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into Latin, and subjoined to the editions of Euclid's Elementa and Data.

2. Mathematica Lectiones Habite in Scholis Publicis Academia Cantabrigiensis, 1664-5-6, London, 1683, 8vo. These were a part of his Lucasian Lectures; to which the editor, Mr. Wells, has prefixed the author's Oratio Præfatoria, delivered at the opening of them.

3. His English works, which are also posthumous, were published in 1685, in three volumes folio, by Dr. Tillotson, then dean, and afterwards archbishop of Canterbury. There were several subsequent editions, of which the last was in 1741. I shall not pretend to give a particular account of these works, which con. sist for the most part of sermons, but only observe, that for the learning and good sense which pervade them, they have preserved their repute even to modern times.

4. There is a fourth volume however of Barrow's works, printed after the foregoing, in 1687, folio, London. The contents of this volume are partly in Latin and partly in English. The title is, Isaaci Barrow, S.S.T. Professoris Opuscula, viz. Determinationes, Conciones ad Clerum Poemata, &c. volumen quartum. The Dissertatiuncula de Sestertio, p.356,

was reprinted the same year in the Philosophical Transactions, No. 190, p. 383.

5. There are two letters written by Dr. Barrow to Mr. Willoughby, printed in the Philosophical Letters between Mr. Ray and his correspondents, p. 360, 362, upon the following subjects. The former, dated March 26, 1662, contains "the method whereby Mons. Robervell was said to have demonstrated the equality of a spiral line with a parabola.” In this letter he signifies his intention of reading lectures upon Archimedes' De Equiponderantibus; whether he afterwards put this design in execution is uncertain. In the latter, dated October 5, 1665, he approves Mr. Willoughby's "Discourse, inferring the Solidity of the Sphere from the Surface, by comparing the Concentrical Surfaces of the Sphere, with the Parallel Arches of the Cone," and informs him of his own method of doing it.

In addition to the foregoing works, there are several curious papers of Dr. Barrow, written in his own hand, and communicated by William Jones, esq. to the author of the Lives of the Professors of Gresham College.

1. A Latin volume in quarto, in which are contained, 1. Compendium pro Tangentibus.

2. Equationum Constructio per Conicas Sectiones. 3. Equationum Constructio Geome trica. 4. Additamenta de Curvis. These tracts appear to have been written before his Geometrical Lectures.

2. Theorema Generale ud Lineis Curvis Tangentes, et Curvarum Figurarum Areas, per Motum Determinandas.

3. Letters to Mr. John Collins, upon various mathematical subjects; viz. 1. Concern ing Parabolical Conoids; without date. 2. Rectifying a Mistake of Mr. Collins, concerning the Parallel Sections of the Cubical Parabolical Conoid; without date. 3. Rules to compute the Portions of a Sphere or Spheroid. Sept. 5, 1664.

4. A Character of Mengolus's Elementa Geometria Speciosa, with whom he is displeased for his affectation of new definitions, and uncouth terms. Nov. 12, 1664.

5. He thanks him for a catalogue of mathematical books, which he sent him; gives a character of Alsted's Admiranda Mathematica, which he thinks a work of no great importance. Nov. 29, 1664.

6. Concerning a Parabolical Conoid cut parallel to the Axis. Jan. 9, 1665.

7. About printing his Archimedes, Apollonius, and Theodosius; as also a new edition of his Euclid. March 3, 1665.

8. Concerning the Area of the Common Hyperbola, found by Logarithms. Feb. 1, 1666.

9. Containing a variety of rules relating to the Circle and Hyperbola, with Theorems concerning the Curve Surfaces of Conoids and Speroids. March 6, 1667.

10. A continuation of nearly the same subject. March 26, 1668.

11. A farther continuation of the same subject. May 14, 1668.

12. Concerning the Linea Secantium; with two papers, one of the figure of Secants and Tangents, applied to the Arch or Radius; the other concerning the Cissoidal Space. March 13, 1668.

13. Concerning the publication of his Lectiones Optica. Easter-eve, 1669.

14. Sends him some few things to be inserted in his Lectiones Geometrica, which were then printing. March 29, 1670.

15. Concerning the publication of those Lectures. April 23, 1670.

16. Sends him his Apollonius, and Perspective Lectures. Oct. 11, 1670.

of Wit.

First it may be demanded what the thing we speak of is, or what this facetiousness doth import? To which question I might reply as Democritus did to him that asked the definition of a man; ""Tis that which we all see and know." Any one better appre hends what it is by acquaintance than I can inform him by description. It is indeed a thing so versatile and multiform, appearing in so many shapes, so many postures, so many garbs, so variously apprehended by several eyes and judgments, that it seemeth no less hard to settle a clear and certain notion thereof, than to make a portrait of Proteus, or to define the figure of the fleeting air. Sometimes it lieth in pat allusion to a known story, or in season. able application of a trivial saying, or in forging an apposite tale: sometimes it playeth in words and phrases, taking advantage from the ambiguity of their sense, or the affinity of their sound. times it is wrapped in a dress of humorous expression; sometimes it lurketh under an odd similitude; sometimes it is lodged in a sly question, in a smart answer, in a quirkish reason, in a shrewd intimation,

Some

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