.'HO Decline of Science in England. 



" as Mr Ivory, Mr Herschel, and Mr Babbage, are in the full 

 " force of their talent. In France, M. Legendre is very old, — 

 " the venerable Lacroix has done more than any other living 

 " man for the diffusion of analytical science ; we see no one at 

 " present in France but M. Poisson who could enter the lists of 

 " the race. I do not perceive, I repeat it, the least necessity 

 " for giving it over." 



Here we have our author fairly drawn from his generalities 

 into a distinct proposition incapable of being misinterpreted. 

 He starts English mathematicians, of whom he considers only 

 three as Jit to run, viz. Mr Ivory, Mr Herschel, and Mr 

 Babbage, against French mathematicians, of whom he con- 

 siders only one as fit to run, viz. M. Poisson. In order to 

 make up this strange equation, he eliminates M. Legendre be- 

 cause he is old, and M. Lacroix because he has done more than 

 any other living man, and he leaves M. Poisson to strive single- 

 handed with the three English mathematicians. We now beg- 

 the reader's attention to the ignorance and unfairness of this 

 contrast, which is as reprehensible as a piece of reasoning, as 

 it is unjust to the high merits of the French geometers. 



Mr Ivory, now approaching the end of a brilliant career, is 

 just as much disqualified for pursuing analytical research as Le- 

 gendre or Lacroix ; and both Mr Herschel and Mr Babbage 

 have long ago abandoned their mathematics, the one for astrono- 

 my, optics and chemistry, and the other for mechanics, so 

 that the English list of our author is already reduced to zero, 

 and his argument falls, self-destroyed, to the ground. 



But what shall we say of our author's knowledge, when he 

 assumes M. Poisson as the only French mathematician. Has 

 he not heard of Cauchy, one of the brightest ornaments of 

 France, and one who is likely to revive the age of Laplace 

 and Lagrange. Does he exclude Biot, Poinsot, Ampere, Puis- 

 sant, Prony, Navier, and Damoiseau, from the right of compet- 

 ing with the mathematicians of England ? He will doubtless re- 

 ply that many of these philosophers have chosen other fields for 

 the principal display of their talents ; but he knows well that 

 the same was the case with Herschel and Babbage, and he 

 ought, therefore, to have omitted their names on the opposite 

 side. 



So far for our author's flattery of English mathemati< 



