VOt. Vr.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 58/ 



II. Philosophia Veterum, 6 mente Renati Descartes breviter digesta, ab 

 Antonio le Grand*. Londini, An. 1670, in l^mo. 



This epitome of tlie Cartesian philosophy, digested by the author for the 

 use and advantage of those that have incHnation to initiate themselves in the 

 doctrine of that famous philosopher, begins with the main rules, by him 

 esteemed necessary to the acquisition of truth. Thence he proceeds to those 

 simple notions, of which our cogitations are compounded, and concludes this 

 part with a short doctrine of the syllogism. 



Having succinctly dispatched this, he passes on to treat of physiology, and 

 exploding the materia prima, the substantial forms, the real accidents, (as these 

 are vulgarly taught) he proceeds to prove, that there are bodies extended in 

 length, breadth and depth, to which belong figure, motion, scite, &c. no 

 otherwise than as some distinct modes. After this, he considers the heavens, 

 earth, water, air and fire, and of what parts they are constituted. Next, he 

 explains the fabric of man ; giving an account how he comes to move and 

 have perception. And he closes all with a demonstration of the existence of 

 a God. 



III. Traite de Physique, par Jaques Rohault.-f* A Paris, 1671, in 4to. 

 After the author has, in this ingenious treatise, assigned the causes why 



natural philosophy has been steril for so many ages, and found them to be 

 these, viz. the too servile addiction to authority ; the resting in metaphysical, 

 abstract, and general speculations ; the severing of reason and experience ; and 

 the neglect of the mathematics ; he divides it into four principal parts. 



In the first, he treats of the body natural, and its chief properties, divisi- 

 bility, motion and rest ; as also, of the elements and the sensible qualities ; 

 where he insists at large on the explication of the nature and qualities of 

 vision. 



In the second part he treats of the system of the world, according to the 

 three celebrated hypotheses of Ptolemy, Copernicus, and Tycho, but gives the 

 preference to the Copernican, as the plainest and the most rational ; considering 

 mean while, that, as to the situation of the parts of the universe, Tycho agrees 



* Le Grand, a noted Cartesian philosopher, sometimes called the abbreviator of Descartes, was 

 bom at Douay in France, He wrote several books on the principles of the Cartesian philosophy. 

 Also notes on Rohault's physics, and other works. 



-j- Rohault, a celebrated Cartesian philosopher, was bom at Amiens, l520. Having made some 

 progress in mathematics, he went to teach that science and philosophy at Paris, where he died in 

 1674, near 55 years of age. His works are chiefly. Natural Philosophy, as above, in 4to ; Elements 

 of Mathematics ; A Treatise on Mechanics, published after his death. His attachment to Descartes's 

 philosophy lead him into numerous errors and absurdities, in astronomy, mechanics, and philosophy, 

 as may be seen by the above account of his treatise on physics. 



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