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the inquiries which were made among his executors by M. de la Condamine, who had been one of his most intimate friends, he had the misfortune to find, that all his manuscripts had been totally destroyed or dispersed.

There were even among the ancients some writers, who were led to cultivate this species of erudition; the first of whom, in order of time, was Theophrastus, who wrote the history of Arithmetic, Geometry, and Astronomy; and the two last of these sciences also found an historian, about the same time, in Eudemus, another philosopher of the school of Aristotle. Geminus, likewise, a little before the commencement of the christian era, wrote anew the history of geometry; but of all these works, which would have proved so interesting to the moderns, nothing has been transmitted to us, except the little that Proclus has extracted and employed in his prolix commentary on the first Book of Euclid. The other writers of antiquity, who have left us some slight accounts of the history of these sciences, are Diogenes Lacrtius, in his Lives of the Philosophers, Plutarch in his Placita Philosophorum, Stobeus in his Ecloga Physica, and Tatius in his Isagoge ad Arati Phænomena; but these are only a small number of isolated particulars,

particulars, disfigured by credulity and an ignorance of the subject.

With respect to more modern writers, the principal work, of an early date, which treats expressly on this subject, is that of Vossius, entitled Universa Matheseos &c.; but this consists of little more than divisions and subdivisions of the mathematics, and an arid enumeration of authors and their works, with a few pompous eulogiums on some of the most remarkable, distributed without taste or judgment.

Beside the writers here mentioned, the histories of some particular branches of these sciences have been given by various authors; the most celebrated work of this kind being that of the unfortunate Bailly, who has written the history of ancient and modern Astronomy, in 5 Vols. 4to, which, allowing for some singularities of opinion, is one of the most agreeable and instructive performances, that has hitherto appeared on any scientific subject. To this may also be added the history of Optics by Dr. Priestley, published in 1772 in one Vol. 4to, which has been translated into german, with considerable notes and explications by Mr. Klügel; but this

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Many other slight and imperfect accounts of particular parts of these sciences have been given, both in the prefaces of some mathematical works, and in separate tracts. But the only general and extensive history of this kind, which has yet appeared in any language, is that of M. Montucla in 4 Vols. 4to; which, in it's present state, embraces almost all the parts of this great and important branch of human knowledge. The first part was published in 1758, in 2 Vols. 4to.; and a new edition of it was given in 1798, with very considerable improvements and augmentations, by the author; who was afterward induced to continue his work, till his death, which happened in 1799, put a stop to the undertaking. Having left behind him, however, a number of materials for the further prosecution of his plan, they were revised and methodized by his friend M. de la Lande, who published the two additional volumes in the latter end of the year 1802.

This great work, like most other extensive undertakings, which require a variety of talents and acquirements, must be acknow

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ledged to have many defects; but when we consider the difficulties which the author had to encounter, in so new and hazardous an enterprise, every candid and liberal mind will readily make allowance for imperfections of this kind; more especially when it is well known, that few men possess the requisites necessary to the more complete execution of this plan, which, beside a very considerable acquaintance with the various branches of science, requires a knowledge of most of the ancient and modern languages, and an unwearied spirit of research, which nothing but a strong and ardent mind could support.

His chief faults are, that his style is often inelegant, and too much embarrassed with repetitions; and in his account of some mo dern discoveries, he displays a spirit of nationality, which ought never to be found in a strict and impartial historian. But these blemishes are of trifling importance compared with the general excellence of the work, which every where abounds with interesting details, and the most perspicuous explanations of the various inventions and improvements, which, at different times, have contributed to the progress of these sciences. If he be not so profound as some other writers, he is fre

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quently less obscure, and may often be consulted with advantage, upon points where the original authors would be nearly unintelligible to common readers. In short, there is, perhaps, no work which is capable of affording more pleasure and instruction to those, who propose to devote themselves to these studies, or which is likely to create a more earnest desire to prosecute them: so that it is probable he will long continue to deserve the title, which he has hitherto exclusively possessed, of The Historian of Mathematics.

In the interval, however, between the publication of the first and second parts of M. Montucla's performance, M. Bossut, a member of the National Institute of France, and a mathematician of considerable eminence, prepared and executed a new work on this subject, of which that now offered to the public is a translation. Though given, in the original, under the modest title of an Essay, the author, like his predecessor, describes the origin and progress of most of the mathematical sciences, with a discrimination and judgment which do him great credit. Upon most subjects of a curious and difficult nature, he appears to have thought for himself; and on many occasions will be found to dis

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