BOSCOVICH, ROGER JosErit, a celebrated ma- Bo thematician and natural philosoplit r, was born at '— Ragusa, a city of Dalmatia, and capital of the little republic-of the same name, on the I Ith of May, 1711. His father, who was a respectable citizen of Ragusa, had no fewer than nine children, of whom Joseph was the youngest. At an early age he was sent to learn grammar and philosophy at the schools of the Jesuits in Ragusa. The temper and abilities which he displayed in the course of his education, pointed him out as a young man who might one day do honour to that able and enterprising association. Influenced, perhaps, by the example of his brother, who had entered the church, Boscovich applied for admission into the order of the Jesuits ; and in the fif teenth year of his age, he went to Romc and took the habit of the noviciate. In this'new situation, his attention was principally directed to the constitution of the order, to the study of rhetoric and belles let tres, but particularly to the composition of Latin poetry, in which he afterwards obtained such distin guished eminence. Having completed these prelimi nary studies, Boscovich was sent to the Jesuits col lege at Rome to study mathematics and philosophy. These new branches of knowledge gradually gained upon his affections, till he found himself completely absorbed in the study of the sciences. With a ra pidity, unusual even in the history of genius, he made himself master of all the branches of elementary geo metry ; and when his preceptors were no longer able to assist him in his daring flight, he prosecuted with out any help, the higher geometry, till he was en abled to read the Principia of Newton. In conse quence of the reputation for mathematical knowledge which he thus acquired, he was employed to give private lessons in that science, and was exempted from the drudgery of teaching grammar and the classics, which all the noviciates of the order were obliged to undergo for five years before they were admitted to the study of theology. From the humble station of a private teacher, Boscovich was promoted to the professorship of mathematics at Rome, a situation for which he was eminently qualified, from his ac quaintance with the works of the ancient geometers, as well as.from the happy talent which he possessed for communicating his ideas to others. He was now
led, by the nature of his duties, to compose elemen tary treatises on arithmetic, algebra, geometry, tri gonometry, and conic sections, a task which he exe cuted with an ability and success which men of genius seldom display in elementary compositions. His sys tem of geometry contained the leading truths of that science in fourteen propositions ; and his treatise on conic sections, which appeared in 1755, has been much admired for the simplicity and elegance of its demonstrations.
In the public disputations, the of Bosco vich was principally called into.action. His love of glory was highly inflamed by every accession to his fame ; and he omitted no this favourite- propensity, in the only way in which it ought to be gratified, by a zealous prosecution of philosophical discovery, andfby an unremitthigassidui ty in promoting'the. happiness of his fellow creatures.
• Tinder the influence of such excitements, Boscovich directed his atte 'ion to almost every branch of phy sical science. A new theory of the solar spots ; the • transit of Mercury over the sun ; the figure of the earth ; the annual aberration of the fixed stars ' • the inequalities in terrestrial gravity ; the limits of cer tainty in astronomical observations ; the solid of greatest attraction; comets; the flux and reflux of the sea ; and th atmosphere of the moon, were among the subjects of astronomy which he investiga ted. In pure mathematics, he wrote upon osculating circles ; on infinitesimals ; on the cycloid ; on logistic curve line's; and on the calculation of fractions. His optical dissertations were, on a new telescope for ce lestial objects ; on light ; on the rainbow ; on lenses and dioptrical telescopes, and on the object glass mi . crometer. Besides these• papers, he wrote on the aurora borealis, on the motion of bodies in un resisting media, on the vires vine, on the centre of gravity, on the law of continuity, and on the divisi bility of matter. In the course of these various in vestigations, the attention of Boscovich was neces sarily drawn to the constitution of matter; and he appears, even at this early part of his life, to have formed an outline of that Theory of Natural Philo sophy which has been so universally admired, and on which his reputation as a philosopher principally depends.