Of' THE DISCOVERIES OF

LET.

84. OF THE DISCOVERIES OF

cultivated by all the most eminent mathemati-cians in Europe.

By applying mathematical reasoning to me-chaftical experiments, Sir Isaac Newton esta-blistied the truth of the ancient Pythagoreansystem; and upon this foundation raised thesuperstructure of that philosophy, which, whilstall other systems sink into ruins, and little morethan their inventors names are remembered,will remain for ever firm and unshaken: for being fonce proved to be true, it must eternally remainso, as nothing can alter it but the utter subver-sion of the laws of nature, and the constitution jof things.

The method of admitting nothing into philo-sophy, unconfirmed by experiment or demon- (stration, required too great a perseverance for j:the flighty imagination of those, who, content-1ing themselves with the semblance of truth, ex-patiated in the wilds of fiction. For a work of Ithis kind, the genius and industry of a Newtonwas alone sufficient, who chole rather to acquirea little true knowledge of nature from practicalinvestigation, than to aim at a general compre-hension of all her operations, upon the weakfoundation of probability and conjecture.

But in order that the genius of this extraordinary man may appear in its true light, it will be'necessary to give you some account of the la-bours