Mechanics, Volume I

Your efforts and cares—directed as much toward the cultivation and advancement of every kind of science and artoriginal: "scientias et artes" as toward raising the academy to the highest peak of prosperity—are such that all who cherish these pursuits owe You much, but the members of the academy owe you the most. We can therefore certainly hope for the greatest and most fortunate success in the future, because it has pleased the August Empress, our Most Clement SovereignLikely referring to Empress Elizabeth or Catherine the Great, depending on the specific date of the Petersburg Academy publication, in accordance with Her supreme inclination toward studies, to entrust the care of the academy of sciences to You above all others, and to appoint You as the arbiter and judge of our labors. You have thus resolved to discharge this duty in such a way that, before all else, you might reform the state of the Academy according to its founding principles and restore it to its proper order; and further, that every member of the academy should devote all zeal and effort both to teaching and to perfecting the sciences. To the execution of these duties, you not only rouse everyone by Your own example and authority, but also, from the supreme munificence of the August Empress, you generously supply whatever is necessary. Indeed, in this treatise on motion, [I have sought to satisfy] both of these...