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PIERRE VARRIGNON. 667
letters to his father; and especially from a letter written by his
father Ericus Benzelius to Em. Swedenborg (Document 106). He
was born in 1705, and died in 1770. For further particulars con
cerning him see Document 9, p. 88.
NOTE 59.
PHILIPPE DE LAHIRE.
Philippe de Lahire, one of the most industrious and useful
geometricians of France, was born in Paris in 1640. Some works
on conic sections and the cycloid curve, which he published between
1673 and 1676, opened to him the doors of the Academy of Sciences
in 1678. From 1680 to 1689, he executed many geodesical surveys
of France, and continued the measurement of the famous meridian
commenced by Picard, which was, however, interrupted by the death
of Colbert. In 1689, he published his first work on astronomy. His
learning was not, however, limited to mathematics and astronomy,
but extended to all branches of physical science. Fontenelle said
concerning him, that in Lahire alone one might have had an en
tire Academy of Sciences. He was for a long time professor of
mathematics in the Royal College of France, and at the same time
professor of architecture. He died in 1719, in his seventy-ninth year.
His most famous work is his Tabulæ astronomice printed in quarto
in 1702. These tables have been translated into all the languages
of Europe and even into Hindostanee; and they have been surpassed
only by those of Halley. Concerning Swedenborg’s acquaintance
with Lahire, see Document 45, p. 226.
NOTE 60.
PIERRE VARRIGNON .
Pierre Varrignon, the celebrated geometrician, was born at Caen
in 1654. He arrived in Paris in 1686, and published in the follow
ing year a work entitled : " Le Projet d’une nouvelle Mécanique,"
by which he soon became favourably known in the learned world.
On the merits of this work he became, in 1688, professor of
mathematics in the College Mazarin; but his duties in this position
did not prevent him from attending the sessions of the Academy
where he frequently delivered lectures. He was one of the first in
France to recognize the advantages to be gained by a study of the
differential and integral calculus, and was one of the most ardent
defenders of the geometry of infinitesimals. In 1704, he succeeded
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