have been accomplished, this volume can be read with facility and advantage, not only by College classes, but by the higher classes in Academies and High Schools; it will be found to contain a sufficient amount of information for those who want either the leisure or the desire to make the mathematical sciences a specialty; and finally, it will serve as a suitable introduction to those higher treatises on Mechanical Philosophy, which all must study who would appreciate and keep pace with the wonderful discoveries that are daily being made in Science. COLUMBIA COLLEGE, February 22, 1850 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. In accordance with the expressed wish of many teachers in institutions where the Differential and Integral Calculus are either not taught at all, or else are not obligatory studies, an Appendix has been added to the body of the work, in which all of the principles there demonstrated by means of the Calculus are deduced by the aid of Elementary Mathematics only. It has not seemed desirable to omit the Calculus altogether, especially as by the present arrangement the work is equally adapted to the use of those who teach by the aid of the Calculus, and of those who only employ the Elementary Mathematics. From the flattering reception of this work by the Public, it is believed that a continuation of the Course of Natural Philosophy, of which this is the opening volume, would be acceptable. To carry out this design, two other volumes are in preparation on the same gen- FEBRUARY 22, 1860. |