1774), published the book by subscription for the benefit of Maclaurin’s children, prefaced by a memoir of the author that is the chief authority for the life and writings of Maclaurin. Maclaurin’s pupil at Edinburgh, Patrick Murdoch (d. “Only a few hours before his death he dictated the concluding passage of his work on Newton’s philosophy, in which he affirmed his unwavering belief in a future life” ( DSB VIII: 612). But the ordeal of his escape ruined his health, and he died at age 48. As soon as the rebel army captured Edinburgh, Maclaurin fled to England until it was safe to return. Maclaurin took a prominent part in preparing trenches and barricades for the city’s defense. Maclaurin had nearly completed this work when, during the Jacobite rebellion of 1745, a Highland army marched upon Edinburgh. Although Conduitt’s memoir never materialized (although some of the materials he collected made their way into Fontenelle’s Éloge in 1728), his request prompted Maclaurin to prepare an account not only of Newton’s discoveries in astronomy, gravitation and mechanics (though omitting his work on optics), but also of the philosophical systems that preceded Newton’s. This superb large-paper copy of Maclaurin’s Account, measuring 289 x 231mm, is larger than those in both the Macclesfield library (285 x 222mm) and the Richard Green library (288 x 227mm) – those copies realized £6,600 and $6,250 in 20, respectively.Īfter Newton’s death in March 1727, his nephew-in-law John Conduitt started to collect materials for a biographical memoir of Newton and applied to several of Newton’s contemporaries, including Maclaurin, for assistance. It stood as a model of rigor until the appearance of Cauchy’s Cours d’Analyse in 1821” (DSB). Maclaurin’s most his most important work, Treatise of Fluxions (1742), was “the earliest logical and systematic publication of the Newtonian methods. “Gifted with a genius for geometrical investigation second only to Newton’s… Maclaurin, the one mathematician of the first rank trained in Great Britain in the century, confirmed Newton’s exclusive influence over British mathematics” ( ibid.). “Though a number of other general expositions of Newton’s thought were published during the eighteenth century, Maclaurin's Account has long been recognized as the leading authoritative statement of mainstream Newtonianism” ( DNB). 1748.įirst edition, large-paper copy, of Maclaurin’s statement of Newtonian theory, one of the three “most outstanding popular introductions to Newtonian science of the eighteenth century” (I. London: Printed for the author’s children and sold by A. An Account of Sir Isaac Newton’s Philosophical Discoveries, in Four Books.
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