In 1720 Vayringe was appointed watch-maker and mechanist to Duke Leopold of Lorraine, and removed from Nancy to Luneville, the capital of that province. Here he occupied himself not only with clocks and watches, but with astronomical instruments, and several models of hydraulic machines, the simplicity and powerful action of which were much praised. One of the models, that of a machine to throw five jets of water to a height of sixty feet, was afterward carried into effect in the ducal gardens of Luneville. In the year 1721 Vayringe had occasion to visit the British metropolis on business for the duke, and became an inmate in the house of the celebrated Desaguliers. This accidental circumstance was of great advantage to him, and he improved the occasion with avidity. Desaguliers taught him geometry and algebra, and explained minutely the properties and management of all the instruments and machines by which he himself illustrated his annual courses of experimental philosophy. More than this, he caused a similar apparatus to be made for Vayringe. After a residence of thirteen months in London he was recalled to Luneville. The duke was so delighted with the instruments he brought with him, that he gave Vayringe instructions to complete the set by making what were necessary for the full illustration of a complete course of philosophy. In pursuance of this order, Vayringe produced a variety of works, one of the most curious of which was a planisphere, on the Copernican system, "above which," says he, "the planets, supported by steel wires, performed their courses, according to the calculations of the most celebrated astronomers." This was, in fact, a kind of orrery, an instrument which had been shown and explained to him by Desaguliers during his visit to the English capital, and which was then new to the world of science. The duke was so astonished by this masterpiece of ingenuity that he considered it to be a worthy present for the emperor, and Vayringe was accordingly dispatched with it to Vienna. The emperor was equally delighted, and he rewarded the maker with a massy gold medal and chain, and a purse containing two hundred ducats.

On his return to Luneville he found M. de Boifranc, architect of the King of France, who was anxious for him to proceed to Paris to superintend the construction of a steam-engine for a mine in Peru. When this important job was finished, he returned to Luneville, and employed himself in the manufacture of many

curious philosophical machines, especially an orrery. In 1729, Duke Leopold, his patron, died, and for a time some of his most extensive works were discontinued. In the following year Leopold's successor remodeled the Academy of Luneville, and appointed Vayringe professor of experimental philosophy. His lectures immediately attracted much attention, and were, like Duval's in the same establishment, largely attended by foreigners. His popularity continued undiminished as long as the house of Lorraine held the government of its hereditary dominions; but in 1737, political arrangements between France and the emperor transferred the duchy to Stanislaus, and eventually to France, and in exchange gave to the duke the sovereignty of Tuscany. Despots think nothing of "swopping" whole generations of men. "I was," says Vayringe, "soon a witness to the evacuation of Lorraine. I saw her highness the Duchess Regent, and the two august princesses, her daughters, tear themselves from their palace, their faces bathed with tears, their hands raised toward heaven, and uttering cries expressive of the most violent grief. It would be utterly impossible to depict the consternation, the regrets, the sobs, and all the symptoms of despair to which the people gave way at the aspect of a scene which they considered as the last sigh of the country. It is almost inconceivable that hundreds of persons were not crushed under the wheels of the carriage, or trodden under the feet of the horses, in throwing themseves blindly as they did before the vehicles to retard their departure. While consternation, lamentations, horror, and confusion were reigning in Luneville, the inhabitants of the rural districts hurried in multitudes to the road by which the royal family was to pass, and, throwing themselves on their knees, stretched out their hands to them, and implored them not to abandon their people." Vayringe accompanied the duke to his future territories, although earnestly entreated to remain by the new sovereign of Lorraine. It was an unfortunate step for him. In Lorraine mechanical genius was appreciated and understood, but in Tuscany no one cared about such things. The Grand Duke did, indeed, continue his patronage to the artist, but his example was not followed by his court or his subjects. After a miserable sojourn of eight years in his new home, Vayringe wrote in the following melancholy vein: "I had figured to myself," he says, "that Tuscany having been, as it were, the cradle of gen

uine experimental philosophy, a taste for that science would have been preserved, as in the time of the Galileos, Torricellis, and the Academy del' Cimento, and that, consequently, the lectures which I had delivered at Luneville would be still more attractive at Florence." But his conjectures were erroneous; he found the young men addicted to gallantry, the ladies to coquetry, and every one to triviality, not unmixed with sensuality. He published a syllabus of all the experiments he had made in Lorraine, but the Florentine public paid no attention to it, and it fell dead. "It is true," he writes, "that my being a foreigner contributed in no small degree to this indifference. I was given to understand that Italy, in all ages, had possessed the privilege of teaching other nations, and was not at all accustomed to take lessons from them. It may with truth be said that this miserable prejudice, together with the spirit of trifling and parsimony of which I have spoken, are the rocks on which the Academy of Lorraine has been wrecked. Transferred to Tuscany at an immense expense, and having the same professors who had rendered it so flourishing, it has there been wholly deserted. The school of experimental philosophy, one of the most curious and complete in Europe, has shared the same fate, though the cost of the lectures which were given there was reduced to less than half the sum that was paid at Luneville. Thus the talent for mechanics which Providence has bestowed on me has become totally useless as far as regards the public, in consequence of the indifference of my new fellow-citizens, and the state of inaction in which they have left me to stagnate."

Circumstances of this depressing nature were too much for the sanguine temperament of an inventor, whose imagination, at the best of times, is too sensitive and warm. He became careless of himself, like all dissatisfied people, and felt disposed to brave all sorts of dangers. On one occasion he was indiscreet enough to expose himself to the deadly malaria of that pestiferous district I called the Maremma. A slow fever was the result, which, after eighteen months' duration, ended in dropsy. He died under the effect of this latter disease on the 24th of March, 1746, and was buried in the Barnabite Church at Florence, where his monument may still be seen, erected by his friend Duval. "Probity, candor, and the most ingenuous simplicity," says Duval, "characterized his disposition, and they may be said to have beamed upon his countenance and in all his actions."

NATHANIEL BOWDITCH.

THE subject of this sketch was the son of a cooper, and was born at Salem, Massachusetts, March 26th, 1773. At an early age he had the misfortune to lose his mother, to whom, like most men of eminence, he owed much that was good and beautiful in his nature. He was only ten years of age when this happened, and previous to it had attended school for a short time. It is related that, even at this early day, he displayed a remarkable aptitude for figures, and intuitively performed arithmetical feats far in advance of his studies.

When little more than ten years of age he was bound apprentice to Messrs. Ropes & Hodges, who were ship-chandlers, and while in their service always kept a slate and pencil by his side, so that, when not engaged in serving customers, he could pursue his favorite study. Every moment that he could call his own was devoted to the same object. He rose early, and went to bed late, so that, by thus economizing his time, he was able to make considerable progress in the mathematics. The labor which he cheerfully undertook to make himself master of the subject was

prodigious. Most of his. books he borrowed from the Salem Athenæum, and, in spite of dryness, copied them. The fruits of his diligence still exist in more than twenty folio and quarto volumes. He did not allow any thing to impede his progress. That he might read Newton's "Principia," he learned Latin, the tongue in which it is written, and so with the French language. With these two powerful auxiliaries, he translated the former elaborate work, and the extensive one of La Place.

In a few years Mr. Bowditch became known as an extremely accomplished man of science, and was employed with another gentleman to make a thorough survey of the town of Salem. After this (1795) he was induced to undertake a voyage to the East Indies, under Captain Prince. The vessel returned after a year's absence, and Bowditch was so satisfied with the voyage that he made a second, third, and fourth with the same captain. The leisure which this occupation afforded him was doubtless one of its charms, for he was able not only to prosecute his mathematical studies, but to perfect himself in several languages, the French especially, and Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese to a great extent. His method of learning a language was peculiar. He obtained a New Testament in the desired language, and, with the aid of a Dictionary, worked through it. At the time of his death he possessed New Testaments in no fewer than twenty-five languages, and Dictionaries of a still larger number. He was by no means stingy of his knowledge, but, knowing its advantage, tried to diffuse it. Among the sailors he was eminently popular, and made the ship a perfect school of learning. Slates and pencils were in great demand, and conversations like the following are recorded: "Well, Jack, what have you got?" "I've got the sine." "That ain't right; I say it's the cosine." According to Captain Prince, there were twelve men on board capable of working lunar observations for all practical purposes. Bowditch's habits at this time have been described very accurately by a companion. “His practice was to rise at a very early hour in the morning, and pursue his studies till breakfast; immediately after which he walked rapidly for about half an hour, and then went below to his studies till half past eleven o'clock, when he returned, and walked till the hour at which he commenced his meridian observations. Then came dinner, after which he was engaged in his studies till five o'clock; then he walked till tea-time, and after tea was at his

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