Review of' O. Gregory''!; Treatise on Mechanics. 73 



and some of her most potent agents have been converted 

 into auxiliaries for the aid and relief of man. To a nation 

 aspiring after wealth and greatness, or to individuals aiming 

 at the same, or the more important objects of mental en- 

 largement, what study, what art, or science, is more enti- 

 tled to encouragement, or ardent pursuit, than the science 

 of mechanics, both in theory and practice ! 



Our author, who has given us two closely printed octavo 

 volumes on this important subject, together with anotiier of 

 plates, has certainly been happy in the selection of a sub- 

 ject, which is worthy of the attention of the learned through- 

 out the world. The theory of mechanics he considers as 

 having been little attended to in England, a country which 

 has been almost the cradle of the science, and which under 

 the miraculous genius of Newton has afFonied it, almost its 

 ivhole vigor and expansion. Since his time, however, he 

 thinks they have fallen short, and are behind their neigh- 

 bours on the continent, in many important particulars.— 

 Among these, he accounts their neglect of the analysis of 

 their great countryman, which foreigners have seized, and 

 applied, with great success, to the development of many 

 valuable principles. Without the conjunction of theory and 

 practice, he thinks no one can be a complete mechanician, 

 and to deliver a system, which shall comprehend both, is 

 his professed object. In what manner he has executed this 

 work, is our present purpose to show. 



Originality, in productions of a scientific character, which 

 are necessarily chained to principles fixed and immutable 

 as are the laws of nature, can be little expected In that 

 now before us, which is intended to comprise whatever has 

 been discovered or investigated on the subject of mechan- 

 ics, it would be impossible even for Newton himself to be 

 more than partially original ; yet our author sets out. with 

 an appearance of originali'y, and would have himself con- 

 sidered, if not the author, discoverer, and inventor of what 

 his book contains, at least entitled to some credit as such* 

 This, though a common artifice with book-makers, is un- 

 worthy of one who has indisputable pretensions to the very 

 highest attainments in science. In the introduction, he 

 says, " In the composition of the first volume, I have de- 

 rived material assistance from the labours of several of my 

 predecessors in this department of science.'' Now, if there 



Vol. VII No. 1. 10 



