If this book had been a fair specimen, I might have pointed to it in connection with contemporary English works, and made a scornful comparison. But it is not a fair specimen. Beaulieu was attached to the Royal Household, and throughout the century it may be suspected that the household forced a royal road to geometry. Fifty years before, Beaugrand, the king's secretary, made a fool of himself, and [so?] contrived to pass for a geometer. He had interest enough to get Desargues, the most powerful geometer of his time,[233] the teacher and friend of Pascal, prohibited from {120} lecturing. See some letters on the History of Perspective, which I wrote in the _Athenaeum_, in October and November, 1861. Montucla, who does not seem to know the true secret of Beaugrand's greatness, describes him as "un certain M. de Beaugrand, mathematicien, fort mal traite par Descartes, et a ce qu'il paroit avec justice."[234] Beaulieu's quadrature amounts to a geometrical construction[235] which gives [pi] = [root]10. His depth may be ascertained from the following extracts. First on Copernicus: "Copernic, Allemand, ne s'est pas moins rendu illustre par ses doctes ecrits; et nous pourrions dire de luy, qu'il seroit le seul et unique en la force de ses Problemes, si sa trop grande presomption ne l'avoit porte a avancer en cette Science une proposition aussi absurde, qu'elle est contre la Foy et raison, en faisant la circonference d'un Cercle fixe, immobile, et le centre mobile, sur lequel principe Geometrique, il a avance en son Traitte Astrologique le Soleil fixe, et la Terre mobile."[236] I digress here to point out that though our quadrators, etc., very often, and our historians sometimes, assert that men of the character of Copernicus, etc., were treated with contempt and abuse until their day of ascendancy came, nothing can be more incorrect. From Tycho Brahe[237] to Beaulieu, there is but one expression of admiration for the genius of Copernicus. There is an exception, which, I {121} believe, has been quite misunderstood. Maurolycus,[238] in his _De Sphaera_, written many years before its posthumous publication in 1575, and which it is not certain he would have published, speaking of the safety with which various authors may be read after his cautions, says, "Toleratur et Nicolaus Copernicus qui Solem fixum et Terram _in girum circumverti_ posuit: et scutica potius, aut flagello, quam reprehensione dignus est."[239] Maurolycus was a mild and somewhat contemptuous satirist, when expressing disapproval: as we should now say, he pooh-poohed his opponents; but, unless the above be an instance, he was never savage nor impetuous. I am fully satisfied that the meaning of the sentence is, that Copernicus, who turned the earth like a boy's top, ought rather to have a whip given him wherewith to keep up his plaything than a serious refutation. To speak of _tolerating_ a person _as being_ more worthy of a flogging than an argument, is almost a contradiction.