PREFACE BY THE EDITOR. 



THE Lectures which are now a second time presented to the public, 

 are so well known, and so justly celebrated, amongst those who are 

 most capable of judging of their merits, that very little need be offered 

 by way of preface to this volume. Whether we regard the depth of 

 Dr. Young's learning, the extent of his research, the accuracy of his 

 statements, or the beauty and originality of his theoretical views, in 

 whatever way we contemplate these Lectures, our admiration is equally 

 excited. They embody a complete system of Mechanical Philosophy, 

 drawn from original sources, and illustrated by a hand capable of 

 reducing them to the most perfect subjection. Unlike other popular 

 writers, who, for the most part, either take the sciences at second 

 hand, or content themselves simply with extracting the discoveries 

 and adopting the hypotheses of more distinguished philosophers, Dr. 

 Young travelled over the whole literature of science, and whilst we 

 are astonished at the rich store of materials which he has collected, we 

 find nothing more prominent than the impress of his own acute and 

 powerful mind. It is particularly conspicuous in his treatise on 

 motion and force, which, with their applications to the useful arts, 

 forms the first part of these Lectures. In comparing this treatise 

 with others of similar pretension, we are forcibly impressed with the 

 fact, that whilst their authors have been driven to popularize from in- 

 ability to grapple with mathematical researches, Dr. Young has been 

 enabled to do so from his thorough mastery of those researches. It 

 combines correctness with simplicity. The popular reader may trust 

 to it as always based on right principles, and calculated to pave his 

 way to a more extensive and intimate research ; the mathematical 

 reader will find in it the clearest statement of arguments which 

 have already been presented to him in another form. The remaining 

 parts of these Lectures are equally valuable on account of the origi- 

 nality of the views which they unfold, and of the unity and simplicity 



a 2 



M363122 



