1795.] 
Molina. His enemies firft attempted his de- 
gradation, by compelling him to defcynd from 
the chair of a profeifor to the form of a peda- 
gogue, But Pingrée felt no humiliation; he 
ever confidered himfelfin his proper place, when 
he found himfelf ufeful. Calumny afperfed 
his condu&, for teaching a more enlightened 
dogtrine than was fuppofed to be necefary for 
youth. Inthe fpace of four years Pingré re- 
ceived five lettres de cachet. 
But philofophy, even in that day, food forth 
the friend and advocate of this virtuous ftudent. 
Pingré, at the age of thirty-eight, applied him- 
felf to aftronomy. His firlt producticn was a 
calculation of an eclipfe of the moon on the 
23d of December, 1749. Laacaille had calcu- 
lated it at Paris ; but the calculations ditfered 
by four minutes ; and the veteran Lacaille con- 
feffed his error, and received a pupil as a friend 
and rival. 
He now diftinguifned himfelf by a clofe at- 
tachment to the fcience of aftvonomy. In 17545 
he calculated his ftate of the heavens, where 
the fituation of the moon was determined by 
the tables of Halley for noon and miduight. 
But in the following years he calculated its fitu- 
ations with the precifion of feconds. ey poues 
perhaps no other man but himfelf could per= 
rorm.an equal experiment, he delivers his opi- 
nion with great modefty : “ I doubted ({ays he) 
lait year, that a fingle perfon were fufficient to 
calculate in its molt poffible precifion the mo- 
tions of the moon; but now I have ceafed to 
doubt, and I fpeak after my ®wn experience.’ 
He now opened a bolder and more extenfive 
career—that of the calculation of comets. ‘To 
determine on cometary orbits, is the moft difi- 
cult problem in aftronomy ; that which exacts 
the greateft number of calculations, and the 
moft vigilant fag “ity; for here are involved 
great poy a faéts which embarrafs every 
calculation. But the induftry ‘of Pingré could 
meet no obftacles; and he has calculated more 
‘orbits of comets than any other aftronomer dur- 
ing a like interval of time, as may be feen in 
the i immenfe work of his Cometograpby, which 
was publithed in 1784, 2 vols. 410. 
In 1750, Pingré was appointed by the Aca- 
demy of Sciences to obferve the tranfit of Ve- 
nus. He chofe the Tile of Rodrigues, in the 
indian S.a Although the heavens were clou- 
dy at the moment he made his obfervations 
(which appears in the Memoirs of the Acade- 
my) his. voyage’ was ufeful to aftronomy, to 
geometry, a and ed {cience. 
Gur author diftinguifhed himfelf, by lending 
his affiftance in perfecting that learned work 
entitled, L’Art de verifier les Dattes. La- 
caille, the celebrated aftronomer, had caiculated 
the <clinfes of nineteen hundred years, for the 
firtt edition; and Pingré calculated the eclipfes 
of a thoufand years before the vulgar era. 
His voyages on various aftronomical projects 
brought new and valuable additions to the trea- 
fury of human fcience; and government ac- 
knowledged the important tae he had given 
to their marine, by electing kim Geographical 
Biographical N atices—Dingré,, ese, ies 
671 
“Aftronomer, in the place of. the, learned De 
Lifle,  Pingxé tranflated. various works, rela-. 
tive to his favourite purfuits ; particularly Ma- 
nilius’s Poetical Treatife on Aftrenomy. 
Latin poet, difficult and obfcure, and more than 
once fruitlefsly attempted by fome {cholars,. in, 
the hands of Pingré loft none of thofe beauti- 
ful paffages which adorn that abftract poem. 
The Epifodes of Manilius are extremely inte~ 
refting, and that of Andromeda is not unworthy, 
of the pathetic powers of Virgil, To this ver-. 
fion of Manilius, Pingré joined that of Aratus, 
who had chofen a congenial fubje@. Lhe work. 
of the Greek poet on Phznomena,. . though 
little efteemed by the medern ftudent, was once. 
the favourite poem of Cicero, whofe text our 
French author has followed.- 
Pingré had long defSigned a Hiftory of ie 
Afironomy of the r7ih Centar: Many other 
works had ftopped its pregrefs; but in 1791, 
at the age of eighty, our venerable aftronomer 
arranged the materials he had collected. The 
work is now printing; under the aufpices of the 
National Affembly. 
A fervent attachment to ftudy characterized 
this much-refpected {fcholar. A robuit confti- 
tution permitted its indulgence; the greater 
portion of each day was devoted to his ftudies, 
and his chief amufement was only a change of 
literary occupations. His objects of recreation. 
were the learned languages. ‘he Jatin writ-; 
ers of the Auguftan age were an inexhauftible 
fountain of refrefhment. Itis believed he has 
left a commentary on Horace. Botanical ftu-- 
dies Eee opened new enjoyments to the 
venerable Pinyré ; and when his eye was weary 
with wandering throuzh the planetary fyftem, 
he foothed his mind by running over the va- 
riegated futface of the earth, His old age was 
crowned with flowers; and he only Jamented 
that he had not withdrawn fomewhat earlier 
from meafuring the courfes, calculating the dif- 
tances, and fixing on the reciprocal fituations 
of thofe globes of fire and light fufpended, 
over our heads. The fc ence of vegetables ts 
not lefs important than that of the fiars. 
Such was the venerable Pingré ! who pre- 
fents us with one more additional inflance, that 
a ftudious and laborious life may be-prolonged 
to an extreme period of human exiftence, un- 
attended by the inconveniences, the imbecility, . 
and the pains of old age. 
Marriagts in and near Londor. 
Robert Dundas, efq. fon of the Rt, Hon. H.: 
D. Secretary of State, to Miis A, Saunders, a 
young lady pofletied of a fortune of 100,cool. 
W. Long, efq. of Chancery-lane, to Mifs 
Dawfon, of Bedford-fquare. 
jobn Guy, efq. of the Inner Temple, to Mifs 
Wiainfloe, of Lwickenham. 
G. Sheldon,-efq. to Mifs Goodrich. 
At Walthamfiow, H. Burmetter 
Great St. Helens, to Mifs Tothill. 
A. Murray, efg. of Hatton-garden, to Mrs. 
Newcombe, of Plaiftow. 
James crete efq. M. P to Mifs Hame 
mond. 
At 
,- efq. of 
The . 

