University Of Glasgow Alumni

"And the best Copies of his Manuscript having been transmitted to the Publisher, it was easy, by comparing them, to establish a correct and genuine Text. There were, besides, several detached Papers, some of which were quite finished, and wanted only to be inserted in their proper Places. In a few others, the Demonstrations were so concisely expressed, and couched in Algebraical Characters, that it was necessary to write them out at more Length, to make them of a piece with the rest. And this is the only Liberty the Publisher has allowed himself to take; excepting a few inconsiderable Additions, that seemed necessary to render the Book more compleat within itself, and to save the Trouble of consulting others who have written on the same Subject."

"MR. MACLAURIN a most eminent mathematician and philosopher, was the son of a clergyman, and born at Kilmoddan, in Scotland, in the year 1698."

"He was sent to the University of Glasgow in 17Q9; where he continued five years, and applied to his studies in a very intense manner, and particulariy to the mathematics."

"His great genius for mathematical learning discovered itself... at twelve years of age; when, having accidentally met with a copy of Euclid's Elements in a friend's chamber, he became in a few days master of the first 6 books without... assistance: and... in his 16th year he had invented many of the propositions which were afterwards published as part of his work entitled Geometria Organica."

"After this he quitted the University, and retired to a country seat of his uncle, who had the care of his education; his parents being dead some time."

"Here he spent two or three years in pursuing his favourite studies; but, in 1717, at 19 years of age... he offered himself a candidate for the Professorship of Mathematics in the of , and obtained it after a ten days' trial against a very able competitor."

"In 1719... Maclaurin visited London... where he became acquainted with Dr. Hoadley... Bishop of Bangor, Dr. Clarke, Sir Isaac Newton, and other eminent men; at which time... he was admitted... [to] the ..."

"In 172S, Lord Polwarth... engaged Maclaurin to go as a tutor and companion to his eldest son... on his travels. After... Paris, and... other towns in France, they fixed in Lorrain; where he wrote his piece, On the Percussion of Bodies, which gained... the prize of the Royal Academy of Sciences... 1724. But his pupil dying soon after at Montpelier, he returned... to his profession at Aberdeen."

"He was hardly settled... when he received an invitation to Edinburgh... University... that he should supply the place of Mr. James Gregory, whose great age and infirmities had rendered him incapable of teaching."

"He had here some difficulties to encounter, arising from competitors... and... from the want of an additional fund... which, however, at length were all surmmounted, principally by the means of Sir Isaac Newton."

"[M]athematical classes soon became very numerous... generally upwards of 100 students attending his Lectures... who being of different standings and proficiency, he was obliged to divide them into four or five classes..."

"In the first class he taught the first 6 books of Euclid's Elements, Plane Trigonometry, Practical Geometry, the Elements of Fortification, and an Introduction to Algebra. The second class studied Algebra, with the 11th and 12th books of Euclid, Spherical Trigonometry, Conic Sections, and the General Principles of Astronomy. The third... in Astronomy and Perspective... a part of Newton's Principia, and... experiments... illustrating them: he afterwards... demonstrated the Elements of Fluxions. Those in the fourth class read a System of Fluxions, the Doctrine of Chances, and the remainder of Newton's Principia."

"In 1734, Dr. Berkley, , published a piece called ... which he took occasion, from... disputes... concerning the grounds of the fluxionary method, to explode the method... and... charge mathematicians... with infidelity in religion."

"Maclaurin thought himself included in this charge, and began an answer to Berkley's book: but [so many] other answers... discoveries... new theories and problems occurred to him, that, instead of a vindicatory pamphlet he produced a Complete System of Fluxions, with their application to the most considerable problems in Geometry and Natural Philosophy."

"This work was published at Edinburgh in 1742, 2 vol. 4to.; and as it cost him infinite pains, so it is the most considerable of all his works, and will do him immortal honour, being indeed the most complete treatise on that science... yet..."

"In the mean time, he was continually obliging the public with some observation or performance of his own, several of which were published in the 5th and 6th volumes of the Medical Essays at Edinburgh."

"Many... were... published in the Philosophical Transactions; as the following: 1. On the Construction and Measure of Curves, vol. 30.---2. A New Method of describing all Kinds of Curves, vol. 30.---3. On Equations with impossible Roots, vol. 34.---4. On the Roots of Equations, &c. vol. 34.---5. On the Description of Curve Lines^ vol. 39.---6. Continuation of the same, vol. 39.---7. Observations on a Solar Eclipse, vol. 40.---8. A Rule for finding the Meridional Parts of a Spheroid with the same Exactness as in a Sphere, vol. 41.---9. An Account of the Treatise of Fluxions, vol. 42.---10. On the Bases of the Cells where the Bees deposit their Honey, vol. 42."

"[H]e was always ready to lend his assistance in contriving and promoting any scheme which might contribute to the public service."

"When the Earl of Morton went... 1789, to... his estates in Orkney and Shetland, he requested... Maclaurin to assist him in settling the geography... very erroneous in all our maps; to examine their natural history, to survey the coasts, and to take the measure of a degree of the meridian. ...[F]amily affairs would not permit him to comply... [so] he drew up a memorial of what he thought necessary to be observed, and furnished proper instruments... recommending Mr. Short, the noted optician, as... operator..."

"Mr. Maclaurin had... another scheme for the improvement of geography and navigation... the opening of a passage from Greenland to the South Sea by the North Pole. That such a passage might be found, he was so fully persuaded, that he used to say, if his situation could admit... he would undertake the voyage even at his own charge."

"But when schemes... were laid before the Parliament in 1744, and... before he could finish the memorials he proposed to send, the premium was limited to the... North West passage: and he used to regret that the word West was inserted, because he thought that passage, if at all to be found, must lie not far from the Pole."

"In 1745, having been... active in fortifying the city of Edinburgh against the rebel army, he was obliged to fly from thence into England, where he was invited by Dr. Herring, Archbishop of York, to reside with him... however, being exposed to cold and hardships, and... of a weak and tender constitution... much more enfeebled by close application to study, he laid the foundation of an ilness which put an end to his life in June 1746, at 48 years of age, leaving his widow with two sons and three daughters."

"Mr. Maclaorin was a very good as well as a very great man, and worthy of love as well as admiration."

"His... merit as a philosopher was, that all his studies were accommodated to general utility; and we find, in many places of his works, an application even of the most absruse theories to the perfecting of mechanical arts. For the same purpose, he had resolved to compose a course of Practical Mathematics, and to rescue several useful branches of the science from the ill treatment... often met with in less skilful hands. These intentions... were prevented fay his death; unless we... reckon, as a part of his intended work, the translation of... David Gregory's Practical Geometry, which he revised, and published with additions, in 1745."

"In his life-time..., he had frequent opportunities of serving his friends and his country by his great skill."

"Whatever difficulty occurred concerning the constructing or perfecting of machines, the working of mines, the improving of manufactures, the conveying of water, or the execution of any public work, he was always ready to resolve it."

"He was employed to terminate some disputes of consequence that had arisen at Glasgow concerning the gauging of vessels; and for that purpose, presented to the commissioners of the excise two elaborate memorials, with their demonstrations, containing rules by which the officers now act."

"He made... calculations relating to the provision, now established by law, for the children and widows of the Scotch clergy, and of the professors in the Universities, entitling them to certain annuities and sums upon the voluntary annual payment of a certain sum by the incumbent. In contriving and adjusting this wise and useful scheme he bestowed a great deal of labour, and contributed not a little towards bringing it to perfection."

"In 1740, he... shared the prize of the... [Royal] Academy with ... D. Bernoulli and Euler, for resolving the problem relating to the motion of the tides from the theory of gravity... He bad only ten days to draw up this paper in, and could not... transcribe a fair copy; so ... the Paris edition... is incorrect. He afterwards revised the whole, and inserted it in his Treatise of Fluxions."

"Since his death... two... volumes have appeared; his Algebra, and his Account of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophical Discoveries."

"The Algebra, though not finished by himself, is... excellent in its kind; containing, in no large volume, a complete elementary treatise of that science, as far as it has hitherto beea carried; besides some neat analytical papers on curve lines."

"His Account of Newton's Philosophy was occasioned in the following manner:---Sir Isaac dying in the beginning of 1728, his nephew, Mr. Conduitt, proposed to publish an Account of his Life, and desired Mr. Maclaurin's assistance. The latter, out of gratitude to his great benefactor, cheerfully undertook, and soon finished, the History of the Progress which Philosophy had made before Newton's time; and this was the first draught of the work in hand, which, not going forward on account of Mr. Conduitt's death, was returned to Mr. Maclaurin. To this he afterwards made great additions, and left; it in the state in which y it now appears."

"His main design seems to have been to explain only those parts off Newton's Philosophy which have been controverted: and this is supposed to be the reason why his grand discoveries concerning light and colours, are but transiently and generally touched upon; for it is known, that whenever the experiments, on which his doctrine of light and colours is foimded, had been repeated with due care, this doctrine had not been contested; while his accounting for the celestial motions, and the other great appearances of nature, from gravity, had been misunderstood, and even attempted to be ridiculed."

"We are now seeing the culmination of not years, actually decades of anti-migrant, anti-Muslim rhetoric being normalised in our political discourse now playing out in the most violent way possible."

"I was born in Scotland, raised in Scotland, educated in Scotland, just welcomed my third child here in Scotland. Was leader of the Scottish government for just over a year, leader of the Scottish National Party. You cut me open and I'm about as Scottish as they come but the truth of the matter is I don't whether the future for me, and my wife and three children is going to be here in Scotland, the United Kingdom or indeed in Europe and the west."

"I think political leaders should stop beating around the bush, should call what they’re seeing in Gaza. We are seeing not only a humanitarian crisis, but also seeing senior members of the Netanyahu government making statements that are frankly the textbook definition of ethnic cleansing. And that should be condemned in the strongest possible manner."

"Let me be clear: Scotland is ready to play her part. Our hospitals will treat the injured men, women and children of Gaza where we can."

"You haven't managed to ever get elected to the Scottish Parliament like me. And I suspect the voters of Scotland will show you the cat flap again come May 6. When you are shown the door, please take your race-baiting "You're not a Celt like me" mince with you."

"I sat through the first act and heard my lovely lines falling like cold porridge on a damp mattress."

"It's time we went back to a proper Brexit."

"We don't want there to be a hard border but the United Kingdom is going to be leaving the single market and customs union."

"There is a 60‑40 chance of no-deal Brexit."

"a customs union means no independent trade policy"

"You've got a Leave population and a Remain Parliament."

"Parliament has not got the right to hijack the Brexit process because Parliament has said to the people of this country: 'We make a contract with you, you will make the decision and we will honour it.' What we are now getting are some of those who were always absolutely opposed to the result of the referendum, trying to hijack Brexit and, in fact, steal the result from the people."

"To attempt to have a delay mechanism in order to thwart the process of Brexit itself is actually politically completely unacceptable"

"Most new immigrants move into the private rented sector which has grown as the immigrant population has grown. Competition for rented accommodation obliges all those in the private rented sector to pay high rents which take a large share of income and makes saving to buy a home even harder. These resulting high rents and a shortage of housing make it much more difficult for young people to set up home on their own so they have to spend more time in house shares or with their parents."

"This country is not the free-trading nation it once was. We have become too lazy, and too fat on our successes in previous generations, companies who could be contributing to our national prosperity - but choose not to because it might be too difficult or too time-consuming or because they can't play golf on a Friday afternoon - we've got to be saying to them if you want to share in the prosperity of our country you have a duty to contribute to the prosperity of our country."

"As a newly independent WTO member outside the EU, we will continue to fight for trade liberalisation as well as potentially helping developing markets trade their way out of poverty by giving them preferential access to our markets. I believe the UK is in a prime position to become a world leader in free trade because of the brave and historic decision of the British people to leave the European Union. We are leaving the EU, we are not leaving Europe and we are ready to take our place in an open, liberal and competitive globalised trading environment."

"The free trade agreement that we will have to do with the European Union should be one of the easiest in human history.../ /....The only reason that we wouldn’t come to a free and open agreement is because politics gets in the way of economics."