Elements of Algebra

EULER. ix progress, and arranged the reading and exercises for the ensuing week. Under such eminent advantages, the capacity of Euler did not fail to make rapid improvements; and in his seventeenth year, the degree of Master of Arts was conferred on him. On this occasion, he received high applause for his probationary discourse, the subject of which was a comparison between the Cartesian and Newtonian systems. His father, having all along intended him for his successor, enjoined him now to relinquish his mathematical studies, and to prepare himself by those of theology, and general erudition, for the ministerial functions. After some time, however, had been consumed, this plan was given up. The father, himself a man of learning and liberality, abandoned his own views for those, to which the inclination and talents of his son were of themselves so powerfully directed; persuaded, that in thwarting the propensities of genius, there is a sort of impiety against nature, and that there would be real injustice to mankind in smothering those abilities, which were evidently destined to extend the boundaries of science. Leonard was permitted, therefore, to resume his favorite pursuits; and, at the age of nineteen, transmitting two dissertations to the Academy of Sciences at Paris, one on the masting of ships, and the other on the philosophy of sound, he commenced that splendid career, which continued, for so long a period, the admiration and the glory of Europe. About the same time, he stood candidate for a