The Romance of Mathematics: Being the Original Researches of a Lady Professor of Girtham College in Polemical Science, with some Account of the Social Properties of a Conic; Equations to Brain Waves; Social Forces; and the Laws of Political Motion. — John Shaqi
The Romance of Mathematics: Being the Original Researches of a Lady Professor of Girtham College in Polemical Science, with some Account of the Social Properties of a Conic; Equations to Brain Waves; Social Forces; and the Laws of Political Motion.Ditchfield, P. H. (Peter Hampson)
Science
The Romance of Mathematics: Being the Original Researches of a Lady Professor of Girtham College in Polemical Science, with some Account of the Social Properties of a Conic; Equations to Brain Waves; Social Forces; and the Laws of Political Motion.
Ditchfield, P. H. (Peter Hampson)
Satire, English; Women -- Education -- Great Britain
At the end of this portion of the MS. the editor of these papers
discovered a photograph which, from subsequent inquiry, proved to be
that of the accomplished authoress of the above reflections. The face
is one of considerable beauty, with eyes as clear, steadfast, and open
as the day. There is a degree of firmness about the mouth, but it is a
sweet and pretty one notwithstanding; and a smile, half scornful, half
playful, can be detected lurking about the corners of the lips, which do
not seem altogether fitted for pronouncing hard mathematical terms and
abstruse scientific problems. This photograph might have been the
identical one which nearly brought an enamoured youth into grave
difficulties by its secretion in the folds of his blotting-paper during
examination. The said enamoured youth had evidently placed it there for
the sake of its inspiring qualities; and it was said that all his hopes
of gaining the hand of the fair original depended upon his passing that
same examination. But the wakeful eye of a stern examiner had watched
him as he turned again and again to consult the sweet face which beamed
from beneath his blotting-paper; and he narrowly escaped expulsion from
the Senate-house on the charge of 'cribbing.' Certainly he took a mean
advantage of his fellow-sufferers, if this were the identical
photograph, for it portrays a most inspiring face. Forgive us, lenient
reader; one moment! There--thank you--we have done. And now we will
proceed to disclose the researches and original problems which the MS.
contains.
Evidently the collegiate authorities were not slow in recognising the
talents of the assiduous student, and elected her without much delay to
a Professorship of Girtham. In this capacity the learned lady delivered
several lectures, of which the second MS. contains the first of the
series.
PAPER II.
LECTURE ON THE THEORY OF BRAIN WAVES AND THE TRANSMIGRATION
AND POTENTIALITY OF MENTAL FORCES.
Professors and Students of the University of Girtham, my Lords, Ladies,
and Gentlemen,--I have the honour to bring before you this evening some
original conceptions and discoveries which have been formulated by me
during my researches in the boundless field of mathematical knowledge;
and though you may be inclined at first to pronounce them as somewhat
hastily conceived hypotheses, I hope to be able to demonstrate the
actual truth of the propositions which I shall now endeavour to
enunciate. It is with some feelings of diffidence that I stand before so
august an assembly as the present; and if I were not actually convinced
of the accuracy of my calculations, I should never have presumed to
appear before you in the character of a lecturer. But '_Magna est
veritas, et prævalebit_.' I cast aside maiden timidity; I clothe myself
in the professorial robe which you have bestowed upon me, and sacrifice
my own feelings on the altar of Truth.
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