Mechaiiical Philosophy, 4i 



^Wer to which little but conjecture, and that too 

 often most mischievously wide of the truth, could 

 be offered before. In short, the general proposi- 

 tion, deduced from thie Chevalier*s numerous facts 

 and experiments, respecting the motion of fluids, 

 has been pronounced one of the most valuable re- 

 sults of modern inquiry.^ 



Much light has been thrown, during the last 

 century, on the doctrine of Tides. Newton was 

 the first who gave a satisfactory explanation of 

 this subject. But it has been remarked^ that 

 the wide steps taken by this philosopher, in 

 his investigation, left ordinary minds frequently 

 at a loss ; and that many of his principles require 

 very great inathematical knowledge to satisfy 

 Us of their truth. Accordingly the Academy of 

 Sciences at Paris, soon after the death of the 

 illustrious Briton^ Vvishing to have this as well as 

 some other parts of philosophy exhibited in a satis- 

 factoryj and, as far as could be, in a popular man- 

 ner, published a prize question relative to the 

 tides. This produced three excellent disserta- 

 tions on the subject;^ by Mr, Maclaurin, D. 

 Bernoulli, and Eul^r. Of these the work of 

 Bernoulli is considered the best, and is^ perhkps, 

 the most complete extant/ And it is worthy of 

 observation, that v^hile he threw greater light than 

 all who had gone before him on the subject which 

 he immediately undertook to illustrate, he furnished 



* See Encyclopaedia. Art. Water Works. 



f The Abbe Bernardin de St. Pierre, in a late work, Entitled 

 Etudes de la Nature, rejects the Newtonian theory of Tides, and ascribej 

 this class of phenomena to the liquefaction of the polar ice and snow. To 

 this amiable writer the praise of ingenuity, and of possessing a happy talent 

 of amusing and interesting his readers, cannot be denied. Neither can it 

 be questioned that his work contains a considerable portion of sound and 

 pleasing philosophy. But surely this and some other pf his doctrines are 

 utterly unworthy of a mind which had been conversant with the inquiries 

 and the writings of the great practical philosophers of the eighteenth cee- 

 lury. 



