GASSENDI. 



a vacuum. On the subject of morals, he 

 explained the permanent pleasure or in- 

 dolence of Epicurus, in a manner per- 

 fectly consistent with the purest precepts 

 of virtue. In the year 1628, Gassendi, 

 for the sake of extendinghis acquaintance 

 with the learned, visited Holland, where 

 his philosophical and literary merit soon 

 procured him many admirers and friends. 

 While he was in that country he wrote 

 an elegant and judicious apology for his 

 friend, the learned Mersenne, in reply to 

 the censures of Robert Fludd, on the 

 subject of the Mosaic philosophy. After 

 his return to France, he continued his 

 philosophical, and particularly his astro- 

 nomical studies, pursuing, with great 

 care, a series of celestial observations, in 

 order to complete his system of the hea- 

 vens. Being called by a law-suit to Pa- 

 ris, he there formed an acquaintance with 

 the men most distinguished for science 

 and learning in that capital, and by his 

 agreeable manners, as well as reputation, 

 secured the esteem of persons of high 

 rank and quality, and in particular of Car- 

 dinal Richelieu, and of his brother the 

 Cardinal of Lyons. Owing to the appli- 

 cation and interest of the latter, in the 

 year 1645, Gassendi was appointed re- 

 gius-professor of the mathematics at Pa- 

 ris. This institution being chiefly in- 

 tended for astronomy, our author read 

 lectures on that science to crowded audi- 

 tories, by which he acquired great popu- 

 larity, and rose to high expectations. 

 But the fatigues of that appointment 

 were more than his strength, already re- 

 duced by too intense application, was able 

 to bear; and having caught a cold, which 

 brought an inflammation upon his lungs, 

 he was obliged, in the year 1647, to quit 

 Paris, and to return to Digne for the be- 

 nefit of his native air. After having his 

 health in some measure re-established by 

 the intermission of his studies, in the year 

 1653 he returned again to Paris, where 

 he published the lives of Tycho Brahe, 

 Copernicus, Purbach, and Regiomonta- 

 nus ; and then resumed, with as much in- 

 tenseness as ever, his astronomical la- 

 bours. His feeble state of health, how- 

 ever, was now unequal to such exertions, 

 which brought on a return of his disor- 

 der : under which, with the aid of too 

 copiousand numerous bleedings, he sunk 

 in 1655, when in the sixty-third year of 

 his age. A little before he expired, he 

 desired his secretary to lay his hand upon 

 the region of his heart; which when he 

 had done, and remarked on the feeble 

 state of its pulsation, Gassendi said to 



him, " You see how frail is the life f 

 man !" which were the last words he ut- 

 tered. He is ranked by Barrow among 

 the most eminent mathematicians of the 

 age, and mentioned with Galileo, Gilbert, 

 and Des Cartes. 



His commentary upon the tenth book 

 of Diogenes Laertius affords sufficient 

 proof of his profound erudition, and his 

 deep skill in the languages. 



We have already mentioned his oppo- 

 sition to the philosophy of Des Cartes, by 

 which he divided with that great man 

 the philosophers of his time, almost all 

 of whom were either Cartesians or Gas- 

 sendists. At one time a coolness took 

 place between those two eminent charac- 

 ters, in consequence of irritating expres- 

 sions which had escaped from both their 

 pens, during the course of their philoso- 

 phical warfare. The Abbe d'Estrees, af- 

 terwards Cardinal, with the design of 

 bringing about a reconciliation between 

 them, invited them both to dinner, in 

 company with many of their common 

 friends, among whom were father Mer- 

 senne, Roberval, the Abbe de Marolles, 

 &c. At the time fixed, all the expected 

 guests made their appearance, excepting 

 Gassendi, who, during the preceding 

 night, had been attacked by a severe 

 complaint, which prevented him from 

 venturing abroad. As the cause of his 

 absence was explained after dinner, the 

 Abbe d'Estrees carried his whole com- 

 pany along with him to Gassendi's apart- 

 ments, where they had the pleasure of 

 hearing the two philosophers make mu- 

 tual acknowledgments of their improper 

 warmth and irritability, and generously 

 declaring, that whatever difference in 

 opinion might afterwards subsist between 

 them, it should produce no unfavourable 

 effect upon their friendship. 



Gassendi was the first person who ob- 

 served the transit of Mercury over the 

 sun. Kepler had predicted that it would 

 take place on the 7th of November, 1631. 

 Gassendi, who was then at Paris, made due 

 preparations to observe it, and after hav- 

 ing for some time mistaken the appear- 

 ance of that planet for a solar spot, be- 

 came at length sensible of his error by 

 the rapidity of its movement; and took 

 care to calculate the time of its egress 

 from the sun's disk, as well as its distance 

 from the sun's vertical point. 



From Gassendi's letters, it appears 

 that he was often consulted by the most 

 celebrated astronomers of his time, as 

 Kepler, Longomontanus, Snell, Hevelius, 

 Galileo, Kircher, Bulliald, and others ; 



