134 SIMSON. 



Equally groundless is the notion that he questioned 

 the soundness of the Newtonian Philosophy. He was 

 not enabled to make Sir Isaac's acquaintance during 

 his residence in London ; but among those he lived 

 with he constantly had seen him viewed with a pecu- 

 liar observance, and H alley in particular regarded him 

 as hardly human, and his attainments in science as 

 exalting our species, while they ennobled himself, its 

 rarest individual. Simson's copy of the 'Principia' is 

 fully noted in the margin with illustrations, showing 

 that he entirely assented to the results of the investi- 

 gations in the several propositions, and only wished 

 to substitute certain steps in the demonstrations. 

 Professor Robison has also related (Art. Simson, Encyc. 

 Brit. xvii. 505) his constant remark, that the celebrated 

 proposition in the ' Principia' on inverse centripetal 

 forces " was the most important ever delivered to man- 

 kind in the mixed mathematics." 



While he remained in London the expected vacancy 

 occurred in the chair at Glasgow, and he returned 

 thither. The professors appear to have thought it 

 right that their former neglect of duty should be com- 

 pensated by a very superfluous show of more than need- 

 ful attention to it on this occasion ; for they required 

 Mr. Simson to give proof of his fitness to succeed the 

 sinecure incumbent, by solving a geometrical problem, 

 of which it is all but absolutely certain that they could 

 have no knowledge, unless the question was so simple 

 as to afford no test of the candidate's capacity. He 

 produced, however, what they might better understand, 

 testimonials from known mathematicians in London, 

 a farther proof of there being no cultivators of the 

 science then resident in the metropolis of Scottish 

 manufactures. 



He was thus appointed professor in 1711, and im- 

 mediately began the regular course of instruction, 

 which he continued for half a century. He taught 

 two classes five days a week for seven months every 



