{28b} I owe this information to the kindness of my friend, Professor Tait of Edinburgh. He further informs me that "of late years the calculating machine of M. Scheutz has been employed in the production of many valuable tables almost hopelessly beyond the power of mere mental calculation;" and that a very simple and ingenious machine, known as the Arithmometre of M. Thomas, is to be found in the office of almost every engineer and actuary.

{29a} Letter to M. Ribeyre, uvres, t. iv.

{29b} The ill.u.s.trious Italian was then advanced in years. He died in January 1642.

{31} uvres, t. iv. pp. 160,161.

{33} Sir D. Brewster, in an article on Pascal's Writings and Discoveries in North Brit. Rev., Aug. 1844. Sir David's account is almost literally translated from M. Perier's letter to Pascal, of date September 22, 1648, and embodied in Pascal's "Recit de la grande Experience de l'equilibre des Liqueurs," first published in 1648.

{39a} Cousin, Jacqueline Pascal, p. 94.

{39b} "Evidently," says Cousin, "M. Habert de Montmor, the Maecenas of the _savants_ of the time."

{41} Blaise Pascal. Preface de la nouvelle ed., P. 46. uvres, t. i.

1849.

{42a} Jus mihi esset hoc ipsum ab ipso potius quam a te expectare, ideo quod ego ipsi, jam biennium effluxit, auctor fuerim ejus experimenti faciendi, eumque certum reddiderim, nec de successu non dubitare, quamquam id experimentum nunquam fecerim. Verum quoniam D. R. amicitia junctus est qui mihi ultro adversatus . . . non sine ratione credendum est eum sequi pa.s.siones amici sui.-Descartes, Epist. Amstelodami, 1683.

{42b} Discours sur la Vie et les Ouvrages de Pascal, p. xviii.

{43a} Any reader curious as to how far Descartes had advanced in this matter may consult Montucla, Histoire des Mathematiques, vol. vi. p. 205.

Montucla, no less than Baillet, writes with a clear bias in Descartes's favour.

{43b} Recit de la grande Experience de l'equilibre des Liqueurs.

uvres, t. iv. p. 301-"Je meditai des lors l'experience dont je fais voir ici le Recit."

{44} Intererat mea id rescire, ipse enim petii ab illo, jam exacto biennio, ut id faceret, eumque pulchri successus certum reddidi, quod esset omnino conforme meis Principiis, absque quo nunquam de eo cogita.s.set, eo quod contraria tenebatur sententia.-Ep. lxix., ibid.

{45a} Professor Tait, article "Vacuum," Chambers's Encyclopedia.

{45b} These further researches are expounded in two treatises, 'De l'equilibre des Liqueurs,' and 'De la Pesanteur de l'Air,' supposed to have been written in 1653, but not published till 1663, after the author's death.

{46a} North British Review, August 1844. Sir David in the main translates from M. Bossut's "Discours."

{46b} uvres, t. iv. p. 187.

{50} Faugere, Lettres, etc., p. 80.

{51} Vie de Pascal.

{54a} Cousin, Vie de Jacqueline, p. 43.

{54b} Ibid., p. 101.

{55} B. Pascal, app. vii. p. 491.

{58} Vie de Jacqueline.

{59} Cousin's Jacqueline, p. 189.

{60} Cousin's Jacqueline, p. 161.

{61} Relation de la Sur Jacqueline de Sainte-Euphemie Pascal a Port Royal, 10 Juin 1653-a long narrative, extending to about 50 pages of Cousin's volume. See also Lettres, Opuscules, etc., ed. by Faugere, pp.

177222.

{63a} Relation de la Sur Jacqueline, etc., p. 182.

{63b} Ibid., p. 187.

{63c} Ibid., p. 194.

{63d} Memoire, Faugere, p. 453.

{64} Jacqueline Pascal, pp. 237, 244.

{65a} Marguerite Perier says that Pascal had always a room at the Duc de Roannez's, and that he stayed there frequently, although he had a house of his own in Paris.

{65b} Lelut, p. 234. Women throughout this time took the lead, and were never so active, even in French politics. "Beautiful, witty, and dissolute, they brought into public affairs their frivolous ideas, and sacrificed to their vanity their honour and that of their houses."-La Vallee, Hist. des Francais, t. iii. p. 195, quoted in Kitchin's Hist. of France, vol. iii. p. 114.

{66} Lelut, p. 238.

{67a} Pensees, ed. de M. Faugere, t. i p. 197.

{67b} Ibid., t. ii p. 91.

{67c} Faugere, Introduction.

{67d} Blaise Pascal, App. No. 7.

{68a} Blaise Pascal, App. No. 7.

{68b} Introd. to Ed. of Pensees.

{71} Il prit la resolution de suivre le train commun du monde, c'est-a-dire de prendre une charge et se marier.-Faugere, p. 453.

{76} "D'horribles attaches"-an expression already alluded to, which has given rise to a good deal of speculation.-Jacqueline Pascal, Cousin, p.

237.

{77} Cousin, Jacqueline Pascal, pp. 236241.

{87} Fontaine, vol. i. p. 354.

{89} See Beard's Port Royal, vol. i. pp. 207, 208.

{90} Recueil d'Utrecht, quoted by Maynard, vol. i. p. 78.

{91}

L'an de grace 1654.