2o6 LIMITS AND FLUXIONS 



writers have brought out as distinctly and clearly 

 as has Jurin the difference between infinitesimals 

 as variables, and indivisibles ; Jurin disavowed ali 

 quantity "fixed, determinate, invariable, indivisible, 

 less than any finite quantity whatsoever," but he 

 usually did admit somewhat hazily a quantity 

 ''variable, divisible, that, by a Constant diminu- 

 tion, is conceived to become less than any finite 

 quantity whatever, and at last to vanish into 

 nothing." 



Remarks 



i8o. None of the works mentioned in this chapter 

 are great works. Those of William Emerson and 

 Thomas Simpson were the best and the ones most 

 vvidely used. The first edition of Simpson is of 

 earlier date (1737). 



