A Budget of Paradoxes Volume II Part 53

[417] "Stupid fellow!"

[418] Christopher Barker (c. 1529-1599), also called Barkar, was the Queen's printer. He began to publish books in 1569, but did no actual printing until 1576. In 1575 the Geneva Bible was first printed in England, the work being done for Barker. He published 38 partial or complete editions of the Bible from 1575 to 1588, and 34 were published by his deputies (1588-1599).

[419] James Franklin (1697-1735) was born in Boston, Ma.s.s., and was sent to London to learn the printer's trade. He returned in 1717 and started a printing house. Benjamin, his brother, was apprenticed to him but ran away (1723). James published the _New England Courant_ (1721-1727), and Benjamin is said to have begun his literary career by writing for it.

[420] James Hodder was a writing master in Tokenhouse Yard, Lothbury, in 1661, and later kept a boarding school in Bromley-by-Bow. His famous arithmetic appeared at London in 1661 and went through many editions. It was the basis of c.o.c.ker's work. (See Vol. I, page 42, note 4 {24}.) It was long thought to have been the first arithmetic published in America, and it was the first English one. There was, however, an arithmetic published much earlier than this, in Mexico, the _Sumario compendioso ... con algunas reglas tocantes al Aritmetica_, by "Juan Diaz Freyle," in 1556.

[421] Henry Mose, Hodder's successor, kept a school in Sherborne Lane, London.

[422] Rear Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort (1774-1857), F.R.S., was hydrographer to the Navy from 1829 to 1855. He prepared an atlas that was printed by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.

[423] Antoine Sabatier (1742-1817), born at Castres, was known as the Abbe but was really nothing more than a "clerc tonsure." He lived at Court and was pensioned to write against the philosophers of the Voltaire group. He posed as the defender of morality, a commodity of which he seems to have possessed not the slightest trace.

[424] Maffeo Barberini was pope, as Urban VIII, from 1623 to 1644. It was during his ambitious reign that Galileo was summoned to Rome to make his recantation (1633), the exact nature of which is still a matter of dispute.

[425] This Baden Powell (1796-1860) was the Savilian professor of geometry (1827-1860) at Oxford.

[426] "Memoirs of the famous bishop of Chiapa, by which it appears that he had butchered or burned or drowned ten million infidels in America in order to convert them. I believe that this bishop exaggerated; but if we should reduce these sacrifices to five million victims, this would still be admirable."

[427] Alfonso X (1221-1284), known as El Sabio (the Wise), was interested in astronomy and caused the Alphonsine Tables to be prepared. These table were used by astronomers for a long time. It is said that when the Ptolemaic system of the universe was explained to him he remarked that if he had been present at the Creation he could have shown how to arrange things in a much simpler fas.h.i.+on.

[428] George Richards (c. 1767-1837), fellow of Oriel (1790-1796), Bampton lecturer (1800), Vicar of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, Westminster (1824), and a poet of no mean ability.

[429] The "Aboriginal Britons," an excellent poem, by Richards. (Note by Byron.)--A. De M.

[430] John Watkins (d. after 1831), a teacher and miscellaneous writer.

[431] Frederic Shoberl (1775-1853), a miscellaneous writer.

[432] He wrote, besides the _Aboriginal Britons_, _Songs of the Aboriginal Bards_ (1792), _Modern France: a Poem_ (1793), _Odin, a drama_ (1804), _Emma, a drama on the model of the Greek theatre_ (1804), _Poems_ (2 volumes, 1804), and a _Monody on the Death of Lord Nelson_ (1806).

[433] Henry Kirke White (1785-1806), published his first volume of poems at the age of 18. Southey and William Wilberforce became interested in him and procured for him a sizars.h.i.+p at St. John's College, Cambridge. He at once showed great brilliancy, but he died of tuberculosis at the age of 21.

[434] John Wolcot, known as Peter Pindar (1738-1819), was a London physician. He wrote numerous satirical poems. His _Bozzy and Piozzi, or the British Biographers_, appeared in 1786, and reached the 9th edition in 1788.

[435] See Vol. I, page 235, note 8 {532}.

[436] Richard Payne Knight (1750-1824) was a collector of bronzes, gems, and coins, many of his pieces being now in the British Museum. He sat in parliament for twenty-six years (1780-1806), but took no active part in legislation. He opposed the acquisition of the Elgin Marbles, holding them to be of little importance. His _a.n.a.lytical Inquiry into the Principles of Taste_ appeared in 1808.

[437] Mario Nizzoli (1498-1566), a well-known student of Cicero, was for a time professor at the University of Parma. His _Observationes in M. Tullium Ciceronem_ appeared at Pratalboino in 1535. It was revised by his nephew under the t.i.tle _Thesaurus Ciceronia.n.u.s_ (Venice, 1570).

[438] See Vol. I, page 314, note 4 {681}.

[439]

"Like the geometer, who bends all his powers To measure the circle, and does not succeed, Thinking what principle he needs."

[440] Francis Quarles (1592-1644), a religious poet. He wrote paraphrases of the Bible and numerous elegies. In the early days of the revolutionary struggle he sided with the Royalists. One of his most popular works was the _Emblems_ (1635), with ill.u.s.trations by William Marshall.

[441] Regnault de Becourt wrote _La Creation du monde, ou Systeme d'organisation primitive suivi de l'interpretation des princ.i.p.aux phenomenes et accidents que se sont operes dans la nature depuis l'origine de univers jusqu'a nos jours_ (1816). This may be the work translated by Dalmas.

[442] "Because it lacks a holy prophet."

[443] Anghera. See Vol. II, page 60, note 127.

[444] Edmund Curll (1675-1747), a well-known bookseller, publisher, and pamphleteer. He was for a time at "The Peac.o.c.k without Temple Bar," and later at "The Dial and Bible against St. Dunstan's Church." He was fined repeatedly for publis.h.i.+ng immoral works, and once stood in the pillory for it. He is ridiculed in the _Dunciad_ for having been tossed in a blanket by the boys of Westminster School because of an oration that displeased them.

[445] See Vol. II, page 109, note 206.

[446] Encyclopaedia.

[447] Author of the _Historia Naturalis_ (77 A.D.)

[448] Author of the _De Inst.i.tutione Oratorio Libri_ XII (c. 91 A.D.)

[449] His _De Architectures Libri_ X was not merely a work on architecture and building, but on the education of the architect.

[450] Cyclophoria.

[451] William Caxton (c. 1422-c.1492), sometime Governor of the Company of Merchant Adventurers in Bruges (between 1449 and 1470). He learned the art of printing either at Bruges or Cologne, and between 1471 and 1477 set up a press at Westminster. Tradition says that the first book printed in England was his _Game and Playe of Chesse_ (1474). The _Myrrour of the Worlde and th'ymage of the same_ appeared in 1480. It contains a brief statement on arithmetic, the first mathematics to appear in print in England.

[452] See Vol. I, page 45, note 6 {40}. De Morgan is wrong as to the date of the _Margarita Philosophica_. The first edition appeared at Freiburg in 1503.

[453] Reisch was confessor to Maximilian I (1459-1519), King of the Romans (1486) and Emperor (1493-1519).

[454] Joachim Sterck Ringelbergh (c. 1499-c. 1536), teacher of philosophy and mathematics in various cities of France and Germany. His _Inst.i.tutionum astronomicarum libri III_ appeared at Basel in 1528, his _Cosmographia_ at Paris in 1529, and his _Opera_ at Leyden in 1531.

[455] Johannes Heinrich Alsted (1588-1638) was professor of philosophy and theology at his birthplace, Herborn, in Na.s.sau, and later at Weissenberg.

He published several works, including the _Elementale mathematic.u.m_ (1611), _Systema physicae harmonicae_ (1612), _Methodus admirandorum mathematicorum_ (1613), _Encyclopaedia septem tomis distincta_ (1630), and the work mentioned above.

[456] Johann Jakob Hoffmann (1635-1706), professor of Greek and history at his birthplace, Basel. He also wrote the _Epitome metrica historiae universalis civilis et sacrae ab orbe condito_ (1686).

[457] Ephraim Chambers (c. 1680-1740), a crotchety, penurious, but kind-hearted freethinker. His _Cyclopaedia, or an Universal Dictionary_ was translated into French and is said to have suggested the great _Encyclopedie_.

[458] _Encyclopedie, ou Dictionnaire raisonne des sciences, des arts et des metiers, par un societe de gens de lettres. Mis en ordre et publie par M.

Diderot, et quant a la partie mathematique, par M. d'Alembert._ Paris, 1751-1780, 35 volumes.

[459] "From the egg" (state).

[460] See Vol. I, page 382, note 12 {785}.

[461] See Vol. II, page 4, note 15.

[462] "In morals nothing should serve man as a model but G.o.d; in the arts, nothing but nature."

[463] _Encyclopedie Methodique, ou par ordre de matieres._ Paris, 1782-1832, 166 volumes.

[464] See Vol. II, page 193, note 336.