f 2 42 ] 
written in a language, which he is very likely a 
ftr anger to ; fince Mr. Eames has given an excellent 
extract of the firft eflay in Englifh, printed in N° 
4)0 of the TranfaBions of the Royal Society of Lon- 
don, of which this philofopher is a member; and 
alfo becaufe Mr. Van Rixtel has inferted an extract 
of the two fucceeding ones in N u 468. of the faid 
'Tranjatfions. Befides which, M. de la Chapelle has 
given, in his 13th Tome of the Nouvellc Bibliotheque 
for the month of December in the year 1742, a very 
ample and judicious extract of the three eflays toge- 
ther. I have alfo confirm’d my obl'ervations by a very 
interefting and fenfible proof, upon that part of Lon- 
don called the city, which is printed in the firft three 
months of the year 1743, Tom. 14. of the Nouve/le 
Bibliotheque ; and likewife inthefecond three months- 
of the year 1 74 f of the Bibliotheque raijonnee , is inferted 
a fmall piece relative to my obfervations and proofs. I 
take the liberty of referring every reader, who may not 
underftand the Low-Dutch language, to thofe feveraf 
pieces cited ; and my table of the degrees of the pro- 
bability of the duration of the life of man will fup- 
port itfelf very well againft the hafty judgment of M. 
de Buflfon, who certainly has too much candour not 
to acknowlege, after a mature deliberation of thofe 
pieces mention'd, that they contain fomething more 
than “ very difhant approaches to the knowlege of the 
“ mortality of mankind in general.” 
§ 3. I would fay much the fame of that excel- 
lent piece of the learned Dr. Halley, if my furpriae 
did not increafe, the more I refled:, that this work 
ought to be thoroughly known to a member of the 
Royal Society of London ; and that this very mem- 
ber ncverthelefs makes fo carelefs a judgment upon 
it. 
