CHAPTER VIII. 



MONTMORT. 



186. The work which next claims attention is that of Mont- 

 mort; it is entitled Essai d! Analyse stir les Jeux de Hazards. 



Fontenelle's Hloge de M. de Montmort is contained in the 

 volume for 1719 of the Hist, de V Acad... Paris, which was pub- 

 lished in 1721 ; from this we take a few particulars. 



Pierre Eemond de Montmort was born in 1678. Under the 

 influence of his guide, master, and friend, Malebranche, he devoted 

 himself to religion, philosophy, and mathematics. He accepted 

 with reluctance a canonry of Notre-Dame at Paris, which he re- 

 linquished in order to marry. He continued his simple and 

 retired life, and we are told that, j^ar un honheur assez singidier 

 le mariage lui rendit sa maison plus agreahle. In 1708 he pub- 

 lished his work on Chances, where with the courage of Columbus 

 he revealed a new world to mathematicians. 



After Montmort's work appeared De Moivre published his essay 

 De Mensura Sortis. Fontenelle says, 



Je ne dissimulerai point qui M. de Montmort fut vivement pique 

 de cet ouvrage, qui lui parut avoir ete entierement fait sur le sien, et 

 d'apres le sien. II est vrai, qu'il y 6toit loue, et n'etoit-ce pas assez, 

 dira-t-on 1 mais un Seigneur de fief n'en quittera pas pour des louanges 

 celui qu'il pretend lui devoir foi et liommage des terres qu'il tient de 

 lui. Je parle selon sa pretention, et ne decide nulloinent s'il etoit en 

 efi'et le Seigneur. 



Montmort died of small pox at Paris in 1719. He had been 

 engaged on a work entitled Histoire de la Geometrie, but -had not 



