13S 



ROLLE, MICHEL. 



ROLLIN, CHARLES. 



130 



against the Convention, by the Jacobins, on the 31st of May 1793; 

 and in the evening of the same day Madame Roland was arrested and 

 thrown into the prison of the Abbaye. Here she displayed her usual 

 firmness, and continued to exercise towards the poor and unfortunate 

 a benevolence for which iu her prosperous days she hadbeen remarkable. 

 Before her friends she appeared cheerful ; she always maintained the 

 language of a patriot when speaking of the aspect of affairs, flattering 

 and fearing none ; and she professed herself capable of overcoming her 

 ill-fortune. In solitude the feelings of the wife and the mother over- 

 came her, and the attendants remarked that she passed many hours in 

 tears. Her sufferings were greatly aggravated by her being one day 

 unexpectedly liberated, as if the danger was past. She drove home 

 with extreme delight ; sprung out of the coach, as she says it had 

 always been her habit to do, but with more than usual vivacity ; and 

 was running gaily up stairs, when she was again arrested by an officer, 

 and at once taken to Sainte Pelagie, a prison of a lower order than the 

 Abbaye, where she was shut up with the worst of her sex. In this 

 second prison she remained until her trial and execution. The only 

 explanation given of this circumstance was that her first arrest had been 

 illegal. The wretchedness of her situation at Sainte Pelagie was only 

 alleviated by her literary occupations, and by the kindness of her 

 gaolers or of their families, whom her fascinating manners and 

 behaviour converted into friends. Well knowing that her life would 

 be sacrificed, she devoted all her hours to the composition of her 

 'Memoirs,' writings full of lively description, entertaining anecdotes of 

 her contemporaries, and remarks indicative of penetration and habitual 

 reflection. A letter to her daughter, written in these circumstances, 

 is one of the most affecting of farewells. But Madame Roland seldom 

 gave way to melancholy emotions in her writings. Her pages detail 

 the events of her childhood and youth with matchless sprightliness 

 and grace; and, excepting in certain passages wherein candour is 

 carried to an excess which modern delicacy would not permit to a 

 female writer, her 'Memoirs ' are models of that kind of composition. 



As the narrative advances, events of a deeper interest are related 

 with great facility of expression, sometimes with mournful pathos, 

 generally with great judgment, not always without satire, but always 

 with easy eloquence. From a very early age we may discern in this 

 relation the extraordinary decision of her character, her naturally 

 commanding manners, her fervent but well-controlled temperament, 

 her indefatigable love of improvement, and her unswerving adherence 

 to truth. 



Several unhappy prisoners delivered themselves from certain execu- 

 tion by taking poison ; and Madame Roland had at one time resolved 

 to do the same. But communicating her resolution to a friend, who 

 represented to her that a nobler course would be to wait for death, 

 and leave the memory of so great a sacrifice to the cause for which she 

 had lived, she calmly determined to abide the result. 



It was in the month of October (1793) that the Girondists were 

 destroyed. On the 31st of that month she was sent to the Concier- 

 gerie. On the 10th of November she appeared before the revolutionary 

 tribunal. She had declined the proffered aid of M. Chauveau-Lagarde, 

 the advocate of the Girondists, of the unfortunate queen, and of 

 Charlotte Corday ; knowing that no talents could save her, since her 

 innocence could not, and not wishing to expose him to useless danger. 

 Part of the night was occupied by her in writing an eloquent defence. 

 Her courage did not desert her during her trial or at her execution. 

 She sustained the insults of the unmanly tribunal, not without 

 womanly emotion, but also with a dignity worthy of the greatest 

 women of the times with which her early reading of Plutarch had 

 made her familiar. To the last moment she preserved her presence 

 of mind, and even her gaiety. On the same day and at the same 

 hour a man was also to be guillotined ; and in such extremity to die 

 first being thought a privilege, she waived it hi favour of her less 

 courageous companion in misfortune ; overcoming the scruples of the 

 executioner, whose orders were to execute her first, by representing 

 to him the impoliteness of refusing a woman's last request. It is said 

 that bending herself before the statue of Liberty, close to this scene 

 of death, she exclaimed, " Oh ! Liberty : what crimes are committed 

 in thy name ! " 



She had often been heard to say that her husband would not sur- 

 vive her. As soon as he heard of her execution, he took leave of 

 two attached female friends in whose house, at Rouen, he had found 

 a refuge, and to whom his resolution was known ; walked in the 

 evening of the 15th of November as far as Baudouin, four leagues on 

 the road to Paris ; sat down by the side of a tree in an avenue 

 leading to a private house, and passed his cane-sword through his 

 chest. By his side was found a paper, in which these words were 

 written : " Whoever you are who find me lying here, respect my 

 remains ; they are those of a man who devoted his whole life to being 

 useful, and who died, as he had lived, virtuous and honest." 



ROLLE, MICHEL, a French mathematician, was born at Ambert 

 in Auvergne, in 1652. He appears to have possessed from nature a 

 remarkable facility in solving propositions relating to arithmetic and 

 algebra, and to have acquired by practice a great proficiency in the 

 calligraphic art. After bavin? served during several years as an 

 attorney's clerk, he went, in 1675, to Paris, where he obtained a sub- 

 sistance as a writing-master, and where he spent his leisure time in 

 cultivating the mathematical sciences. Au accidental circumstance 



procured for him the notice of M. Colbert. Ozanam, who was himself 

 a good analyst, happening to propose to mathematicians a problem of 

 the kind called indeterminate, which, he conceived, could be solved 

 only by a process involving very high numbers, Rolle was so fortunate 

 as to discover a neat solution ; and the minister, being informed of 

 it, was induced, in 1685, to recommend him for election as a member 

 of the Academy of Sciences, then recently formed. 



From this time Rollo devoted himself to analytical pursuits, and in 

 1690 he published a treatise on algebra in 4to. This work contains, 

 among other methods for the solution of equations, one which he calls 

 the method of ' cascades,' a name given to it because it consists in 

 successively depressing the equation one degree lower at each operation. 

 It has some analogy to a method given by Newton in the ' Arithmetica 

 Universalis,' but its want of generality has caused it ever since to be 

 neglected. An affectation of peculiar modes of expression prevails 

 throughout the whole work, which is otherwise very obscurely written : 

 the author was however particularly skilful in the management of 

 questions of the kind called diophantine, and he published a treatise 

 on that subject in 1699. 



Rolle, unfortunately for his fame, entered the lists as an opponent 

 of the algebra of Descartes, and of the differential calculus which had 

 been then recently discovered by Newton and Leibnitz ; and he is 

 accused of using towards those who endeavoured to point out his 

 mistakes a tone of anger which is very unbecoming in a philosopher. 

 He began in 1701 to attack the differential calculus, objecting both to 

 its principles and its applications ; and, with respect to the latter, ho 

 endeavoured to show that in particular examples the results are incon- 

 sistent with those which are brought out by the ancient processes. 

 The new calculus, as it was called, found however in France a zealous 

 and temperate advocate in Varignon, who, in replying to the objections 

 of Rolle, explained the true meaning of the differential symbols, and 

 pointed out that the supposed discrepancies in the results of the 

 examples arose entirely from the haste and inadvertency of the 

 objector. . 



This dispute agitated the French Academy of Sciences for a long 

 time, Rolle continuing to raise one objection after another ; and though 

 they were answered by Varignon, the former always pretended to have 

 the victory. It is said that the Academy was then composed of men 

 who had been long accustomed to the ancient analysis, and therefore 

 saw with pleasure an opposition raised against methods to which they 

 were not yet reconciled. In 1705 however the Academy, without 

 pronouncing a judgment on the subject, recommended that Rolle, in 

 moderating his language, should conform to the rules of the insti- 

 tution ; and the dispute was for a time terminated. This was twenty- 

 nine years before Bishop Berkeley attempted to revive the subject in 

 the 'Analyst.' [ROBINS.] 



It appears that subsequently Rolle acknowledged his error, and thus 

 he may be supposed to have deserved the pardon of posterity. He 

 was admitted second geometrical pensioner of the Academy in 1699, 

 and died on the 5th of July 1719, at sixty-seven years of age. 



ROLLIN, CHARLES, born at Paris, on the 30th of January 1661, 

 was the second son of a master cutler, and was intended by his father 

 for the same trade. Attracting the notice of a Benedictine monk, by 

 the taste and aptitude for learning which he showed at a very early 

 age, he was rescued from his obscure destiny, and placed at the college 

 of Plessis with a pension. Here he pursued his studies with great 

 zeal, industry, and docility, was much noticed by the principal of the 

 college, and was selected by the minister, Le Peletier, as the com- 

 panion of his two sons, with whom he had disputed the prize of 

 academic distinction in generous rivalship. After having been 

 instructed in humanities and philosophy, he devoted three years to 

 the study of theology at the Sorbonne. At the age of twenty-two he 

 had distinguished himself so much in the college of Plessis, that 

 Hersan, the professor of rhetoric there, pointed him out as his own 

 successor in the professorial chair, which he wished to vacate ; and 

 Rollin, in spite of his owu diffidence, was made his assistant in 1633, 

 and professor in his stead in 1687. The next year he received the 

 additional honour of the professorship of eloquence in the Royal 

 College. In both these capacities he did not disappoint expectation. 

 The orations which he delivered in public were very correct and 

 elegant Latin compositions ; and the reforms and regulations intro- 

 duced by him into the discipline of the university deserve much 

 praise. He revived the study of Greek, which had been greatly neg- 

 lected ; gave more prominence to the cultivation of the French lan- 

 guage in the course of general instruction ; introduced the plan of 

 learning by heart fine passages of different authors, as an exercise of 

 taste and memory ; and substituted exercises in the room of the 

 dramatic representations which the scholars had been in the habit of 

 performing. In 1694 he was appointed rector of the university, in 

 which office he continued two years, and made himself remarkable 

 not less for his constant attention to its internal management than 

 for his zeal in maintaining its privileges against all attempts to impair 

 them. 



At the expiration of the rectorship ho was engaged by Cardinal 

 Noailles to superintend the studies of his nephews, having resigned all 

 his public employments, except the professorship of eloquence in the 

 Royal College, in order that he might have more leisure for his private 

 literary labours. Shortly after he was drawn from his retirement, and 



