BOSCOVICH. 



747 



Boscovich. temper, like Boscovich, who knew his own merits, 

 ' "- v~ ' this cold treatment was un6ufferable. He therefore 

 requested leave ot absence from his royal patron, and 

 retired, in 1783, to Bassano, in the state of Venice, 

 where he employed himself in preparing for the press 

 a collection of his unpublished works, which he com- 

 pleted in 5 vols. 4*o, entitled, Rogcrii Joseph i Bos- 

 covich, Opera pertinentia ad Opticam et Astronomi- 

 am maxima ex parte Nova, et omnia hucusque in- 

 cdita, in quinque tomos dislributa. Bassani, 1785. 



Many of these dissertations are extremely va- 

 luable; and the mathematical investigations which 

 they contain, are distinguished by a clearness and 

 elementary simplicity, which is very unusual in simi- 

 lar writings. When this labour was at an end, he spent 

 some months in the convent of Valombrosa, in Tus- 

 cany, and afterwards went to Rome to revisit the 

 companions of his early years. From Rome he went 

 to Milan, where he resumed his own studies, and 

 amused himself with completing a new edition of his 

 friend Benedict Stay's beautiful poem, entitled, Phi- 

 lotophia Recentior, enriched with notes, and extend- 

 ed to ten books. The proposals, however, which he 

 issued about this publication, did not obtain him 

 many subscribers ; and the limited circulation which 

 his works experienced, excited a dejection of spirits 

 which his constitution was not able to bear. His 

 leave of absence from Paris was now nearly expired, 

 and he felt the greatest reluctance to return among 

 the jealousies which surrounded him in the French 

 capital. The conflict between his gratitude to the 

 French king, and his own personal feeling6, increa- 

 sed the melancholy which preyed upon his spirits, 

 while a violent attack of the gout, and an inflamma- 

 tion in the lungs, completed his sufferings, and drove 

 him into a state of derangement. 



Though this dreadful disorder proceeded, in some 

 nreasure> from the bodily infirmities of Boscovich, 



yet it was chiefly owing to that secret anguish which Boscovich. 

 sprung from the ingratitude of his countrymen, and *-~"Y 

 the injustice of his cotemporaries. The visions of 

 youthful ambition which the sanguine hopes of Bos- 

 covich had so early cherished ; the reverence which 

 was paid to him at Rome, at Paris, and at London ; 

 the great success of his writings; the high employ- 

 ments which he was afterwards called to fill, and the 

 favour which was shewn to him by several of the 

 princes of Europe, the recollection of these better 

 days, contributed to awaken more acute sensations at 

 the neglect into which, in his old age, he had been 

 permitted to fall. He felt that all his philosophy 

 was insufficient to quiet the ferment of a proud spi- 

 rit, and he sought in religion for that support which 

 it alone could bestow. Under the influence of these 

 pious feelings, he regretted that he had spent so little 

 time in the sacred duties of his profession, and that 

 so much of his leisure had been occupied, by what he 

 now considered, as the idle speculations of" philoso- 

 phy. We are unwilling to believe, with one of the 

 biographers of Boscovich, that these religious im- 

 pressions were the consequences of his mental deli- 

 rium. At no period of his life, did Boscovich ever 

 hazard an opinion hostile to the noble sentiments 

 which supported him in his latter days ; and the re- 

 verses and disappointments which embittered the 

 close of his life, naturally carried his views beyond 

 this troubled state of existence, which a proud and 

 mortified spirit is so willing to resign. Under the 

 influence of these feelings, an imposthume burst in 

 his breast, and he died on the 13th of February, 

 1787, in the 76th year of his age. He was interred 

 without any kind of pomp, in the parish church of 

 St Maria Pedore ; and the Senate of his native city 

 erected a monument to his memory, with the follow- 

 ing inscription, composed by his friend Benedict- 

 Stay : 



Rogerio. Nicolai. F. Boscovichio, 



Sumrni. Ingenii. Viro. Philosopho. Et. Mathematico. Prxstantissimo 



Scriptori. Operum. Egregiorum 



Res. Physicas. Geometricas. Astronomicas 



Plurimis. Inventis. Suis. Auctas. Continentium 



Celebribrum. Europae. Academiarum, Socio 



Qni. In. Soc. Jesu. Cum. Esset. Ac. Romx. Mathesim. Profiteretur 



Benedicto XIV. Mandante 



Multo. Lahore. Singulari. Industria 



Dimensus. Est. Gradum. Terrestris. Circuli 



Boream. Versus. Per. Pontificiam. Ditionem. Transeuntis 



Ejusdemque. Ditionis. in Nova. Tabula. Situs. Omnes. Descripsit. 



Stabilitati. Vaticano. Tholo. Reddundae 



Portubus. Superi. Et. lnferi. Maris. Ad. Justam. Altitudinem. Redigendis 



Restagnantibus. Per Campos. Aquis. Emittendis. Commonstravit. Viam 



Legatus. A. Lucensibus. Ad. Franciscum. I. Caesarem. M. Etruriae. Ducem 



Ut. Amnes. Ab. Eorum. Agro. Averterentur. Obtinuit 



Merito. Ab. lis. Inter. Patricios. Cooptatus 



Mediolanum. Ad. Docendum Mathematicas. Disciplinas. Evocatus 



Braidensem. Extruxit. Instruxitque. Servandis. Astris. Speculam 



Deletae. Turn. Societati. Suae. Superstes 



Lutetiae Parisiorum. Inter. Galliae. Indigenas Relatus 



Commissum. Sibi. Perficiundae. In. Usus. Maritimos. 



Optiae. Munus. Adcuravit 



Ampla. A. Ludovico. XV. Rege. Xmo. Attributa. Pensione 



Inter. Haec. Et. Poesim. Mira. Ubertate. Et. Facilitate. Excoluit 



