Epitome de mathematiques. Par F. Jacotot,[606] Avocat. 3ieme edition,
Paris, 1830, 8vo. (pp. 18).
Methode Jacotot. Choix de propositions mathematiques. Par P. Y.
Sepres.[607] 2nde edition. Paris, 1830, 8vo. (pp. 82).
Of Jacotot's method, which had some vogue in Paris, the principle was _Tout
est dans tout_,[608] and the process _Apprendre quelque chose, et a y
rapporter tout le reste_.[609] The first tract has a proposition in conic
sections and its preliminaries: the second has twenty exercises, of which
the first is finding the greatest common measure of two numbers, and the
last is the motion of a point on a surface, acted on by given forces. This
is topped up with the problem of sound in a tube, and a slice of Laplace's
theory of the tides. All to be studied until known by heart, and all the
rest will come, or at least join on easily when it comes. There is much
truth in the assertion that new knowledge {279} hooks on easily to a little
of the old, thoroughly mastered. The day is coming when it will be found
out that crammed erudition, got up for examinations, does not cast out any
hooks for more.
Lettre a MM. les Membres de l'Academie Royale des Sciences, contenant
un developpement de la refutation du systeme de la gravitation
universelle, qui leur a ete presentee le 30 aout, 1830. Par Felix
Passot.[610] Paris, 1830, 8vo.
Works of this sort are less common in France than in England. In France
there is only the Academy of Sciences to go to: in England there is a
reading public out of the Royal Society, &c.