250 LECTURE XX, 



academy of sciences, were the authors of many useful investigations relating 

 to practical mechanics; but few of them were made public till after the year 

 1700; some of tlieir inventions made their appearance much later^ in the va- 

 luable collection of machines approved by the academy, and some of them 

 liave been inserted in the useful work published by Leupold, at Leipzig, under 

 the title of a Theatrum Machinaruni. Throughout the last century, the 

 transactions of various societies, established for the promotion of science, be- 

 came every year more numerous, and the publication of the literary journals of. 

 Leipzig and of Paris formed a mode of communication, which was extremely 

 serviceable in facihtating the dissemination of all new discoveries. 



The philosophy of Newton assumed also a more popular and attractive form 

 in the writings of Clarke, Pemberton, Maclaurin, and Musschenbroek, and 

 the lectures of S'Gravesande and Desaguliers; at the same time that its 

 more refined investigations were pursued with success in this country by Mac- 

 laurin and Simpson, and on the continent by Hermann, Daniel Bernoulli, 

 Leonard Euler, and Clairaut. Maclaurin, Bernoulli, and Euler, had the 

 honour of sharing with each other the prize, proposed by the academy of 

 sciences at Paris, for the best essay on the intricate subject of the tides; but a 

 premature death prevented Maclaurin from long pursuing the career which he 

 began so successfully. Bernoulli and Euler continued for many years to vie 

 with each other, for the elegance and extent of their researches: Euler appears 

 to have been the more profound mathematician, and Bernoulli the more ac- 

 curate philosopher. 



The latter half of the eighteenth century was in many respects extremely 

 auspicious to the progress of the sciences; the names of Dalembert, Lan- 

 den, Waring, Frisi, Robisoa, Lagrange, and Laplace, deserve to be enume- 

 rated in the first class of mathematicians and theoretical mechanics; those of 

 Smeaton, Wedgwood, and Watt are no less distinguished for their success in 

 improving the practice of the useful arts and manufactures. The union of all 

 these objects, into one system of knowledge, was effected, on a magnificent 

 .scale, in the Encyclopedic, a work which does as much honour to the lai^our and 

 genius of some of its authors, as it reflects disgrace on the principles and poli- 

 tics of others. The Society for the encouragement of arts, manufactures, and 

 commerce, was established in London about the same time that the Ency- 



