A Budget of Paradoxes Volume I Part 48

[575] Isaac Milner (1750-1820) was professor of natural philosophy at Cambridge (1783) and later became, as De Morgan states, president of Queens' College (1788). In 1791 he became dean of Carlisle, and in 1798 Lucasian professor of mathematics. His chief interest was in chemistry and physics, but he contributed nothing of importance to these sciences or to mathematics.

[576] Thomas Perronet Thompson (1783-1869), fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge, saw service in Spain and India, but after 1822 lived in England.

He became major general in 1854, and general in 1868. Besides some works on economics and politics he wrote a _Geometry without Axioms_ (1830) that De Morgan includes later on in his _Budget_. In it Thompson endeavored to prove the parallel postulate.

[577] De Morgan's father-in-law. See note 441, page 196.

[578] Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776-1841), successor of Kant as professor of philosophy at Konigsberg (1809-1833), where he established a school of pedagogy. From 1833 until his death he was professor of philosophy at Gottingen. The t.i.tle of the pamphlet is: _De Attentionis mensura causisque primariis. Psychologiae principia statica et mechanica exemplo ill.u.s.traturus.... Regiomonti,... 1822_. The formulas in question are given on pages 15 and 17, and De Morgan has omitted the preliminary steps, which are, for the first one:

[beta] ([phi] - z) [delta]t = [delta]z

unde [beta]t= Const / ([phi] - z).

Pro t = 0 etiam z = 0; hinc [beta]t = log [phi]/([phi] - z).

z = [phi] (1 - [epsilon]^{-[beta]t});

et [delta]z/[delta]t = [beta][phi][epsilon]^{-[beta]t}

These are, however, quite elementary as compared with other portions of the theory.

[579] See note 371, page 168.

[580] William Law (1686-1761) was a clergyman, a fellow of Emanuel College, Cambridge, and in later life a convert to Behmen's philosophy. He was so free in his charities that the village in which he lived became so infested by beggars that he was urged by the citizens to leave. He wrote _A serious call to a devout and holy life_ (1728).

[581] He was a curate at Cheshunt, and wrote the _Spiritual voice to the Christian Church and to the Jews_ (London, 1760), _A second warning to the world by the Spirit of Prophecy_ (London, 1760), and _Signs of the Times; or a Voice to Babylon_ (London, 1773).

[582] His real name was Thomas Vaughan (1622-1666). He was a fellow of Jesus College, Oxford, taking orders, but was deprived of his living on account of drunkenness. He became a mystic philosopher and gave attention to alchemy. His works had a large circulation, particularly on the continent. He wrote _Magia Adamica_ (London, 1650), _Euphrates; or the Waters of the East_ (London, 1655), and _The Chymist's key to shut, and to open; or the True Doctrine of Corruption and Generation_ (London, 1657).

[583] Emanuel Swedenborg, or Svedberg (1688-1772) the mystic. It is not commonly known to mathematicians that he was one of their guild, but he wrote on both mathematics and chemistry. Among his works are the _Regelkonst eller algebra_ (Upsala, 1718) and the _Methodus nova inveniendi longitudines locorum, terra marique, ope lunae_ (Amsterdam, 1721, 1727, and 1766). After 1747 he devoted his attention to mystic philosophy.

[584] Pierre Simon Laplace (1749-1827), whose _Exposition du systeme du monde_ (1796) and _Traite de mecanique celeste_ (1799) are well known.

[585] See note 117, page 76.

[586] John Dalton (1766-1844), who taught mathematics and physics at New College, Manchester (1793-1799) and was the first to state the law of the expansion of gases known by his name and that of Gay-Lussac. His _New system of Chemical Philosophy_ (Vol. I, pt. i, 1808; pt. ii, 1810; vol. II, 1827) sets forth his atomic theory.

[587] Howison was a poet and philosopher. He lived in Edinburgh and was a friend of Sir Walter Scott. This work appeared in 1822.

[588] He was a shoemaker, born about 1765 at Haddiscoe, and his "astro-historical" lectures at Norwich attracted a good deal of attention at one time. He traced all geologic changes to differences in the inclination of the earth's axis to the plane of its...o...b..t. Of the works mentioned by De Morgan the first appeared at Norwich in 1822-1823, and there was a second edition in 1824. The second appeared in 1824-1825. The fourth was _Urania's Key to the Revelation; or the a.n.a.lyzation of the writings of the Jews..._, and was first published at Norwich in 1823, there being a second edition at London in 1833. His books were evidently not a financial success, for Mackey died in an almshouse at Norwich.

[589] G.o.dfrey Higgins (1773-1833), the archeologist, was interested in the history of religious beliefs and in practical sociology. He wrote _Horae Sabbaticae_ (1826), _The Celtic Druids_ (1827 and 1829), and _Anacalypsis, an attempt to draw aside the veil of the Saitic Isis; or an Inquiry into the Origin of Languages, Nations, and Religions_ (posthumously published, 1836), and other works. See also page 274, _infra_.

[590] The work also appeared in French. Wirgman wrote, or at least began, two other works: _Divarication of the New Testament into Doctrine and History; part I, The Four Gospels_ (London, 1830), and _Mental Philosophy; part I, Grammar of the five senses; being the first step to infant education_ (London, 1838).

[591] He was born at Shandrum, County Limerick, and supported himself by teaching writing and arithmetic. He died in an almshouse at Cork.

[592] George Boole (1815-1864), professor of mathematics at Queens'

College, Cork. His _Laws of Thought_ (1854) was the first work on the algebra of logic.

[593] Oratio Gra.s.si (1582-1654), the Jesuit who became famous for his controversy with Galileo over the theory of comets. Galileo ridiculed him in _Il Saggiatore_, although according to the modern view Gra.s.si was the more nearly right. It is said that the latter's resentment led to the persecution of Galileo.

[594] De Morgan might have found much else for his satire in the letters of Walsh. He sought, in his _Theory of Partial Functions_, to subst.i.tute "partial equations" for the differential calculus. In his diary there is an entry: "Discovered the general solution of numerical equations of the fifth degree at 114 Evergreen Street, at the Cross of Evergreen, Cork, at nine o'clock in the forenoon of July 7th, 1844; exactly twenty-two years after the invention of the Geometry of Partial Equations, and the expulsion of the differential calculus from Mathematical Science."

[595] "It has been ordered, sir, it has been ordered."

[596] Bartholomew Prescot was a Liverpool accountant. De Morgan gives this correct spelling on page 278. He died after 1849. His _Inverted Scheme of Copernicus_ appeared in Liverpool in 1822.

[597] Robert Taylor (1784-1844) had many more ups and downs than De Morgan mentions. He was a priest of the Church of England, but resigned his parish in 1818 after preaching against Christianity. He soon recanted and took another parish, but was dismissed by the Bishop almost immediately on the ground of heresy. As stated in the text, he was convicted of blasphemy in 1827 and was sentenced to a year's imprisonment, and again for two years on the same charge in 1831. He then married a woman who was rich in money and in years, and was thereupon sued for breach of promise by another woman. To escape paying the judgment that was rendered against him he fled to Tours where he took up surgery.

[598] Herbert Marsh, Bishop of Peterborough. See note 449 on page 199.

[599] "Argument from the prison."

[600] Richard Carlile (1790-1843), one of the leading radicals of his time.

He published Hone's parodies (see note 250, page 124) after they had been suppressed, and an edition of Thomas Paine (1818). He was repeatedly imprisoned, serving nine years in all. His continued conflict with the authorities proved a good advertis.e.m.e.nt for his bookshop.

[601] Wilhelm Ludwig Christmann (1780-1835) was a protestant clergyman and teacher of mathematics. For a while he taught under Pestalozzi.

Disappointed in his ambition to be professor of mathematics at Tubingen, he became a confirmed misanthrope and is said never to have left his house during the last ten years of his life. He wrote several works: _Ein Wort uber Pestalozzi und Pestalozzismus_ (1812); _Ars cossae promota_ (1814); _Philosophia cossica_ (1815); _Aetas argentea cossae_ (1819); _Ueber Tradition und Schrift, Logos und Kabbala_ (1829), besides the one mentioned above. The word _coss_ in the above t.i.tles was a German name for algebra, from the Italian _cosa_ (thing), the name for the unknown quant.i.ty. It appears in English in the early name for algebra, "the cossic art."

[602] See note 174, page 101.

[603] See note 589, page 257.

[604] He seems to have written nothing else.

[605] See note 596 on page 270. The name is here spelled correctly.

[606] Joseph Jacotot (1770-1840), the father of this Fortune Jacotot, was an infant prodigy. At nineteen he was made professor of the humanities at Dijon. He served in the army, and then became professor of mathematics at Dijon. He continued in his chair until the restoration of the Bourbons, and then fled to Louvain. It was here that he developed the method with which his name is usually connected. He wrote a _Mathematiques_ in 1827, which went through four editions. The _Epitome_ is by his son, Fortune.

[607] He wrote on educational topics and a _Sacred History_ that went through several editions.

[608] "All is in all."

[609] "Know one thing and refer everything else to it," as it is often translated.

[610] A writer of no reputation.

[611] Sir John Lubbock (1803-1865), banker, scientist, publicist, astronomer, one of the versatile men of his time.

[612] See note 165, page 99.

[613] "Those about to die salute you."

[614] Georges Louis Leclerc Buffon (1707-1788), the well-known biologist.

He also experimented with burning mirrors, his results appearing in his _Invention des miroirs ardens pour bruler a une grande distance_ (1747).

The reference here may be to his _Resolution des problemes qui regardent le jeu du franc carreau_ (1733). The prominence of his _Histoire naturelle_ (36 volumes, 1749-1788) has overshadowed the credit due to him for his translation of Newton's work on Fluxions.

[615] See page 285. This article was a supplement to No. 14 in the _Athenaeum_ Budget.--A. De M.