[440] On the diminished respect for kings, caused by the abandonment of divine right, see Spencer's Social Statics, pp. 423, 424; and on the influence of the clergy in propagating the old doctrine, see Allen's learned work on the Royal Prerogative, edit. 1849, p. 156. See also some striking remarks by Locke, in King's Life of Locke, vol ii. p. 90.
[441] ‘Qu'est devenu, en effet, le droit divin, cette pensée, autrefois acceptée par les masses, que les rois étaient les représentants de Dieu sur la terre, que la racine de leur pouvoir était dans le ciel? Elle s'est évanouie devant cette autre pensée, qu'aucun nuage, aucun mysticisme n'obscurcit; devant cette pensée si naturelle et brillant d'une clarté si nette et si vive, que la souveraine puissance, sur la terre, appartient au peuple entier, et non à une fraction, et moins encore à un seul homme.’ Rey, Science Sociale, vol. iii. p. 308. Compare Manning on the Law of Nations, p. 101; Laing's Sweden, p. 408; Laing's Denmark, p. 196; Burke's Works, vol. i. p. 391.
[442] In this, as in all instances, the language of respect long survives the feeling to which the language owed its origin. Lord Brougham (Political Philosophy, vol. i. p. 42, Lond. 1849) observes, that ‘all their titles are derived from a divine original—all refer to them as representing the Deity on earth. They are called “Grace,” “Majesty.” They are termed “The Lord's anointed,” “The Vicegerent of God upon earth;” with many other names which are either nonsensical or blasphemous, but which are outdone in absurdity by the kings of the East.’ True enough: but if Lord Brougham had written thus three centuries ago, he would have had his ears cut off for his pains.
[443] ‘La première période du gouvernement de Louis XIV commence donc en 1661.’ Capefigue's Louis XIV., vol. i. p. 4.
[444] Biog. Univ. vol. xi. p. 157.
[445] In Biog. Univ. vol. xxxiii. p. 50, he is said to have composed it ‘à l'âge de seize ans;’ and at p. 46, to have been born in 1623.
[446] Leslie's Natural Philosophy, p. 201; Bordas Demoulin, Le Cartésianisme, vol. i. p. 310. Sir John Herschel (Disc. on Nat. Philos. pp. 229, 230) calls this ‘one of the first, if not the very first,’ crucial instance recorded in physics; and he thinks that it ‘tended, more powerfully than any thing which had previously been done in science, to confirm in the minds of men that disposition to experimental verification which had scarcely yet taken full and secure root.’ In this point of view, the addition it actually made to knowledge is the smallest part of its merit.
[447] Montucla (Hist. des Mathématiques, vol. ii. p. 61) says, ‘vers 1658;’ and at p. 65, ‘il se mit, vers le commencement de 1658, à considérer plus profondément les propriétés de cette courbe.’
[448] Montucla (Hist. des Mathémat. vol. ii. p. 136) enthusiastically declares that ‘si Descartes eût manqué à l'esprit humain, Fermat l'eût remplacé en géométrie.’ Simson, the celebrated restorer of Greek geometry, said that Fermat was the only modern who understood porisms. See Trail's Account of Simson, 1812, 4to. pp. 18, 41. On the connexion between his views and the subsequent discovery of the differential calculus, see Brewster's Life of Newton, vol. ii. pp. 7, 8; and compare Comte, Philosophie Positive, vol. i. pp. 228, 229, 726, 727.
[449] See extracts from two letters written by Fermat to Roberval, in 1636, in Montucla, Hist. des Mathématiques, vol. ii. pp. 136, 137; respecting which there is no notice in the meagre article on Fermat, in Hutton's Mathematical Dictionary, vol. i. p. 510, 4to. 1815. It is a disgrace to English mathematicians that this unsatisfactory work of Hutton's should still remain the best they have produced on the history of their own science. The same disregard of dates is shown in the hasty remarks on Fermat by Playfair. See Playfair's Dissertation on the Progress of Mathematical Science, Encyclop. Brit. vol. i. p. 440, 7th edition.