sect, i.] DISSERTATION SECOND. 13 



nor acknowledging Newton's claim to priority, but asserting 

 his own to the first publication of the calculus. 



Not long after this, the publication of Newton's Quadra' 

 (are of Curves, and his Enumeration of the lines of the third 

 order (1705), afforded the same journalists an opportunity of 

 showing their determination to retort the insinuations of Du- 

 illier, and to carry the war into the country of the enemy. 

 After giving a very imperfect synopsis of the first of these 

 books, they add : " Pro differentiis igitur Leibnitianis D. 

 Nezotonus adhibet, semperque adhibuit fluxiones ; qxuz sunt 

 proxime ut Jluentium augmenta, equalibus tcmporis particulis 

 quam minimis genita ; Usque turn in suis Principiis Natural 

 Mathematicis, turn in aliis post editis, ■ elcganter est usus ; 

 quamadmudum Honoralus Fabrius in sua Synopsi Geometric^ 

 moluum progressus Cavalierianas methodo substituit." 1 



In spite of the politeness and ambiguity 2 of this passage, 

 the most obvious meaning appeared to be, that Newton had 

 been led to the notion of fluxions by the differentials of 

 Leibnitz, just as Honoratus Fabri had been led to substitute 

 the idea of progressive motion for the indivisibles of Cavalieri. 

 A charge so entirely unfounded, so inconsistent with acknow- 

 ledged facts, and so little consonant to declarations that had 

 formerly come from the same quarter, could not but call 

 forth the indignation of Newton and his friends, especially as 

 it was known, that these journalists spoke the language of 

 Leibnitz and Bernoulli. In that indignation they were per- 

 fectly justified ; but when the minds of contending parties 

 have become iwitated in a certain degree, it often happens 

 that the injustice of one side is retaliated by an equal injus- 

 tice from the opposite. Accordingly, Keill, who, with more 

 zeal than judgment, undertook the defence of Newton's 



1 Com. Epist. No. 97. Noutoni Opera, Tom. IV. p. 577. 

 3 Noto B, »* the end. 



