1800.] 
The rath of February, 1800, was the 
day on which this good father appeared 
again in the midft of his children. 
It was about eleven in the morning: 
already was the hall appropriated for the 
public exercifes of the deaf and dumb, filled 
with celebrated men, among whom, thofe 
in particular were obferved who dedicate 
their talents and labours to the inftruétion 
of youth, and tothe promotion of the hap- 
pinefs of the human race. In the midit 
of the hall ftood the deaf and dumb pupils 
of both fexes and different ages: the viva- 
city of their looks, and the rapidity of 
their figns, by which they mutually com- 
municated their fentiments, indicated that 
this day was the happielt of their life. 
The friends of the venerable profcript, 
among whom was likewife the excellent 
man who had fheltered him from the ftorm 
of party rage, enter the hall in crowds; 
and a number of beautiful ladies embellifh- 
ed the company by the luftre of their 
charms. 
At once a penetrating. cry of joy ef- 
capes Maffieu: every one rifes up; a re- 
fpectfui filence reigns throughout the whole 
aflembly ;—S1carRD appears—Maflieu is 
already in his arms, his mouth is joined 
to the mouth of Sicard; his whole foul 
feems to be transfufed into the foul of his 
preceptor ; he takes him by the hand, 
and conduéts him to bis chair. Imme- 
diately the male pupils ruth towards him: 
the more adult among them furround their 
ado:ed mafter, prefs him to their hearts, 
and hold them in their arms; the little 
ones kifs his hands, cling to his garment, 
and climb up to his breaft and his head ; 
he is covered with the moft tender kifles, 
careffed "with the moft affeétinz figns, 
with the tears of the adults and of the 
children. 
Sicard endeavours to fpeak, but his 
emotion deprives him of the power of ut. 
terance. He wifhes to communicate to 
each of his pupils what pafles in his heart, 
but all at once fix their eyes upon him, 
embrace him, carefs him ;—to extend over 
them his beneficent hands, to tell by figns 
that he loves them all with the fame pa- 
ternal affection, that he receives them all 
into his bofom, is all he has power to do, 
all that the blifsful intoxication of his foul 
infpires him with. 
As however nothing efcapes his pene~ 
trating glance, he now obferved that his fe- 
male pupils, reftrained by the bafhfulnels 
peculiar to their fex, venture not wholly 
to give way to the emotion which eradiates 
from their eye, and glows in every feature 
Ajironomical Error of St. Pierre. 
31e 
of their expreffive countenances; affected 
by this ftruggle of modefty and fentiment, 
he goes towards them, ftops for a mo- 
‘ment, then firetches cut his arms, and se- 
ceives their carefles with a tone that fcems 
to fay, *§ Shoulda father blufh to embrace 
his children >”? 
Whilft thefe bafhful maidens are exe 
prefling to their teacher the joys which his 
return occafions them, the boys who have 
made the greateft progrefs approach the 
table, and delineate with letters of fire, 
and the rapidity of lightning, the emstiong 
which animate them. One of them thinks 
the Conful and his brother for having re- 
ftored to them the man from whom they 
received their moral exiftence : another dee 
fcribes the anxiety and melancholy with 
which they were overwhelmed during the 
abfence of their beloved preceptor: athird 
writes down the fentence, ** That virtve 
and truth fooner or Jater will triumph 
over the artifices of the wicked.” At laft, 
M~ffieu himfelf appears at the table, aad 
while he prefents to the eyes of the admir- 
ing {pectators the profoundett truths of the 
phyfical and moral fciences, a blooming 
maiden places on the head of Sicard a 
wreath of poppies and heliotropes, em- 
blems of the fadnefs of his pupils durin 
his abfence, and of the immortality oa 
which his genius, his patience, his bencfi- 
cent labours, will be crowned, 

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
HE works of St. Pierre have been 
much read and much admired. His 
aftronomical tenets are, however, fo gla- 
ringly erreneous that no’ eminent aftronos 
mer has (to my knowledge) conde/cended to 
notice them. I own, however, that I 
(who do not pretend to much knowledge 
of the fubje&) was a little faggered at his 
pofition, ‘* That the polar diameter of the 
earth was greater than the equatorial.” 
And yet 1 was aftonifhed to find, that 
he fhould not only imagine that Newton, 
Huygens, and thofe who had ever main- 
tained the contrary opinion were deceived, 
but likewife the two Caffinis, Bernoulli, 
De Mairan, and all thofe who had coun. 
tenanced a fimilar opinion, but had exs 
ploded it ever fince the year 1735, when, 
the celebrated controve:fy on this fubjeét 
was determined in favour of Newtcn, by, 
the meafurement of the degrees of latitude 
at the equator and at the polar circle. 
Fearing therefore that many other young 
. {2 altree 
