There is a motto from the _Des Erreurs_ itself, "Expliquer les choses par l'homme, et non l'homme par les choses. _Des Erreurs et de la Verite_, par un PH.... INC...., p. 9."[377] This work is set down in various catalogues and biographies as written by the PH.... INC.... himself. But it is not usual for a writer to publish two works in the same year, one of which takes a motto from the other. And the second work is profuse in capitals and italics, and uses Hebrew learning: its style differs much from the first work. The first work sets out from man, and has nothing to do with God: the second is religious and raps the knuckles of the first as follows: "Si nous voulons nous preserver de toutes {171} les illusions, et surtout des amorces de l'orgueil par lesquelles l'homme est si souvent seduit, ne prenons jamais les hommes, mais toujours _Dieu_ pour notre terme de comparaison."[378] The first uses _four_ and _nine_ in various ways, of which I have quoted one: the second says, "Et ici se trouve deja une explication des nombres _quatre_ et _neuf_, qui ont peu embarrasse dans l'ouvrage deja cite. L'homme s'est egare en allant de _quatre_ a _neuf_...."[379] The work cited is the _Erreurs_, etc., and the citation is in the motto, which is the text of the opposition sermon. A FORERUNNER OF THE METRIC SYSTEM. Method to discover the difference of the earth's diameters; proving its true ratio to be not less variable than as 45 is to 46, and shortest in its pole's axis 174 miles.... likewise a method for fixing an universal standard for weights and measures. By Thomas Williams.[380] London, 1788, 8vo. Mr. Williams was a paradoxer in his day, and proposed what was, no doubt, laughed at by some. He proposed the sort of plan which the French--independently of course--carried into effect a few years after. He would have the 52d degree of latitude divided into 100,000 parts and each part a geographical yard. The geographical ton was to be the cube of a geographical yard filled with sea-water taken some leagues from land. All multiples and sub-divisions were to be decimal. I was beginning to look up those who had made similar proposals, when a learned article on the proposal of a {172} metrical system came under my eye in the _Times_ of Sept. 15, 1863. The author cites Mouton,[381] who would have the minute of a degree divided into 10,000 _virgulae_; James Cassini,[382] whose foot was to be six thousandths of a minute; and Paucton,[383] whose foot was the 400,000th of a degree. I have verified the first and third statements; surely the second ought to be the _six-thousandth_. An inquiry into the Copernican system ... wherein it is proved, in the clearest manner, that the earth has only her diurnal motion ... with an attempt to point out the only true way whereby mankind can receive any real benefit from the study of the heavenly bodies. By John Cunningham.[384] London, 1789, 8vo.