Page:The Analyst; or, a Discourse Addressed to an Infidel Mathematician.djvu/26

16 Q.E.D. But it is plain that the direct and true Method to obtain the Moment or Increment of the Rectangle AB, is to take the Sides as increaed by their whole Increments, and o multiply them together, A + a by B + b, the Product whereof AB + aB + bA + ab is the augmented Rectangle whence if we ubduct AB, the Remainder aB + bA + ab will be the true Increment of the Rectangle, exceeding that which was obtained by the former illegitimate and indirect Method by the Quantity ab. And this holds univerally be the Quantities a and b what they will, big or little, Finite or Infiniteimal, Increments, Moments, or Velocities. Nor will it avail to ay that ab is a Quantity exceeding mall: Since we are told that in rebus mathematicis errores quàm minimi non unt contemnendi. Such reaoning as this, for Demontration, nothing but the obcurity of the Subject could have encouraged or induced the great Author of the Fluxionary Method to put upon his Followers, and nothing but an implicit deference to Authority could move them to admit. The Cae indeed is difficult