128 LIMITS AND FLUXIONS 



ever be rendered more the object of the conception 

 by being understood to be brought into this con- 

 dition by a Constant diminution from a variable 

 divisible quantity?" (p. (20)). ''Sir Isaac Newton 

 has introduced into use the term moment throughout 

 the whole second book of the Principia^ and for no 

 other purpose than for the sake of brevity ; for his 

 doctrine of prime and ultimate ratios had been before 

 fully explained, and every proposition of the second 

 book might bave been treated on without the use 

 of this term, though perhaps with a somewhat 

 greater compass of words " (p. (23)). '* Mr. Robins 

 has endeavored to defend Sir Isaac Newton both 

 against the accusation of the author of the Analyst^ 

 and the misrepresentation of Philalethes. He has 

 shown, that Sir Isaac Newton's doctrine of prime 

 and ultimate ratios has no connexion with indi- 

 visibles, and that, if he ever allowed himself in the 

 use of indivisibles, he knew that he did so, and did 

 not confound both the methods together, as the 

 author of the Analyst accuses him, and Philalethes 

 without knowing it has owned " (p. (27)). ' ' Had 

 Philalethes been versed in the ancients, and in the 

 later writers who bave imitated them, he could 

 have been at no loss about the true sense of data 

 quavis differentia used by Sir Isaac Newton in his 

 first Lemma. For this expression is borrowed from 

 the writers, that made use of exhaustions " (p. (29)). 

 " What separates the doctrine of prime and ultimate 

 ratios from indivisibles is the declaration made in 

 the Scholium to the first Section of the PrÌ7icipia, 



