i88 LIMITS AND FLUXIONS 



sophy, are in a great measure owing to the facility, 

 conciseness and great extent of the method of com- 

 putation, or algebraic part. It is for the sake of 

 these advantages that so many symbols are employed 

 in algebra." But to Maclaurin it seemed " worth 

 while to demonstrate the chief propositions of this 

 method in as clear and compleat a manner as 

 possible, if by this means we can preserve this 

 science from disputes " (p. 102). We shall see that 

 Maclaurin's book did not stop disputes. Had the 

 book been read more, it might have been more 

 effective in this respect. Our studies have led us 

 to the conclusion that Maclaurin was not widely 

 read. A second edition of his F/uxions did not 

 appear until 1801. His work was praised highly, 

 but seldom used and digested. We might say of 

 Maclaurin vvhat has been said of the German poet 

 Klopstock : — 



"Wer wird nicht einen Klopstock loben ? 

 Uoch wird ihn jeder lesen ? — Nein. 

 Wir wollen weniger erhoben, 

 Und fleissiger gelesen seyn." 



Remarks ^ 



169. To what extent, if any, Maclaurin may have 

 been influenced by Robins in the mode of trcating 



^ In 1745 there appeared an anonymous publication on fluxions 

 which we have not had the opportunity lo examine ; it was entitled, 

 The Harmony of the Ancient and Modem Geometry asserted. In 

 A. C. Fraser's edition of Berkeley's Works, voi. iii, Oxford, 187 1, 

 p. 301, it is referred to as follows : "This last and forgotten tract 

 consists of papers given in to the Royal Society in 1742, and treats 

 fluxions as a particular branch of an alleged more general reasoning, 

 called the doctrine of maximinority and minimajority," 



