from approaching into contact; the next, a sphere of attraction,
diffused around this of repulsion, by which the particles are disposed to
run together into drops; and the outermost of all, a sphere of repulsion,
whereby they repel each other, when removed out of the attraction.' So that
between the _urgings_, and _solicitations_, of one and t'other, a poor
unhappy particle must ever be at his wit's end, not knowing which way to
turn, or whom to obey first."

Rowning has here started the notion which Boscovich[341] afterwards
developed.

I may add to what precedes that it cannot be settled that, as Granger[342]
says, Desaguliers was the first who gave experimental lectures in London.
William Whiston gave some, and Francis Hauksbee[343] made the experiments.
The prospectus, as we should now call it, is extant, a quarto tract of
plates and descriptions, without date. Whiston, in his life, {157} gives
1714 as the first date of publication, and therefore, no doubt, of the
lectures. Desaguliers removed to London soon after 1712, and commenced his
lectures soon after that. It will be rather a nice point to settle which
lectured first; probabilities seem to go in favor of Whiston.

FALLACIES IN A THEORY OF ANNUITIES.

An Essay to ascertain the value of leases, and annuities for years and
lives. By W[eyman] L[ee]. London, 1737, 8vo.

A valuation of Annuities and Leases certain, for a single life. By
Weyman Lee, Esq. of the Inner Temple. London, 1751, 8vo. Third edition,
1773.

Every branch of exact science has its paradoxer. The world at large cannot
tell with certainty who is right in such questions as squaring the circle,
etc. Mr. Weyman Lee[344] was the assailant of what all who had studied
called demonstration in the question of annuities. He can be exposed to the
world: for his error arose out of his not being able to see that the whole
is the sum of all its parts.

By an annuity, say of L100, now bought, is meant that the buyer is to have
for his money L100 in a year, if he be then alive, L100 at the end of two
years, if then alive, and so on. It is clear that he would buy a life
annuity if he should buy the first L100 in one office, the second in
another, and so on. All the difference between buying the whole from one
office and buying all the separate contingent payments at different
offices, is immaterial to calculation. Mr. Lee would have agreed with the
rest of the world about the payme