[682]Was this Whewell, who was at Trinity from 1812 to 1816 and became a fellow in 1817?[683]Tom Cribb (1781-1848) the champion pugilist. He had worked as a coal porter and hence received his nickname, the Black Diamond.[684]John Finleyson, or Finlayson, was born in Scotland in 1770 and died in London in 1854. He published a number of pamphlets that made a pretense to being scientific. Among his striking phrases and sentences are the statements that the stars were made "to amuse us in observing them"; that the earth is "not shaped like a garden turnip as the Newtonians make it," and that the stars are "oval-shaped immense masses of frozen water." The first edition of the work here mentioned appeared at London in 1830.[685]Richard Brothers (1757-1824) was a native of Newfoundland. He went to London when he was about 30, and a little later set forth his claim to being a descendant of David, prince of the Hebrews, and ruler of the world. He was confined as a criminal lunatic in 1795 but was released in 1806.[686]Charles Grey (1764-1845), second Earl Grey, Viscount Howick, was then Prime Minister. The Reform Bill was introduced and defeated in 1831. The following year, with the Royal guarantees to allow him to create peers, he finally carried the bill in spite of "the number of the beast."[687]The letters of obscure men, theEpistolæ obscurorum virorum ad venerabilem virum Magistrum Ortuinum Gratium Dauentriensem, by Joannes Crotus, Ulrich von Hutten, and others appeared at Venice about 1516.[688]The lamentations of obscure men, theLamentationes obscurorum virorum, non prohibete per sedem Apostolicam. Epistola D. Erasmi Roterodami: quid de obscuris sentiat, by G. Ortwinus, appeared at Cologne in 1518.[689]The criticism was timely when De Morgan wrote it. At present it would have but little force with respect to the better class of algebras.[690]Thomas Ignatius Maria Forster (1789-1860) was more of a man than one would infer from this satire upon his theory. He was a naturalist, astronomer, and physiologist. In 1812 he published hisResearches about Atmospheric Phenomena, and seven years later (July 3, 1819) he discovered a comet. With Sir Richard Phillips he founded a Meteorological Society, but it was short lived. He declined a fellowship in the Royal Society because he disapproved of certain of its rules, so that he had a recognized standing in his day. The work mentioned by De Morgan is the second edition, the first having appeared at Frankfort on the Main in 1835 under the title,Recueil des ouvrages et des pensées d'un physicien et metaphysicien.[691]Zadkiel, whose real name was Richard James Morrison (1795-1874), was in his early years an officer in the navy. In 1831 he began the publication of theHerald of Astrology, which was continued asZadkiel's Almanac. His name became familiar throughout Great Britain as a result.[692]See note566, page246.[693]Sumner (1780-1862) was an Eton boy. He went to King's College, Cambridge, and was elected fellow in 1801. He took many honors, and in 1807 became M.A. He was successively Canon of Durham (1820), Bishop of Chester (1828), and Archbishop of Canterbury (1848). Although he voted for the Catholic Relief Bill (1829) and the Reform Bill (1832), he opposed the removal of Jewish disabilities.[694]Charles Richard Sumner (1790-1874) was not only Bishop of Winchester (1827), but also Bishop of Llandaff and Dean of St. Paul's, London (1826). He lost the king's favor by voting for the Catholic Relief Bill.[695]John Bird Sumner, brother of Charles Richard.[696]Thomas Musgrave (1788-1860) became Fellow of Trinity in 1812, and senior proctor in 1831. He was also Dean of Bristol.[697]Charles Thomas Longley (1794-1868) was educated at Westminster School and at Christ Church, Oxford. He became M.A. in 1818 and D.D. in 1829. Besides the bishoprics mentioned he was Bishop of Ripon (1836-1856), and before that was headmaster of Harrow (1829-1836).[698]Thomson (1819-1890) was scholar and fellow of Queen's College, Oxford. He became chaplain to the Queen in 1859.[699]This is worthy of the statistical psychologists of the present day.[700]The famous Moon Hoax was written by Richard Adams Locke, who was born in New York in 1800 and died in Staten Island in 1871. He was at one time editor of theSun, and the Hoax appeared in that journal in 1835. It was reprinted in London (1836) and Germany, and was accepted seriously by most readers. It was published in book form in New York in 1852 under the titleThe Moon Hoax. Locke also wrote another hoax, theLost Manuscript of Mungo Park, but it attracted relatively little attention.[701]It is true that Jean-Nicolas Nicollet (1756-1843) was at that time in the United States, but there does not seem to be any very tangible evidence to connect him with the story. He was secretary and librarian of the Paris observatory (1817), member of the Bureau of Longitudes (1822), and teacher of mathematics in the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. Having lost his money through speculations he left France for the United States in 1831 and became connected with the government survey of the Mississippi Valley.[702]This was Alexis Bouvard (1767-1843), who made most of the computations for Laplace'sMécanique céleste(1793). He discovered eight new comets and calculated their orbits. In his tables of Uranus (1821) he attributed certain perturbations to the presence of an undiscovered planet, but unlike Leverrier and Adams he did not follow up this clue and thus discover Neptune.[703]Patrick Murphy (1782-1847) awoke to find himself famous because of his natural guess that there would be very cold weather on January 20, although that is generally the season of lowest temperature. It turned out that his forecasts were partly right on 168 days and very wrong on 197 days.[704]He seems to have written nothing else. If one wishes to enter into the subject of the mathematics of the Great Pyramid there is an extensive literature awaiting him. Richard William Howard Vyse (1784-1853) published in 1840 hisOperations carried on at the Pyramids of Gizeh in 1837, and in this he made a beginning of a scientific metrical study of the subject. Charles Piazzi Smyth (1819-1900), astronomer Royal for Scotland (1845-1888) was much carried away with the number mysticism of the Great Pyramid, so much so that he published in 1864 a work entitledOur Inheritance in the Great Pyramid, in which his vagaries were set forth. Although he was then a Fellow of the Royal Society (1857), his work was so ill received that when he offered a paper on the subject it was rejected (1874) and he resigned in consequence of this action. The latest and perhaps the most scholarly of all investigators of the subject is William Matthew Flinders Petrie (born in 1853), Edwards professor of Egyptology at University College, London, whosePyramids and Temples of Gizeh(1883) and subsequent works are justly esteemed as authorities.[705]As De Morgan subsequently found, this name reversed becomes Oliver B...e, for Oliver Byrne, one of the odd characters among the minor mathematical writers of the middle of the last century. One of his most curious works isThe first six Books of the Elements of Euclid; in which coloured diagrams and symbols are used instead of letters(1847). There is some merit in speaking of the red triangle instead of the triangle ABC, but not enough to give the method any standing. HisDual Arithmetic(1863-1867) was also a curious work.[706]Brenan also wrote on English composition (1829), a work that went through fourteen editions by 1865; a work entitledThe Foreigner's English Conjugator(1831), and a work on the national debt.[707]See note211, page112.[708]See note592, page261.[709]Sir William Rowan Hamilton (1805-1865), the discoverer of quaternions (1852), was an infant prodigy, competing with Zerah Colburn as a child. He was a linguist of remarkable powers, being able, at thirteen years of age, to boast that he knew as many languages as he had lived years. When only sixteen he found an error in Laplace'sMécanique céleste. When only twenty-two he was appointed Andrews professor of astronomy, and he soon after became Astronomer Royal of Ireland. He was knighted in 1835. His earlier work was on optics, hisTheory of Systems of Raysappearing in 1823. In 1827 he published a paper on the principle ofVarying Action. He also wrote on dynamics.[710]"Let him not leave the kingdom,"—a legal phrase.[711]Probably De Morgan is referring to Johann Bernoulli III (1744-1807), who edited Lambert'sLogische und philosophische Abhandlungen, Berlin, 1782. He was astronomer of the Academy of Sciences at Berlin.[712]Jacob Bernoulli (1654-1705) was one of the two brothers who founded the famous Bernoulli family of mathematicians, the other being Johann I. HisArs conjectandi(1713), published posthumously, was the first distinct treatise on probabilities.[713]Johann Heinrich Lambert (1728-1777) was one of the most learned men of his time. Although interested chiefly in mathematics, he wrote also on science, logic, and philosophy.[714]Joseph Diez Gergonne (1771-1859), a soldier under Napoleon, and founder of theAnnales de mathématiques(1810).[715]Gottfried Ploucquet (1716-1790) was at first a clergyman, but afterwards became professor of logic at Tübingen.[716]"In the premises let the middle term be omitted; what remains indicates the conclusion."[717]Probably Sir William Edmond Logan (1789-1875), who became so interested in geology as to be placed at the head of the geological survey of Canada (1842). The University of Montreal conferred the title LL.D. upon him, and Napoleon III gave him the cross of the Legion of Honor.[718]"So strike that he may think himself to die."[719]"Witticism or piece of stupidity."[720]A very truculently unjust assertion: for Sir W. was as great a setter up of some as he was a puller down of others. His writings are a congeries of praises and blames, bothcruel smart, as they say in the States. But the combined instigation of prose, rhyme, and retort would send Aristides himself to Tartarus, if it were not pretty certain that Minos would grant astet processusunder the circumstances. The first two verses are exaggerations standing on a basis of truth. The fourth verse is quite true: Sir W. H. was an Edinburgh Aristotle, with the difference of ancient and modern Athens well marked, especially theperfervidum ingenium Scotorum.—A. De M.[721]See note576, p.252. There was also aTheory of Parallelsthat differed from these, London, 1853, second edition 1856, third edition 1856.[722]The work was written by Robert Chambers (1802-1871), the Edinburgh publisher, a friend of Scott and of many of his contemporaries in the literary field. He published theVestiges of the Natural History of Creationin 1844, not 1840.[723]Everett (1784-1872) was at that time a good Wesleyan, but was expelled from the ministry in 1849 for having writtenWesleyan Takingsand as under suspicion for having started theFly Sheetsin 1845. In 1857 he established the United Methodist Free Church.[724]Smith was a Primitive Methodist preacher. He also wrote anEarnest Address to the Methodists(1841) andThe Wealth Question(1840?).[725]He wrote theNouveau traité de Balistique, Paris, 1837.[726]Joseph Denison, known to fame only through De Morgan. See also page353.[727]The radical (1784?-1858), advocate of the founding of London university (1826), of medical reform (1827-1834), and of the repeal of the duties on newspapers and corn, and an ardent champion of penny postage.[728]I. e., Roman Catholic Priest.[729]Murphy (1806-1843) showed extraordinary powers in mathematics even before the age of thirteen. He became a fellow of Caius College, Cambridge, in 1829, dean in 1831, and examiner in mathematics in London University in 1838.[730]See note442, page196.[731]Sir John Bowring (1792-1872), the linguist, writer, and traveler, member of many learned societies and a writer of high reputation in his time. His works were not, however, of genuine merit.[732]Joseph Hume (1777-1855) served as a surgeon with the British army in India early in the nineteenth century. He returned to England in 1808 and entered parliament as a radical in 1812. He was much interested in all reform movements.[733]Sir Robert Harry Inglis (1786-1855), a strong Tory, known for his numerous addresses in the House of Commons rather than for any real ability.[734]Sir Robert Peel (1788-1850) began his parliamentary career in 1809 and was twice prime minister. He was prominent in most of the great reforms of his time.[735]See note627, page290.[736]John Taylor (1781-1864) was a publisher, and published several pamphlets opposed to Peel's currency measures. De Morgan refers to his work on the Junius question. This was done early in his career, and resulted inA Discovery of the author of the Letters of Junius(1813), andThe Identity of Junius with a distinguished living character established(1816), this being Sir Philip Francis.[737]See note665, page308.[738]See page348.[739]See note348, page160.[740]Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas (1799-1848) was a reformer in various lines,—the Record Commission, the Society of Antiquaries, and the British Museum,—and his work was not without good results.[741]See note98, page69.[742]In theCompanion to the Almanacfor 1845 is a paper by Prof. De Morgan, "On the Ecclesiastical Calendar," the statements of which, so far as concerns the Gregorian Calendar, are taken direct from the work of Clavius, the principal agent in the arrangement of the reformed reckoning. This was followed, in theCompanion to the Almanacfor 1846, by a second paper, by the same author, headed "On the Earliest Printed Almanacs," much of which is written in direct supplement to the former article.—S. E. De Morgan.[743]It may be necessary to remind some English readers that in Latin and its derived European languages, what we call Easter is called the passover (pascha). The Quartadecimans had thenameon their side: a possession which often is, in this world, nine points of the law.—A. De M.[744]Socrates Scholasticus was born at Constantinople c. 379, and died after 439. HisHistoria Ecclesiastica(in Greek) covers the period from Constantine the Great to about 439, and includes the Council of Nicæa. The work was printed in Paris 1544.[745]Theodoretus or Theodoritus was born at Antioch and died about 457. He was one of the greatest divines of the fifth century, a man of learning, piety, and judicial mind, and a champion of freedom of opinion in all religious matters.[746]He died in 417. He was a man of great energy and of high attainments.[747]He died in 461, having reigned as pope for twenty-one years. It was he who induced Attila to spare Rome in 452.[748]He succeeded Leo as pope in 461, and reigned for seven years.[749]Victorinus or Victorius Marianus seems to have been born at Limoges. He was a mathematician and astronomer, and the cycle mentioned by De Morgan is one of 532 years, a combination of the Metonic cycle of 19 years with the solar cycle of 28 years. His canon was published at Antwerp in 1633 or 1634,De doctrina temporum sive commentarius in Victorii Aquitani et aliorum canones paschales.[750]He went to Rome about 497, and died there in 540. He wrote hisLiber de paschatein 525, and it was in this work that the Christian era was first used for calendar purposes.[751]See note259, page126.[752]Johannes de Sacrobosco (Holy wood), or John of Holywood. The name was often written, without regard to its etymology, Sacrobusto. He was educated at Oxford and taught in Paris until his death (1256). He did much to make the Hindu-Arabic numerals known to European scholars.[753]See note36, page44.[754]See note45, page48.[755]The Julian year is a year of the Julian Calendar, in which there is leap year every fourth year. Its average length is therefore 365 days and a quarter.—A. De M.[756]Ugo Buoncompagno (1502-1585) was elected pope in 1572.[757]He was a Calabrian, and as early as 1552 was professor of medicine at Perugia. In 1576 his manuscript on the reform of the calendar was presented to the Roman Curia by his brother, Antonius. The manuscript was not printed and it has not been preserved.[758]The title of this work, which is the authority on all points of the new Calendar, isKalendarium Gregorianum Perpetuum. Cum Privilegio Summi Pontificis Et Aliorum Principum. Romæ, Ex Officina Dominici Basæ. MDLXXXII. Cum Licentia Superiorum(quarto, pp. 60).—A. De M.[759]Manuels-Roret. Théorie du Calendrier et collection de tous les Calendriers des Années passées et futures.... Par L. B. Francœur,... Paris, à la librairie encyclopédique de Roret, rue Hautefeuille, 10 bis. 1842. (12mo.) In this valuable manual, the 35 possible almanacs are given at length, with such preliminary tables as will enable any one to find, by mere inspection, which almanac he is to choose for any year, whether of old or new style. [1866. I may now refer to my ownBook of Almanacs, for the same purpose].—A. De M.Louis Benjamin Francœur (1773-1849), after holding positions in the Ecole polytechnique (1804) and the Lycée Charlemagne (1805), became professor of higher algebra in the University of Paris (1809). HisCours complet des mathématiques pureswas well received, and he also wrote on mechanics, astronomy, and geodesy.[760]Albertus Pighius, or Albert Pigghe, was born at Kempen c. 1490 and died at Utrecht in 1542. He was a mathematician and a firm defender of the faith, asserting the supremacy of the Pope and attacking both Luther and Calvin. He spent some time in Rome. His greatest work was hisHierarchiæ ecclesiasticæ assertio(1538).[761]This was A. F. Vogel. The work was his translation from the German edition which appeared at Leipsic the same year,Entdeckung einer numerischen General-Auflösung aller höheren endlichen Gleichungen von jeder beliebigen algebraischen und transcendenten Form.[762]The latest edition of Burnside and Panton'sTheory of Equationshas this brief summary of the present status of the problem: "Demonstrations have been given by Abel and Wantzel (see Serret'sCours d'Algèbre Supérieure, Art. 516) of the impossibility of resolving algebraically equations unrestricted in form, of a degree higher than the fourth. A transcendental solution, however, of the quintic has been given by M. Hermite, in a form involving elliptic integrals."[763]There was a second edition of this work in 1846. The author'sAstronomy Simplifiedwas published in 1838, and theThoughts on Physical Astronomyin 1840, with a second edition in 1842.[764]This wasThe Science of the Weather, by several authors... edited by B., Glasgow, 1867.[765]This was Y. Ramachandra, son of Sundara Lāla. He was a teacher of science in Delhi College, and the work to which De Morgan refers isA Treatise on problems of Maxima and Minima solved by Algebra, which appeared at Calcutta in 1850. De Morgan's edition was published at London nine years later.[766]Abraham de Moivre (1667-1754), French refugee in London, poor, studying under difficulties, was a man with tastes in some respects like those of De Morgan. For one thing, he was a lover of books, and he had a good deal of interest in the theory of probabilities to which De Morgan also gave much thought. His introduction of imaginary quantities into trigonometry was an event of importance in the history of mathematics, and the theorem that bears his name, (cosφ+isinφ)n= cosnφ+isinnφ, is one of the most important ones in all analysis.[767]John Dolland (1706-1761), the silk weaver who became the greatest maker of optical instruments in his time.[768]Thomas Simpson (1710-1761), also a weaver, taking his leisure from his loom at Spitalfields to teach mathematics. HisNew Treatise on Fluxions(1737) was written only two years after he began working in London, and six years later he was appointed professor of mathematics at Woolwich. He wrote many works on mathematics and Simpson's Formulas for computing trigonometric tables are still given in the text-books.[769]Nicholas Saunderson (1682-1739), the blind mathematician. He lost his eyesight through smallpox when only a year old. At the age of 25 he began lecturing at Cambridge on the principles of the Newtonian philosophy. HisAlgebra, in two large volumes, was long the standard treatise on the subject.[770]He was not in the class with the others mentioned.[771]Not known in the literature of mathematics.[772]Probably J. Butler Williams whosePractical Geodesyappeared in 1842, with a third edition in 1855.[773]Benjamin Gompertz (1779-1865) was debarred as a Jew from a university education. He studied mathematics privately and became president of the Mathematical Society. De Morgan knew him professionally through the fact that he was prominent in actuarial work.[774]Referring to the contributions of Archimedes (287-212 B.C.) to the mensuration of the sphere.[775]The famous Alexandrian astronomer (c. 87-c. 165 A.D.), author of theAlmagest, a treatise founded on the works of Hipparchus.[776]Dr. Whewell, when I communicated this song to him, started the opinion, which I had before him, that this was a very good idea, of which too little was made.—A. De M.[777]See note117, page76.[778]The common epithet of rank:nobilis Tycho, as he was a nobleman. The writer had been at history.—A. De M.See note117, page76.[779]He lost it in a duel, with Manderupius Pasbergius. A contemporary, T. B. Laurus, insinuates that they fought to settle which was the best mathematician! This seems odd, but it must be remembered they fought in the dark, "in tenebris densis"; and it is a nice problem to shave off a nose in the dark, without any other harm.—A. De M.Was this T. B. Laurus Joannes Baptista Laurus or Giovanni Battista Lauro (1581-1621), the poet and writer?[780]See note117, page76.[781]Referring to Kepler's celebrated law of planetary motion. He had previously wasted his time on analogies between the planetary orbits and the polyhedrons.—A. De M.[782]See note117, page76.[783]"It does move though."[784]As great a lie as ever was told: but in 1800 a compliment to Newton without a fling at Descartes would have been held a lopsided structure.—A. De M.[785]Jean-le-Rond D'Alembert (1717-1783), the foundling who was left on the steps of Jean-le-Rond in Paris, and who became one of the greatest mathematical physicists and astronomers of his century.[786]Leonhard Euler (1707-1783), friend of the Bernoullis, the greatest of Swiss mathematicians, prominent in the theory of numbers, and known for discoveries in all lines of mathematics as then studied.[787]See notes478,479, page219.[788]See note621, page288.[789]See note584, page255.[790]Thesiderialday is about four minutes short of the solar; there are 366 sidereal days in the year.—A. De M.[791]The founding of the London Mathematical Society is discussed by Mrs. De Morgan in herMemoir(p. 281). The idea came from a conversation between her brilliant son, George Campbell De Morgan, and his friend Arthur Cowper Ranyard in 1864. The meeting of organization was held on Nov. 7, 1864, with Professor De Morgan in the chair, and the first regular meeting on January 16, 1865.[792]See note33, page43.[793]See note119, page80.[794]John Russell Hind (b. 1823), the astronomer. Between 1847 and 1854 he discovered ten planetoids.[795]Sir Roderick Impey Murchison (1792-1871), the great geologist. He was knighted in 1846 and devoted the latter part of his life to the work of the Royal Geographical Society and to the geology of Scotland.[796]Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel (1784-1846), the astronomer and physicist. He was professor of astronomy at Königsberg.[797]This was theReduction of the Observations of Planets made ... from 1750 to 1830: computed ... under the superintendence of George Biddell Airy(1848). See note129, page85.[798]The expense of this magnificent work was defrayed by Government grants, obtained, at the instance of the British Association, in 1833—A. De M.[799]See note32, page43.[800]Franz Friedrich Ernst Brünnow (1821-1891) was at that time or shortly before director of the observatory at Dusseldorf. He then went to Berlin and thence (1854) to Ann Arbor, Michigan. He then went to Dublin and finally became Royal Astronomer of Ireland.[801]Johann Gottfried Galle (1812-1910), at that time connected with the Berlin observatory, and later professor of astronomy at Breslau.[802]George Bishop (1785-1861), in whose observatory in Regent's Park important observations were made by Dawes, Hind, and Marth.[803]James Challis (1803-1882), director of the Cambridge observatory, and successor of Airy as Plumian professor of astronomy.[804]On Leverrier and Arago see note33, page43, and note561, page243.[805]Robert Grant's (1814-1892)History of Physical Astronomy from the Earliest Ages to the Middle of the Nineteenth Centuryappeared in 1852. He was professor of astronomy and director of the observatory at Glasgow.[806]John Debenham was more interested in religion than in astronomy. He wroteThe Strait Gate; or, the true scripture doctrine of salvation clearly explained, London, 1843, andTractatus de magis et Bethlehemæ stella et Christi in deserto tentatione, privately printed at London in 1845.[807]More properly the Sydney Smirke reading room, since it was built from his designs.[808]The Antinomians were followers of Johannes Agricola (1494-1566). They believed that Christians as such were released from all obligations to the Old Testament. Some went so far as to assert that, since all Christians were sanctified, they could not lose this sanctity even though they disobeyed God. The sect was prominent in England in the seventeenth century, and was transferred to New England. Here it suffered a check in the condemnation of Mrs. Ann Hutchinson (1636) by the Newton Synod.[809]Aside from this work and his publications on Reeve and Muggleton he wrote nothing. With Joseph Frost he publishedA listof Books and general index to J. Reeve and L. Muggleton's works(1846),Divine Songs of the Muggletonians(1829), and the work mentioned on page396.The works of J. Reeve and L. Muggleton(1832).[810]About 1650 he and his cousin John Reeve (1608-1658) began to have visions. As part of their creed they taught that astronomy was opposed by the Bible. They asserted that the sun moves about the earth, and Reeve figured out that heaven was exactly six miles away. Both Muggleton and Reeve were imprisoned for their unitarian views. Muggleton wrote aTranscendant Spirituall Treatise(1652). I have before meA true Interpretation of All the Chief Texts ... of the whole Book of the Revelation of St. John.... By Lodowick Muggleton, one of the two last Commissioned Witnesses & Prophets of the onely high, immortal, glorious God, Christ Jesus(1665), in which the interpretation of the "number of the beast" occupies four pages without arriving anywhere.[811]In 1652 he was, in a vision, named as the Lord's "last messenger," with Muggleton as his "mouth," and died six years later, probably of nervous tension resulting from his divine "illumination." He was the more spiritual of the two.[812]William Guthrie (1708-1770) was a historian and political writer. HisHistory of England(1744-1751) was the first attempt to base history on parliamentary records. He also wrote aGeneral History of Scotlandin 10 volumes (1767). The work to which Frost refers is theGeographical, Historical, and Commercial Grammar(1770) which contained an astronomical part by J. Ferguson. By 1827 it had passed through 24 editions.[813]George Fox (1624-1691), founder of the Society of Friends; a mystic and a disciple of Boehme. He was eight times imprisoned for heresy.[814]If they were friends they were literary antagonists, for Muggleton wrote against FoxThe Neck of the Quakers Broken(1663), and Fox replied in 1667. Muggleton also wroteA Looking Glass for George Fox.[815]John Conduitt (1688-1737), who married (1717) Newton's half niece, Mrs. Katherine Barton. See note284, page136.[816]Probably Peter Mark Roget's (1779-1869)Thesaurus of English Words(1852) is not much used at present, but it went through 28 editions in his lifetime. Few who use the valuable work are aware that Roget was a professor of physiology at the Royal Institution (London), that he achieved his title of F. R. S. because of his work in perfecting the slide rule, and that he followed Sir John Herschel as secretary of the Royal Society.[817]See note703, page327. This work went into a second edition in the year of its first publication.[818]See note398, page177.[819]See note528, page233.[820]George Jacob Holyoake (1817-1906) entered into a controversial life at an early age. In 1841 he was imprisoned for six months for blasphemy. He founded and editedThe Reasoner(Vols. 1-26, 1846-1861). In his later life he did much to promote cooperation among the working class.[821]See note176, page102.[822]William Thomas Lowndes (1798-1843), whoseBibliographer's Manual of English Literature, 4 vols., London, 1834 (also 1857-1864, and 1869) is a classic in its line.[823]Jacques Charles Brunet (1780-1867), the author of the great French bibliography, theManuel du Libraire(1810).
[682]Was this Whewell, who was at Trinity from 1812 to 1816 and became a fellow in 1817?
[683]Tom Cribb (1781-1848) the champion pugilist. He had worked as a coal porter and hence received his nickname, the Black Diamond.
[684]John Finleyson, or Finlayson, was born in Scotland in 1770 and died in London in 1854. He published a number of pamphlets that made a pretense to being scientific. Among his striking phrases and sentences are the statements that the stars were made "to amuse us in observing them"; that the earth is "not shaped like a garden turnip as the Newtonians make it," and that the stars are "oval-shaped immense masses of frozen water." The first edition of the work here mentioned appeared at London in 1830.
[685]Richard Brothers (1757-1824) was a native of Newfoundland. He went to London when he was about 30, and a little later set forth his claim to being a descendant of David, prince of the Hebrews, and ruler of the world. He was confined as a criminal lunatic in 1795 but was released in 1806.
[686]Charles Grey (1764-1845), second Earl Grey, Viscount Howick, was then Prime Minister. The Reform Bill was introduced and defeated in 1831. The following year, with the Royal guarantees to allow him to create peers, he finally carried the bill in spite of "the number of the beast."
[687]The letters of obscure men, theEpistolæ obscurorum virorum ad venerabilem virum Magistrum Ortuinum Gratium Dauentriensem, by Joannes Crotus, Ulrich von Hutten, and others appeared at Venice about 1516.
[688]The lamentations of obscure men, theLamentationes obscurorum virorum, non prohibete per sedem Apostolicam. Epistola D. Erasmi Roterodami: quid de obscuris sentiat, by G. Ortwinus, appeared at Cologne in 1518.
[689]The criticism was timely when De Morgan wrote it. At present it would have but little force with respect to the better class of algebras.
[690]Thomas Ignatius Maria Forster (1789-1860) was more of a man than one would infer from this satire upon his theory. He was a naturalist, astronomer, and physiologist. In 1812 he published hisResearches about Atmospheric Phenomena, and seven years later (July 3, 1819) he discovered a comet. With Sir Richard Phillips he founded a Meteorological Society, but it was short lived. He declined a fellowship in the Royal Society because he disapproved of certain of its rules, so that he had a recognized standing in his day. The work mentioned by De Morgan is the second edition, the first having appeared at Frankfort on the Main in 1835 under the title,Recueil des ouvrages et des pensées d'un physicien et metaphysicien.
[691]Zadkiel, whose real name was Richard James Morrison (1795-1874), was in his early years an officer in the navy. In 1831 he began the publication of theHerald of Astrology, which was continued asZadkiel's Almanac. His name became familiar throughout Great Britain as a result.
[692]See note566, page246.
[693]Sumner (1780-1862) was an Eton boy. He went to King's College, Cambridge, and was elected fellow in 1801. He took many honors, and in 1807 became M.A. He was successively Canon of Durham (1820), Bishop of Chester (1828), and Archbishop of Canterbury (1848). Although he voted for the Catholic Relief Bill (1829) and the Reform Bill (1832), he opposed the removal of Jewish disabilities.
[694]Charles Richard Sumner (1790-1874) was not only Bishop of Winchester (1827), but also Bishop of Llandaff and Dean of St. Paul's, London (1826). He lost the king's favor by voting for the Catholic Relief Bill.
[695]John Bird Sumner, brother of Charles Richard.
[696]Thomas Musgrave (1788-1860) became Fellow of Trinity in 1812, and senior proctor in 1831. He was also Dean of Bristol.
[697]Charles Thomas Longley (1794-1868) was educated at Westminster School and at Christ Church, Oxford. He became M.A. in 1818 and D.D. in 1829. Besides the bishoprics mentioned he was Bishop of Ripon (1836-1856), and before that was headmaster of Harrow (1829-1836).
[698]Thomson (1819-1890) was scholar and fellow of Queen's College, Oxford. He became chaplain to the Queen in 1859.
[699]This is worthy of the statistical psychologists of the present day.
[700]The famous Moon Hoax was written by Richard Adams Locke, who was born in New York in 1800 and died in Staten Island in 1871. He was at one time editor of theSun, and the Hoax appeared in that journal in 1835. It was reprinted in London (1836) and Germany, and was accepted seriously by most readers. It was published in book form in New York in 1852 under the titleThe Moon Hoax. Locke also wrote another hoax, theLost Manuscript of Mungo Park, but it attracted relatively little attention.
[701]It is true that Jean-Nicolas Nicollet (1756-1843) was at that time in the United States, but there does not seem to be any very tangible evidence to connect him with the story. He was secretary and librarian of the Paris observatory (1817), member of the Bureau of Longitudes (1822), and teacher of mathematics in the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. Having lost his money through speculations he left France for the United States in 1831 and became connected with the government survey of the Mississippi Valley.
[702]This was Alexis Bouvard (1767-1843), who made most of the computations for Laplace'sMécanique céleste(1793). He discovered eight new comets and calculated their orbits. In his tables of Uranus (1821) he attributed certain perturbations to the presence of an undiscovered planet, but unlike Leverrier and Adams he did not follow up this clue and thus discover Neptune.
[703]Patrick Murphy (1782-1847) awoke to find himself famous because of his natural guess that there would be very cold weather on January 20, although that is generally the season of lowest temperature. It turned out that his forecasts were partly right on 168 days and very wrong on 197 days.
[704]He seems to have written nothing else. If one wishes to enter into the subject of the mathematics of the Great Pyramid there is an extensive literature awaiting him. Richard William Howard Vyse (1784-1853) published in 1840 hisOperations carried on at the Pyramids of Gizeh in 1837, and in this he made a beginning of a scientific metrical study of the subject. Charles Piazzi Smyth (1819-1900), astronomer Royal for Scotland (1845-1888) was much carried away with the number mysticism of the Great Pyramid, so much so that he published in 1864 a work entitledOur Inheritance in the Great Pyramid, in which his vagaries were set forth. Although he was then a Fellow of the Royal Society (1857), his work was so ill received that when he offered a paper on the subject it was rejected (1874) and he resigned in consequence of this action. The latest and perhaps the most scholarly of all investigators of the subject is William Matthew Flinders Petrie (born in 1853), Edwards professor of Egyptology at University College, London, whosePyramids and Temples of Gizeh(1883) and subsequent works are justly esteemed as authorities.
[705]As De Morgan subsequently found, this name reversed becomes Oliver B...e, for Oliver Byrne, one of the odd characters among the minor mathematical writers of the middle of the last century. One of his most curious works isThe first six Books of the Elements of Euclid; in which coloured diagrams and symbols are used instead of letters(1847). There is some merit in speaking of the red triangle instead of the triangle ABC, but not enough to give the method any standing. HisDual Arithmetic(1863-1867) was also a curious work.
[706]Brenan also wrote on English composition (1829), a work that went through fourteen editions by 1865; a work entitledThe Foreigner's English Conjugator(1831), and a work on the national debt.
[707]See note211, page112.
[708]See note592, page261.
[709]Sir William Rowan Hamilton (1805-1865), the discoverer of quaternions (1852), was an infant prodigy, competing with Zerah Colburn as a child. He was a linguist of remarkable powers, being able, at thirteen years of age, to boast that he knew as many languages as he had lived years. When only sixteen he found an error in Laplace'sMécanique céleste. When only twenty-two he was appointed Andrews professor of astronomy, and he soon after became Astronomer Royal of Ireland. He was knighted in 1835. His earlier work was on optics, hisTheory of Systems of Raysappearing in 1823. In 1827 he published a paper on the principle ofVarying Action. He also wrote on dynamics.
[710]"Let him not leave the kingdom,"—a legal phrase.
[711]Probably De Morgan is referring to Johann Bernoulli III (1744-1807), who edited Lambert'sLogische und philosophische Abhandlungen, Berlin, 1782. He was astronomer of the Academy of Sciences at Berlin.
[712]Jacob Bernoulli (1654-1705) was one of the two brothers who founded the famous Bernoulli family of mathematicians, the other being Johann I. HisArs conjectandi(1713), published posthumously, was the first distinct treatise on probabilities.
[713]Johann Heinrich Lambert (1728-1777) was one of the most learned men of his time. Although interested chiefly in mathematics, he wrote also on science, logic, and philosophy.
[714]Joseph Diez Gergonne (1771-1859), a soldier under Napoleon, and founder of theAnnales de mathématiques(1810).
[715]Gottfried Ploucquet (1716-1790) was at first a clergyman, but afterwards became professor of logic at Tübingen.
[716]"In the premises let the middle term be omitted; what remains indicates the conclusion."
[717]Probably Sir William Edmond Logan (1789-1875), who became so interested in geology as to be placed at the head of the geological survey of Canada (1842). The University of Montreal conferred the title LL.D. upon him, and Napoleon III gave him the cross of the Legion of Honor.
[718]"So strike that he may think himself to die."
[719]"Witticism or piece of stupidity."
[720]A very truculently unjust assertion: for Sir W. was as great a setter up of some as he was a puller down of others. His writings are a congeries of praises and blames, bothcruel smart, as they say in the States. But the combined instigation of prose, rhyme, and retort would send Aristides himself to Tartarus, if it were not pretty certain that Minos would grant astet processusunder the circumstances. The first two verses are exaggerations standing on a basis of truth. The fourth verse is quite true: Sir W. H. was an Edinburgh Aristotle, with the difference of ancient and modern Athens well marked, especially theperfervidum ingenium Scotorum.—A. De M.
[721]See note576, p.252. There was also aTheory of Parallelsthat differed from these, London, 1853, second edition 1856, third edition 1856.
[722]The work was written by Robert Chambers (1802-1871), the Edinburgh publisher, a friend of Scott and of many of his contemporaries in the literary field. He published theVestiges of the Natural History of Creationin 1844, not 1840.
[723]Everett (1784-1872) was at that time a good Wesleyan, but was expelled from the ministry in 1849 for having writtenWesleyan Takingsand as under suspicion for having started theFly Sheetsin 1845. In 1857 he established the United Methodist Free Church.
[724]Smith was a Primitive Methodist preacher. He also wrote anEarnest Address to the Methodists(1841) andThe Wealth Question(1840?).
[725]He wrote theNouveau traité de Balistique, Paris, 1837.
[726]Joseph Denison, known to fame only through De Morgan. See also page353.
[727]The radical (1784?-1858), advocate of the founding of London university (1826), of medical reform (1827-1834), and of the repeal of the duties on newspapers and corn, and an ardent champion of penny postage.
[728]I. e., Roman Catholic Priest.
[729]Murphy (1806-1843) showed extraordinary powers in mathematics even before the age of thirteen. He became a fellow of Caius College, Cambridge, in 1829, dean in 1831, and examiner in mathematics in London University in 1838.
[730]See note442, page196.
[731]Sir John Bowring (1792-1872), the linguist, writer, and traveler, member of many learned societies and a writer of high reputation in his time. His works were not, however, of genuine merit.
[732]Joseph Hume (1777-1855) served as a surgeon with the British army in India early in the nineteenth century. He returned to England in 1808 and entered parliament as a radical in 1812. He was much interested in all reform movements.
[733]Sir Robert Harry Inglis (1786-1855), a strong Tory, known for his numerous addresses in the House of Commons rather than for any real ability.
[734]Sir Robert Peel (1788-1850) began his parliamentary career in 1809 and was twice prime minister. He was prominent in most of the great reforms of his time.
[735]See note627, page290.
[736]John Taylor (1781-1864) was a publisher, and published several pamphlets opposed to Peel's currency measures. De Morgan refers to his work on the Junius question. This was done early in his career, and resulted inA Discovery of the author of the Letters of Junius(1813), andThe Identity of Junius with a distinguished living character established(1816), this being Sir Philip Francis.
[737]See note665, page308.
[738]See page348.
[739]See note348, page160.
[740]Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas (1799-1848) was a reformer in various lines,—the Record Commission, the Society of Antiquaries, and the British Museum,—and his work was not without good results.
[741]See note98, page69.
[742]In theCompanion to the Almanacfor 1845 is a paper by Prof. De Morgan, "On the Ecclesiastical Calendar," the statements of which, so far as concerns the Gregorian Calendar, are taken direct from the work of Clavius, the principal agent in the arrangement of the reformed reckoning. This was followed, in theCompanion to the Almanacfor 1846, by a second paper, by the same author, headed "On the Earliest Printed Almanacs," much of which is written in direct supplement to the former article.—S. E. De Morgan.
[743]It may be necessary to remind some English readers that in Latin and its derived European languages, what we call Easter is called the passover (pascha). The Quartadecimans had thenameon their side: a possession which often is, in this world, nine points of the law.—A. De M.
[744]Socrates Scholasticus was born at Constantinople c. 379, and died after 439. HisHistoria Ecclesiastica(in Greek) covers the period from Constantine the Great to about 439, and includes the Council of Nicæa. The work was printed in Paris 1544.
[745]Theodoretus or Theodoritus was born at Antioch and died about 457. He was one of the greatest divines of the fifth century, a man of learning, piety, and judicial mind, and a champion of freedom of opinion in all religious matters.
[746]He died in 417. He was a man of great energy and of high attainments.
[747]He died in 461, having reigned as pope for twenty-one years. It was he who induced Attila to spare Rome in 452.
[748]He succeeded Leo as pope in 461, and reigned for seven years.
[749]Victorinus or Victorius Marianus seems to have been born at Limoges. He was a mathematician and astronomer, and the cycle mentioned by De Morgan is one of 532 years, a combination of the Metonic cycle of 19 years with the solar cycle of 28 years. His canon was published at Antwerp in 1633 or 1634,De doctrina temporum sive commentarius in Victorii Aquitani et aliorum canones paschales.
[750]He went to Rome about 497, and died there in 540. He wrote hisLiber de paschatein 525, and it was in this work that the Christian era was first used for calendar purposes.
[751]See note259, page126.
[752]Johannes de Sacrobosco (Holy wood), or John of Holywood. The name was often written, without regard to its etymology, Sacrobusto. He was educated at Oxford and taught in Paris until his death (1256). He did much to make the Hindu-Arabic numerals known to European scholars.
[753]See note36, page44.
[754]See note45, page48.
[755]The Julian year is a year of the Julian Calendar, in which there is leap year every fourth year. Its average length is therefore 365 days and a quarter.—A. De M.
[756]Ugo Buoncompagno (1502-1585) was elected pope in 1572.
[757]He was a Calabrian, and as early as 1552 was professor of medicine at Perugia. In 1576 his manuscript on the reform of the calendar was presented to the Roman Curia by his brother, Antonius. The manuscript was not printed and it has not been preserved.
[758]The title of this work, which is the authority on all points of the new Calendar, isKalendarium Gregorianum Perpetuum. Cum Privilegio Summi Pontificis Et Aliorum Principum. Romæ, Ex Officina Dominici Basæ. MDLXXXII. Cum Licentia Superiorum(quarto, pp. 60).—A. De M.
[759]Manuels-Roret. Théorie du Calendrier et collection de tous les Calendriers des Années passées et futures.... Par L. B. Francœur,... Paris, à la librairie encyclopédique de Roret, rue Hautefeuille, 10 bis. 1842. (12mo.) In this valuable manual, the 35 possible almanacs are given at length, with such preliminary tables as will enable any one to find, by mere inspection, which almanac he is to choose for any year, whether of old or new style. [1866. I may now refer to my ownBook of Almanacs, for the same purpose].—A. De M.
Louis Benjamin Francœur (1773-1849), after holding positions in the Ecole polytechnique (1804) and the Lycée Charlemagne (1805), became professor of higher algebra in the University of Paris (1809). HisCours complet des mathématiques pureswas well received, and he also wrote on mechanics, astronomy, and geodesy.
[760]Albertus Pighius, or Albert Pigghe, was born at Kempen c. 1490 and died at Utrecht in 1542. He was a mathematician and a firm defender of the faith, asserting the supremacy of the Pope and attacking both Luther and Calvin. He spent some time in Rome. His greatest work was hisHierarchiæ ecclesiasticæ assertio(1538).
[761]This was A. F. Vogel. The work was his translation from the German edition which appeared at Leipsic the same year,Entdeckung einer numerischen General-Auflösung aller höheren endlichen Gleichungen von jeder beliebigen algebraischen und transcendenten Form.
[762]The latest edition of Burnside and Panton'sTheory of Equationshas this brief summary of the present status of the problem: "Demonstrations have been given by Abel and Wantzel (see Serret'sCours d'Algèbre Supérieure, Art. 516) of the impossibility of resolving algebraically equations unrestricted in form, of a degree higher than the fourth. A transcendental solution, however, of the quintic has been given by M. Hermite, in a form involving elliptic integrals."
[763]There was a second edition of this work in 1846. The author'sAstronomy Simplifiedwas published in 1838, and theThoughts on Physical Astronomyin 1840, with a second edition in 1842.
[764]This wasThe Science of the Weather, by several authors... edited by B., Glasgow, 1867.
[765]This was Y. Ramachandra, son of Sundara Lāla. He was a teacher of science in Delhi College, and the work to which De Morgan refers isA Treatise on problems of Maxima and Minima solved by Algebra, which appeared at Calcutta in 1850. De Morgan's edition was published at London nine years later.
[766]Abraham de Moivre (1667-1754), French refugee in London, poor, studying under difficulties, was a man with tastes in some respects like those of De Morgan. For one thing, he was a lover of books, and he had a good deal of interest in the theory of probabilities to which De Morgan also gave much thought. His introduction of imaginary quantities into trigonometry was an event of importance in the history of mathematics, and the theorem that bears his name, (cosφ+isinφ)n= cosnφ+isinnφ, is one of the most important ones in all analysis.
[767]John Dolland (1706-1761), the silk weaver who became the greatest maker of optical instruments in his time.
[768]Thomas Simpson (1710-1761), also a weaver, taking his leisure from his loom at Spitalfields to teach mathematics. HisNew Treatise on Fluxions(1737) was written only two years after he began working in London, and six years later he was appointed professor of mathematics at Woolwich. He wrote many works on mathematics and Simpson's Formulas for computing trigonometric tables are still given in the text-books.
[769]Nicholas Saunderson (1682-1739), the blind mathematician. He lost his eyesight through smallpox when only a year old. At the age of 25 he began lecturing at Cambridge on the principles of the Newtonian philosophy. HisAlgebra, in two large volumes, was long the standard treatise on the subject.
[770]He was not in the class with the others mentioned.
[771]Not known in the literature of mathematics.
[772]Probably J. Butler Williams whosePractical Geodesyappeared in 1842, with a third edition in 1855.
[773]Benjamin Gompertz (1779-1865) was debarred as a Jew from a university education. He studied mathematics privately and became president of the Mathematical Society. De Morgan knew him professionally through the fact that he was prominent in actuarial work.
[774]Referring to the contributions of Archimedes (287-212 B.C.) to the mensuration of the sphere.
[775]The famous Alexandrian astronomer (c. 87-c. 165 A.D.), author of theAlmagest, a treatise founded on the works of Hipparchus.
[776]Dr. Whewell, when I communicated this song to him, started the opinion, which I had before him, that this was a very good idea, of which too little was made.—A. De M.
[777]See note117, page76.
[778]The common epithet of rank:nobilis Tycho, as he was a nobleman. The writer had been at history.—A. De M.
See note117, page76.
[779]He lost it in a duel, with Manderupius Pasbergius. A contemporary, T. B. Laurus, insinuates that they fought to settle which was the best mathematician! This seems odd, but it must be remembered they fought in the dark, "in tenebris densis"; and it is a nice problem to shave off a nose in the dark, without any other harm.—A. De M.
Was this T. B. Laurus Joannes Baptista Laurus or Giovanni Battista Lauro (1581-1621), the poet and writer?
[780]See note117, page76.
[781]Referring to Kepler's celebrated law of planetary motion. He had previously wasted his time on analogies between the planetary orbits and the polyhedrons.—A. De M.
[782]See note117, page76.
[783]"It does move though."
[784]As great a lie as ever was told: but in 1800 a compliment to Newton without a fling at Descartes would have been held a lopsided structure.—A. De M.
[785]Jean-le-Rond D'Alembert (1717-1783), the foundling who was left on the steps of Jean-le-Rond in Paris, and who became one of the greatest mathematical physicists and astronomers of his century.
[786]Leonhard Euler (1707-1783), friend of the Bernoullis, the greatest of Swiss mathematicians, prominent in the theory of numbers, and known for discoveries in all lines of mathematics as then studied.
[787]See notes478,479, page219.
[788]See note621, page288.
[789]See note584, page255.
[790]Thesiderialday is about four minutes short of the solar; there are 366 sidereal days in the year.—A. De M.
[791]The founding of the London Mathematical Society is discussed by Mrs. De Morgan in herMemoir(p. 281). The idea came from a conversation between her brilliant son, George Campbell De Morgan, and his friend Arthur Cowper Ranyard in 1864. The meeting of organization was held on Nov. 7, 1864, with Professor De Morgan in the chair, and the first regular meeting on January 16, 1865.
[792]See note33, page43.
[793]See note119, page80.
[794]John Russell Hind (b. 1823), the astronomer. Between 1847 and 1854 he discovered ten planetoids.
[795]Sir Roderick Impey Murchison (1792-1871), the great geologist. He was knighted in 1846 and devoted the latter part of his life to the work of the Royal Geographical Society and to the geology of Scotland.
[796]Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel (1784-1846), the astronomer and physicist. He was professor of astronomy at Königsberg.
[797]This was theReduction of the Observations of Planets made ... from 1750 to 1830: computed ... under the superintendence of George Biddell Airy(1848). See note129, page85.
[798]The expense of this magnificent work was defrayed by Government grants, obtained, at the instance of the British Association, in 1833—A. De M.
[799]See note32, page43.
[800]Franz Friedrich Ernst Brünnow (1821-1891) was at that time or shortly before director of the observatory at Dusseldorf. He then went to Berlin and thence (1854) to Ann Arbor, Michigan. He then went to Dublin and finally became Royal Astronomer of Ireland.
[801]Johann Gottfried Galle (1812-1910), at that time connected with the Berlin observatory, and later professor of astronomy at Breslau.
[802]George Bishop (1785-1861), in whose observatory in Regent's Park important observations were made by Dawes, Hind, and Marth.
[803]James Challis (1803-1882), director of the Cambridge observatory, and successor of Airy as Plumian professor of astronomy.
[804]On Leverrier and Arago see note33, page43, and note561, page243.
[805]Robert Grant's (1814-1892)History of Physical Astronomy from the Earliest Ages to the Middle of the Nineteenth Centuryappeared in 1852. He was professor of astronomy and director of the observatory at Glasgow.
[806]John Debenham was more interested in religion than in astronomy. He wroteThe Strait Gate; or, the true scripture doctrine of salvation clearly explained, London, 1843, andTractatus de magis et Bethlehemæ stella et Christi in deserto tentatione, privately printed at London in 1845.
[807]More properly the Sydney Smirke reading room, since it was built from his designs.
[808]The Antinomians were followers of Johannes Agricola (1494-1566). They believed that Christians as such were released from all obligations to the Old Testament. Some went so far as to assert that, since all Christians were sanctified, they could not lose this sanctity even though they disobeyed God. The sect was prominent in England in the seventeenth century, and was transferred to New England. Here it suffered a check in the condemnation of Mrs. Ann Hutchinson (1636) by the Newton Synod.
[809]Aside from this work and his publications on Reeve and Muggleton he wrote nothing. With Joseph Frost he publishedA listof Books and general index to J. Reeve and L. Muggleton's works(1846),Divine Songs of the Muggletonians(1829), and the work mentioned on page396.The works of J. Reeve and L. Muggleton(1832).
[810]About 1650 he and his cousin John Reeve (1608-1658) began to have visions. As part of their creed they taught that astronomy was opposed by the Bible. They asserted that the sun moves about the earth, and Reeve figured out that heaven was exactly six miles away. Both Muggleton and Reeve were imprisoned for their unitarian views. Muggleton wrote aTranscendant Spirituall Treatise(1652). I have before meA true Interpretation of All the Chief Texts ... of the whole Book of the Revelation of St. John.... By Lodowick Muggleton, one of the two last Commissioned Witnesses & Prophets of the onely high, immortal, glorious God, Christ Jesus(1665), in which the interpretation of the "number of the beast" occupies four pages without arriving anywhere.
[811]In 1652 he was, in a vision, named as the Lord's "last messenger," with Muggleton as his "mouth," and died six years later, probably of nervous tension resulting from his divine "illumination." He was the more spiritual of the two.
[812]William Guthrie (1708-1770) was a historian and political writer. HisHistory of England(1744-1751) was the first attempt to base history on parliamentary records. He also wrote aGeneral History of Scotlandin 10 volumes (1767). The work to which Frost refers is theGeographical, Historical, and Commercial Grammar(1770) which contained an astronomical part by J. Ferguson. By 1827 it had passed through 24 editions.
[813]George Fox (1624-1691), founder of the Society of Friends; a mystic and a disciple of Boehme. He was eight times imprisoned for heresy.
[814]If they were friends they were literary antagonists, for Muggleton wrote against FoxThe Neck of the Quakers Broken(1663), and Fox replied in 1667. Muggleton also wroteA Looking Glass for George Fox.
[815]John Conduitt (1688-1737), who married (1717) Newton's half niece, Mrs. Katherine Barton. See note284, page136.
[816]Probably Peter Mark Roget's (1779-1869)Thesaurus of English Words(1852) is not much used at present, but it went through 28 editions in his lifetime. Few who use the valuable work are aware that Roget was a professor of physiology at the Royal Institution (London), that he achieved his title of F. R. S. because of his work in perfecting the slide rule, and that he followed Sir John Herschel as secretary of the Royal Society.
[817]See note703, page327. This work went into a second edition in the year of its first publication.
[818]See note398, page177.
[819]See note528, page233.
[820]George Jacob Holyoake (1817-1906) entered into a controversial life at an early age. In 1841 he was imprisoned for six months for blasphemy. He founded and editedThe Reasoner(Vols. 1-26, 1846-1861). In his later life he did much to promote cooperation among the working class.
[821]See note176, page102.
[822]William Thomas Lowndes (1798-1843), whoseBibliographer's Manual of English Literature, 4 vols., London, 1834 (also 1857-1864, and 1869) is a classic in its line.
[823]Jacques Charles Brunet (1780-1867), the author of the great French bibliography, theManuel du Libraire(1810).