ANCIENT ANALYSIS. POPJSMS. 85 



before. Nor does be appear to have even seen Professor Playfair's admi- 

 rable paper upon Porisms in the Edinburgh Transactions, 1794, the war 

 having probably impeded the intercourse of the two countries. Had he 

 seen this, he must have been brought acquainted \vith the history of the 

 porism relating to the comet's place, for it is there fully given. 



It must be added, that Montucla's mathematical pursuits had for many 

 years been interrupted by the duties of the places which he held under 

 the government, until the Eevolution (Pref. Ill); and although the loss 

 of those employments restored him to his studies, it is probable that he 

 rather applied himself to the continuation of the History, the bringing it 

 down from the period to which the first volume extended, than to supply 

 omissions in those volumes, considerable as are the additions which he 

 made to them. 



The third and fourth volumes were not published till after his death, 

 which happened when only a third part of the former had been printed. 

 Lalande undertook the revision of the rest, and how great soever liis 

 merits may have been as a practical astronomer, as an author, and a 

 teacher of astronomy, he had none of the mathematical acquirements 

 which could fit him. for superintending the publication of Moutucla's 

 work. He had some assistance from a very eminent mathematician, 

 Lacroix, and the notes given by him are, as might be expected, excellent. 

 But we are not distinctly informed of the additions, if any, which he made 

 to the text, while there appears considerable reason to suppose that 

 Lalande sometimes interfered with it. Certain it is, that many things 

 would have been suppressed, and others added, had Montucla survived to 

 finish the work of correcting and publishing. There is no reason to 

 think that the eminent analyst referred to (Lacroix), would have supplied 

 Montucla's omissions regarding the poristic case in the Principia, or 

 regarding the writers on the ancient analysis ; for on this subject he was 

 much better informed, in all probability, than Lacroix, and the omission 

 in the Principia comes less within the scope of modern than ancient 

 geometry.* 



* This tract is taken from ' Lives of Philosophers,' Life of Simson. 



