aſcrib'd all the Feats of ancient Heroes.
In a Critique that was made in London on Mr. de Fontenelle's Diſcourſe, the Writer preſum'd to aſſert that Des Cartes was not a great Geometrician. Thoſe who make ſuch a Declaration may juſtly be reproach'd with flying in their Maſter's Face. Des Cartes extended the Limits of Geometry as far beyond the Place where he found them, as Sir Iſaac did after him. The former firſt taught the Method of expreſſing Curves by Equations. This Geometry which, Thanks to him for it, is now grown common, was ſo abſtruſe in his Time, that not ſo much as one Profeſſor would undertake to explain it; and Schotten in Holland, and Format in France, were the only Men who underſtood it.
He applied this geometrical and inventive Genius to Dioptricks, which, when treated of by him, became a new Art. And if he was miſtaken in ſome Things, the Reaſon of that is, a Man who diſcovers a new Tract of Land
