书城公版The Scottish Philosophy
19471200000242

第242章

V.<On the Axioms of Euclid>."It seems no man pretends to define sum or difference, or what it is to be greater or less.There are therefore some terms that frequently enter into mathematical reasoning, so simple as not to admit of mathe.matical definition.The mathematical axioms ought to be employed about these and only about these."VI.<On tlte Muscular Motion in the Human Body>.Apaper worthy of constituting a chapter in "Paley's Natural Theology," showing a thorough knowledge of mechanical principles, and of the physiology of his time.

VII.<Some Thoughts on the Utopian System>.In this paper he seems to amuse himself with describing the advantages of a community without private property.

VIII.<An Essay on Quantity>.Royal Society of London, Oct., 1748, and published in works.-" P.S.When this essay was wrote in 1748, 1 knew so little of the history of the controversy about the force of moving bodies, as to think that the British mathematicians only opposed the notion of Leibnitz, and that all the foreign mathematicians adopted it.The fact is, the British and French are of one side; the Germans, Dutch, and Italians of the other.I find likewise that Desaguliers, in the second volume of his course of 'Experimental Philosophy,' published in 1744, is of the opinion that the parties in dispute put different meanings upon the word force, and that in reality both are in the right when well under.stood."