D'ALEMBERT. 445 



It is to be considered that the abundance of income 

 which he thus speaks of was not much above one hundred 

 a year; for we know from himself that a short time 

 before he had but I700fs., or 68/., and the place of 

 Pensionnaire Surnumeraire, which he obtained by election 

 of the Academy in 1756, when he thus stated his means 

 of living, could not have exceeded lOOOfs. 



In the autumn of 1 752, the King of Prussia, to whom 

 he had inscribed his Prize Memoir on the Winds, with 

 some tolerable Latin lines,""" invited him to settle in 

 Berlin, offering a pension of 500/. a year, apartments and 

 a table in the palace, with the office of President of the 

 Academy, in the event of Maupertuis' death, who was not 

 expected to live. D'Alembert refused this handsome 

 offer, on the ground of his whole enjoyment being the 

 society of his friends in the Parisian circle to which he 

 belonged; and of his somewhat excessive fear of any 

 connection which should interfere with, or put in jeopardy, 

 the perfect freedom so essential to his happiness a feel- 

 ing so strong in him, that his friends used to say he was 

 " the slave of his own liberty." At this time he states, 

 in the correspondence with M. D'Argens, through whom 

 Frederick's offer was made, his income, as I have stated, 

 did not exceed I700fs. not quite 70/. a year. The 

 scruple of delicacy which he felt as to Maupertuis was at 

 once removed by the King desiring him to take the 

 appointments independent of all connection with the 

 Academy, and assuring him that Maupertuis' wish was to 

 have him for a successor. But nothing could tempt him 



* Hsec ego de Ventis, dum Veutorum ocyor alis 

 Palantes agit Austriacos Fredericus, et orbi, 

 Insignis lauro, ramum protendit olivse. 



