JURIN V, ROBINS AND PEMBERTON 135 



nascent and evanescent increments, Jurin says that 

 he discusseci this question with Robins. Newton's 

 words in the Quadratura Cujvarum, viz. finitarum 

 nascentìuin vel evanescentìum^ may mean ''(i) finite 

 nascent or evanescent quantities, or (2) finite quan- 

 tities when they begin to be, or when they vanish. 

 But the former sense contradicts the second Lemma 

 of the second Rook of the Principia, where Sir Isaac 

 Newton says, cave intellexeris particulas finitas . . . 

 and indeed it is contrary to the whole tenor of his 

 doctrine." The second interpretation is *'perfectly 

 conformable to ali the rest of Sir Isaac Newton's 

 Works" (p. (32)). Jurin repeats that a nascent in- 

 crement is '*an increment not yet arrived at any 

 assignable magnitude, how small soever. " To Dr. 

 Pemberton's query, whether Jurin " has not here 

 attempted to define a non-entity," Jurin replies that 

 it *'ought not to be called simply a non-entity, nor 

 simply an entity. It is a non-entity passing into 

 entity, or entity arising from non-entity, a begin- 

 ning entity, something arising out of nothing " 



(P- (37)). 



141. The discussion is carried on from this time 

 in a journal called The Works of the Learned, into 

 which the Republick of Letters and another journal 

 had merged. In the February, 1737, issue Dr. 

 Pemberton appears with Some Obsei-vations on the 

 Appendix to the Present State of the Republick of 

 Letters for December, 1736, which enjoys the merit 

 of brevity, being limited to only two pages. Pem- 

 berton declares that in Newton's passage in the 



