Notes. Ixvii 
NOTE E. pp. xi and xii. 
TuE circumstances under which Dr. Bowditch was first enabled to obtain 
a copy of Newton’s Principia (at that time an extremely rare book in this 
country) will not be uninteresting, as connected with his life and studies. 
Since the decease of Dr. Bowditch, I have been informed by my respected 
friend, Col. Benjamin Pickman, of Boston, (formerly of Salem,) that this 
copy of the Principia originally belonged to him; and that he presented it 
to Dr. Bowditch, as he believes, through the late Rev. Dr. Bentley, of Salem, 
from whom he had himself received it as a token of friendship, while a student 
at Harvard University, in which institution Dr. Bentley was then an instructer. 
So far as important consequences may justly be said to flow from small 
causes, how important have been those arising from the preservation of this 
single volume in the library of an enlightened individual, whose own pursuits, 
however, lying in another direction, rendered it of little value, comparatively 
speaking, to himself, but gave him an opportunity, most gratifying to his well- 
known feelings, of placing it in the hands of Dr. Bowditch, who, above all 
men in the country, at that time, was the best qualified to make the study of it 
beneficial to the public. Dr. Bowditch sometimes alluded to this occurrence ; 
and, on the occasion of presenting a copy of his Translation of La Place’s work 
to a friend, who declined accepting it, because, from his slight acquaintance 
with the higher mathematics, it would be of no use to him personally, Dr. 
Bowditch delicately insisted upon his taking it ; and, in the last resort, re- 
minded his friend, that, if it should not be of any use to him, personally, it 
might, perhaps, be placed in the hands of some one, to whom it might prove 
valuable, as the copy of the Principia had been to himself. 
In connexion with Dr. Bowditch’s early studies, the origin of the Library 
to which I have referred (p. xii.) and which had so important an influence 
upon his scientific acquirements, will, in many respects, be interesting ; and I 
therefore subjoin the following account of it from Dr. Bowditch’s last will, as 
published in Judge White’s Eulogy : 
“* Item. It is well known, that the valuable scientific library of the cele- 
brated Dr. Richard Kirwan was, during the Revolutionary war, captured in 
the British Channel, on its way to Ireland, by a Beverly privateer ; and, that 
by the liberal and enlightened views of the owners of the vessels, the library 
thus captured was sold at a very low rate ; and in this manner was laid the 
