7C4 Life (if Abraham Gothelf Kajlner. 



^art o( tills fciencc was committed to his care, he was placed 

 under Kadner for inftniftion. Since that period all the ob- 

 fervations at the obfervatory have been made by Seyftcr. 



Notwithftanding Kaftncr's fervice to allronomy and geo- 

 graphy, the fervice he rendered to the mathematical fciences 

 in general was much greater; and his name will be men- 

 tioned by pofterity among the moft eminent profeflbrs. He 

 exerted hinjfelf with the moll celebrated geometers of Ger- 

 many, Segner and Karften, to rellore to geometry its antient 

 rights, and to introduce more precifion and accuracy of de^ 

 monftration into the whole of mathematical analy(is. The 

 doctrine of binomials ; that of the higher equations ; the 

 laws of the equilibrium of two forces on the lever, and their 

 compolition, are fomc of the moft important points in the 

 do^rine of mathematical analyfis and mathematics, which 

 Kaftner illuftrated and explained in fuch a manner as to excel 

 all his predeceflbrs. Germany is in particular indebted to 

 him for his clafiical works on every part of the pure and prac- 

 tical mathematics. They unite that folidity peculiar to the 

 old Grecian geometry with great brevity and clearnefs, and 

 a fund of erudition, by which Kaftner has greatly contributed 

 to promote the ftudy and knowledge of the mathematics. 

 Kalhicr's talents, however, were not confined to mathematics : 

 his poetical and humorous works, as well as his epigrams, 

 are a proof of the extent of his genius; efpeuially as thefe 

 talents feldom fall to the lot of a mathematician. How 

 Kaftner acquired a tafte for thefe purfuits, we are told by 

 himfelf in one of his letters. In the early part of his life he 

 refided at I.eipfic, among friends who were neither mathema- 

 ticians nor acquainted with the fciences : he then, as he tells 

 us himfelf, contracted '^the bad habit of laughing at others;" 

 but he ufed always to fay, Ha?ic <veniam clamus petimufque 

 I'kjflim, Kliftner died at Gottingen on the 20th of Juuq 

 iSoo, at the age of eighty-one. 



Befides works on the pure and pra(ftical mathematics, we 



arc indebted to Kalincr for a hiftory of the mathematics 



from the revival of litycrature to the end of the i8th century. 



Vol. I. Arithmetic, Algebra, the Elements of Geometry, 



1^ Trigonomctrv;, 



