By his writings he probably did as much towards
perfecting modern astronomy as any one man. His
History of Astronomy is not merely a narrative of progress
of astronomy but a complete abstract of all the
celebrated works written on the subject. Thus he
became famous as an historian as well as an astronomer.


LEONARD EULER

Still another contemporary of D'Alembert and Delambre,
and somewhat older than either of them, was
Leonard Euler (1707-1783), of Basel, whose fame as a
philosopher equals that of either of the great Frenchmen.
He is of particular interest here in his capacity
of astronomer, but astronomy was only one of the
many fields of science in which he shone. Surely something
out of the ordinary was to be expected of the
man who could "repeat the AEneid of Virgil from the
beginning to the end without hesitation, and indicate
the first and last line of every page of the edition which
he used." Something was expected, and he fulfilled
these expectations.

In early life he devoted himself to the study of
theology and the Oriental languages, at the request of
his father, but his love of mathematics proved too
strong, and, with his father's consent, he finally gave
up his classical studies and turned to his favorite