A Budget of Paradoxes Volume II Part 46

[82] He signs himself "James Hopkins, schoolmaster," and this seems to have been his only published effort.

[83] Joseph Ady (1770-1852) was a famous swindler. One of his best-known schemes was to send out letters informing the recipients that they would learn something to their advantage on payment of a certain sum. He spent some time in prison.

[84] Sir Peter Laurie (c. 1779-1861) was worth referring to, for he was prominent as a magistrate and was honored because of his interest in all social reforms. He made a fortune as a contractor, became sheriff of London in 1823, and was knighted in the following year. He became Lord Mayor of London in 1832.

[85] See Vol. I, page 321, note 2 {691}. The _Astronomy in a nutsh.e.l.l_ appeared in 1860. _The Herald of Astrology_ was first published in London in 1831, "by Zadkiel the Seer." It was continued as _The Astrological Almanac_ (London, 1834), as _Zadkiel's Almanac and Herald of Astrology_ (_ibid._, 1835, edited by R. J. Morrison, and subsequently by A. J.

Pearce), and as _Raphael's Prophetic Almanac_ (1840-1855).

[86] See Vol. I, page 172, note 3 {382}.

[87] See Vol. I, page 87, note 4 {133}.

[88] Franz Xaver, Freiherr von Zach (1754-1832) was director of the observatory at Seeberge near Gotha. He wrote the _Tabulae speciales aberrationis et mutationis_ (1806-7), _Novae et correctae tabulae solis_ (1792), and _L'attraction des montagnes et ses effets sur le fil a plomb_ (1814).

[89] Jean Louis Pons (1761-1831) was connected with the observatory at Ma.r.s.eilles for thirty years (1789-1819). He later became director of the observatory at Marlia, near Lucca, and subsequently filled the same office at Florence. He was an indefatigable searcher for comets, discovering 37 between 1801 and 1827, among them being the one that bears Encke's name.

[90] This hypothesis has now become an established fact.

[91] John Chetwode Eustace (c. 1762-1815) was born in Ireland. Although a Roman Catholic priest he lived for a time at Cambridge where he did some tutoring. His _Cla.s.sical Tour_ appeared in 1813 and went through several editions.

[92] "Crimes should be exposed when they are punished, but disgraceful acts should be hidden."

[93] Henri Hureau de Senarmont (1808-1862) was professor of mineralogy at the _Ecole des mines_ and examiner at the _Ecole polytechnique_ at Paris.

[94] Augustin Jean Fresnel (1788-1827), "Ingenieur des ponts et chaussees,"

gave the first experimental proofs of the wave theory of light. He studied the questions of interference and polarization, and determined the approximate velocity of light.

[95] "As is my custom."

[96] Francis Heywood (1796-1858) made the first English translation of Kant's _Critick of Pure Reason_ (1838, reprinted in 1848). The _a.n.a.lysis_ came out, as here stated, in 1844.

[97] Louise Renee de Keroualle, d.u.c.h.ess of Portsmouth and Aubigny (1649-1734), was a favorite of Charles II. She used her influence to keep him under the control of Louis XIV.

[98] William Chiffinch (c. 1602-1688) was page of the king's bed-chamber and keeper of the private closet to Charles II. He was one of the king's intimates and was an unscrupulous henchman.

[99] "Well devised."

[100] "John Bellingham Inglis. His _Philobiblion_ "translated from the first edition (of Ricardus d'Aungervile, Bishop of Durham), 1473," appeared at London in 1832. It was republished in America (Albany, N. Y.) in 1864.

[101] "What are you laughing at?"

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

[103] See Vol. I, page 112, note 7 {211}.

[104] Referring to Hamilton's edition of the _Collected Works of Dugald Stewart_, 10 volumes, Edinburgh, 1854-58. It is not commonly remembered that Stewart (1753-1828) taught mathematics at the University of Edinburgh before he took up philosophy.

[105] This was Hamilton's edition of the _Works of Thomas Reid_ (2 vols., Edinburgh, 1846-1863). Reid (1710-1796) included mathematics in his work in philosophy at Aberdeen. In 1764 he succeeded Adam Smith at Glasgow.

[106] Edward Irving (1792-1834), the famous preacher. At first he a.s.sisted Dr. Chalmers at Glasgow, but in 1822 he went to London where he met with great success. A few years later he became mentally unbalanced and was finally expelled from his church (1832) for heresy. He was a great friend of Carlyle.

[107] He also wrote a number of other paradoxes, including _An Essay towards a Science of Consciousness_ (1838), _Instinctive Natural Religion_ (1858), _Popular Treatise on the structure, diseases, and treatment of the human teeth_ (1837), and _On Headache_ (1859).

[108] James Smith (1801-1857), known as Shepherd Smith, was a socialist and a mystic, with a philosophy that was wittily described as "Oriental pantheism translated into Scotch." He was editor of several journals.

[109] Joanna Southcott (1750-1814) was known for her rhyming prophecies in which she announced herself as the woman spoken of in Revelations xii. She had at one time as many as 100,000 disciples, and she established a sect that long survived her.

[110] Thales, c. 640-548 B. C.

[111] Pythagoras, 580-501 B. C.

[112] Anaxagoras, 499-428 B. C., the last of the Ionian school, teacher of Euripides and Pericles. Plutarch speaks of him as having squared the circle.

[113] Oinopides of Chios, contemporary of Anaxagoras. Proclus tells us that Oinopides was the first to show how to let fall a perpendicular to a line from an external point.

[114] Bryson and Antiphon, contemporaries of Socrates, invented the so-called method of exhaustions, one of the forerunners of the calculus.

[115] He wrote, c. 440 B. C., the first elementary textbook on mathematics in the Greek language. The "lunes of Hippocrates" are well known in geometry.

[116] Jabir ben Aflah. He lived c. 1085, at Seville, and wrote on astronomy and spherical trigonometry. The _Gebri filii Affla Hispalensis de astronomia libri_ IX was published at Nuremberg in 1533.

[117] Hieronymus Carda.n.u.s, or Girolamo Cardano (1501-1576), the great algebraist. His _Artis magnae sive de regulis Algebrae_ was published at Nuremberg in 1545.

[118] Nicolo Tartaglia (c. 1500-1557), the great rival of Cardan.

[119] See note 5 {98}, Vol. I, page 69.

[120] See note 10 {124}, Vol. I., page 83.

[121] See note 9 {123}, Vol. I, page 83.

[122] Pierre Herigone lived in Paris the first half of the 17th century.

His _Cours mathematique_ (6 vols., 1634-1644) had some standing but was not at all original.

[123] Franciscus van Schooten (died in 1661) was professor of mathematics at Leyden. He edited Descartes's _La Geometrie_.

[124] Florimond de Beaune (1601-1652) was the first Frenchman to write a commentary on Descartes's _La Geometrie_. He did some noteworthy work in the theory of curves.

[125] See note 3 {23}, Vol. I, page 41.

[126] Olivier de Serres (b. in 1539) was a writer on agriculture. Montucla speaks of him in his _Quadrature du cercle_ (page 227) as having a.s.serted that the circle is twice the inscribed equilateral triangle, although, as De Morgan points out, this did not fairly interpret his position.

[127] Anghera wrote not only the three works here mentioned, but also the _Problemi del piu alto interesse scientifico, geometricamente risoluti e dimostrati_, Naples, 1861. His quadrature was defended by Giovanni Motti in a work ent.i.tled _Matematica Vera. Falsita del sistema ciclometrico d'Archimede, quadratura del cerchio d'Anghera, ricerca algebraica dei lati di qualunque poligono regolare inscritto in un circolo_, Voghera, 1877. The _Problemi_ of 1861 contains Anghera's portrait, and states that he lived at Malta from 1849 to 1861. It further states that the Malta publications are in part reproduced in this work.

[128] This was his friend Paolo Pullicino whose _Elogio_ was p.r.o.nounced by L. Farrugia at Malta in 1890. He wrote a work _La Santa Effegie della Blata Vergine Maria_, published at Valetta in 1868.

[129] St. Vitus, St. Modestus, and St. Crescentia were all martyred the same day, being torn limb from limb after lions and molten lead had proved of no avail. At least so the story runs.