(Peter), professor of mathematics and natural philosophy in the university of Leyden, was born at Diemenmeer, a village near Amsterdam, on the 5th of November, 1764. His father, by trade a carpenter, having a great fondness for books, and being tolerably well versed in the mathematics, instructed his son himself till he attained to his eleventh year. Young Nieuwland appears to have displayed strong marks of genius at a very early period. When about the age of three, his mother put into his hands some prints, which had fifty verses at the bottom of them by way of explanation. These verses she read aloud, without any intention that her son should learn them; and she was much surprized some time after to hear him repeat the whole from memory, with the utmost correctness, on being only shown the prints.

Before he was seven years of age he had read more than fifty different books, and in such a manner that he could frequently repeat passages from them both in prose and in verse. When about the age of eight, Mr. Aeneas at Amsterdam, one of the greatest calculators of the age, asked him if he could tell the solid contents of a wooden statue of Mercury which stood upon a piece of clock-work. "Yes (replied young Nieuwland), provided you give me a bit of the same wood of which the statue was made; for I will cut a cubic inch out of it, and then compare it with the statue." Poems which (says his eulogist) display the utmost liveliness of imagination, and which he composed in his tenth year, while walking or amusing himself near his father's house, were received with admiration, and inserted in different poetical collections.

Such an uncommon genius must soon burst through those obstacles which confine it. Bernardus and Jeronimo de Bosch, two of the first and wealthiest men at Amsterdam, became young Nieuwland's benefactors, and contributed very much to call forth his latent talents. He was taken into the house of the former in his eleventh year, and he received daily instruction from the latter for the space of four years. While in this situation he made considerable progress in the Latin and Greek languages, and he studied philosophy and the mathematics under Wyttensch. In the year 1783 he translated the two dissertations of his celebrated instructors, Wyttensch and de Bosch, on the opinions which the ancients entertained of the state of the soul after death, which had gained the prize of the Teylerian theological society.

From the month of September 1784 to 1785, Nieuwland resided at Leyden as a student in the university, and afterwards applied with great diligence, at Amsterdam, to natural philosophy and every branch of the mathematics, under the direction of Professor van Swinden. He had scarcely begun to turn his attention to chemistry, when he made himself master of the theory of the much-lamented Lavoisier, and could apply it to every phenomenon. He could read a work through with uncommon quickness, and yet retain in his mind the principal part of its contents.

Nieuwland's attention was directed to three principal pursuits, which are seldom united; poetry, the pure mathematics, and natural philosophy. In the latter part of his life he added to these also astronomy. Among the poems which he published, his Orion alone has rendered his name immortal in Holland. Of the small essays which he published in his youth, the two following are particularly deserving of notice: 1. A Comparative View of the Value of the different Branches of Science; and, 2. The best Means to render general, not Learning, but Soundness of Judgment and Good Taste.

One of his great objects was to bring the pure mathematics nearer to perfection, to clear up and connect their different parts, and in particular to apply them to natural philosophy and astronomy. Cornelius Douwe discovered an easy method of determining the latitude of a place at sea, not by the meridian altitude of the sun, but by two observations made at any other period of the day. This method, however, being still imperfect, Nieuwland turned his thoughts towards the improvement of it, and in the beginning of the year 1789 wrote a paper on the subject, which he transmitted to M. de Lalande at Paris, from whom it met with great approbation. In the year 1792, when Nieuwland resided two months at Gotha with Major von Zach, these two learned men often conversed on this method of finding the latitude, and calculated the result of observations which they had made with a sextant and an artificial horizon. The above paper, enlarged by these observations, was inserted by Major von Zach with Nieuwland's name in the first Supplement to Bode's Astronomical Almanack, Berlin, 1793.

This, however, was not the only service which Nieuwland endeavoured to render to astronomy. It had been observed by Newton, Euler, De la Place, and others, that the axes of the planets do not stand perpendicular, but inclined, to the plane of their orbits; and Du Séjour, in his analytical treatise on the apparent motion of the heavenly bodies, considers it as highly probable that this phenomenon depends on some physical cause; which, however, he does not venture to affirm. Nieuwland proceeded farther, and laid down principles, from which he drew this conclusion, that the above phenomenon is intimately connected with the whole system of attraction. On these principles he made calculations, the result of which was exactly equal to the angle of the inclination of the earth's axis to the plane of its orbit. Nieuwland communicated his discovery with much modesty to the celebrated Professor Damen at Leyden, who proposed some objections to it which discouraged Nieuwland, and induced him to revise his calculations with more accuracy. Major von Zach transmitted the paper which contained them to M. De la Place at Paris, and caused it to be printed also, for the opinion of the learned, in the Supplement to Professor Bode's Astronomical Almanack for the year 1793.

The writer of this article is not acquainted either with the principles which this young astronomer assumed, or with the calculations which he made from them; but if he holds gravitation to be essential to matter, and the inclination of the axes of the planets to be the necessary result of the law of gravitation, he is undoubtedly Nieuwland's talents and diligence soon recommended him to the notice of his country. In his twenty-second year, he was appointed a member of the commission chosen by the College of Admiralty at Amsterdam for determining the longitude and improving marine charts. On this labour he was employed eight years, and undertook also to prepare a nautical almanack, and to calculate the necessary tables. The mathematical part was in general entrusted to Nieuwland; but he assisted also his two colleagues van Swinden and van Keulen, in the departments assigned to them, with such affluency, that most of the work published on the longitude, together with the three additional parts, were the fruits of his labour. In the second edition of the explanation of the nautical almanack, he had also the principal share; and he was the author, in particular, of the explanation of the equation of time, the method of determining the going of a time-piece, and of calculating the declination of the moon.

Soon after Nieuwland engaged in this employment, it appeared as if his destination was about to be changed. In the year 1787, he was chosen by the States of Utrecht to succeed Professor Hennert; but on account of certain circumstances this appointment did not take place. He was, however, invited to Amsterdam by the magistrates of that city, to give lectures on mathematics, astronomy, and navigation. While in this situation, he wrote his useful and excellent treatise on navigation, the first part of which was published at Amsterdam in 1793, by George Hulst van Keulen; and it is much to be wished that M. van Swinden would complete this work from the papers bequeathed to him by his deceased friend the author.

In astronomical pursuits, Nieuwland applied not only to the theoretical, but also to the practical part; and in this study he was encouraged and assisted by Major von Zach, with whom he resided some time in the course of the year 1792, and who instructed him in the proper use of the sextant. This affectionate friend published also all his observations and calculations in the before-mentioned Supplement to Bode's Astronomical Almanack.

In the year 1789, Nieuwland was chosen member of a learned society whose object was chemical experiments; and so apt was his genius for acquiring knowledge, that in a little time he made himself completely master of the theory of chemistry. A proof of this is the treatise which he read on the 24th of May 1791, in the society, distinguished by the motto of Felix Meritis, and which has been printed in the first part of the New General Magazine (Nieuw Algemeen Magazijn). At the same time he was able to examine the important discoveries made by the society, to assist in preparing an account of them for the press, and to publish them with sufficient accuracy in the French language. Three parts of this work appeared under the title of Recherches Physico-chimiques. The first part appeared in 1792, and was afterwards reprinted in the Journal de Physique. The second was published in 1793; and the fourth in 1794. Some letters of his on chemistry may be found also in a periodical work called The Messenger (Letterbode).

This ingenious and diligent man was of great service Nieuwland, also in the philosophical department to the above society, Felix Meritis, of which he had been chosen a titular member on the 25th of January 1788, and an honorary member on the 15th of March 1791. The papers for which it was indebted to him are as follows:

1. On the Newest Discoveries in Astronomy, and the Progress lately made in that Science, 1788. This is an extract from a Latin oration which he intended to deliver at Utrecht when he expected to succeed Professor Hennert.

2. On the Figure of the Earth, 1789.

3. On the Course of Comets, and the Uncertainty of the Return of the Comet now Expected, 1790.

4. On the Nature of the Mathematics. The principal object of this paper was to illustrate the idea, that the mathematics may be considered as a beautiful and perfect language.

5. On the Periodical Decrease or Increase in the Light of Certain Fixed Stars, and Particularly of the Star Algol, 1790.

6. On the Solution of Spherical Trigonometry by Means of a New Instrument Invented by Le Guin, 1791. M. le Guin having transmitted to the College of Admiralty at Amsterdam an instrument which might be used with great advantage in trigonometrical operations, and by which, in calculating the longitude, one could deduce the real from the apparent distance, the admiralty charged Nieuwland to examine this instrument; and he found that it might be of excellent service for the above purpose.

7. On the Relative Value or Importance of the Sciences, 1791.

8. On the System of Lavoisier, 1792.

9. On the Selotopographia of Schröder, 1793.

10. On what is Commonly Called Cultivation, Instruction, or Enlightenment, 1793.

Nieuwland had applied closely to the mathematics, astronomy, and navigation, for five years; during which time he made considerable improvements in nautical charts, and filled up his vacant hours with the study of philosophy and chemistry. In the month of July 1793, he was invited to the university of Leyden, to be professor of philosophy, astronomy, and the higher mathematics, in the room of the celebrated Damen; and the admiralty of Amsterdam requested him to continue his nautical researches, which he did with great affluency till the period of his death. The only variation which he now made in his studies related to natural philosophy, for with the mathematics he was already sufficiently acquainted. He applied therefore to the experimental part, and spared no pains nor labour to become perfect in it; which would certainly have been the case, had he not been snatched from science and his friends at the early age of thirty. He died of an inflammation in his throat, accompanied with a fever, on the 13th of November 1794.

In his external appearance, Nieuwland was not what might be called handsome, nor had he ever been at pains to acquire that ease of deportment which distinguishes those who have frequented polite company. His behaviour and conversation were however agreeable, because he could discourse with facility on many subjects, and never wished to appear but under his real character. On the first view one might have discerned that he was a man of great modesty and the strictest morality. His father was a Lutheran, and his mother a baptist; but he himself was a member of what is called the reformed church, i.e., a Calvinist, and always shewed