PREFACE. Ill 



intended to be fully comprehended by a mere begin- 

 ner, or as calculated to supersede the necessity of the 

 study of many other works, on the different branches 

 of mathematical science. The translator flatters 

 himself, however, that he has not expressed the 

 author's meaning in English words alone, but that he 

 has rendered it perfectly intelligible to any person, who 

 is conversant with the English mathematicians of the 

 old school only, and that his book will serve as a con- 

 necting link between the geometrical and algebraical 

 modes of representation. A Mosaic work of this 

 kind may perhaps possess less of perfect harmony, 

 than if it had been more regularly modelled into a 

 continuous system : but the want of strict method is 

 in part compensated, by the greater interest, which 

 naturally arises from a mixture of the direct applica- 

 tion to the phenomena of nature, with the abstract in- 

 vestigation of purely mathematical truths. To the 

 illustrious author of the work, however, some apology 

 is certainly due, for having ventured to depart from 

 the original symmetry of his design; and the best 

 excuse, that can be assigned, will perhaps be the 

 universal acquaintance of all judges of the higher 

 mathematics, with the M^canique Celeste in its 

 original form, which will enable them at once to attri- 

 bute to the translator any want of analytical refine- 

 ment, that may have been admitted by the alterations. 

 To those who are desirous of confining their atten- 

 tion to whatever is absolutely new and original, or 



