222 LIMITS AND FLUXIONS 



Series, is only the Value from whence that infinite 

 Series is or may be derived. Mr. Landen thinks 

 that the Value o is no algebraic Ouantity ; but calls 

 it a mere Blank^ or absolute Nothing ... ; he 

 says, that its peculiar Office is only in arithmetic 

 Notation ; while we see it applied to other Use and 

 Office in Treatises of Algebra and Fluxions, as 

 also by himself, for an algebraic Character or 

 Quantity o^ its own Value." 



This discussion of o is continued at great length. 

 Confusion arises from the doublé use of the symbol 

 and from the difficulties surrounding o as the limit 

 of variables or sequences. Reference is made twice 

 in this Ladies' Diary (1752) to the pamphlet Trutk 

 Triuinphant, or Fluxions for the Ladies, where the 

 nature and office of are discussed, and exception 

 is taken to Landen's views on ^. *' Fluxioniensis " 

 says: '* And therefore I should not stick to rank 

 this excellent Reasoner with the great Master of 

 Reason he mentions, the B — p of Cloyne, as he 

 clearly appears to be of the same class. " 



Poptilar Intprcssion of the Nature of Fluxions 



196. A reviewer of Richard Jack's Euclid's Data 

 Restored^ quotes from Jack's preface what appears 

 to be the opinion of a non-specialist : 



" Others, who claim the honour of extending 

 their principles, treat of what they cali Fluxions, 

 calculus differentialis, infiniment petifs^ extreme and 



^ Monthly Review^ voi. xvi, London, 1757. 



