VOLTAIRE. 63 



merits. Indeed he had the benefit of Pemberton's 

 ' General View,' which was published as early as 1728, 

 and is more than once referred to by him. Maclaurin's 

 was not published till 1748. 



That Voltaire had, or in consequence of sympathy 

 with Madame du Chatelet acquired, some taste for the 

 mathematics is certain. He even prosecuted the study 

 with considerable assiduity. After making some 

 progress he consulted Clairault, and asked him if he 

 could conscientiously advise him to persevere in the 

 pursuit to go on with the cultivation of a science 

 which is commonly supposed to require an undivided 

 homage from its votaries, though D'Alembert's example 

 negatives the assumption. We are not informed of 

 the grounds upon which Clairault candidly gave his 

 opinion that the science of number and quantity was 

 not Voltaire's vocation ; whether he found him ill 

 grounded in a branch of knowledge which he had 

 studied late, or saw in any attempts at origiifal inves- 

 tigation that his genius lay not that way. It is, how- 

 ever, to be lamented that his advice was either given so 

 generally, or so generally construed and followed, as 

 to make no exception in favour of experimental 

 philosophy, in which I am strongly inclined to think, 

 and shall presently explain why, his acuteness, his 

 industry, his sagacity, above all his brave contempt of 

 received opinions, and his deep-rooted habit of judging 

 every proposition by its own merits, would in all pro- 

 bability have ranked him among the discoverers of 

 the age. 



The ' Elemens ' is a work of a much higher order 

 than the * Letters,' and does great credit both to his in- 



