Chapter XV: Part 15

[259] Besides the _Opus majus_, and other of the better known works of this celebrated Franciscan (1214-1294), there are numerous tracts on alchemy that appeared in the _Thesaurus chymicus_ (Frankfort, 1603).

[260] George Starkey (1606-1665 or 1666) has special interest for American readers. He seems to have been born in the Bermudas and to have obtained the bachelor's degree in England. He then went to America and in 1646 obtained the master's degree at Harvard, apparently under the name of Stirk. He met Eirenaeus Philalethes (see note 254 above) in America and learned alchemy from him. Returning to England, he sold quack medicines there, and died in 1666 from the plague after dissecting a patient who had died of the disease. Among his works was the _Liquor Alcahest, or a Discourse of that Immortal Dissolvent of Paracelsus and Helmont_, which appeared (1675) some nine years after his death.

[261] Platt (1552-1611) was the son of a London brewer. Although he left a manuscript on alchemy, and wrote a book entitled _Delights for Ladies to adorne their Persons_ (1607), he was knighted for some serious work on the chemistry of agriculture, fertilizing, brewing, and the preserving of foods, published in _The Jewell House of Art and Nature_ (1594).

[262] "Those who wish to call a man a liar and deceiver speak of him a writer of almanacs; but those who (would call him) a scoundrel and an imposter (speak of him as) a chemist."

[263] "Trust your barque to the winds but not your body to a chemist; any breeze is safer than the faith of a chemist."

[264] Probably the Jesuit, Pere Claude Francois Menestrier (1631-1705), a well known historian.

[265] The author was Christopher Nesse (1621-1705), a belligerent Calvinist, who wrote many controversial works and succeeded in getting excommunicated four times. One of his most virulent works was _A Protestant Antidote against the Poison of Popery_.

[266] John Case (c. 1660-1700) was a famous astrologer and physician. He succeeded to Lilly's practice in London. In a darkened room, wherein he kept an array of mystical apparatus, he pretended to show the credulous the ghosts of their departed relatives. Besides his astrological works he wrote one serious treatise, the _Compendium Anatomicum nova methodo institutum_ (1695), in which he defends Harvey's theories of embryology.

[267] Marcelis (1636-after 1714) was a soap maker of Amsterdam. It is to be hoped that he made better soap than values of [pi].

[268] John Craig (died in 1731) was a Scotchman, but most of his life was spent at Cambridge reading and writing on mathematics. He endeavored to introduce the Leibnitz differential calculus into England. His mathematical works include the _Methodus Figurarum ... Quadraturas determinandi_ (1685), _Tractatus ... de Figurarum Curvilinearum Quadraturis et locis Geometricis_ (1693), and _De Calculo Fluentium libri duo_ (1718).

[269] As is well known, this subject owes much to the Bernoullis. Craig's works on the calculus brought him into controversy with them. He also wrote on other subjects in which they were interested, as in his memoir _On the Curve of the quickest descent_ (1700), _On the Solid of least resistance_ (1700), and the _Solution of Bernoulli's problem on Curves_ (1704).

[270] This is Samuel Lee (1783-1852), the young prodigy in languages. He was apprenticed to a carpenter at twelve and learned Greek while working at the trade. Before he was twenty-five he knew Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Samaritan, Persian, and Hindustani. He later became Regius professor of Hebrew at Cambridge.

[271] "Where the devil, Master Ludovico, did you pick up such a collection?"

[272] Lord William Brounker (c. 1620-1684), the first president of the Royal Society, is best known in mathematics for his contributions to continued fractions.

[273] Horace Walpole (1717-1797) published his _Catalogue of the Royal and Noble Authors of England_ in 1758. Since his time a number of worthy names in the domain of science in general and of mathematics in particular might be added from the peerage of England.

[274] It was written by Charles Hayes (1678-1760), a mathematician and scholar of no mean attainments. He travelled extensively, and was deputy governor of the Royal African Company. His _Treatise on Fluxions_ (London, 1704) was the first work in English to explain Newton's calculus. He wrote a work entitled _The Moon_ (1723) to prove that our satellite shines by its own as well as by reflected light. His _Chronographia Asiatica & Aegyptica_ (1758) gives the results of his travels.

[275] _Publick_ in the original.

[276] Whiston (1667-1752) succeeded Newton as Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge. In 1710 he turned Arian and was expelled from the university. His work on _Primitive Christianity_ appeared the following year. He wrote many works on astronomy and religion.

[277] Ditton (1675-1715) was, on Newton's recommendation, made Head of the mathematical school at Christ's Hospital, London. He wrote a work on fluxions (1706). His idea for finding longitude at sea was to place stations in the Atlantic to fire off bombs at regular intervals, the time between the sound and the flash giving the distance. He also corresponded with Huyghens concerning the use of chronometers for the purpose.

[278] This was John Arbuthnot (c. 1658-1735), the mathematician, physician and wit. He was intimate with Pope and Swift, and was Royal physician to Queen Anne. Besides various satires he published a translation of Huyghens's work on probabilities (1692) and a well-known treatise on ancient coins, weights, and measures (1727).

[279] Greene (1678-1730) was a very eccentric individual and was generally ridiculed by his contemporaries. In his will he directed that his body be dissected and his skeleton hung in the library of King's College, Cambridge. Unfortunately for his fame, this wish was never carried out.

[280] This was the historian, Robert Sanderson (1660-1741), who spent most of his life at Cambridge.

[281] I presume this was William Jones (1675-1749) the friend of Newton and Halley, vice-president of the Royal Society, in whose _Synopsis Palmariorum Matheseos_ (1706) the symbol [pi] is first used for the circle ratio.

[282] This was the _Geometrica solidorum, sive materiae, seu de varia compositione, progressione, rationeque velocitatum_, Cambridge, 1712. The work was parodied in _A Taste of Philosophical Fanaticism ... by a gentleman of the University of Gratz_.

[283] The antiquary and scientist (1690-1754), president of the Royal Society, member of the Academie, friend of Newton, and authority on numismatics.

[284] She was Catherine Barton, Newton's step-niece. She married John Conduitt, master of the mint, who collected materials for a life of Newton.

_A propos_ of Mrs. Conduitt's life of her illustrious uncle, Sir George Greenhill tells a very good story on Poincare, the well-known French mathematician. At an address given by the latter at the International Congress of Mathematicians held in Rome in 1908 he spoke of the story of Newton and the apple as a mere fable. After the address Sir George asked him why he had done so, saying that the story was first published by Voltaire, who had heard it from Newton's niece, Mrs. Conduitt. Poincare looked blank and said, "Newton, et la niece de Newton, et Voltaire,--non! je ne vous comprends pas!" He had thought Sir George meant Professor Volterra of Rome, whose name in French is Voltaire, and who could not possibly have known a niece of Newton without bridging a century or so.

[285] This was the Edmund Turnor (1755-1829) who wrote the _Collections for the Town and Soke of Grantham, containing authentic Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton, from Lord Portsmouth's Manuscripts_, London, 1806.

[286] It may be recalled to mind that Sir David (1781-1868) wrote a life of Newton (1855).

[287] "They are in the country. We rejoice."

[288] "I am here, chatterbox, suck!"

[289] "I have been graduated! I decline!"

[290] Giovanni Castiglioni (Castillon, Castiglione), was born at Castiglione, in Tuscany, in 1708, and died at Berlin in 1791. He was professor of mathematics at Utrecht and at Berlin. He wrote on De Moivre's equations (1762), Cardan's rule (1783), and Euclid's treatment of parallels (1788-89).

[291] This was the _Isaaci Newtoni, equitis aurati, opuscula mathematica, philosophica et philologica_, Lausannae & Genevae, 1744.

[292] At London, 4to.

[293] "All the English attribute it to Newton."

[294] Stephen Peter Rigaud (1774-1839), Savilian professor of geometry at Oxford (1810-27) and later professor of astronomy and head of the Radcliffe Observatory. He wrote _An historical Essay on first publication of Sir Isaac Newton's Principia_, Oxford, 1838, and a two-volume work entitled _Correspondence of Scientific Men of the 17th Century_, 1841.

[295] It is no longer considered by scholars as the work of Newton.

[296] J. Edleston, the author of the _Correspondence of Sir Isaac Newton and Professor Cotes_, London, 1850.

[297] Palmer (1601-1647) was Master of Queen's College, Cambridge, a Puritan but not a separatist. His work, _The Characters of a believing Christian, in Paradoxes and seeming contradictions_, appeared in 1645.

[298] Grosart (1827-1899) was a Presbyterian clergyman. He was a great bibliophile, and issued numerous reprints of rare books.

[299] This was the year after Palmer's death. The title was, _The Remaines of ... Francis Lord Verulam....; being Essays and severall Letters to severall great personages, and other pieces of various and high concernment not heretofore published_, London, 1648, 4to.

[300] Shaw (1694-1763) was physician extraordinary to George II. He wrote on chemistry and medicine, and his edition of the _Philosophical Works of Francis Bacon_ appeared at London in 1733.

[301] John Locke (1632-1704), the philosopher. This particular work appeared in 1695. There was an edition in 1834 (vol. 25 of the _Sacred Classics_) and one in 1836 (vol. 2 of the _Christian Library_).

[302] I use the word _Socinian_ because it was so much used in Locke's time: it is used in our own day by the small fry, the unlearned clergy and their immediate followers, as a term of reproach for _all_ Unitarians. I suspect they have a kind of liking for the _word_; it sounds like _so sinful_. The learned clergy and the higher laity know better: they know that the bulk of the modern Unitarians go farther than Socinus, and are not correctly named as his followers. The Unitarians themselves neither desire nor deserve a name which puts them one point nearer to orthodoxy than they put themselves. That point is the doctrine that direct prayer to Jesus Christ is lawful and desirable: this Socinus held, and the modern Unitarians do not hold. Socinus, in treating the subject in his own _Institutio_, an imperfect catechism which he left, lays much more stress on John xiv. 13 than on xv. 16 and xvi. 23. He is not disinclined to think that _Patrem_ should be in the first citation, where some put it; but he says that to ask the Father in the name of the Son is nothing but praying to the Son in prayer to the Father. He labors the point with obvious wish to secure a conclusive sanction. In the Racovian Catechism, of which Faustus Socinus probably drew the first sketch, a clearer light is arrived at. The translation says: "But wherein consists the divine honor due to Christ? In adoration likewise and invocation. For we ought at all times to adore Christ, and may in our necessities address our prayers to him as often as we please; and there are many reasons to induce us to do this freely." There are some who like accuracy, even in aspersion--A. De M.

Socinus, or Fausto Paolo Sozzini (1539-1604), was an antitrinitarian who believed in prayer and homage to Christ. Leaving Italy after his views became known, he repaired to Basel, but his opinions were too extreme even for the Calvinists. He then tried Transylvania, attempting to convert to his views the antitrinitarian Bishop David. The only result of his efforts was the imprisonment of David and his own flight to Poland, in which country he spent the rest of his life (1579-1604). His complete works appeared first at Amsterdam in 1668, in the _Bibliotheca Fratres Polonorum_. The _Racovian Catechism_ (1605) appeared after his death, but it seems to have been planned by him.

[303] "As much of faith as is necessary to salvation is contained in this article, Jesus is the Christ."

[304] Edwards (1637-1716) was a Cambridge fellow, strongly Calvinistic. He published many theological works, attacking the Arminians and Socinians. Locke and Whiston were special objects of attack.

[305] _Sir I. Newton's views on points of Trinitarian Doctrine; his Articles of Faith, and the General Coincidence of his Opinions with those of J. Locke; a Selection of Authorities, with Observations_, London, 1856.

[306] _A Confession of the Faith_, Bristol, 1752, 8vo.

[307] This was really very strange, because Laud (1573-1644), while he was Archbishop of Canterbury, forced a good deal of High Church ritual on the Puritan clergy, and even wished to compel the use of a prayer book in Scotland. It was this intolerance that led to his impeachment and execution.

[308] The name is Jonchere. He was a man of some merit, proposing (1718) an important canal in Burgundy, and publishing a work on the _Decouverte des longitudes estimees generalement impossible a trouver_, 1734 (or 1735).

[309] Locke invented a kind of an instrument for finding longitude, and it is described in the appendix, but I can find nothing about the man. There was published some years later (London, 1751) another work of his, _A new Problem to discover the longitude at sea_.

[310] Baxter, concerning whom I know merely that he was a schoolmaster, starts with the assumption of this value, and deduces from it some fourteen properties relating to the circle.

[311] John, who died in 1780, was a well-known character in his way. He was a bookseller on Fleet Street, and his shop was a general rendezvous for the literary men of his time. He wrote the _Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Mr. William Whiston_ (1749, with another edition in 1753). He was one of the first to issue regular catalogues of books with prices affixed.

[312] The name appears both as Hulls and as Hull. He was born in Gloucestershire in 1699. In 1754 he published _The Art of Measuring made Easy by the help of a new Sliding Scale_.

[313] Thomas Newcomen (1663-1729) invented the first practical steam engine about 1710. It was of about five and a half horse power, and was used for pumping water from coal mines. Savery had described such an engine in 1702, but Newcomen improved upon it and made it practical.

[314] The well-known benefactor of art (1787-1863).

[315] The tract was again reprinted in 1860.

[316] Hulls made his experiment on the Avon, at Evesham, in 1737, having patented his machine in 1736. He had a Newcomen engine connected with six paddles. This was placed in the front of a small tow boat. The experiment was a failure.

[317] William Symington (1763-1831). In 1786 he constructed a working model of a steam road carriage. The machinery was applied to a small boat in 1788, and with such success as to be tried on a larger boat in 1789. The machinery was clumsy, however, and in 1801 he took out a new patent for the style of engine still used on paddle wheel steamers. This engine was successfully used in 1802, on the Charlotte Dundas. Fulton (1765-1815) was on board, and so impressed Robert Livingston with the idea that the latter furnished the money to build the Clermont (1807), the beginning of successful river navigation.

[318] Louis Bertrand Castel (1688-1757), most of whose life was spent in trying to perfect his _Clavecin oculaire_, an instrument on the order of the harpsichord, intended to produce melodies and harmonies of color. He also wrote _L'Optique des couleurs_ (1740) and _Sur le fond de la Musique_ (1754).

[319] Dr. Robinson (1680-1754) was professor of physic at Trinity College, Dublin, and three times president of King and Queen's College of Physicians. In his _Treatise on the Animal Economy_ (1732-3, with a third edition in 1738) he anticipated the discoveries of Lavoisier and Priestley on the nature of oxygen.

[320] There was another edition, published at London in 1747, 8vo.

[321] The author seems to have shot his only bolt in this work. I can find nothing about him.

[322] _Quod Deus sit, mundusque ab ipso creatus fuerit in tempore, ejusque providentia gubernetur. Selecta aliquot theoremata adversos atheos_, etc., Paris, 1635, 4to.

[323] The British Museum Catalogue mentions a copy of 1740, but this is possibly a misprint.

[324] This was Johann II (1710-1790), son of Johann I, who succeeded his father as professor of mathematics at Basel.

[325] Samuel Koenig (1712-1757), who studied under Johann Bernoulli I. He became professor of mathematics at Franeker (1747) and professor of philosophy at the Hague (1749).

[326] "In accordance with the hypotheses laid down in this memoir it is so evident that t must = 34, y = 1, and z = 1, that there is no need of proof or authority for it to be recognized by every one."

[327] "I subscribe to the judgment of Mr. Bernoulli as a result of these hypotheses."

[328] "It clearly appears from my present analysis and demonstration that they have already recognized and perfectly agreed to the fact that the quadrature of the circle is mathematically demonstrated."

[329] Dr. Knight (died in 1772) made some worthy contributions to the literature of the mariner's compass. As De Morgan states, he was librarian of the British Museum.

[330] Sir Anthony Panizzi (1797-1879) fled from Italy under sentence of death (1822). He became assistant (1831) and chief (1856) librarian of the British Museum, and was knighted in 1869. He began the catalogue of printed books of the Museum.

[331] Wright (1711-1786) was a physicist. He was offered the professorship of mathematics at the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg but declined to accept it. This work is devoted chiefly to the theory of the Milky Way, the _via lactea_ as he calls it after the manner of the older writers.

[332] Troughton (1753-1835) was one of the world's greatest instrument makers. He was apprenticed to his brother John, and the two succeeded (1770) Wright and Cole in Fleet Street. Airy called his method of graduating circles the greatest improvement ever made in instrument making. He constructed (1800) the first modern transit circle, and his instruments were used in many of the chief observatories of the world.

[333] William Simms (1793-1860) was taken into partnership by Troughton (1826) after the death of the latter's brother. The firm manufactured some well-known instruments.

[334] This was George Horne (1730-1792), fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, vice-Chancellor of the University (1776), Dean of Canterbury (1781), and Bishop of Norwich (1790). He was a great satirist, but most of his pamphlets against men like Adam Smith, Swedenborg, and Hume, were anonymous, as in the case of this one against Newton. He was so liberal in his attitude towards the Methodists that he would not have John Wesley forbidden to preach in his diocese. He was twenty-one when this tract appeared.

[335] Martin (1704-1782) was by no means "old Benjamin Martin" when Horne wrote this pamphlet in 1749. In fact he was then only forty-five. He was a physicist and a well-known writer on scientific instruments. He also wrote _Philosophia Britannica or a new and comprehensive system of the Newtonian Philosophy_ (1759).

[336] Jean Theophile Desaguliers, or Des Aguliers (1683-1744) was the son of a Protestant who left France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. He became professor of physics at Oxford, and afterwards gave lectures in London. Later he became chaplain to the Prince of Wales. He published several works on physics.

[337] Charles Hutton (1737-1823), professor of mathematics at Woolwich (1772-1807). His _Mathematical Tables_ (1785) and _Mathematical and Philosophical Dictionary_ (1795-1796) are well known.

[338] James Epps (1773-1839) contributed a number of memoirs on the use and corrections of instruments. He was assistant secretary of the Astronomical Society.

[339] John Hutchinson (1674-1737) was one of the first to try to reconcile the new science of geology with Genesis. He denied the Newtonian hypothesis as dangerous to religion, and because it necessitated a vacuum. He was a mystic in his interpretation of the Scriptures, and created a sect that went under the name of Hutchinsonians.

[340] John Rowning, a Lincolnshire rector, died in 1771. He wrote on physics, and published a memoir on _A machine for finding the roots of equations universally_ (1770).

[341] It is always difficult to sanction this spelling of the name of this Jesuit father who is so often mentioned in the analytic treatment of conics. He was born in Ragusa in 1711, and the original spelling was Ru[=d]er Josip Bo[vs]kovi['c]. When he went to live in Italy, as professor of mathematics at Rome (1740) and at Pavia, the name was spelled Ruggiero Giuseppe Boscovich, although Boscovicci would seem to a foreigner more natural. His astronomical work was notable, and in his _De maculis solaribus_ (1736) there is the first determination of the equator of a planet by observing the motion of spots on its surface. Boscovich came near having some contact with America, for he was delegated to observe in California the transit of Venus in 1755, being prevented by the dissolution of his order just at that time. He died in 1787, at Milan.

[342] James Granger (1723-1776) who wrote the _Biographical History of England_, London, 1769. His collection of prints was remarkable, numbering some fourteen thousand.

[343] He was curator of experiments for the Royal Society. He wrote a large number of books and monographs on physics. He died about 1713.

[344] Lee seems to have made no impression on biographers.

[345] This work appeared at London in 1852.

[346] Of course this is no longer true. The most scholarly work to-day is that of Rudio, _Archimedes, Huygens, Lambert, Legendre, vier Abhandlungen ueber die Kreismessung ... mit einer Uebersicht ueber die Geschichte des Problems von der Quadratur des Zirkels, von den aeltesten Zeiten bis auf unsere Tage_, Leipsic, 1892.

[347] Joseph Jerome le Francois de Lalande (1732-1807), professor of astronomy in the College de France (1753) and director of the Paris Observatory (1761). His writings on astronomy and his _Bibliographie astronomique, avec l'histoire de l'astronomie depuis 1781 jusqu'en 1802_ (Paris, 1803) are well known.

[348] De Morgan refers to his _Histoire de l'Astronomie au 18e siecle_, which appeared in 1827, five years after Delambre's death. Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre (1749-1822) was a pupil of and a collaborator with Lalande, following his master as professor of astronomy in the College de France. His work on the measurements for the metric system is well known, and his four histories of astronomy, _ancienne_ (1817), _au moyen age_ (1819), _moderne_ (1821), and _au 18e siecle_ (posthumous, 1827) are highly esteemed.

[349] Jean-Joseph Rive (1730-1792), a priest who left his cure under grave charges, and a quarrelsome character. His attack on Montucla was a case of the pot calling the kettle black; for while he was a brilliant writer he was a careless bibliographer.

[350] Isaac Barrow (1630-1677) was quite as well known as a theologian as he was from his Lucasian professorship of mathematics at Cambridge.

[351] "Besides we can see by this that Barrow was a poor philosopher; for he believed in the immortality of the soul and in a Divinity other than universal nature."

[352] The _Recreations mathematiques et physiques_ (Paris, 1694) of Jacques Ozanam (1640-1717) is a work that is still highly esteemed. Among various other works he wrote a _Dictionnaire mathematique ou Idee generale des mathematiques_ (1690) that was not without merit. The _Recreations_ went through numerous editions (Paris, 1694, 1696, 1741, 1750, 1770, 1778, and the Montucla edition of 1790; London, 1708, the Montucla-Hutton edition of 1803 and the Riddle edition of 1840; Dublin, 1790).

[353] Hendryk van Etten, the _nom de plume_ of Jean Leurechon (1591-1670), rector of the Jesuit college at Bar, and professor of philosophy and mathematics. He wrote on astronomy (1619) and horology (1616), and is known for his _Selecta Propositiones in tota sparsim mathematica pulcherrime propositae in solemni festo SS. Ignatii et Francesci Xaverii_, 1622. The book to which De Morgan refers is his _Recreation mathematicque, composee de plusieurs problemes plaisants et facetieux_, Lyons, 1627, with an edition at Pont-a-Mousson, 1629. There were English editions published at London in 1633, 1653, and 1674, and Dutch editions in 1662 and 1672.

I do not understand how De Morgan happened to miss owning the work by Claude Gaspar Bachet de Meziriac (1581-1638), _Problemes plaisans et delectables_, which appeared at Lyons in 1612, 8vo, with a second edition in 1624. There was a fifth edition published at Paris in 1884.

[354] His title page closes with "Paris, Chez Ch. Ant. Jombert.... M DCC LIV."

This was Charles-Antoine Jombert (1712-1784), a printer and bookseller with some taste for painting and architecture. He wrote several works and edited a number of early treatises.

[355] The late Professor Newcomb made the matter plain even to the non-mathematical mind, when he said that "ten decimal places are sufficient to give the circumference of the earth to the fraction of an inch, and thirty decimal places would give the circumference of the whole visible universe to a quantity imperceptible with the most powerful microscope."

[356] _Antinewtonianismi pars prima, in qua Newtoni de coloribus systema ex propriis principiis geometrice evertitur, et nova de coloribus theoria luculentissimis experimentis demonstrantur_.... Naples, 1754; _pars secunda_, Naples, 1756.

[357] Celestino Cominale (1722-1785) was professor of medicine at the University of Naples.

[358] The work appeared in the years from 1844 to 1849.

[359] There was a Vienna edition in 1758, 4to, and another in 1759, 4to. This edition is described on the title page as _Editio Veneta prima ipso auctore praesente, et corrigente_.

[360] The first edition was entitled _De solis ac lunae defectibus libri V. P. Rogerii Josephi Boscovich ... cum ejusdem auctoris adnotationibus_, London, 1760. It also appeared in Venice in 1761, and in French translation by the Abbe de Baruel in 1779, and was a work of considerable influence.

[361] Paulian (1722-1802) was professor of physics at the Jesuit college at Avignon. He wrote several works, the most popular of which, the _Dictionnaire de physique_ (Avignon, 1761), went through nine editions by 1789.

[362] This is correct.

[363] Probably referring to the fact that Hill (1795-1879), who had done so much for postal reform, was secretary to the postmaster general (1846), and his name was a synonym for the post office directory.

[364] Richard Lovett (1692-1780) was a good deal of a charlatan. He claimed to have studied electrical phenomena, and in 1758 advertised that he could effect marvelous cures, especially of sore throat, by means of electricity. Before publishing the works mentioned by De Morgan he had issued others of similar character, including _The Subtile Medium proved_ (London, 1756) and _The Reviewers Reviewed_ (London, 1760).

[365] Jean Sylvain Bailly (1736-1793), member of the _Academie francaise_ and of the _Academie des sciences_, first deputy elected to represent Paris in the _Etats-generaux_ (1789), president of the first National Assembly, and mayor of Paris (1789-1791). For his vigor as mayor in keeping the peace, and for his manly defence of the Queen, he was guillotined. He was an astronomer of ability, but is best known for his histories of the science.

[366] These were the _Histoire de l'Astronomie ancienne_ (1775), _Histoire de l'Astronomie moderne_ (1778-1783), _Histoire de l'Astronomie indienne et orientale_ (1787), and _Lettres sur l'origine des peuples de l'Asie_ (1775).

[367] "The sick old man of Ferney, V., a boy of a hundred years." Voltaire was born in 1694, and hence was eighty-three at this time.

[368] In Palmezeaux's _Vie de Bailly_, in Bailly's _Ouvrage Posthume_ (1810), M. de Sales is quoted as saying that the _Lettres sur l'Atlantide_ were sent to Voltaire and that the latter did not approve of the theory set forth.

[369] The British Museum catalogue gives two editions, 1781 and 1782.

[370] A mystic and a spiritualist. His chief work was the one mentioned here.

[371] Jacob Behmen, or Boehme (1575-1624), known as "the German theosophist," was founder of the sect of Boehmists, a cult allied to the Swedenborgians. He was given to the study of alchemy, and brought the vocabulary of the science into his mystic writings. His sect was revived in England in the eighteenth century through the efforts of William Law. Saint-Martin translated into French two of his Latin works under the titles _L'Aurore naissante, ou la Racine de la philosophie_ (1800), and _Les trois principes de l'essence divine_ (1802). The originals had appeared nearly two hundred years earlier,--_Aurora_ in 1612, and _De tribus principiis_ in 1619.

[372] "Unknown."

[373] "Skeptical."

[374] "Man, man, man."

[375] "Men, men, men."

[376] It is interesting to read De Morgan's argument against Saint-Martin's authorship of this work. It is attributed to Saint-Martin both by the _Biographie Universelle_ and by the _British Museum Catalogue_, and De Morgan says by "various catalogues and biographies."

[377] "To explain things by man and not man by things. _On Errors and Truth_, by a Ph.... Inc...."

[378] "If we would preserve ourselves from all illusions, and above all from the allurements of pride, by which man is so often seduced, we should never take man, but always God, for our term of comparison."

[379] "And here is found already an explanation of the numbers four and nine which caused some perplexity in the work cited above. Man is lost in passing from four to nine."

[380] Williams also took part in the preparation of some tables for the government to assist in the determination of longitude. He had published a work two years before the one here cited, on the same subject,--_An entire new work and method to discover the variation of the Earth's Diameters_, London, 1786.

[381] This is Gabriel Mouton (1618-1694), a vicar at Lyons, who suggested as a basis for a natural system of measures the _mille_, a minute of a degree of the meridian. This appeared in his _Observationes diametrorum solis et lunae apparentium, meridianarumque aliquot altitudinum cum tabula declinationum solis_.... Lyons, 1670.

[382] Jacques Cassini (1677-1756), one of the celebrated Cassini family of astronomers. After the death of his father he became director of the observatory at Paris. The basis for a metric unit was set forth by him in his _Traite de la grandeur et de la figure de la terre_, Paris, 1720. He was a prolific writer on astronomy.

[383] Alexis Jean Pierre Paucton (1732-1798). He was, for a time, professor of mathematics at Strassburg, but later (1796) held office in Paris. His leading contribution to metrology was his _Metrologie ou Traite des mesures_, Paris, 1780.

[384] He was an obscure writer, born at Deptford.

[385] He was also a writer of no scientific merit, his chief contributions being religious tracts. One of his productions, however, went through many editions, even being translated into French; _Three dialogues between a Minister and one of his Parishioners; on the true principles of Religion and salvation for sinners by Jesus Christ_. The twentieth edition appeared at Cambridge in 1786.

[386] This was the _Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the proceedings in certain societies in London relative to that event_ (London, 1790) by Edmund Burke (1729-1797). Eleven editions of the work appeared the first year.

[387] Paine (1736-1809) was born in Norfolkshire, of Quaker parents. He went to America at the beginning of the Revolution and published, in January 1776, a violent pamphlet entitled _Common Sense_. He was a private soldier under Washington, and on his return to England after the war he published _The Rights of Man_. He was indicted for treason and was outlawed to France. He was elected to represent Calais at the French convention, but his plea for moderation led him perilously near the guillotine. His _Age of Reason_ (1794) was dedicated to Washington. He returned to America in 1802 and remained there until his death.

[388] Part I appeared in 1791 and was so popular that eight editions appeared in that year. It was followed in 1792 by Part II, of which nine editions appeared in that year. Both parts were immediately republished in Paris, and there have been several subsequent editions.

[389] Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) was only thirty-three when this work came out. She had already published _An historical and moral View of the Origin and Progress of the French Revolution_ (1790), and _Original Stories from Real Life_ (1791). She went to Paris in 1792 and remained during the Reign of Terror.

[390] Samuel Parr (1747-1827) was for a time head assistant at Harrow (1767-1771), afterwards headmaster in other schools. At the time this book was written he was vicar of Hatton, where he took private pupils (1785-1798) to the strictly limited number of seven. He was a violent Whig and a caustic writer.

[391] On Mary Wollstonecraft's return from France she married (1797) William Godwin (1756-1836). He had started as a strong Calvinistic Nonconformist minister, but had become what would now be called an anarchist, at least by conservatives. He had written an _Inquiry concerning Political Justice_ (1793) and a novel entitled _Caleb Williams, or Things as they are_ (1794), both of which were of a nature to attract his future wife.

[392] This child was a daughter. She became Shelley's wife, and Godwin's influence on Shelley was very marked.

[393] This was John Nichols (1745-1826), the publisher and antiquary. He edited the _Gentleman's Magazine_ (1792-1826) and his works include the _Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century_ (1812-1815), to which De Morgan here refers.

[394] William Bellenden, a Scotch professor at the University of Paris, who died about 1633. His textbooks are now forgotten, but Parr edited an edition of his works in 1787. The Latin preface, _Praefatio ad Bellendum de Statu_, was addressed to Burke, North, and Fox, and was a satire on their political opponents.

[395] As we have seen, he had been head-master before he began taking "his handful of private pupils."

[396] The story has evidently got mixed up in the telling, for Tom Sheridan (1721-1788), the great actor, was old enough to have been Dr. Parr's father. It was his son, Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816), the dramatist and politician, who was the pupil of Parr. He wrote _The Rivals_ (1775) and _The School for Scandal_ (1777) soon after Parr left Harrow.

[397] Horner (1785-1864) was a geologist and social reformer. He was very influential in improving the conditions of child labor.

[398] William Cobbett (1762-1835), the journalist, was a character not without interest to Americans. Born in Surrey, he went to America at the age of thirty and remained there eight years. Most of this time he was occupied as a bookseller in Philadelphia, and while thus engaged he was fined for libel against the celebrated Dr. Rush. On his return to England he edited the _Weekly Political Register_ (1802-1835), a popular journal among the working classes. He was fined and imprisoned for two years because of his attack (1810) on military flogging, and was also (1831) prosecuted for sedition. He further showed his paradox nature by his _History of the Protestant Reformation_ (1824-1827), an attack on the prevailing Protestant opinion. He also wrote a _Life of Andrew Jackson_ (1834). After repeated attempts he succeeded in entering parliament, a result of the Reform Bill.

[399] Robinson (1735-1790) was a Baptist minister who wrote several theological works and a number of hymns. His work at Cambridge so offended the students that they at one time broke up the services.

[400] This work had passed through twelve editions by 1823.

[401] Dyer (1755-1841), the poet and reformer, edited Robinson's _Ecclesiastical Researches_ (1790). He was a life-long friend of Charles Lamb, and in their boyhood they were schoolmates at Christ's Hospital. His _Complaints of the Poor People of England_ (1793) made him a worthy companion of the paradoxers above mentioned.

[402] These were John Thelwall (1764-1834) whose _Politics for the People or Hogswash_ (1794) took its title from the fact that Burke called the people the "swinish multitude." The book resulted in sending the author to the Tower for sedition. In 1798 he gave up politics and started a school of elocution which became very famous. Thomas Hardy (1752-1832), who kept a bootmaker's shop in Piccadilly, was a fellow prisoner with Thelwall, being arrested for high treason. He was founder (1792) of The London Corresponding Society, a kind of clearing house for radical associations throughout the country. Horne Tooke was really John Horne (1736-1812), he having taken the name of his friend William Tooke in 1782. He was a radical of the radicals, and organized a number of reform societies. Among these was the Constitutional Society that voted money (1775) to assist the American revolutionists, appointing him to give the contribution to Franklin. For this he was imprisoned for a year. With his fellow rebels in the Tower in 1794, however, he was acquitted. As a philologist he is known for his early advocacy of the study of Anglo-Saxon and Gothic, and his _Diversions of Purley_ (1786) is still known to readers.

[403] This was the admiral, Adam Viscount Duncan (1731-1804), who defeated the Dutch off Camperdown in 1797.

[404] He was created Duke of Clarence and St. Andrews in 1789 and was Admiral of the Fleet escorting Louis XVIII on his return to France in 1814. He became Lord High Admiral in 1827, and reigned as William IV from 1830 to 1837.

[405] This was Charles Abbott (1762-1832) first Lord Tenterden. He succeeded Lord Ellenborough as Chief Justice (1818) and was raised to the peerage in 1827. He was a strong Tory and opposed the Catholic Relief Bill, the Reform Bill, and the abolition of the death penalty for forgery.

[406] Edward Law (1750-1818), first Baron Ellenborough. He was chief counsel for Warren Hastings, and his famous speech in defense of his client is well known. He became Chief Justice and was raised to the peerage in 1802. He opposed all efforts to modernize the criminal code, insisting upon the reactionary principle of new death penalties.

[407] Edmund Law (1703-1787), Bishop of Carlisle (1768), was a good deal more liberal than his son. His _Considerations on the Propriety of requiring subscription to the Articles of Faith_ (1774) was published anonymously. In it he asserts that not even the clergy should be required to subscribe to the thirty-nine articles.

[408] Joe Miller (1684-1738), the famous Drury Lane comedian, was so illiterate that he could not have written the _Joe Miller's Jests, or the Wit's Vade-Mecum_ that appeared the year after his death. It was often reprinted and probably contained more or less of Miller's own jokes.

[409] The sixth duke (1766-1839) was much interested in parliamentary reform. He was a member of the Society of Friends of the People. He was for fourteen years a member of parliament (1788-1802) and was later Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1806-1807). He afterwards gave up politics and became interested in agricultural matters.

[410] George Jeffreys (c. 1648-1689), the favorite of James II, who was active in prosecuting the Rye House conspirators. He was raised to the peerage in 1684 and held the famous "bloody assize" in the following year, being made Lord Chancellor as a result. He was imprisoned in the Tower by William III and died there.

[411] _The Every Day Book, forming a Complete History of the Year, Months, and Seasons, and a perpetual Key to the Almanack_, 1826-1827.

[412] The first and second editions appeared in 1820. Two others followed in 1821.

[413] _The three trials of W. H., for publishing three parodies; viz the late John Wilkes' Catechism, the Political Litany, and the Sinecurists Creed; on three ex-officio informations, at Guildhall, London, ... Dec. 18, 19, & 20, 1817_,... London, 1818.

[414] The _Political Litany_ appeared in 1817.

[415] That is, Castlereagh's.

[416] The well-known caricaturist (1792-1878), then only twenty-nine years old.

[417] Robert Stewart (1769-1822) was second Marquis of Londonderry and Viscount Castlereagh. As Chief Secretary for Ireland he was largely instrumental in bringing about the union of Ireland and Great Britain. He was at the head of the war department during most of the Napoleonic wars, and was to a great extent responsible for the European coalition against the Emperor. He suicided in 1822.

[418] John Murray (1778-1843), the well-known London publisher. He refused to finish the publication of Don Juan, after the first five cantos, because of his Tory principles.

[419] Only the first two cantos appeared in 1819.

[420] Proclus (412-485), one of the greatest of the neo-Platonists, studied at Alexandria and taught philosophy at Athens. He left commentaries on Plato and on part of Euclid's _Elements_.

[421] Thomas Taylor (1758-1835), called "the Platonist," had a liking for mathematics, and was probably led by his interest in number mysticism to a study of neo-Platonism. He translated a number of works from the Latin and Greek, and wrote two works on theoretical arithmetic (1816, 1823).

[422] There was an earlier edition, 1788-89.

[423] Georgius Gemistus, or Georgius Pletho (Plethon), lived in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. He was a native of Constantinople, but spent most of his time in Greece. He devoted much time to the propagation of the Platonic philosophy, but also wrote on divinity, geography, and history.

[424] Hannah More (1745-1833), was, in her younger days, a friend of Burke, Reynolds, Dr. Johnson, and Garrick. At this time she wrote a number of poems and aspired to become a dramatist. Her _Percy_ (1777), with a prologue and epilogue by Garrick, had a long run at Covent Garden. Somewhat later she came to believe that the playhouse was a grave public evil, and refused to attend the revival of her own play with Mrs. Siddons in the leading part. After 1789 she and her sisters devoted themselves to starting schools for poor children, teaching them religion and housework, but leaving them illiterate.

[425] These were issued at the rate of three each month,--a story, a ballad, and a Sunday tract. They were collected and published in one volume in 1795. It is said that two million copies were sold the first year. There were also editions in 1798, 1819, 1827, and 1836-37.

[426] That is, Dr. Johnson (1709-1784). The _Rambler_ was published in 1750-1752, and was an imitation of Addison's _Spectator_.

[427] Dr. Moore, referred to below.

[428] Dr. John Moore (1729-1802), physician and novelist, is now best known for his _Journal during a Residence in France from the beginning of August to the middle of December, 1792_, a work quoted frequently by Carlyle in his _French Revolution_.

[429] Sir John Moore (1761-1809), Lieutenant General in the Napoleonic wars. He was killed in the battle of Corunna. The poem by Charles Wolfe (1791-1823), _The Burial of Sir John Moore_ (1817), is well known.

[430] Referring to the novels of Thomas Love Peacock (1785-1866), who succeeded James Mill as chief examiner of the East India Company, and was in turn succeeded by John Stuart Mill.

[431] Frances Burney, Madame d'Arblay (1752-1840), married General d'Arblay, a French officer and companion of Lafayette, in 1793. She was only twenty-five when she acquired fame by her _Evelina, or a Young Lady's Entrance into the World_. Her _Letters and Diaries_ appeared posthumously (1842-45).

[432] Henry Peter, Baron Brougham and Vaux (1778-1868), well known in politics, science, and letters. He was one of the founders of the _Edinburgh Review_, became Lord Chancellor in 1830, and took part with men like William Frend, De Morgan's father-in-law, in the establishing of London University. He was also one of the founders of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. He was always friendly to De Morgan, who entered the faculty of London University, whose work on geometry was published by the Society mentioned, and who was offered the degree of doctor of laws by the University of Edinburgh while Lord Brougham was Lord Rector. The Edinburgh honor was refused by De Morgan who said he "did not feel like an LL.D."

[433] Maria Edgeworth (1767-1849).

[434] Sydney Owenson (c. 1783-1859) married Sir Thomas Morgan, a well-known surgeon, in 1812. Her Irish stories were very popular with the patriots but were attacked by the _Quarterly Review_. _The Wild Irish Girl_ (1806) went through seven editions in two years.

[435] 1775-1817.

[436] 1771-1832.

[437] The famous preacher (1732-1808). He was the first chairman of the Religious Tract Society. He is also known as one of the earliest advocates of vaccination, in his _Cow-pock Inoculation vindicated and recommended from matters of fact_, 1806.

[438] Sir Rowland Hill (1795-1879), the father of penny postage.

[439] Beilby Porteus (1731-1808), Bishop of Chester (1776) and Bishop of London (1787). He encouraged the Sunday-school movement and the dissemination of Hannah More's tracts. He was an active opponent of slavery, but also of Catholic emancipation.

[440] Henrietta Maria Bowdler (1754-1830), generally known as Mrs. Harriet Bowdler. She was the author of many religious tracts and poems. Her _Poems and Essays_ (1786) were often reprinted. The story goes that on the appearance of her _Sermons on the Doctrines and duties of Christianity_ (published anonymously), Bishop Porteus offered the author a living under the impression that it was written by a man.

[441] William Frend (1757-1841), whose daughter Sophia Elizabeth became De Morgan's wife (1837), was at one time a clergyman of the Established Church, but was converted to Unitarianism (1787). He came under De Morgan's definition of a true paradoxer, carrying on a zealous warfare for what he thought right. As a result of his _Address to the Inhabitants of Cambridge_ (1787), and his efforts to have abrogated the requirement that candidates for the M.A. must subscribe to the thirty-nine articles, he was deprived of his tutorship in 1788. A little later he was banished (see De Morgan's statement in the text) from Cambridge because of his denunciation of the abuses of the Church and his condemnation of the liturgy. His eccentricity is seen in his declining to use negative quantities in the operations of algebra. He finally became an actuary at London and was prominent in radical associations. He was a mathematician of ability, having been second wrangler and having nearly attained the first place, and he was also an excellent scholar in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.

[442] George Peacock (1791-1858), Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Lowndean professor of astronomy, and Dean of Ely Cathedral (1839). His tomb may be seen at Ely where he spent the latter part of his life. He was one of the group that introduced the modern continental notation of the calculus into England, replacing the cumbersome notation of Newton, passing from "the _dot_age of fluxions to the _de_ism of the calculus."

[443] Robert Simson (1687-1768); professor of mathematics at Glasgow. His restoration of Apollonius (1749) and his translation and restoration of Euclid (1756, and 1776--posthumous) are well known.

[444] Francis Maseres (1731-1824), a prominent lawyer. His mathematical works had some merit.

[445] These appeared annually from 1804 to 1822.

[446] Henry Gunning (1768-1854) was senior esquire bedell of Cambridge. The _Reminiscences_ appeared in two volumes in 1854.

[447] John Singleton Copley, Baron Lyndhurst (1772-1863), the son of John Singleton Copley the portrait painter, was born in Boston. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and became a lawyer. He was made Lord Chancellor in 1827.

[448] Sir William Rough (c. 1772-1838), a lawyer and poet, became Chief Justice of Ceylon in 1836. He was knighted in 1837.

[449] Herbert Marsh, afterwards Bishop of Peterborough, a relation of my father.--S. E. De M.

He was born in 1757 and died in 1839. On the trial of Frend he publicly protested against testifying against a personal confidant, and was excused. He was one of the first of the English clergy to study modern higher criticism of the Bible, and amid much opposition he wrote numerous works on the subject. He was professor of theology at Cambridge (1707), Bishop of Llandaff (1816), and Bishop of Peterborough.

[450] George Butler (1774-1853), Headmaster of Harrow (1805-1829), Chancellor of Peterborough (1836), and Dean of Peterborough (1842).

[451] James Tate (1771-1843), Headmaster of Richmond School (1796-1833) and Canon of St. Paul's Cathedral (1833). He left several works on the classics.

[452] Francis Place (1771-1854), at first a journeyman breeches maker, and later a master tailor. He was a hundred years ahead of his time as a strike leader, but was not so successful as an agitator as he was as a tailor, since his shop in Charing Cross made him wealthy. He was a well-known radical, and it was largely due to his efforts that the law against the combinations of workmen was repealed in 1824. His chief work was _The Principles of Population_ (1822).

[453] Speed (1552-1629) was a tailor until Grevil (Greville) made him independent of his trade. He was not only an historian of some merit, but a skilful cartographer. His maps of the counties were collected in the _Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine_, 1611. About this same time he also published _Genealogies recorded in Sacred Scripture_, a work that had passed through thirty-two editions by 1640.

[454] _The history of Great Britaine under the conquests of ye Romans, Saxons, Danes, and Normans...._ London, 1611, folio. The second edition appeared in 1623; the third, to which De Morgan here refers, posthumously in 1632; and the fourth in 1650.

[455] William Nicolson (1655-1727) became Bishop of Carlisle in 1702, and Bishop of Derry in 1718. His chief work was the _Historical Library_ (1696-1724), in the form of a collection of documents and chronicles. It was reprinted in 1736 and in 1776.

[456] Sir Fulk Grevil, or Fulke Greville (1554-1628), was a favorite of Queen Elizabeth, Chancellor of the Exchequer under James I, a patron of literature, and a friend of Sir Philip Sidney.

[457] See note 443 on page 197.

[458] See note 444 on page 197.

[459] See note 439 on page 193.

[460] Edward Waring (1736-1796) was Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge. He published several works on analysis and curves. The work referred to was the _Miscellanea Analytica de aequationibus algebraicis et curvarum proprietatibus_, Cambridge, 1762.

[461] _A Dissertation on the use of the Negative Sign in Algebra...; to which is added, Machin's Quadrature of the Circle_, London, 1758.

[462] The paper was probably one on complex numbers, or possibly one on quaternions, in which direction as well as absolute value is involved.

[463] De Morgan quotes from one of the Latin editions. Descartes wrote in French, the title of his first edition being: _Discours de la methode pour bien conduire sa raison et chercher la verite dans les sciences, plus la dioptrique, les meteores et la geometrie qui sont des essais de cette methode_, Leyden, 1637, 4to.

[464] "I have observed that algebra indeed, as it is usually taught, is so restricted by definite rules and formulas of calculation, that it seems rather a confused kind of an art, by the practice of which the mind is in a certain manner disturbed and obscured, than a science by which it is cultivated and made acute."

[465] It appeared in 93 volumes, from 1758 to 1851.

[466] _The principles of the doctrine of life-annuities; explained in a familiar manner ... with a variety of new tables_ ..., London, 1783.

[467] I suppose the one who wrote _Conjectures on the physical causes of Earthquakes and Volcanoes_, Dublin, 1820.

[468] _Scriptores Logarithmici; or, a Collection of several curious_ _tracts on the nature and construction of Logarithms ... together with same tracts on the Binomial Theorem_ ..., 6 vols., London, 1791-1807.

[469] Charles Babbage (1792-1871), whose work on the calculating machine is well known. Maseres was, it is true, ninety-two at this time, but Babbage was thirty-one instead of twenty-nine. He had already translated Lacroix's _Treatise on the differential and integral calculus_ (1816), in collaboration with Herschel and Peacock. He was Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge from 1828 to 1839.

[470] _The great and new Art of weighing Vanity, or a discovery of the ignorance of the great and new artist in his pseudo-philosophical writings._ The "great and new artist" was Sinclair.

[471] George Sinclair, probably a native of East Lothian, who died in 1696. He was professor of philosophy and mathematics at Glasgow, and was one of the first to use the barometer in measuring altitudes. The work to which De Morgan refers is his _Hydrostaticks_ (1672). He was a firm believer in evil spirits, his work on the subject going through four editions: _Satan's Invisible World Discovered; or, a choice collection of modern relations, proving evidently against the Saducees and Athiests of this present age, that there are Devils, Spirits, Witches, and Apparitions_, Edinburgh, 1685.

[472] This was probably William Sanders, Regent of St. Leonard's College, whose _Theses philosophicae_ appeared in 1674, and whose _Elementa geometriae_ came out a dozen years later.

[473] _Ars nova et magna gravitatis et levitatis; sive dialogorum philosophicorum libri sex de aeris vera ac reali gravitate_, Rotterdam, 1669, 4to.

[474] Volume I, Nos. 1 and 2, appeared in 1803.

[475] His daughter, Mrs. De Morgan, says in her _Memoir_ of her husband: "My father had been second wrangler in a year in which the two highest were close together, and was, as his son-in-law afterwards described him, an exceedingly clear thinker. It is possible, as Mr. De Morgan said, that this mental clearness and directness may have caused his mathematical heresy, the rejection of the use of negative quantities in algebraical operations; and it is probable that he thus deprived himself of an instrument of work, the use of which might have led him to greater eminence in the higher branches." _Memoir of Augustus De Morgan_, London, 1882, p. 19.

[476] "If it is not true it is a good invention." A well-known Italian proverb.

[477] See page 86, note 132.