HIRE (Philip de la), an eminent French mathematician and astronomer, born at Paris in 1640. His father, who was painter in ordinary to the king, designed him for the same profession: but he devoted himself to mathematical studies, and was nominated together with M. Picard to make the necessary observations for a new map of France by the directions of M. Colbert. In 1683, he was employed in continuing the famous meridian line begun by M. Picard; and was next engaged in constructing those grand aqueducts which were projected by Lewis XIV. He died in 1718, after having wrote a great number of works, besides several occasional papers dispersed in journals, and in memoirs of the Academy of Sciences.