! 
234 
plied only fora year, when the irrefiftible 
attraétions of the mathematical {ciences 
obliged him to abandon every other pur- 
fuit. 
Sorhe memoirs, which he prefented to 
the Academy of Sciences, among which 
was one on the refraétion of tolid bodies, 
containing a new and curious theory of 
that refration, and another on the inte- 
eral calculus*, excited in that body a wifh 
to number him among their members, and 
he was accordingly enrolled in 1741, at 
the age of twenty-three. After that pe- 
riod he gave to the publica great number 
of mathematical works, of which mention 
is made at the end of this hiftorical ab- 
firacks.. 
In 1746 his differtation * on the ge- 
neral Caufe of the Winds”’ + not only ob- 
tained him the prize offered by the Aca- 
demy of Berlin for the beft account of that 
~ fubje&, but procured him the honour of 
being elected a member of that body, by 
acclamation, and without ferutioy. 
In 1752, the King of Pruffia offered 
M. D’Alembert the reverfion of the place 
of Prefident of the Academy of Berlin, 
then occupied by M. de Maupertuis, 
-whofe health was much on the decline 5 
and his refufal of that diftin€tion did not 
hinder that Prince from beftowing on him, 
in 1754, a penfion of 1200 fures,{ the 
fir reward which M. D’Alembert’s la- 
bours had procured him. 
At the clofe of the fame year (1754), 
he was eleGted, by the French Academy, 
to fill the place of M. Surian, Bifhop of 
Vence, as a member of that body. 
In the month of June, 1755, M. D’A- 
lembert repaired to Wefel on the -invita- 
tion of the King of Pruffia, who was then 
in that town. His Majefty loaded him 
with kindnefs, and even honoured him 
with a place at his table. 

*% What we call the inverfe method of 
fluxions, the name given it by the illufrious 
Newton, the inventor of the whole dottrine. 
' Tranjflator. 
+ M. D*Alembert dedicated that diflerta- 
tion to the Great King of Pruffia, inthe fol- 
lowing elegant lines: 
Hac ego de ventis, dum ventorum ocior alis 
Pallentes agit Auftriacos Fredericus, et orbi, . 
Infignis lauro, ramum pretendit ohva. 
Of winds I treat, while fwifter than their 
wings 
Heroic Frederic drives pale Auftria’s bands, 
And, laurel-crown’d,prefents the olive branch. 
Tranflator. 
+ See in the Supplement, the letter writ- 
Memoirs of D? Alcmbert. 
[Oober 1, 
At the end of 1755, by the recom- 
mendation of Pope Benedi&t XIV..he was 
received as a member of the Inftitute of 
Bologna. ‘This diftinétion was unfolicited 
on the part of M. D’Alembert, who was 
known to the Pope only by reputation 5 
and, as a law of the Inftitute then forbade 
the admiffion of new academicians till 
three of their number died, his holinefs re- 
guefted that this regulation might be dif- 
penfed with in favour of M. D°Alem- 
bert. . 
In 1756, the king granted him a pen- 
fion of 1200 wres, payable out of the 
royal treafury* ; and, at the fame time, 
the Academy of Sciences conferred on him 
the title and the privileges of Supernume- 
rary Penfioner; for there was no vacancy 
among the penfioners, and fuch a favour 
had not then been beitowed on any other 
perfon. 
In the fame year (1756), the queen, 
now queen-cowager, of Sweden, and fif- 
ter to the King of Pruffia, having formed 
an Academy of Belles Letires, which was 
to affemble in her palace, and over.which 
fhe herfelf was to prefide, commanded Ba 
ron Scheffer to write to M. D’Alembert, 
and to offer hima place as a foreign mem- 
ber, a diftinétion which he gvrateiully ac- 
cepted. ; 
At the clofe of the year: 1762, Cathe- 
rine II. Emprefs of Ruffia, propofed that 
M. D’Alembert fhould undertake the edu- 
cation of her fon, the Grand Duke, and 
offered him a falary of no leis than 
100,000 iwres, through the medium of 
M. de Soltiket, who ihen refided as her _ 
minifter at Paris. M. D’Alembert de- 
clined the acceptance of this charge; on 
which the Emprefs renewed her invitation 
by a letter under her own hand, which has 
been printed in the public papers.t ~ But 
the attachment which M. D’Alembert en- 
tertained for his country and his friends, 
induced him again to rcfift this fecond at- 
tempt. 
M. D’Alembert having communicated 
the letter of the empreis to the French 
Academy, that body unanimoufly refolved, 
that it fhould be inierted in their journals, 
as a memorial honourable to one of their 
members, and to learning in general, 
Immediately after the conclufion of the 
peace, in 1763, M. D’Alembert, in con- 
fequence of the invitation of the King of 
Pruffia, pafied fome months at the court 

* See the Supplement. _ 
+ See a copy of that letter at the end of 
“¢en by the King of Pruffia on that occafion. - the Supplement, 
