Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris epitomized : With the lives of the late Members of that Society / And a preface. By Monsieur Fontenelle.

  • French Academy of Sciences
Date:
1721
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris epitomized : With the lives of the late Members of that Society / And a preface. By Monsieur Fontenelle. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Correfpondent AbjiJJe, is a Knowledge very barren in it felf 5 but for all that, one cannot without it at¬ tain to the Skill of throwing Bombs with that Ex- aftnefs of which we are now Matters. In the Matbematicks, there are much fewer evident Ufes, than Propofitions or Truths ^ and it is well if the Concurrence of feveral Truths do always produce one (ingle Ufe. Moreover, there are Geometrical Speculations, which tho’not immediately applicable to any thing ufeful, may in the Confequences be¬ come fo, When the greateft Geometricians in the Seventeenth Century fet themfelves to Study a new Curve^ which they called a Cycloide, it was at firft but a pure Speculation, to which they were excited by the Vanity of excelling each other in the Difcovery of different Theorems : They them- lelves did not pretend to labour for the Publick Good j and yet it has happened, that their diving thus into the Nature of the Cycloide has been the occafion of advancing Pendulums to the utmoft Per¬ fection, and meafuring Time with the greateft Ex- aCtnefs, It is the fame with Phibfophy as with Geometry. The Anatomy of Animals fhould feem to be a very indifferent matter to us, we are only concerned to know the Humane Body : But fuch a part, which in the Bodies of Men is of fo nice or fo confufed a Strudure as renders it invifible, becomes fen Able and manifeft in the Bodies of other Animals, Hence it is, that even Monfters themfelves are not to be flighted, I he Mechanifm that is concealed in one Species of Creatures, or in a common Stru- Cl:ure5 maybe difclofed in another Kind,^ or in an extraordinary Compofltion j and one would be apt
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