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166, p. 113.

Of Gassendi’s orthodoxy as a Roman Catholic divine, he has left a very curious memorial, in an inaugural discourse pronounced in 1645, before Cardinal Richelieu, when he entered on the duties of his office as Regius Professor of Mathematics at Paris. The great object of the oration is to apologize to his auditors for his having abandoned his ecclesiastical functions, to teach and cultivate the profane science of geometry. With this view, he proposes to explain and illustrate the saying of Plato, who, being questioned about the employment of the Supreme Being, answered, 🇬🇷. In the prosecution of this argument, he expresses himself thus on the doctrine of the Trinity.

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The rest of the oration is composed in exactly the same taste.

The following interesting particulars of Gassendi’s death are recorded by Sorbière.

“” Sorberii Præfatio.

Having mentioned in the text the avowed partiality of Gassendi for the Epicurean ethics, it is but justice to his memory to add, that his own habits were, in every respect, the reverse of those commonly imputed to this school. “” says Sorbière, “” Ibid.