[59] Dr. Pemberton informs us that he had prevailed upon Sir Isaac to publish this treatise during his lifetime, and that he had for this purpose examined all the calculations and prepared part of the figures. But as the latter part of the treatise had never been finished, Sir Isaac was about to let him have other papers to supply what was wanting, when his death put a stop to the plan.—Preface to Pemberton’s View of Sir Isaac Newton’s Philosophy.
[60] Isaci Newtoni Opera quæ extant omnia, vol. i. p. 388–519.
[61] “Acutissimis qui toto orbe florent Mathematicis.”
[62] Henry Oldenburg, whose name is so intimately associated with the history of Newton’s discoveries, was born at Bremen, and was consul from that town to London during the usurpation of Cromwell. Having lost his office, and being compelled to seek the means of subsistence, he became tutor to an English nobleman, whom he accompanied to Oxford in 1656. During his residence in that city he became acquainted with the philosophers who established the Royal Society, and upon the death of William Crown, the first secretary, he was appointed in 1663, joint secretary along with Mr. Wilkins. He kept up an extensive correspondence with the philosophers of all nations, and he was the author of several papers in the Philosophical Transactions, and of some works which have not acquired much celebrity. He died at Charlton, near Greenwich, in August, 1677.
[63] These words in brackets are in the second edition, but not in the first.
[64] As this passage is of essential importance in this controversy, we shall give it in the original. “Pro differentiis igitur Leibnitianis D. Newtonus adhibet, semperque adhibuit, fluxiones, quæ sunt quam proxime ut fluentium augmenta, æqualibus temporis particulis quam minimis genita; iisque tam in suis Principiis Naturæ Mathematicis, tum in aliis postea editis, eleganter est usus; quem admodum et Honoratus Fabrius in sua Synopsi Geometrica, motuumque progressus Cavallerianæ methodo substituit.”
[65] Homine docto, sed novo, et parum perito rerum ante actarum cognitare.
[66] Vanæ et injustæ vociferationes.
[67] Letter to Count Bothman in Des Maizeaux’s Recueil de diverses pieces, tom. ii. p. 44, 45.
[68] See Des Maizeaux, tom. ii. p. 116.