74. =Review of O. Gregory’s Treatise on Mechanics. 
were any thing of consequence in this volume, which truly» 
was his own, and not the property of others, such language 
would be excusable. The fact however is, that the mate- 
rials, and in many parts, the work itself, is a literal trans- 
cript from the writings of others, and that we only see now 
and then remarks, notes, or observations of the compiler. 
This compilation then, for it cannot with truth be called 
by any other name, should be estimated only by those 
principles, which are requisite, and applicable, in works of, 
is ki These are judgment in selecting, arrangement, 
order and connexion of materials gathered from many dis- 
cordant sources. On these principles we have graduated 
our opinions in reviewing the present work. 
The writers to whom our author is indebted for the first 
volume of his treatise, are Franceeur, Prony, Poisson and 
Bossut in French ; Newton, Emerson, Simpson, Hutton, 
Martin, Young, Vince, Smeaton, and others in English ; 
Gallileo and Frisi, in Italian, and Don Juan in Spanish. The 
first sixty or seventy pages on Statics are a literal translation, 
without the variation of any material point, from Franceeur 
and Prony. The next following subjects on the mechani- 
cal powers, and the strength and stress of materials are al- 
most altogether from Emerson and Simpson; that on cords 
and arches from Hutton. Thus the whole subject of Stat- 
ies is an excerption from other writers, If we consider only 
the subject matter, this is all well, and perhaps better than 
if the compiler had attempted to treat it de novo, for he has 
furnished abundant materials even for the most ambitious 
student ; but there is a discordance in those materials, ill 
calculated either for taste or improvement in science.— 
Franceeur and Prony are diffuse and prolix, and though 
lucid and explanator 
rary 
igher branches of science, even though intended for begin- 
ners. In proportion as we attenuate a subject by minute de- 
tails, we destroy its interest, and something always should 
remain for the exercise of the student’s own powers of 
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