D'ALEMBERT. 401 



to "dry up the heart"* failed to make him abandon 

 what had taken so strong a hold of his whole mind. 



When he left the college he showed the first remark- 

 able instance of that kind and even tender disposition 

 which distinguished him through life, and is another 

 example to rescue the geometrician's pursuits from the 

 reproach of hardening the heart. He found himself soli- 

 tary in the world, without any kindred that acknowledged 

 him, and he reverted to her whose care had reared and 

 comforted his earlier years ; he took refuge in the humble 

 dwelling of his nurse, feeling, as he afterwards used to say, 

 that the small income which alone he possessed, a pension 

 of less than fifty pounds settled upon him by his father, 

 would tend to increase somewhat the comforts of the poor 

 people with whom he should board. In that lowly dwell- 

 ing, a single confined room of which he occupied as his 

 bed-room and his study, he established himself, living 

 with the family and faring as they fared. Here he 

 remained happy and contented for forty years, that is, 

 until his health compelled him to change his abode, when 

 the age of the good woman would not permit her to accom- 

 pany him. When her husband died she was ill-treated 

 by her grandchildren, who were stripping her of her little 

 property and reducing her to great distress. "Laissez," 

 said D'Alembert, "Laissez tout emporter par ces in- 

 dignes. Je ne vous abandonnerai point." Nor did he ; 

 he provided for all her wants, and as long as she lived 

 he visited her twice a week, to satisfy himself by his 



* These good fathers did not quite use the language they had em- 

 ployed to turn away Fenelon from "se laisser ensorceler par les at- 

 traits diaboliques de la geometric." Certainly it is a proof of the evil 

 one's ubiquity that we should find him lurking in this of all places. 



2 D 



