152 MEMOIR OF THE REV. JOHN LAWSON, B.D., 



as "specimens of what kind of solutions" he would have 

 them " endeavour after." Most of the collection of theorems 

 and problems was selected from Dr. Stewart's Propositiones 

 Geometricse and his General Theorems; but these works were 

 so little known to English geometers at the time, that this 

 selection is now usually referred to as Lawson's Theorems. 

 From a notice which appears in the London Magazine for 

 May, 1777, it is evident that Mr. Lawson intended '' to pub- 

 lish a variety of Demonstrations, by different authors, of the 

 Theorems and Problems annexed to his Dissertation on the 

 Geometrical Analysis of the Antients." With that view 

 he entrusted his manuscript for inspection and revision to 

 several of his friends, and among others to the very able 

 geometer, Mr. Jeremiah Ainsworth, of Manchester. But his 

 intention of publication was frustrated by the hand of Death ; 

 and the existence of this valuable manuscript at this distance 

 of time is more than doubtful. The collection, however, was 

 not destined to remain without solutions. Mr. Leybourn 

 reprinted the Dissertation in his Mathematical Repository^ 

 and a much enlarged edition was issued by Mr. Michael 

 Fryer, at Bristol, in 1811. The Theorems were also demon- 

 strated by Messrs. Swale, Campbell, and Nicholson, in the 

 Repository, and an elegant connected discussion of the same 

 series, by the Rev. Charles Wildbore, has, since his death, 

 been printed in the second volume of the New Series of the 

 Memoirs of the Manchester Philosophical Society. By this 

 publication Mr. Lawson gave permanency to his reputation 

 as a geometer, and the treatise by which this was effected 

 still retains its value as a guide to the beauties of the Greek 

 geometry. 



In 1776 the posthumous works of Dr. Simson were printed 

 for private distribution at Glasgow, but since these were 

 wholly written in Latin, Mr. Lawson determined once more 

 to benefit the English reader by publishing a translation of 

 the " Treatise on Porisms," contained in that admirable 



