'I likewise turned into Charles Bossut's Mecanique - to study his demonstration of pendulums, and his doctrine of forces. The text is often tediously explanatory - & in the notes, it is but a dim hallucination of the truth that I can obtain thro' the medium of integrals & differentials by which he communicates it.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book
'It is very likely that I may send you some Mathematical thing or other, seeing I have got Bossut's history of mathematics, at this time, where perhaps there may be something new to you'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book
'When we speak of calculi - I brought home [some f]ew mathematical books, which I must tell you of - Bossuts "history [of] mathematics", Woods "optics", Cunn's "Euclid" and Newton's "principia" constitute my [stock] of this sort - I got Lucans "Pharsalia" also, and some little extracts of Fenelons "dialogues des morts". If there are any of these (except Newton for which you would be [obliged] to wait awhile) that you wish to see - they are ready for you. I had read Bossut before - and have not done much at him of late. Neither have I read any quantity of Wood yet, having been nibbling at the "Principia" (which with all my struggling, I come but ill at understanding - indeed in some places I don't understand it at all) ever since I came home. Of Lucan I have not read above seven lines.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book
