143 



to spermatic animalcula, is found in Aristotle, Hippo- 

 crates, Plato, Lactantius, and Plutarch. And the 

 sexual system of plants, the merit of discovering which 

 we chiefly assign to Morland, Grew, Vaiilant, and 

 Linnaeus, was accurately expounded by Empedocles, 

 Theophrastus, Pliny, and Diodorus Siculus. 



7. Though we did not employ much time in our 

 survey of mathematics and geometry, yet we made it 

 appear that thc^ioblest discoveries in those sciences 

 were made by the ancients. All the English geome- 

 tricians agree with Leibnitz and Wolf in acknowledg- 

 ing, that, notwithstanding all the attempts made by 

 the ablest geometricians in these last ages, Euclid's me. 

 thod still n-mains the most accurate and perfect. We 

 observed, that the most difficult problems in those sci- 

 ences were solved by Thales, Pythagoras, Plato, 

 Archimedes, and Apollonius. We have seen, that 

 their mechanical contrivances were carried to such a 

 pitch, as to surpass even the conception of the most 

 learned among us. Archimedc&'s burning glasses 

 furnished us with an instance of this. Their appli- 

 cation of the equal vibration of the pendulum, their 

 knowledge of the refraction of light, and its cause, 

 their attempts to square the circle, their discovery 

 of the fundamental propositions of geometry, r.nd 

 above all that of algebra, and the prjccssion of the 

 equinoxes, afford convincing proofs of (he depth and 

 acuteness of the genius of the ancients. We have 

 also made it appear, that microscopes were not un- 

 known to them ; and that in the arts of painting, 

 sculpture, and the science of m sic, they not only 

 equalled, but even stir passed us in laying before the 

 eyes of the reader a sketch of the admirable works of 

 the ancients in archittciure, and in the art of war, we 

 have likewise given proofs, that they wirt; 110 less able 

 in the arts, than in the sciences ; -nsomuch th:L there 

 is no part of knowledge, in which they have not 

 either preceded us, directed^or surpassed us. 



