Page:Optics.djvu/15

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PREFACE.
v

afforded me a good deal of information on the subject of Caustics. Dr. Wood's Treatise I have naturally had almost constantly on my table; but perhaps my greatest obligations are due to Dr. Young, whose Lectures do not need my praise or recommendation to those who wish to study this or almost any other branch of Mathematical Science.

For one very elegant Article I am indebted to my excellent friend John C. S. Lefevre, Esq. M. Cuvier's valuable Work on Comparative Anatomy, has furnished some details on the subject of the Eye, which I hope will not be thought misplaced.

I am afraid it will be said that many of the Figures are too small, or not sufficiently clear: the student may in some measure correct this defect, by copying them for himself on a larger scale, which I hope he will find no difficulty in doing, with the assistance of the descriptions.

Au reste, the reader whom according to the usual courtesy of Authors, I will suppose as benevolent as possible, will be pleased to remember that this is my first public appearance before the world in print, and that it may be his fault if it be the last, so that I pray him to regard my weaknesses with a lenient eye, and if he should find any one passage in the Book, which he may judge praiseworthy, to accept it as an omen