SAURIN, Joseph, a geometer and member of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, was born at Courtaillon, in the principality of Orange, in the year 1659. His father, who was a minister at Grenoble, was his first preceptor. He made rapid progress in his studies, and, when very young, was admitted minister of Eure in Dauphiné; but having made use of some violent expressions in one of his sermons, he was obliged to quit France in the year 1683. He retired to Geneva, and thence to Berne, where he obtained a considerable living. Scarcely was he settled in his new habitation, however, when some theologians raised a persecution
against him. Saurin, hating controversy, and disgusted with Switzerland, where his talents were entirely concealed, repaired to Holland. He returned soon afterwards to France, and surrendered himself into the hands of Bossuet, the bishop of Meaux, who obliged him to make a recantation of his errors. This event took place in 1690. His enemies, however, suspected his sincerity in the abjuration which he had made. It was a general opinion, that the desire of cultivating science in the capital of France had a greater effect in producing this change than religion. Saurin, however, speaks of the Reformers with great asperity, and condemns them for going too far. It is said, also, that Saurin appeased his conscience by reading Poiret's Cogitationes Rationales. This book is written with a view to vindicate the Church of Rome from the charge of idolatry. If it was the love of distinction that induced Saurin to return to the Church of Rome, he was not disappointed; for he there met with protection and support. He was favourably received by Louis XIV., obtained a pension from him, and was treated by the Academy of Sciences with the most flattering respect. At that time (1717) geometry formed his principal occupation. He enriched the Journal des Savans with many excellent treatises; and he added to the memoirs of the academy many interesting papers. These are the only works which he has left behind him. He died at Paris, of a fever, on the 29th of December 1737, in his seventy-eighth year. He married a wife of the family of Crousas, in Switzerland, who bore him a son, Bernard Joseph, distinguished as a writer for the theatre.
Saurin was of a bold and impetuous spirit. He had that lofty deportment which is generally mistaken for pride. His philosophy was austere; his opinions of men were not very favourable; and he often delivered them in their presence. This created him many enemies. His memory was attacked after his decease. A letter was printed in the Mercure Suisse, said to be written by Saurin from Paris, in which he acknowledges that he had committed several crimes which deserved death. Some Calvinist ministers published, in 1757, two or three pamphlets to prove the authenticity of that letter; but Voltaire, in his Histoire Générale, made diligent inquiry, not only at the place where Saurin had been discharging the sacerdotal office, but at the deans of the clergy of that department. They all exclaimed against an imputation so opprobrious. It must not, however, be concealed, that Voltaire, in the defence which he has published in his general history of Saurin's conduct, leaves some unfavourable impressions upon the reader's mind. He insinuated that Saurin sacrificed his religion to his interest, and that he played upon Bossuet, "who believed he had converted a clergyman, when he had only given a little fortune to a philosopher."