426 HISTORY OF PHYSICAL ASTRONOMY. 



the College, erected a statue of Newton in the College Chapel (a noble 

 work of Roubiliac), with the inscription, Qui genus humanum ingenio 

 super uvitij 



At Oxford, David Gregory and Halley, both zealous aud distinguish- 

 ed disciples of Newton, obtained the Savilian professorships of astron- 

 omy and geometry in 1691 and 1*703. 



David Gregory's Astronomice Physicce et Geometricce Elementa is- 

 sued from the Oxford Press in 1702. The author, in the first sentence 

 of the Preface, states his object to be to explain the mechanics of the 

 universe (Physica Coelestis), which Isaac Newton, the Prince of Geom- 

 eters, has carried to a point of elevation which all look up to with ad- 

 miration. And this design is executed by a full exposition of the 

 Newtonian doctrines and their results. Keill, a pupil of Gregory, fol- 

 lowed his tutor to Oxford, and taught the Newtonian philosophy there 

 in 1700, being then Deputy Sedleian Professor. He illustrated his 

 lectures by experiments, and published an Introduction to the Prin- 

 cipia which is not out of use even yet. 



In Scotland, the Newtonian philosophy was accepted with great 

 alacrity, as appears by the instances of David Gregory and Keill. 

 David Gregory was professor at Edinburgh before he removed to Ox- 

 ford, and was succeeded there by his brother James. The latter had, 

 as early as 1690, printed a thesis, containing in twenty-two proposi- 

 tions, a compend of Newton's Principia} Probably these were in- 

 tended as theses for academical disputatious; as Laughton at Can- 

 bridge introduced the Newtonian philosophy into these exercises. The 

 formula at Cambridge, in use till very recently in these disputations, 

 was " Recti statuit Newtonus de Motu Lunce ;" or the like. 



The general diffusion of these opinions in England took place, not 

 only by means of books, but through the labors of various experimen- 

 tal lecturers, like Desao-uliers. who removed from Oxford to London in 

 1713 ; when he informs us, 5 that "he found the Newtonian philosophy 

 generally received among persons of all ranks and professions, and 

 even among the ladies by the help of experiments." 



* See Hatton's Math. Diet., art. James Gregory. If it fell in with my plan to no- 

 tice derivative works, I might speak of Maclaurin's admirable Account of Sir Isaac 

 Newton's Discoveries, published in 1748. This is still one of the best books on the 

 subject. The late Professor Rigaud's Historical Essay on the First Publication of 

 Sir Isaac Newton's " Principia" (Oxf. 1838) contains a careful and candid view of 

 the circumstances of that event. 



5 Desag. Pref. 



