un chanoine de Thorn. Copernicus

1. 16. le 7tiouve)7ient de la terre. A decree of the congreg^ation of the Index, given March 3, 1616, and published on the 5th,declared that the doctrine teaching the révolution of the earth round the sun was false and altogether contrary to the Holy Scriptures, and that it niust neither be professed nor maintained.

' 1. 21. qiCon potcvait tenir, in his Noznini orgamim, second part of the great work, fragments of which he published under the title Iiistaiiratio magna.

1. 11. les lois de la chute des corps. His treaiise De niotîi gj-aviu/n was published in 1598.

1. 24. çui nous cnvironrte. Torricelli invented tl;ie barometer in

on avait fait quelques expériences à Magdebourg. Thèse experiments were made by Otto von Guericke (1654), who illustrated the pressure of the atmosphère by means of the apparatus known as the hémisphères of Magdeburg.

1. 28. ait lieu d'étudier la nature, il vouhit la deviner. Voltaire's critique of Descartes is quite characteristic of the French philosophy of the eighteenth century. We can, however, oppose to it Dalembert's notice in the préface de V Encyclopédie, and IJalembert cannot be suspected of Cartesian proclivities. vSee the article Descartes in M. Franck's Dictionnaire des scie7ices philosophiques.

1. 32. des romans de philosophie. This is an allusion to the System of vortices (tourbillons) brought forward by Descartes with the view of explaining the mechanism of the universe; but it may be noticed hère that "l'hypothèse des tourbillons renferme l'idée mère de l'attraction Newtonienne, elle en est l'antécédent. Jamais peut-être Newton n'aurait conjecturé que la même loi d'attraction devait s'appliquer au corps qui tombe à la surface de la terre et à l'astre qui accomplit sa révolution, si Descartes, avant lui n'avait soupçonné que tous les phénomènes de l'univers physique s'accomplissent en vertu des lois générales du mouvement." (F. Bouillier, in M. Franck's Dict, des se.

2o8 VOLTAIRE.— LOUIS XIV.

philosophiques, p. 367.) And yet Voltaire never loses an opportunity of extolling Newton at the expense of Descartes.

Page ioi.

\. 2. la méthode qiiHl avait int7'odîdte. The celebrated Z>/j'<r<?7/;'j ûT*? la méthode which may be said to hâve revolutionized modem philosophy, was published for the first time in 1637.

1. g. une académie d'expériences, an academy for the study of expérimental phiIo?ophy. The academy del Cimento was created in 1657.

1. 18. tandis que le fanatisme opprimait toute vérité. This is another instance of Voltaire's favourite théories about religion, It was not fanaticism which prevented the diffusion of truth, but as Mr Hallam says, " Tranquillity is indispensable for science." "Thegerm of our Royal Society may be traced to the year 1645, when Wallis, Wilkins, Glisson, and others less known, agreed to meet weekly at a private house in London in order to converse on subjects connected with natural, and especially expérimental philosophy." (Hallam, Liter. of Europe, in. p. 575.)

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1. 4. tout système, i.e. every pre-conceived or à priori System.

1. 23. ces voyages plus fameux, that of Bougainville round the world for instance, 1766 — 1769.

1. 27. le Jardin Royal also called jardin des Plantes, and formerly jardin du Roi ; founded in 1626 by Louis XIV, at the request of his physicians Hérouard and Guy la Brosse, and thrown open to the public in 1650.

1. 40. le jéournal des savants was founded by Denis de Sallo, councillor in the Parlement of Paris.

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