ROBINS, BENJAMIN, a celebrated English mathe matician, was born at Bath in the year 1707. Although his parents, who were Quakers, were not able to give him much education, yet, from the native vigour of his own mind, he initiated himself into various branches of knowledge, particularly mathematics. His friends being desirous that he should be brought into notice, wished him to settle in London as a teacher of mathe matics, and contrived to get him introduced to Dr. Pem berton, who conceived a high opinion of his mathema tical acquirements.
Robins accordingly went to London, and began to fit himself for the duties of a teacher, by perusing the writings of the most celebrated mathematicians. In the course of these studies, he was led to demonstrate the last proposition of Sir Isaac Newton's Treatise on Qua dratures, which appeared in the Philosophical Trans actions, for 1727. In the following year, he pub lished " The Present State of the Republic of Letters, in Refutation of the Dissertation of John Bernouilli on the Laws of Impact in Moving Bodies," which had lost the offered by the Academy of Sciences in 1726.
Having thus brought himself into notice as an able mathematician, Robins laid aside the dress of a Qua ker, and began to take mathematical pupils. The ac tivity of his mind, however, did not allow him to be satisfied with his theoretical studies. He began a series of elaborate experiments in gunnery, with the view of establishing the great influence of the resist ance of the air upon projectiles. He also directed his attention to the various branches of civil engineering, and he made several tours to Flanders, for the purpose of studying the subject of fortification.
Upon his return from one of these journeys into Flanders, in 1734, he found the scientific world thrown into a state of alarm by the appearance of Dr. Berke ley's Analyst, in which that ingenious author attempted to refute the Newtonian doctrine of fluxions. Robins was requested to devote himself to its defence, and he accordingly published, in 1735, " A Discourse con cerning the Nature and the Certainty of Sir Isaac New ton's Method of Fluxions, and of Prime and Ultimate Ratios." Some exception was taken at this defence,
even by some of the friends of the fluxionary method, which led our author to publish two or three additional discourses on the subject.
In the year 1738, Robins defended Newton against an objection in Baxter's Matho; and, in 1739, he pub lished his remarks on Euler's Treatise on Motion; on Smith's System of Optics; and on Ju•in's Essay upon Distinct and Indistinct Vision, published at the end of the last of these works.
Robins did not confine his talents to their proper sphere of mathematics and natural philosophy. He took a keen part in the politics of the day, and com posed three pamphlets on the affairs of the times. The first was " Observations on the present Convention with Spain;" the second a "A''arrative of what passed in the Common Hall, and the Citizens of London assem bled for the Election of a Lord .Mayor;" and the third was an " ?fddress to the Electors and other free Subjects of Great Britain, occasioned by the late succession; in which is contained a particular *count of all our .Nego tiations with Spain, and their treatment of us for above 4en years past." The first and third of these pamph lets, which were anonymous, were so much thought of that they were deemed to be the productions of Mr. Pulteney, who was then the great opponent of Sir Ro bert Walpole. When Sir Robert was defeated by the opposition, Robins was chosen secretary to the Com mittee of the House of Commons that was appointed to examine into the conduct of the minister.
In 1742, Robins published his " X"w Principles of Gunnery,"* containing the result of his experiments on the force of gun-powder; on the resistance of the air in swift and slow motions ; with an introductory history of modern fortification; of the invention of gun-powder, and of the theory of gunnery.