gr8 
‘m ft even happen of neceffity whenever 
the number of ingenious men, feeking 
to refolve a problem, is greater than the 
number of different foluuions, which it 
can poflibly admit of ? And does nor 
this reduce the evidence for plagiarifm, 
that refis entirely on fuch a coincidence, 
to nothing more than a very flight pre- 
{umption. 
Thefe, fir, are very obvious confider- 
ations, and fuch as I would not have 
“thought myfelf entitled to ftare to the 
dicreétor of a work, like yours, intended 
to diffule fcientific information, unlefs 
--your j.attention to them, in the prefent 
¢ - 
inftance, had furnifhed me with a fufh- 
cient apology. 
As to your correfpondent, the charge 
againft him goes fomewhat deeper. A 
‘mathematician fhould have remarked, 
that Mr. Leflie’s method of refolving 
indeterminate problems, has nothing in 
‘common with that which Euler ufually 
employs for the fame purpofe; but only 
with an artifice which he has adopted 
in a fingle inftance, and has not extend- 
ed to any other cafe. He would there- 
fore have confidered,that evenif Mr. Lef- 
lie had derived the firft hint of his me- 
thod from the perufal of Euler’s algebra , 
though he might be blamed for not faying 
fo, he had great merit in rendering the 
method fo extenfive and general, and in 
perceiving the great utility of a princi- 
ple which Euler himfelf, 1f he had not 
overlooked it, had at leaft not pur- 
fued. _ 
This is no flight praife, if it be re- 
membered, that it was the characteriftic 
of this great man’s genius to puth every 
difcovery tothe utmoft ; and that he is, 
perhaps, unrivalled among mathemati- 
cians, for the extent of his views, and 
the fertility of his invention. 
Such, fir, are the remarks on this fub- 
“ject which, I think, a mathematician 
could not fail to make, and which aman 
of candour would noc willingly have tup- 
préffed. What ] have to jay farther 
tends more direétly to clear Mr. Leilie 
of the charge you have brought againit 
him ; for I can, with the greateft confi- 
dence, afiure you, that he fhowed me the 
fir tketch of his paper, containing the 
application of his general principle to a 
great variety of problems, before be had 
“ever feén Euler’s Algebra, and when he 
was, indeed, but a young mathemati- 
eian,—-A-confiderable time after that, I 
at Buler’s Algebra into his hands, which 
hevien faw, I believe, for the firft time, 
Mr. Leflie vindicated... Milton’s Imitaticns. 
[Devs 
for the book was then very fcearce and 
very little known in this part of the 
ifland. He never remarked, that I 
know of, the refemblance between his 
own method and that in Euler’s fixth 
chapter ; as I acknowledge that I had 
never done-till I faw the remarks in 
your Magazine. As to his employing the 
fame divifion of the problem into cafes 
that Euler does, Town myfelf anfwer- 
able for that coincidence, having point- 
ed it out to him, as the natural divifion of 
the fubjeét, and as the proper one to be 
followed, if he would with to afcertain 
a exemplify the univerfality of his me- — 
t 
I have nothing farther to add, but te 
requeft, that you will publith this letrer, 
not as any favour to me, but out of juf- 
tice to Mr. Leflie. whom you have _ 
wronged, and to the public which you 
have mifled. — I am, fir, 
Edinburgh, Your obedient fervanz, 
Now. 27.4797. Jonx PrayrairR, 
Profeffor of Mathematics in the 
University of Eatnburgh. 

For the Monthly Magazine. 
Mriritron’s IMITATIONS; or RESEM- 
BLANCES OF THE ANCIENTS, 
(continued. } 
[By Mr. WakEFIELD]. 
New morn, her rofy fteps in th’ eaftern 
clime 
Advancing, /cw'd the earth with orient pearl. 
: Par. Loft, B. v. Ver. §. 
Compare ver. 430,746 of this book ; 
Chaucer’s Flower and Leaf, ftanza 22. 
An unknown poet in Ariftotle’s Poétics, 
{eét. 35, fays of the fn; 
- omepey Jeonto]ay Droyee < 
And the /Arill matin fong 
Of birds on every bough. 
Os Hyasy ney AasATlOY HUB TEAg ; 
Ewa xivet Peypaer ooviSwy cady. 
Sophocles, Ele&. 38. 
~— 

Ver. 7 
To the night-warbling bird, that nowy 
awake, ; 
Tunes {weete% his love-labour’d fong. 
Ver. 41, 
Tethiyss Aadayevvlieg, eyop waver. 
‘LT heocritus, vii. 139, 
So cheer’d he his fair fpoufe ; and fhe was 
cheer’d. Ver, 129. 
This is exactly in the fpirit of a paflage 
guored from Crefias, by the author of 
the tréeatife under the ‘name of Deme-. 
trius Phalereus. Seét. 219, 
Ey (sty Tf eTwrey xeb OV JAEY oh EME toms: 
fyw de die ce! mmwhotys Ra 
ig 
