SEQUEL TO THE EPOCH OF GALILEO. 61 



did not appear till 1725, after the death of the 

 author. Though the attempt to reduce the equili- 

 brium of all machines to the composition of forces, 

 is philosophical and meritorious, the attempt to 

 reduce the composition of Pressures to the compo- 

 sition of Motions, with which Varignon's work is 

 occupied, was a retrograde step in the subject, so 

 far as the progress of distinct mechanical ideas 

 was concerned. 



Thus, at the period at which we have now 

 arrived, the Principles of Elementary Mechanics 

 were generally known and accepted ; and there was 

 in the minds of mathematicians a prevalent ten- 

 dency to reduce them to the most simple and 

 comprehensive form of which they admitted. The 

 execution of this simplification and extension, which 

 we term the generalization of the laws, is so im- 

 portant an event, that though it forms part of the 

 natural sequel of Galileo, we shall treat of it in a 

 separate chapter. But we must first bring up the 

 history of the mechanics of fluids to the correspond- 

 ing point. 



