I 1 ;CLOS E, a screen frequently of open-work, cm idoy ed in churches to separate chapels, tombs', and other portions of the elnireh from the main body.
Py\ IZENT, ANTHONY, in biography, an eminent mathe matician, born at Paris in the year l(60. At a very early period, he discovered a strong propensity to the study of ma theinatic's ; for, at the age of fourteen, accidentally meeting with a dodecahedron, upon every thee of which was deline ated a sundial, excepting the lowest, upon which it stood. lie attempted to imitate them, and was led from the practice to investigate the theory, and in a short time wrote a treatise upon (inotttonirs, which, though said to be extremely rude and unpolished, had the merit ut' his own invention. as was a work on Geometry, which Iti' wrote about the same time. At the earnest desire of his relations, lie entered upon the study of the law, as a profession for his life ; but lie no ilt.
w .. Ile e.,,..1 ) sooner compieo WS St U. I ICS I W act I t re c o0 himself, with increased ardour, to those pursuits which accorded best with his genius and inclination. lie attended, very diligently, the lectures of M. de la Mire and 111. Saitveur, and, as soon as he felt himself capable of teaching others, he took pupils ; and fortification being a branch of stuoly which the war had brought into particular notice, he was called upon frequently to teach the principles of that science. In 1699, Fillan des Billets having been admitted a member of the Academy of Sciences at Paris. with the title of their acade mician, nominated M. Parent for his epee, who particularly
excelled in that branch of knowledge. It was soon discovered that he directed his attention to all the subjects that came befire the Academy, and that he was competent to the investigation of every topic which was recommended to their notice. In the year 1710, the king abolished the class of el&ees, and on this occasion he made M. Parent an adjunct, or assistant member of the class of geometry. lie lived but a short time to enjoy his honour, being in the same year cut off by the small-pox, when he was about fifty years of age. Although of a very irritable disposition, he is said to have possessed great goodness of heart ; and though his means were extremely limited, he devoted much of his income to acts of beniticence. He was author of Elements of Mecha nies and .\anneal Philosophy, ..11athematicul and Physical Re searches, a sort of journal, which first appeared in I705, and which, in 17 was greatly enlarged, and published in three •to. ; and Treatise on Arithmetic. Besides these, he wrote a great number of papers in the ditThrent French Journal:0ml in the volumes of the Memoirs ry' the Aeademy of Sciences, from the year 1700 to 1714, and he left behind him, in manuscript, many works of considerable research ; a hick were some complete treatises on divers branches of mathematics, and a work containing proofs of the divinity of Jesus Christ, in four parts.