Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1841-11-18

| this time engaged to be married to a most III
/ tcrestiug young lady; they having been mu-
tually attached from early life. His suffer
ings during the subsequent sixteen years were
indescribable: the intervals of pain being em-
ployed with light literature and music. In
the latter art he made great proficiency, and
was supposed TO be the best chamber flute
| player in this country. lie composed vara-
! tons to some pieces of music, expressive of
the anguish produced by the disappointment
of his fondly cherished hopes OF domestic
happiness: and these he would perform with
such exquisite feeling as deeply to affect all
who heard him. In 1925, having SO far re-
covered as to walk with diiiculty--he again
fractured his leg by fall. His suferings at
this time were almost too great for human ma
ture TO endure. From this period the greater
portion of his time was passed with sister
in Frederick, Maryland. The progress of his
disease paraliscd his lips, and he could no lon
ger amuse himself by playing on the flute:
and as light literature did not give sufficient
employment to his active mind, he relieved
the tedium of his confinement by the pursuit
of mathematical science. 1t was under such
unfavorable circumstances that he made those
advances in abstruse science which have con-
ferred immortality on his name. year be-
beauty of the sentence will be appreciated by
the mathematical reader :-@My ailliciions' he
says "appear to me TO be not unlike an inf
mite series, composed of complicated terms,
gradually and regularly increasng-im sad
ness and sufering-and becoming more and
more involved; and hence tho abstruseness of
its summation; but when it shall be summed
in the end, by the Great Arbiter and Master of
all, it is to be hoped that the formula resulting,
will be found to be not only entirely free
from surds, but perfectly pure and rational,
even unto an integer."
From 1912 to 1928, Mr.. LENHART was OPP
pressed to such degree by complicated aiiiic-
tons, that he did not devote his attention TO
mathematical science. After the latter period,
he resumed these studies, for the purpose of
mental employment; and contributed various
articles to the mathematical journals In
1886 the publication of the Mathematical
Miscellany was commenced in New Y ork
and his fame was established by his contrbu-
tons to that journal. l do not design to en-
ter on a DEAL of his profound researches
He attained an cminence in science of which
the noblest intellects might well be proud;
and that too as an amusement, when suffering
from affections which, we might suppose,
would have disqualified him for intellectual
/
remark, that he has left behind him a reputa-
ton as the most eminent Diophantine Age-
| braist that ever lived The eminence of this
reputation will be estimated when it is recol-
| lectcd that iilustrious men-such as Euler
| Lagrange and Gauss-are his competitors for
fame in the cultivation of the Diophaniine
Analysis. Well might he say that he felt
as if he had been admitted into the sanctum
sanctorum CT the Great Temple of Numbers,
and permitted to revel amongst its curiosi-
| ties.
n Notwithstanding his great mathematical
! genius, Mr.. LENHART did not extend his in
vestgaions into the modern ANALYSIS and the
|! dliierential calculus, as far as he did into the
Diophantine Analysis. He thus accounts for
it:-'Aly taste lies in the old fashioned pure
Geometry, and the Diophantine Analysis, in
which every result is perfect; and beyond the
exercise of these two beautiful branches of
the mathematics, at my time OF life, and under
present circumstances, feel no inclination to
go"
The character of his mind did not entirely
consist in its mathematical tendency, which
was developed by the early tuition of DIR.
Adrain. Possessed as he was ola lively i'm
agination-a keen susceptibility 10 all that is
! beautiful iii the natural and intellectual world
wit and acuteness-it is manifest that he
( wanted nothing but early education and lei
sure to have made a most accomplished schol-
ar. He was also Il poet One who knew
him well says :-'.iIe has left some illusions
which were written to friends as letters, that
for wit, humor, sprghtliness of fancy, pun
gent satire, and heXibiity versification, will
not lose in comparison with any of Burns
best pieces of similar kind"
Mr.. LENHART was very cheerful end of a
sanguineous temperament; full offender SYM
pathies with all the joys and sorrows of his
race, from communion with whom he was al
most entirely excluded. Like all truely great
and noble men, he was remarkable for the
simplicity of his manners. That word, in lis
broad sense, contains history Of character
He knew he was achieving conqucsts in abb
struse science, which had not been made by
the greatest mathcmaticians yet he was fan
from assuming any thing in his intercourse
with others.
During the autumn of 1889, intense suffer.
ing and great emaciation indicated that his
days were almost numbered, His intellectual
powers did not decay but like the Altamont
of Dung, he was ''still strong to reason, still
mighty to suffer" He INDUCED III no muir
murs OH account of the severity Of his fate
True nobility submits with grace to that which
is inevitable. Caesar has claims OH the all
miraton of posteiity for the dignity with
which, when he received the dagger of Bru-
tus, he wrapped his cloak around his person
and fell at the feet ofPompey's statue. LEN
HART was conscious of the impulse of his