A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume IIDe Morgan, Augustus
Philosophy
A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume II
De Morgan, Augustus
Circle-squaring; Perpetual motion; Science -- Miscellanea; Trisection of angle
It is useful to record such instances as I have given, with precision and
on the solemn word of the recorder. When such a story as that of Flamsteed
is told, _a priori_ assures us that it could not have been: the story may
have been a _ben trovato_,[99] but not the bundle. It is also useful to
establish some of the good jokes which all take for inventions. My friend
Mr. J. Bellingham Inglis,[100] before 1800, saw the tobacconist's carriage
with a sample of tobacco in a shield, and the motto _Quid rides_[101] (_N._
& _Q._, 3d S. i. 245). His father was able to tell him all about it. The
tobacconist was Jacob Brandon, well known to the elder Mr. Inglis, and the
person who started the motto, the instant he was asked for such a thing,
was Harry Calender of Lloyd's, a scholar and a wit. My friend Mr. H. Crabb
Robinson[102] remembers the King's Counsel (Samuel Marryat) who took the
motto _Causes produce effects_, when his success enabled him to start a
carriage.
The coincidences of errata are sometimes very remarkable: it may be that
the misprint has a sting. The death of Sir W. Hamilton[103] of Edinburgh
was known in London on a Thursday, and the editor of the _Athenaeum_ wrote
to {53} me in the afternoon for a short obituary notice to appear on
Saturday. I dashed off the few lines which appeared without a moment to
think: and those of my readers who might perhaps think me capable of
contriving errata with meaning will, I am sure, allow the hurry, the
occasion, and my own peculiar relation to the departed, as sufficient
reasons for believing in my entire innocence. Of course I could not see a
proof: and two errata occurred. The words "addition to Stewart"[104]
require "_for_ addition to _read_ edition of." This represents what had
been insisted on by the Edinburgh publisher, who, frightened by the edition
of Reid,[105] had stipulated for a simple reprint without notes. Again
"principles of logic and mathematics" required "_for_ mathematics _read_
metaphysics." No four words could be put together which would have so good
a title to be Hamilton's motto.
April 1850, found in the letter-box, three loose leaves, well printed and
over punctuated, being
Chapter VI. Brethren, lo I come, holding forth the word of life, for so
I am commanded.... Chapter VII. Hear my prayer, O generations! and walk
by the way, to drink the waters of the river.... Chapter VIII. Hearken
o earth, earth, earth, and the kings of the earth, and their armies....
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