LXVI. Observations on a clock of Mr. John Shelton, made at St. Helena: In a letter to the Right Honourable Lord Charles Cavendish, Vice-President of the Royal Society, from the Reverend Nevil Maskelyne, M. A. F. R. S

Abstract

My Lord, When we reflect upon the great degree of perfection, to which the sciences are at present brought, and, at the same time, consider from what low beginnings in former times they have arisen to this hight, we are apt to please ourselves with the idea of a certain kind of superiority, which we imagine we enjoy above the learned, who have gone before us.