was totally deprived of sight by small-pox. Early evincing promising abilities, he was sent to the free school at Pennistone, where he soon distinguished himself by his proficiency in Greek and Latin. This enabled him to become acquainted with the works of Euclid, Archimedes, and Diophantes, which he afterward diligently studied in their originals. His father being unable to afford him the pecuniary means requisite for the prosecution of his studies at a university, Dr. Nettleton, and Richard West, Esq., who were great lovers of mathematics, having noticed the uncommon genius of young Saunderson in this science, gave him instruction in algebra and geometry. His friends discovering his clear and perspicuous manner of communicating his ideas, suggested the propriety of his attending the University of Cambrige, as a teacher of mathematics, to which his own inclination strongly led him. Accordingly, in 1707, when in the twenty-fifth year of his age, he made his appearance in that university under the protection of a friend, one of the fellows of Christ's College. That society with great generosity immediately allotted him a chamber, admitted him to the use of their library, and gave him every other accommodation in their power for the prosecution of his studies.

Mr. Whiston, successor to Sir Isaac Newton in the Lucasian professorship of mathematics in that university, instead of manifesting jealousy of one whom a less generous mind might not unnaturally have regarded as a rival, sought in every way to encourage

Mr. Saunderson in his undertaking. While thus engaged in explaining the principles of the Newtonian philosophy with astonishing success, he became acquainted with its illustrious author.* And when Mr. Whiston was removed from his chair, Sir Isaac Newton exerted his utmost influence to obtain the vacant situation for Saunderson. Accordingly the crown issued a mandate conferring upon him the degree of Master of Arts, as a necessary preliminary to his election.

On his inauguration, he delivered a Latin address with extraordinary taste and elegance. From this time he applied himself closely to the reading of lectures, and gave up his whole time to his pupils. He shortly afterward married the daughter of Rev. Mr. Dickens, by whom he had a son and a daughter. When George II. visited the college, in 1728, among other tokens of marked respect, Saunderson was, by the king's command, created Doctor of Laws, and was admitted a member of the Royal Society, in 1736. He died on the 19th of April, 1739, aged fifty-sever years. Notwithstanding his almost unparalleled assiduity in the studies of his professorship, he found time to prepare several works on algebra, and one on fluxions, which, together with the works of Euler,

*Saunderson commenced his prelections with Newton's optics. "The subject itself which he thus chose, independently of the manner in which he treated it, was well calculated to attract notice, few things seeming at first view more extraordinary than that a man, who had been blind almost from his birth, should be able to explain the phenomena and expound the doctrines of light."

will ever stand as lasting monuments of the perse verance and genius of the blind.

It may seem unjust to some of our readers to in troduce Euler in this connection, from the fact that he acquired his knowledge of the sciences, and much of his fame previous to his deprivation. But it must be remembered that the principal object of this work is to demonstrate that a want of sight alone does neither preclude the acquisition of knowledge, nor, after acquired, its practical exercise in any of the higher branches of science. The unremitting and successful labors of this great man, after his blindness, tend strikingly to illustrate how little, genius or the progress of mind is depending on mere outward or physical circumstances.

LEONARD EULER who flourished in the early part of the eighteenth century, after numerous brilliant achievements in the science of mathematics, lost his sight from excessive application, in the fifty-ninth year of his age, while professor of mathematics at St. Petersburg. While in this condition, he published his famous work, "Elements of Algebra," which has been translated into every European language. Shortly after this he was elected a foreign member of the Parisian Academy of Science, and an academical prize was adjudged to three of his memoirs, concerning the inequalities in the motions of the planets. The two prize questions proposed by the same academy for 1770 and 1772, were designed to obtain from the labors of astronomers a more perfect theory of the

moon. Euler, assisted by his eldest son, was a competitor for these prizes, and obtained them both.

His writings are so numerous that a mere catalogue of them would fill several of these pages. They are preserved by the royal societies of London, Berlin, Paris, Vienna, and Stockholm, of all of which he was a member. Among the numerous and elaborate productions of his genius, subsequent to loss of sight, was his "New Theory of the Moon's Motions," with its accompanying tables, which has been deemed by astronomers, in exactness of computation, one of the most remarkable achievements of the human intellect. His brilliant career was terminated by apoplexy while amusing himself at tea with one of his grand-children, in 1783, in the seventy-sixth year of his age.

Another illustrious character in the annals of privation, with whose name we are happy to ornament the pages of this work, is that of JOHN GOUGH. This distinguised philosopher and mathematician was the son of a glover, of Kendal, and lost his sight by smallpox, in 1752, before he had completed his third year. When six years of age, he commenced the study of English grammar, at a school in his native town, and when about twelve years of age, under the care of a proficient teacher, he made rapid progress in the languages, natural philosophy, and classic literature. The science of zoology was one for which he almost from infancy manifested great partiality, and he now began to enlarge his knowledge of organic bodies, by

extending his researches from the arimal to the vegetable kingdom. By devoting to botanical pursuits all the time he could spare from the regular studies of the school, he soon became enabled to classify, with great accuracy, all the plants which came under his notice.

As a substitute for the eye, in discriminating between the finer species, he used the tip of his tongue, which he applied to their several parts, while he readily recognized ordinary plants by the touch of his fingers. So perfect a knowledge did he acquire of this science, and so tenacious was his memory, that at one time, near the close of his life, when a rare plant was put into his hands, he immediately called it by its proper name, observing that he never met with but one specimen of it previously, and that was fifty years ago.

Mr. Gough's attention was first turned to experimental philosophy, in the year 1772, and by studying with characteristic assiduity the works of Mr. Boyle, he soon obtained a knowledge of the specific gravity of fluids, hydrostatics, and pneumatics. Some time subsequent he entered upon the study of mathematics, under a celebrated instructor at Mungriodale. Here he not only acquired a taste for this science, but laid the foundation of those high attainments which subsequently entitled him to a place among the most distinguished mathematicians of his age. Of his success in after life, as a teacher of philosophy and mathematics, we have the most abundant proof. For