GASSENDI, PETER, one of the most celebrated philosophers France has produced, was born at Chantersier, near Digne in Provence, in 1592. When a child, he took particular delight in gazing at the moon and stars as often as they appeared in clear unclouded weather; and the pleasure he thus experienced frequently drew him into bye places, so that his parents had often to seek him, not without many anxious fears and apprehensions. They therefore put him to school at Digne, where, in a short time, he made such extraordinary progress in learning, that some persons who had seen specimens of his genius resolved to have him removed to Aix, in order to study philosophy under Fesaye, a learned Carmelite friar. This proposal was so disagreeable to his father, who intended to breed him up in his own way to country business, that he would consent to it only upon condition that his son should return home in two years at farthest. Accordingly, young Gassendi, at the end of the appointed time, repaired to Chantersier; but he had not been long there when he was invited to become professor of rhetoric at Digne, before he
was quite sixteen years of age; and he had been engaged in that office but three years, when his master Fesaye dying, he was made professor in his stead at Aix. When he had been a few years at the latter place, he composed his Paradoxical Exercitations against Aristotle, which having fallen into the hands of Nicholas Peiresc, that great patron of learning joined with Joseph Walter, prior of Valette, in promoting the author; and the latter having entered into holy orders, was first made canon of the church of Digne and doctor of divinity, and then advanced to the wardenship or rector of that church. Gassendi's fondness for astronomy grew with his years; and as his reputation daily increased, he was in the year 1645 appointed royal professor of mathematics at Paris. This professorship being chiefly designed for astronomy, our author read lectures on that science to a crowded audience. However, he did not hold this place long; for a dangerous cough, accompanied by inflammation of the lungs, obliged him in the year 1647 to return to Digne for the benefit of his native air.
Antiquarian, historian, biographer, natural philosopher, naturalist, astronomer, geometrician, anatomist, preacher, metaphysician, hellenist, dialectician, an erudite scholar, an able critic, and withal an elegant writer, Gassendi ranged through nearly the whole circle of the sciences and arts, at a period when the sciences and arts had been but recently revived; and throughout his laborious and ingenious researches he constantly manifested an excellent spirit. He was the first disciple of Bacon in France, the friend of Galileo and Kepler, the opponent of Descartes, and the precursor of Newton and of Locke. For an eloquent and comprehensive view of his labours and researches as a metaphysician, the reader is referred to the first Dissertation, prefixed to the present work.
The principal works of Gassendi are, 1. Exercitationes Paradoxicae adversus Aristotelem, Grenoble, 1624; 2. Phænomenon rarum Romae observatum, Amsterdam and Paris, 1630; 3. Epistola Dissertatio in qua principia philosophiae Roberti Fluddi deteguntur, Paris, 1631; 4. Mercurius in Sole visus et Venus in visa, Paris, 1631; 5. Proportio Gnomonis ad Solstitiale umbram observata, Massilia, 1636; 6. Observatio de Septo Cordis pervio, Louvain, 1640; 7. Disquisitio Metaphysica adversus Cartesium, Paris, 1642; 8. De Vita N. Fabr., Paris, 1641; 9. Epist. xx. de apparente magnitudine Solis, Paris, 1641; 10. De Motu impresso a motore translato, Paris, 1649; 11. Novem Stellae visae circa Jovem, Paris, 1643; 12. Disquisitio Metaphysica, seu dubitationes et instantia ad-
versus Cartesii Metaphysicam, Amsterdam, 1644; 13. Vita Sancti Dominici primi Diniensis Episcopi, 1644; 14. Oratio inauguralis, Paris, 1645; 15. De Proportione qua gravia decedentia accelerantur, 1646; 16. Apologia adversus I. B. Morinum, Lyons, 1649; 17. De Vita et Moribus Epicuri, libri vii. Lyons, 1647; 18. Institutio Astronomica, Paris, 1647; 19. De Vita, Moribus, et Placitis Epicuri, &c., Lyons, 1649; 20. Syntagma Philosophiae Epicuri, ibid. 1649; 21. Pièces relatives à la Discussion élevée entre Gassendi et Morin, Paris, 1650; 22. Lettre à Honoré Bouche, historien de Provence, 1652; 23. Joh. Caramuel ad Gassendum, et Fr. Gassendi responsio de infallibilitate Papae, 1660; 24. Appendix Cometæ, Lyons, 1658; 25. Tychoonis Brahæi, Copernici, Purbachii, et Regiomontani vite, Paris, 1654; 26. Romanum Calendarium compendiose expositum, ibid. The works of Gassendi have been collected by Montmart and De Sorbière, in the complete edition published at Lyons in 1658, and reprinted at Florence in 1728, in 6 vols. folio, to which are subjoined Synagmæ Philosophicum de Gassendi and Commentariæ de ebus celestibus. Gassendi died at Paris in the year 1658, aged sixty-three.