Dr. Bowditch, President of the American Academy. xxxi 
All this, says Dr. Bowditch, “he has accomplished, in a manner 
deserving the highest praise for its symmetry and completeness ; 
but, from the abridged manner in which the analytical calculations 
have been made, it has been found difficult to be understood by 
many persons, — who have a strong and decided taste for mathe- 
matical studies, —on account of the time and labor required to 
insert the intermediate steps and demonstrations, necessary to enable 
them easily to follow the author in his reasoning.” Dr. Bowditch 
then adds: “ To remedy, in some measure, this defect, has been the 
chief object of the translator in the Votes. It is hoped, that the 
facility arising from having the work in our own language, with the 
aid of these explanatory Notes, will render it more accessible to 
persons who have been unable to prepare themselves for this study, 
by a previous course of reading in those modern publications, which 
contain many important discoveries in analysis, made since the time 
of Newton. 
“The notes were written at the time of reading the volumes, as 
they were successively published. The translation was made be- 
tween the years 1815 and 1817, at which time the four first volumes, 
with the several appendices and notes, were ready for publication.” * 
I must now ask you to follow me a little longer, while I lay before 
you a few particulars in relation to the original work and the Commen- 
tary ; and I persuade myself, that you will find in them a degree of 
interest, which many persons would not expect in works lying so 
far out of the range of general readers, but yet involving discussions 
of the highest questions on which the human mind can employ 
itself. 
I shall first ask your attention to as short a statement as possible 
of the leading subjects in the original work, and then to our late 
President’s Commentary upon it. 
* Bowditch’s La Place, Vol. I. Preface. 
