istics 
-Ga in the- year 1628, vifited Holland ; aie his phi- 
lofop ie and literary merit was a re ees 
admirers and friends. During 
e formed an i 
Mofaic philofophy. Upon his re 
his application to aftronomy, and alee a feries of ae 
tial obfervations, with a view of completing his fyitem of 
the heavens. t P 
agreeable manners, as well a 
tion for literature and fcienc 
ns moft di inguifhed 
or learning, and alfo for hish rank, inthat capital. By 
intereft of the cardinal of I e brother of cardinal 
Richelieu, he was appointed, inthe year 1645, 0 regius profeffor 
f mathematics at Paris; an office, the primary duties of 
which he difcharged by reading leCtures on aftronomy, 
nded by crowded auditories, and which, 
having caught a cold, which occafioned an inflammation of 
his lungs, he was obliged, in the year 1647, to leave Paris, 
and to return to Digne, for the a efit of his native air. 
Having obtained fome temporary relief by an sia ta 
of his fudie es, he returned to Paris in ios rear 1653. 
he publifhed the lives es Ty ae Brahe oa Puback, 
and Regiomontanus ; but refuming his altronomical labours 
with his accuftomed ardour, his es returned, and he 
funk under it, in the year 1655, in the 63d year of his age. 
Juft before he expired, he laid his hand upon his heart, and 
remarking the feeble fate of its ‘ee eae - {aid to his 
he lived. Our learned Laas, ee hin among the moft 
‘eminent Se he age, and mentions him in 
Comme sion with Gal , Gilbert, and Des Car His 
latter were much more numerous than the pOTEE 3 ne Gaf- 
fenci had few difciples i in- his own country ; but the 
Englifh, who in his time were remarkable for their aprlia. 
tion to fludies of a phyfical and mathematical kind, a con- 
. It is 
nt philofophers and divines, 
udworth, and More, who entered 
the lifts with Hobbes, (whofe doctrine aw nearer to the 
principles of Gaffendi than to the fyitem of Des Cartes), 
and revived ancient Platonifm, in order to we under its 
weighi the philofopher of Malmfbury, placed di and 
Plate to in ue — clafs, and sa the ‘entiments of the 
‘ 
and ee gel a whichfee. The ao een uel di 
latter in fuch a bg ak as to py eae quite 5 iced 2 the 
eae of the s period many t 
rigin of the two philofophical fects, called the rnathematical 
on the ne rr cof their refpective advocates. 
tions o 
had ne a mif ere 
ge lamented by their friends ; and e made 
for effecting a reconciliation between them. bbé 
a’ Eftrees, afterwards cardinal, took the lead in this laudable 
rfenne, esate abbé de 
Marolles, and others, to a public dinner’; Gaffe 
vented by illnefs from attending ; but fo intent was sv abbé 
d’Eftrees upon accomplifhing his purpofe of reconciliation, 
that he took his guelts with him to Gaffendi’s apartments ; 
where they had the pleafure of hearing | thefe two philofophers 
apna Sa he sige or improper ir ritability, and declar- 
ing to each other, that whatever difference of opinion might 
after this interview fubfift between them, it fhould produce 
no interruption of their friendfhip. ne firft tranfit of mer- 
cury over the fun, which had been predicted by Kepler to 
take on the 7th of November, anh was obferved by 
Gaffe Fror: his letters it appears, that he was on terms 
of in eee with Kepler, Se one Snelliue, e 
lius, Galilec, canned Raton other celebrated 
: that he was often confulted by 
a him to a high rank among the 
il is la ale and valuable 
i philofophical 
anne was purchafed by the emperor "Fevlinana ore 
and afterwards bec Sisahae? with other choice collection 
ne Im perial library a 
hi 
lives af irefe, Cope eas Tykes Brahe, Purbach, Regio- 
montanus, John Mu c.; arefutation of the Medita- 
tions of Des Cartes ; and other treatifes. 
iftles 
nier, a celebrated French phyfician, has given an ac 
view of the philofophy of Gaffendi in hi 
publifhed in French a 
volumes 12mo. 
Pare: accou 
en 
by Box eral, a prt of the oratory, was publifhed at 
Paris in 1737. Di rucker’s Hitt, 
een nd Us felas a il. p- 464, &c. Mosheim ee 
if 
In the ca vel. of his works, printed at Lyons in 1658, 
we find a traét on the theor ry of mufic: « Manuduéii 
Theoriam Mufices.”” But this is confined merely to*har. 
ae there — with A — ae Pere 
the - 4 a perfe more 
pleafing in the acute ai the grave. ‘All ne Phlofophers 
with, 
