SEQUEL TO THE EPOCH OF NEWTON. 203 



Newton to publish a new one ; and Cotes, by far the 

 first, at that time, of the mathematicians of Cam- 

 bridge, undertook to superintend the printing, and 

 the edition was accordingly published in 1713 (H). 



At Oxford, David Gregory and Halley, both 

 zealous and distinguished disciples of Newton, ob- 

 tained the Savilian professorships of astronomy and 

 geometry in 1691 and 1703; and in 1704 or 5, 

 Keill publicly taught the Newtonian philososophy 

 by experiment. In the Scotch Universities, James 

 Gregory, who was professor at St. Andrew's, ac- 

 cepted the Newtonian philosophy with singular 

 alacrity, for he is said 4 , as early as 1690, to have 

 printed a thesis containing, in twenty-two positions, 

 a compend of Newton's Principia. David Gregory, 

 his brother, was, before he removed to Oxford, 

 professor at Edinburgh; and would no doubt in- 

 troduce the new discoveries there. The general 

 diffusion of these opinions in England took place, 

 not only by means of books, but through the 

 labours of various experimental lecturers, like De- 

 saguliers, who removed from Oxford to London in 

 1713; when he informs us 5 , that "he found the 

 Newtonian philosophy generally received among 

 persons of all ranks and professions, and even 

 among the ladies by the help of experiments." 



We might easily trace in our literature indica- 

 tions of the gradual progress of the Newtonian 

 doctrines. For instance, in the earlier editions of 



4 Ilutton's Diet., art. D. Gregory, * Dcsag. Pref. 



