ROBINS. 



suiting his disposition, which was active, 

 he gradually declined it, and went into 

 other courses that required more exer- 

 cise Hence he tried many laborious ex- 

 periments in gunnery; believing- that the 

 resistance of the air had a much greater 

 effect on swift projectiles than was gene- 

 rally suppos; d. And hence he was led 

 to consider those mechanic arts that de- 

 pend upon mathematical principles, in 

 which he might employ his invention ; as 

 the constructing of mills, the building of 

 bridges, draining of fens, rendering of ri- 

 vers navigable, and making of harbours. 

 Among other arts of this kind, fortifica- 

 tion very much engaged his attention ; in 

 which he met wilh opportunities of per- 

 fecting himself, by a view of the principal 

 strong places of Flanders, in some jour- 

 nies he made abroad with persons of dis- 

 tinction. 



On his return home from one of these 

 excursions, he found the learned here 

 amused with Dr. Berkeley's treatise, 

 printed in 1734, entitled " The Analyst," 

 in which an examination was made into 

 the grounds of the Doctrine of Fluxions, 

 and occasion thence taken to explode that 

 method. Robins was, therefore, advised 

 to clear up this affair, by giving a full and 

 distinct account of Newton's doctrines, in 

 such a manner as to obviate all the objec- 

 tions, without naming them, which had 

 been advanced by Berkeley, and accord- 

 ingly he published, in 1735, a Discourse 

 concerning the Nature and Certainty of 

 Sir Isaac Newton's Method of Fluxions, 

 and of Prime and Ultimate Ratios. This 

 is a very clear, neat, and elegant perfor- 

 mance ; nevertheless some persons, even 

 among those who had written against the 

 Analyst, taking exception at Robin's man- 

 ner of defending Newton's doctrine, he 

 afterwards wrote two or three additional 

 discourses. 



In 1738, he defended Newton against an 

 objection, contained in a note at the end 

 of a Latin piece, called " Matho, sive Cos- 

 motheoria puerills," written by Baxter, 

 author of the " Inquiry into the Nature 

 of the Human Soul :" and the year after 

 he printed Remarks on Euler's Treatise 

 of Motion, on Smith's System of Optics, 

 and on Jurin's Discourse of Distinct and 

 Indistinct Vision, annexed to Dr. Smith's 

 work. 



In the mean time Robins's performan- 

 ces were not confined to mathematical 

 subjects ; for, in 1739, there came out 

 three pamphlets upon political affairs, 

 which did him great honour. The first 

 was entitled, " Observations on the pre- 



sent Convention with Spain ;" the second, 

 " A Narrative of what passed in the Com- 

 mon-Hall of the Citizens of London, as- 

 sembled for the Election of a Lord May- 

 or ;" the third, " An Address to the Elec- 

 tors and other Free Subjects of Great 

 Britain, occasioned by the late Succes- 

 sion ; in which is contained a particular 

 account of all our negociatioimvith Spain, 

 and their treatment of us for above ten 

 years past." These were all published 

 without our author's name ; and the first 

 and last were so universally esteemed, 

 that they were generally reputed to have 

 been the production of the great man him- 

 self, who was at the head of the'opposi- 

 tion to Sir Robert Walpole. They prov- 

 ed of such consequence to Mr. Rabins, 

 as to occasion his being employed in a 

 very honourable post ; for the patriots at 

 length gained ground against Sir Robert, 

 and a Committee of the House of Com- 

 mons being appointed to examine into his 

 past conduct, Robins was chosen their 

 Secretary. But after the Committee had 

 presented two reports of their proceed- 

 ings, a sudden stop was put to their fur- 

 ther progress, by a compromise between 

 the contending parties. 



In 1742, being again at leisure, he pub- 

 lished a small treatise, entitled " New 

 Principles of Gunnery;" containing the 

 result of many experiments he had made, 

 by which are discovered the force of gun- 

 powder, and the difference in the resist- 

 ing power of the air to swift and slow mo- 

 tions. To this treatise was prefixed a full 

 and learned account of the progress 

 which modern fortification had made from 

 its first rise; as also of the invention 

 of gunpowder, and of what fcad already 

 been performed in the theory of gunnery. 

 It seems that the occasion of this publica- 

 tion was the disappointment of a situation 

 at the Royal Military Academy at Wool- 

 wich. On the new modelling and estab- 

 lishing of that Academy, in 1741, our au- 

 thor and the late Mr. Muller, were com- 

 petitors for the place of Professor of For- 

 tification and Gunnery. Mr. Muller held 

 then some post in the Tower of London, 

 under the Board of Ordnance, so that, 

 notwithstanding the great knowledge and 

 abilities of our author, the interest which 

 Mr. Muller had with the Board of Ord- 

 nance, carried the election in his favour. 

 Upon this disappointment Mr. Robins, in- 

 dignant at the affront, determined to show 

 them, and the world, by his military pub- 

 lications, what sort of a man he was that 

 they had rejected. 



Upon a discourse containing certain ex- 



