven Chi- 



Dweev_ Cx&x^^f AJ* f i. t i. - n 



^" *! irean in BUS memory, will not deny the 



" btter productions. Abel-judging him by 

 -to Uun imagination ; more knowledge 

 anner of performance, than vigour of 

 Homey admits tCt "hi. later productions, 



Us 



of 



compared with those of younger compoaen, appeared aomewh.it Ian* 

 guid and monotonoua," But we suspect the fact to be, that they wero 

 more accurately estimated when compared with the productions of a 

 more advanced age. Abel was intemperate in the use of fermented 

 liquor*, and brought his life to a hasty oloae in the year 17S7. 



ABEL, NIELS HENltIK, was born August 5th, 1802, in Norway, 

 at Fiiidoe, in the diocese of ChrUtiansand, of which parish hU father 

 wai then minister. He wai sent in 1815 to the cathedral school of 

 Christiania, where be did not show any remarkable sign of progreu, 

 until 1818, when M. Holmboe, a newly-appointed professor of mathe- 

 matics, afterwards the writer of Abel's life, and editor of his works, 

 discovered his talent for mathematics, and aided him in pursuing 

 those sciences beyond the elements. In July, 1821, he went to tho 

 University of Christiana, whore, his father having died and left him 

 without the means of continuing hU studies, he was first maintained 

 by a subscription of the professors, and afterwards, for two years, by 

 a pension from the government. His earliest mathematical essay was 

 an attempt at the old question of the solution of the equation of tho 

 fifth degree, in which, after discovering his own failure, he determined 

 either to find a solution, or to show the impossibility of finding any; 

 and produced his celebrated paper on the last point, of which we shall 

 presently speak. In July, 1825, he obtained an increased pension 

 from the government to enable him to travel. lie first went to 

 Berlin, where he formed an acquaintance with Crelle, whioh became 

 an intimate friendship. The mathematical journal, now so well knwii, 

 which bears the name of the latter, was commenced in 1820, and 

 Abel was one of the earliest and principal contributors. Abel continued 

 bis travels through Germany, Italy, and Switzerland : ho arrived at 

 Paris in July, 1826, where he made acquaintance with the most distin- 

 guished French mathematicians. He returned home by way of Berlin, 

 in January, 1827, and continued his private studies (which his journey 

 had not interrupted) with an activity of whioh there is the most extra- 

 ordinary evidence. In December, 1828, he went to the iron-fouudriea 

 of Froland, near Arendal, where resided the family of a lady to whom 

 he was betrothed. He was there seized with illness, in January, 

 1829, and died of consumption on the Cth of April of the same year. 

 M. Holmboe gires the moat direct contradiction to the statement 

 which has several times been made, that Abel was neglected by the 

 Swedish government, and died in extreme poverty. He was, when he 

 died, pro tempore professor of mathematics, during the absence of 

 Haiwtetii in Siberia, and would have succeeded to the first vacant 

 chair. A few days after his death, a most honourable invitation 

 arrived from the Prussian government, to remove his residence to 

 Berlin. In the obituary published by Crelle, in hi. 'Journal,' he 

 states distinctly that the large number of important memoirs which 

 Abel had ready for publication was the immediate reason of tho 

 'Journal* being undertaken. 



The Swedish government published the works of Abel in 1839, in 

 two volumes, 4to, and in the French language. The first volume 

 contain, all that he published himself (in ' Crelle's Journal ' and else- 

 where, moitly in German), translated, as just remarked. The second 

 volume contains all that he left in manuscript, finished or unfinished. 

 Nothing can be a severer trial to a mathematician's character than the 

 publication of his loose papers ; but, however crude the speculation, 

 Abel is never lowered. He had read comparatively so little, that all 

 which he has left bears the stamp of his own moat original power. 



The great point to which Abel turned his attention was tho theory 

 of elliptic functions. Lcgendro, who had devoted a large port of hU 

 life to the development of these functions, and to the formation of 

 tables by which to use them, found himself, when his toil was just 

 finished, completely distanced by the young Norwegian, of whom MJ 

 one bad ever heard. The frankness of the acknowledgment made by 

 Legendre, and the spirited manner in which the old man et to work 

 to incorporate the new discoveries into his own books, will never be 

 forgotten by any biographer of AbeL It is unnecessary to specify the 

 particular methods of the latter ; all who study the subject of elliptic 

 functions are fully aware how much is due to him. 



The number of different ways in which Abel turned aside from this 

 subject into questions of development, definite integration, &c., makes 

 the sum total of bis labours an astonishingly large quantity, if the age 

 at which he died be considered. He appears to have fully developed 

 in his own mind the subject of the separation of symbols of operation 

 and quantity, not indeed to the extent of founding its results upon an 

 algebraical theory, but to that of giving the theory a wider amount of 

 application. He was a daring generaliscr, and sometimes went too 

 far : had he lived/.he would have corrected some of his writings, 

 yet ho appears to have been deeply impressed with the notion that a 

 (Teat part of mathematical analysis is rendered unsound by the em- 

 ployment of divergent series. 



The celebrated attempt at the proof of the impossibility of repre- 

 senting under one formula the five roots of on equation of the fifth 

 degree involves some rather obscure consideration*. It can hardly be 

 said to be generally admitted ; perhaps it has not been generally read ; 

 Tor proofs of negative propositions, when complicated, are not usually 

 of a high order of interest. Sir \V. Hamilton ('Trans. It. I. A.,' 

 vol. xviii.) has examined Abel's proof nt great length, and arrives at 

 .he same conclusion, though with some degree of departure from his 

 principle. 



