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HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE

SECTION II.

THE DISCOVERIES OF NEWTON S SUCCESSORS.

In laying out our plan in our introductory remarks, w;professedly designed to carry down the history of theprogress of discovery to our own times; but so nu-merous have been the topics which, from their import-ance, we could not omit, and, from their high interest,we could not mention without at least allowing ourselvessome small latitude for remark and illustration, andthis especially in reference to those grand discoverieswhich have occupied us in the foregoing section, thatwe have now the mortification of finding ourselvestrenching upon the extreme limits which the nature ofthis treatise absolutely imposes upon us without havingaccomplished by any means the whole of our design:and in consequence, though with deep regret, we are com-pelled to conclude with a most brief and imperfectoutline, a bare enumeration of the principal names anddiscoveries which have adorned the age since Newton,and which stand recorded mainly as forwarding andcompleting the investigations which he began.

Progress of Mathematics.

We have seen enough of the controversy respectingfluxions, to admit that the spirit in which it was carriedon was not less disgraceful to science, than unaccount-ably at variance with that dispassionate tranquillity ofinvestigation which is usually supposed to be its distin-guishing characteristic. But highly to be deprecatedas was die temper of this dispute at the time, it was,perhaps, yet more to be regretted in its consequences:for thus, from the era of Newton’s discoveries, wehave to date a period in the history of the science,distinguished by a remarkable and wide alienationbetween the English and foreign mathematicians.