34 
instances, differ from my own, which are based, for the most part, on 
M. Cauchy’s writings, I have allowed the latter to remain as I origi- 
nally penned them. 
In Baron Cauchy, the world has lost the last of those eminent 
cultivators of mathematical science who sprung up in the early part 
of the present century, formed in the school of Laplace and Lagrange. 
The names of Poisson, Gauss, Fourier, Abel, Jacobi, and Cauchy, 
form a constellation of abstract mathematicians, such as the world 
never before saw existing together, and will probably never see 
again. Agustin-Louis Cauchy was born on the 21st of August 
1789, the period of universal confusion throughout France. His 
father, who was keeper of the archives of the senate, appears to have 
been exempt from the turmoils which embroiled every grade of 
society at that time. Perceiving the mathematical bent of his son’s 
mind, he took pains to bring him frequently under the notice of 
Lagrange. This illustrious philosopher interested himself in the 
education of the lad, and gave the father a piece of advice which no 
doubt greatly surprised him, and which, coming from such a source, 
it is worth our while carefully to note. These were his words : — ■ 
“ Ho not allow your son to open a mathematical book, nor to touch 
a single diagram, until he has finished his classical studies.” Sound 
and excellent advice under the circumstances. Preliminary educa- 
tion has for its object the cultivation of all the faculties, not the de- 
velopement of any one to the exclusion of the others. It fulfils its 
functions as well when it tends to check and keep down an over- 
whelming bias in one direction, as when it aims at drawing out the 
dormant powers in another. The wisdom of the advice of Lagrange 
may be inferred from the whole life of Cauchy. In his classical 
studies he was eminently successful, and received the highest award 
of his class. The taste which he now acquired for languages never 
forsook him. In his later years he read deeply in patristic theology, 
and delighted in pouring forth his divinity for the instruction of the 
young. Nor did his exclusive devotion to classical study stand in the 
way of his professional advancement. After a single course of 
mathematics under a public professor, Duret, he presented himself, 
at the age of sixteen, for the entrance examination of the Ecole 
Poly technique, and was ranked second on the list. 
It is not necessary to trace, step by step, his advance in his pro- 
