(Blaise Francois Compte de), an eminent French mathematician, was born at Avignon in Provence, March 3, 1644; and took to the profession of a soldier at fourteen, having been bred to it with the greatest care. In 1620 he was engaged at the siege of Caen, in the battle of Pont de Ce, and the reduction of the Navareins, and the rest of Bearn; where he signalized himself, and acquired a reputation far surpassing his years. He was present, in 1621, at the siege of St John d'Angeli, as also that of Clarac and Montauban, where he lost his left eye by a musket-shot. At this siege he had another loss, which equally afflicted him, viz. that of the constable of Luynes, who died there of a scarlet fever. The constable was a near relation, and had been his patron at court. He did not, however, sink under the misfortune, but on the contrary took fresh spirits from the necessity he was now in of trusting solely to himself. Accordingly there happened after this time neither siege, battle, nor any other occasion, in which he did not signalize himself by some effort of courage and conduct. At the passage of the Alps, and the barricade of Suzza, he put himself at the head of the forlorn hope, consisting of the bravest youths among the guards; and undertook to arrive the first at the attack, by a private way which was extremely dangerous; when, having gained the top of a very steep mountain, he cried out to his followers, "See the way to glory!" He slept along this mountain; and, his companions following him, they came first to the attack, as they wished to do. They immediately began a furious assault; and, the army coming to assist, they forced the barricades. He had afterwards the pleasure of standing on the left hand of the king, when his majesty related this heroic action to the duke of Savoy with the deserved commendations, in the presence of a very full court. When the king laid siege to Nancy in 1633, our hero had the honour to attend his sovereign, in drawing the lines and forts of circumvallation. In 1642 his majesty sent him to the service in Portugal, in the post of field marshal. In this same year he unfortunately lost his eye-shot by a distemper. But though he was thus disabled from serving his country with his conduct and courage, he reassumed, with greater vigour than ever, the study of the mathematics and fortification; and, in 1645, gave the public a treatise on this latter subject. It was allowed by all who understood the science, that nothing had then appeared that was preferable to it; and indeed, whatever improvements have been made since, they have perhaps been derived chiefly from this treatise, as conclusions from their principles. In 1651 he published his Geometrical Theorems, which show a perfect knowledge of all the parts of the mathematics. In 1655 he printed A Paraphrase, in French, of the Account, in Spanish, of the River of the Amazons, by Father de Rennes, a Jesuit; and we are assured, that, though blind, he drew the chart of that river and the parts adjacent which is seen in this work. In 1657 he published The Theory of the Planets, cleared from that multiplicity of eccentric circles and epicycles, which the astronomers had invented to explain their motions. This work distinguished him among astronomers as much as that of fortification did among engineers; and he printed, in 1658, his Astronomical Tables, which are very succinct and plain. Few great men are without some foible: Pagan's was that of a prejudice in favour of judicial astrology; and though he is more revered than most others, yet we cannot put what he did on that subject among those productions which do honour to his understanding. He was beloved, and respected by all persons illustrious for rank as well as science; and his house was the rendezvous of all the polite and worthy both in city and court. He died at Paris Nov. 18. 1665; and was never married. The king ordered... ordered his first physician to attend him in his illness, and gave several marks of the extraordinary esteem which he had for his merit.

He had an universal genius; and, having turned himself entirely to the art of war, and particularly to the branch of fortification, he made extraordinary progress in it. He understood mathematics not only better than is usual for a gentleman whose view is to push his fortune in the army, but even to a degree of perfection superior to that of the ordinary matters who teach that science. He had so particular a genius for this kind of learning, that he obtained it more readily by meditation than by reading authors upon it; and accordingly spent less time in such books than he did in those of history and geography. He had also made morality and politics his particular study; so that he may be said to have drawn his own character in his Homme Heroique, and to have been one of the completest gentlemen of his time. Louis XIII. was heard to say several times, that the Count de Pagan was one of the most worthy, best turned, most adroit, and most valiant men, in his kingdom.—That branch of his family, which removed from Naples to France in 1552, became extinct in his person.

a heathen, gentile, or idolater; one who adores false gods. See Mythology.