Page:A Treatise of the Mechanical Powers - Motte - 1733.djvu/8

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PREFACE

THE Reader will meet in the Title-Page with an account of the Occaſion that gave birth to the following Treatiſe. Thus much farther it may not be amiſs to take notice of that as it was written to be deliver'd by word of mouth only, the Writer thought it beſt to put what he had to ſay into a continued Diſcourſe, and not into the Form uſed by Mathematicians; making it his Endeavour to find a way of Expreſion as familiar and approaching to common Speech as he could conveniently; aiming throughout at Perſpicuity rather than Conciſeneſs. This proving not unacceptable to ſome Hearers; it was imagined that it might chance to fall in with the Taſte of other perſons.

It may not be unfit to Jay a few words here concerning the Manner, in which this Treatiſe is diſpoſed. And firſt it

be-