PHILOSOPHICAL WRITINGS OP THE LATE DR. DALTON. 9 



gives us the most convincing proofs of the immortality of 

 man ;** and he is very properly assured by Mr. Dalton, in the 

 Diary Supplement, that " the existence of man in a future 

 state rests only on probability, from any system of philosophy 

 hitherto known. Contemplative men," he adds, " of all ages, 

 but more especially since the modern improvements in philo- 

 sophy, might reasonably imagine that the Divine Being 

 whose bounty is not less conspicuous than his power and 

 wisdom, would not have endued men with faculties capable of 

 such vast improvements, had they been designed to finish 

 their existence with this life. But notwithstanding this, there 

 might still have been room for doubt, had we not been assured 

 from Revelation that the present life is only preparatory for 

 another of endless duration." 



In the mathematical portion of this Diary his solution to 

 question 882 relates to the vibration of a second's pendulum 

 at the distance of four radii from the earth's centre ; that to 

 question 885 discusses a case of equilibrium proposed by Mr. 

 Wildbore, under the signature " Amicus ;" and the solution 

 to question 886, inserted in the Supplement, and since trans- 

 ferred to Professor Leybourn's edition of the Diaries, enables 

 the reader to set at rest a controversy on the true rule for 

 equation of payments, with which Mr. Thomas Todd agitated 

 the mathematical world at intervals for almost half a century. 

 But the preceding did not constitute the whole of his con- 

 tributions to the periodicals for this year. In the Gentle- 

 man*s Diary his name is announced as having furnished 

 correct solutions to seven of the mathematical questions, of 

 which that to question 591, relating to a case of hydrostatical 

 equilibrium, is inserted at length, and gained him his first 

 position amongst the correspondents to this noted and difficult 

 serial. 



The Ladies* Diary and Supplement for 1 790 must again 

 have been peculiary satisfactory to Mr. Dalton ; — for besides 



