BIOGRAPHY. 



387 



discover, for the benefit of the longitudes at sea, the quadra- 

 ture of the circle ; his wish for a reward, and for a celebrity, 

 which would so efFe6lually promote his happiness, agitated 

 him to such a degree, that, laying aside every thought of bu- 

 siness, he exerted all his powers and faculties, and drew up 

 his principles, such as they were, in battle array. He began 

 to draw lines, to make calculations, and to resolve problems, 

 cherishing, after a time, the idea that the discovery was not 

 impossible. 



Confined to this sole labour, he formed tables, circles, and 

 other apparatuses, in the constru6lion of which he went so far 

 as to employ wood. He filled with numbers and geometrical 

 figures many reams of paper, which he kept, turned over, and 

 combined incessantly, until at length he became fully persuaded 

 that the precious discovery was made. He was so highly de- 

 lighted with his invention, that he announced it to the whole 

 world. The incredulity of many persons, obliged him to have 

 recourse to the professors and teachers of the mathematics, 

 who, however strenuously he maintained that he was right, 

 constantly pronounced his labours to be as defective as useless. 

 These very attempts to undeceive him, had the efFe6l of en- 

 gaging him to lay out in paper, the bounties which his friends 

 bestowed on him for his support, to the end that he might be 

 enabled to continue his operations. In his distress, he consoled 

 himself with saying, that a nobleman of the first distinction 

 in the capital was indebted to him six millions of piastres, as 

 a reward for the secret of the quadrature, which he had re- 

 vealed to him. Every day he repaired to the house of this 

 nobleman, and did not leave it empty-handed ; insomuch that 

 the eflScacy of the impertinent claim of the maniac, and the 



3 D 2 philo- 



