ROHAULT (James)

, a French philosopher, was the son of a rich merchant at Amiens, where he was born in 1620. He cultivated the languages and belles lettres in his own country, and then was sent to Paris to study philosophy. He seems to have been a great lover of truth, at least what he thought so, and to have sought it with much impartiality. He read the ancient and modern philosophers; but Des Cartes was the author who most engaged his notice. Accordingly he became a zealous follower of that great man, and drew up an abridgment and explanation of his philosophy with great clearness and method. In the preface to his Physics, for so his work is called, he makes no scruple to say, that “the abilities and accomplishments of this philosopher must oblige the whole world to confess, that France is at least as capable of producing and raising men versed in all arts and branches of knowledge, as ancient Greece.” Clerselier, well known for his translation of many pieces of Des Cartes, conceived such an affection for Rohault, on account of his attachment to this philosopher, that he gave him his daughter in marriage against all the remonstrances of his family.

Rohault's Physics were written in French, but have been translated into Latin by Dr. Samuel Clarke, with notes, in which the Cartesian errors are corrected upon the Newtonian system. The fourth and best edition of Rohault's Physica, by Clarke, is that of 1718, in 8vo. He wrote also, Elemens de Mathematiques, Traité de Mechanique, and Entretiens sur la Philosophie.

But these dialogues are founded and carried on upon the principles of the Cartesian philosophy, which has now little other merit, than that of having corrected the errors of the Ancients. Rohault died in 1675, and left behind him the character of an amiable, as well as a learned and philosophic man.

His posthumous works were collected and printed in two neat little volumes, first at Paris, and then at the Hague in 1690. The contents of them are, 1. The first 6 books of Euclid. 2. Trigonometry. 3. Practical Geometry. 4. Fortification. 5. Mechanics. 6. Perspective. 7. Spherical Trigonometry. 8. Arithmetic.