"Sir, I have been given to understand that a friend of mine one whom I shall never be ashamed to acknowledge as {18} such tho' lowly his origine; nay not only not ashamed but proud of doing so for I am one of those who esteem and respect a man according to his ability and probity, deeming with Dr. Watts 'that the mind is the standard of the man,'[40] has laid before you and asked your opinion of his extraordinary performance, viz. the quadrature of the circle, he did this with the firmest belief that you would not only treat the matter in a straightforward manner but with the conviction that from your known or supposed knowledge of mathematicks would have given an upright and honorable decision upon the subject; but the question is have you done so? Could I say yes I would with the greatest of pleasure and have congratulated you upon your decision whatever it might have been but I am sorry to say that I cannot your letter is a paltry evasion, you say 'that it is a great pity that you (Mr. ----) should have attempted this (the quadrature of the circle) for your mathematical knowledge is not sufficient to make you know in what the problem consists,' you don't say in what it does consist _according to your ideas_, oh! no nothing of the sort, you enter into no disquisition upon the subject in order to show where you think Mr. ---- is wrong and why you have not is simply--_because you cannot_--you know that he has done it and what is if I am not wrongly informed _you have been heard to say so_. He has done what you nor any other mathematician as those who call themselves such have done. And what is the reason that you will not candidly acknowledge to him as you have to others that he has squared the circle shall I tell you? it is because he has performed the feat to obtain the glory of which mathematicians have battled from time immemorial that they might encircle their brows with a wreath of laurels far more glorious than ever conqueror won it is simply this that it is a poor man a {19} humble artisan who has gained that victory that you don't like to acknowledge it you don't like to be beaten and worse to acknowledge that you have miscalculated, you have in short too small a soul to acknowledge that he is right. "I was asked my opinion and _I_ gave it unhesitatingly in the affirmative and I am backed in my opinion not only by Mr. ---- a mathematician and watchmaker residing in the boro of Southwark but by no less an authority than the Professor of mathematics of ---- College ---- ---- United States Mr. ---- and I presume that he at least is your equal as an authority and Mr. ---- says that the government of the U.S. will recompense M. D. for the discovery he has made if so what a reflection upon Old england the boasted land of freedom the nursery of arts and sciences that her sons are obliged to go to a foreign country to obtain that recompense to which they are justly entitled