1800. } 
to ftate, that he has carried this turn of 
mind to felf-infulation, bordering on mif- 
anthropy. | When he rode. in his carriage 
through the ftreets of Rome, he was con- 
{tantly reading fome papers or pamphlets, 
in order to avoid the view of the people, 
and of courfe the neceffity of returning 
falutes: whenever travelling, he has al- 
ways wanted to fly in fuch a manner as fo 
deter poftilions from venturing in his fer- 
vice; and in Frafcati he was, .notwith- 
ftanding his.eminent virtues and generofi- 
ty, little beloved by the inhabitants, only 
becaufe he was too much addiéted toa re-_ 
tired life, and was defirous to forbid every 
public diverfion, that might give rile to 
a clamorous merriment among the peo- 
pie. 
aE 
MEMOIRS of STEPHEN DE RUMOVSKI, 
Privy Counfellor of State and Afirono- 
mer to the Emperor of Rufia; Member 
of the Academy of Sciences at Peterf- 
burg, &c.* 
N an age, when the culture of the 
_ mind has been generally diffufed over 
all countries and nations, and fingle indi- 
viduals tread, inthe purfuit of knowledge, 
the fame path that is common to other 
nations, the differences arifing from the 
characteriftic difpofitions of a people can- 
not be very ftriking. However, a man of 
{cience, who fhines a rare phenomenon 
_ among his countrymen, more forcibly at- 
tracts our attention ; and we difcover in 
him the peculiarity and originality which 
{pring from the firft education, the man- 
ners, the relative condition, and the modes 
of thinking, of every particular nation. 
Such a rare phenomenon is STEPHEN 
DE RUMOVskKI, and the more remarkable, 
as he is the firf? native Ruflian who has 
diftinguifhed himielf and acquired cele- 
brity in a department of fcience, in which 
he had no predeceflor among his country- 
men, and only few followers. This very 
circumftance increafes our intereft, and 
caufes us to confider the hiftory of his 
-courfe of ftudies as important likewife in 
another point of view, beeaufe it falls in 
a principal period of the literary culture 
_ of his countrymen. 
RuMoOvski was born on the 29th of 
October, 1734, in a village of the pro- 
vince of Wlodimir. The firft rudiments 
of fcience he acquired in the monaftery of 
St. Alexander Newfki, near Peterfburg. 

* Taken from M. von Zacu’s Monat. 
Correfp. in which publication there is a por- 
trait of M. de Rumoviki. 
MontTa.ty Mae. No, 59. 
Memoirs of Stephen de Rumvfki. 
In the year 1748, he was received, at the 
expence of the Rufiian government, among 
the ftudents of the Imperial Academy of 
Sciences, where he collected various know- 
ledge; but, from inclination, chiefly ap- 
plied himfelf to the ftudy of mathematics. 
The greateft mathematician of the acade-~ 
457 
my, and in all Ruilia, was at that timea _ 
German, Profetior Richmann, who in the 
year 1753 fellamartyr to his zeal in making 
eleGtrical experiments; being ftruck dead by 
a flafh of lightning drawn from the clouds 
by means of a conduétor. In the fame 
year that by this melancholy accident Ro- 
moviki loft his only inftructor, the Impe- 
rial Academy appointed him an Adjunc? ; 
and fent him, in the year1754, to Berlin, 
to perfect himfelf under the direction of 
the great Euler. He arrived in Berlin a 
few days after the departure of Lalande, 
who had there, at the defire of Frederic 
the Great, made correfponding obferva- 
tions with thofe of De la Caille at the 
Cape of Good Hope, to determine the 
yet uncertain magnitude of the parallax 
of 'the moon. Rumovifki ftill laments, 
that he had miffed this fo near opportuni-~ 
ty of becoming perfonally acquainted with 
one of our gregteft aftronomers, and of 
forming that friendfhip which they after- 
wards could only cultivate by means of 
an epiftolary correfpondence. Rumoviki 
was received with the greateft kindneis 
‘nto the houfe of Euler, in which young 
Lalande had likewite found the moft friend- 
ly and inftru&tive reception; they were - 
treated like his own fons: and Rumovfki 
thus exprefles himfelf to the writer of thefe 
memoirs*, ‘© The grateful recollection of 
the benefits I received from my incompa- 
rable inftruétor will be blotted out:from 
my memory only with my laft breath.”’ It 
is afteting to hear from the meuth of the 
venerable Lalande the defcription of the 
affection and folicitude of the family of 
Euler for the -young Lalande, then only- 
nineteen years of age and of an ex- 
tremely fiery temperament. To this 
hour, the moft intimate friendfhip unites 
thefe two learned men with the immortal 
Euler’s fon, the prefent perpetual fecreta- 
ry of the Imperial Academy of Sciences at 
Peterfburg, with whom they had been, as 
it were, educated. 
Rumoviki enjoyed two years the in- 
ftruétion of the greateft mathematician of 
his time, and was in 1756 recalled to 
Ruffia. Immediately after his arrival in 
Peterfburg, he was appointed Profeflor of 

* M. von Zach 
aN Mathe. 
B: 





