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HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE

not twenty years since we have begun to perceive thatwe were far behind all the rest of Europe in thesesciences; not from want of abundance of first-rate talent,but from a misapplication of that talent to unworthyobjects, or at least to such as were not of a nature cal-culated to lead to any great advance in the state ofknowledge. Within the period named, the works andinventions of the great continental mathematicians havebeen introduced and studied; and it is needless to say,no sooner were they understood and appreciated, thanthey have called forth, in turn, an ardent spirit at leastfor the cultivation of these methods,—though, perhaps,that spirit has been shown rather in detailed improve-ments and amended treatises, than in any extensiveoriginal researches. Yet these have not been altogetherwanting ; and we need not fear to place in competitionwith the inventions of the Continent the analytical re-searches of Messrs. Woodhouse, Iirornhead, Ivory, Bab-bage , and Herschel.

Dynamics.

In the application of mathematics to physical inves-tigations, the English philosophers of a former age werenot more happy. Here, again, with a very few excep-tions, an entire devotion to the letter of the “ I’rincipia”seems to have impressed Newton’s followers with thenotion, that nothing further was to be effected beyondwhat was accomplished in that stupendous work. The“Principia,"indeed, is a work which will stand as long asscience shall exist, an enduring monument of the tran-scendent genius of its author. The truths which itestablishes are unquestionably those on which the wholesystem of physical astronomy is securely founded ; andthe manner and style in which they are delivered affordthe most indisputable evidence of that superiority oftalent, which, by the application of such extremely sim-ple principles, could educe such surprising conclusions.It is a work which, both for matter and style, standsforth finished and complete in itself. But it is no dis-paragement to its merits to admit, that when further