11 



covery of the law which governs the universe were taken 

 away from the Principia, it would still retain its rank at 

 the head of all the works of mathematicians, as the most 

 wonderful series of discoveries in geometrical science, and 

 its application to the principles of dynamics. 



That the reception of this work was not such as might 

 have been expected has frequently been alleged; and al 

 though an ingenious and well-meant attempt has lately 

 been made by an eminent author* to relieve this country 

 from its share of the imputation, chiefly by showing the 

 estimation the author was held in immediately after its 

 publication; it is, on the one hand, certain that Newton s 

 previous fame was great by former discoveries, and that 

 after its appearance the Principia was more admired than 

 studied. There is no getting over the inference on this 

 head which arises from the dates of the two first editions. 

 There elapsed an interval of no less than twenty-seven 

 years between them; and although Cotes speaks of the 

 copies having become scarce and in very great demand 

 when the second edition appeared in 1713, yet had this 

 urgent demand been of many years continuance, the re 

 printing could never have been so long delayed ; nor was 

 the next edition required for thirteen years after the se 

 cond. So that in forty years the greatest work ever com 

 posed by man reached only a third edition ; and that third 

 has, during the succeeding hundred years, been the one 

 generally in use ; although translations and excerpts have 

 been published from time to time, and two editions were 

 printed on the Continent, one at Amsterdam and one 

 at Cologne. The doctrines of the work were, however, 

 much more readily embraced and more generally diffused 

 in this country, which had the benefit of Maclaurin s ad- 



* WhewelTa History of the Inductive Sciences, vol. ii. 



