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R E F A C E.

I Drew up the following papers many years ago at the desire os'some friends, who, upon my taking care of the late edition of&>Is\acNe\vton ’ sTrincipia^erswaded me to make thempublick • I laid hold of that opportunity, when my thoughtswere afresh employed on this subjeU, to revise what I had formerlywritten. And I now send it abroad not without some hopes of an-swering thesetwoends. My first intention was to convey to such, as are notused to mathematical reasoning,some idea of the philosophy of a person,who has acquired an universal reputation, and rendered our nationfamous for these speculations in the learned world. Do which pur-pose I have avoided using terms of art as much as possible, and ta-ken care to desne such as I was obliged to use. Though this caution .-was the less necessary at present, since many of them are become fa-miliar words to our language, from the great number of books wrotein it upon philosophicalsubjects, and the courses of experiments, thathave of late years been given by several ingenious men. The otherview I had, was to encourage such young gentlemen as have a turn forthe mathematical sciences, to pursue those studies the more chearfully,in order to understand in our author himself the demonstrations of thethings I here declare. And to facilitate their progress herein, I in-tend to proceed still farther in the explanation of Sir Isaac N e w-t o n V philosophy. For as I have received very much pleasure fromperusing his writings, I hope it is no illaudable ambition to endeavourthe rendering them mere easily understood, that greater numbers mayenjoy the fame satisfaction.

It will perhaps be expelled, that Istmild fay something particu-lar of a person, to whom I must always acknowledge my self to be mucbobliged. What I have to declare on this head will be but stort ■, forit was in the very last years of Sir Isaac j life, that I had the ho-

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