GLSSENDI, or GASSEND, PIERRE, an eminent French philosopher and mathemati cian, was b. Jan. 22, 1592, at Champtcrcicr, a little village of Proveyce, in the depart ment of the Lower Alps. His unusual- powers of mind showed themselves at an early age; and in 1616 he became professor of theology at Aix. About this time, he drew upon himself the regards of Pieresc, whom Bavle calls the precurear-general of litera ture, and of Joseph Gautier, prior of La Valette, a distinguished mathematician, both of whom liberally gave him the benefit of their instructions and advice. With the first, he studied anatomy; from the second, he derived his taste for astronomical observations. six years' study, he became disgusted with the scholastic philosophy, and under took 'to maintain certain theses against the Aristotelians. His polemic appeared at Grenoble in 1624, and was entitled Exereitationes paradaricte adeersbs Aristoteleos. It was accompanied by an expression of his belief in the church, for whose honor and glory he declared himself " ready to shed the last drop of his blood." He drew a dis tinction for the first time between the church and the scholastic philosophy, denying that the former must stand or fall by the latter. Gassendi now visited Paris, where he made several influential friends. In the same year in which he published his Ererci tationes, he was appointed pro* of the cathedral at Digne, an office which enabled him to pursue without distraction his astronomical and philosophical studies. In 1628, he traveled in Holland, and got involved in a controversy with Robert Fludd, an English mystic, relative to the Mosaic cosmogony, in which he is admitted to have had greatly the of his incoherent opponent. At the recommendation of the archbishop of Lyon, a of cardinal Richelieu. Gassendi was appointed professor of mathe matics in the college royal de France, at Paris, where he died, Oct. 14, 1655. As a
philosopher, Gassendi maintained, with great learning and ingenuity, most, though not all, of the doctrines of Epicurus, these 'being most easily brought into harmony with his own scientific?. sectuirements and modes of thought. His philosophy was in such repute, that the savants of that time were divided into Cartesians and Gassendists. The two chiefs themselves always entertained the highest respect for each other, and were at one time on the friendliest terms: The agreeableness of their intercourse, however, was for a while interrupted by the publication of a work of Gassendi's, entitled Pubita tiOne8 act Heditationes CartegiE. in which he expressed himself dissatisfied with the ten dencies of the new system of philosophy introduced by Descartes, for Gasseudi was averse to novelty in the sphere of mental speculation, although he warmly espoused the side of progreSs in physical science, and made himself many enemies among his bigoted ecclesiastical brethren for tee love lie bore it. He ranked Kepler and Galileo among his friends, and was hicas•J'I the instructor of Moliere. His principal work is entitled De Vita, Aforibus, et Pir6cai Epicuri (Lyons, 1649), to which the Svntagina Philosophies Epicurece (1649) belongs- It contains a complete view of the system of Epicurus. His histitutio Aetronomfm is a clear and connected representation of the state of the science in his own dry ; in his Tychonis &Mai, n8cehze Copernici, Georgii Paerbachii, it ,Toannis Relliomooto s Astronmnorum Celebrium Fibs (Par. 1654), he not only gives a masterly 'account c the lives of these men, but likewise a complete history of astronomy down to his own time. Gasseudi was pronounced by Bayle the greatest philosopher among scholars, and the greatest scholar among philosophers. His works were collected and published cy Montmor and Sorbiere (Lyons, 6 vols. 1658).