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The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Pierre Gassendi (1592–1655)
Gassendi, Pierre (gäs-sä
-dē). A French philosopher, scholar, and astronomer; born near Digne, Provence, Jan. 22, 1592; died at Paris, Oct. 24, 1655. A child-prodigy, despite poverty and mean birth he fought his way to distinction. A list of his works would be a catalogue of seventeenth-century science; but above the rest stand ‘Exercises in Paradox in Opposition to Aristotle’; ‘Objections to the Theories of Descartes’; and ‘On the Life, Character, and Doctrine of Epicurus.’ Either because he was so miscellaneous, or because his mind was more acquisitive than profound, he failed to contribute materially to the sum of human knowledge; but his writings clearly denote that he was gifted with a most subtle intellect.