A Budget of Paradoxes Volume I Part 42

[298] Grosart (1827-1899) was a Presbyterian clergyman. He was a great bibliophile, and issued numerous reprints of rare books.

[299] This was the year after Palmer's death. The t.i.tle was, _The Remaines of ... Francis Lord Verulam....; being Essays and severall Letters to severall great personages, and other pieces of various and high concernment not heretofore published_, London, 1648, 4to.

[300] Shaw (1694-1763) was physician extraordinary to George II. He wrote on chemistry and medicine, and his edition of the _Philosophical Works of Francis Bacon_ appeared at London in 1733.

[301] John Locke (1632-1704), the philosopher. This particular work appeared in 1695. There was an edition in 1834 (vol. 25 of the _Sacred Cla.s.sics_) and one in 1836 (vol. 2 of the _Christian Library_).

[302] I use the word _Socinian_ because it was so much used in Locke's time: it is used in our own day by the small fry, the unlearned clergy and their immediate followers, as a term of reproach for _all_ Unitarians. I suspect they have a kind of liking for the _word_; it sounds like _so sinful_. The learned clergy and the higher laity know better: they know that the bulk of the modern Unitarians go farther than Socinus, and are not correctly named as his followers. The Unitarians themselves neither desire nor deserve a name which puts them one point nearer to orthodoxy than they put themselves. That point is the doctrine that direct prayer to Jesus Christ is lawful and desirable: this Socinus held, and the modern Unitarians do not hold. Socinus, in treating the subject in his own _Inst.i.tutio_, an imperfect catechism which he left, lays much more stress on John xiv. 13 than on xv. 16 and xvi. 23. He is not disinclined to think that _Patrem_ should be in the first citation, where some put it; but he says that to ask the Father in the name of the Son is nothing but praying to the Son in prayer to the Father. He labors the point with obvious wish to secure a conclusive sanction. In the Racovian Catechism, of which Faustus Socinus probably drew the first sketch, a clearer light is arrived at. The translation says: "But wherein consists the divine honor due to Christ? In adoration likewise and invocation. For we ought at all times to adore Christ, and may in our necessities address our prayers to him as often as we please; and there are many reasons to induce us to do this freely." There are some who like accuracy, even in aspersion--A. De M.

Socinus, or Fausto Paolo Sozzini (1539-1604), was an ant.i.trinitarian who believed in prayer and homage to Christ. Leaving Italy after his views became known, he repaired to Basel, but his opinions were too extreme even for the Calvinists. He then tried Transylvania, attempting to convert to his views the ant.i.trinitarian Bishop David. The only result of his efforts was the imprisonment of David and his own flight to Poland, in which country he spent the rest of his life (1579-1604). His complete works appeared first at Amsterdam in 1668, in the _Bibliotheca Fratres Polonorum_. The _Racovian Catechism_ (1605) appeared after his death, but it seems to have been planned by him.

[303] "As much of faith as is necessary to salvation is contained in this article, Jesus is the Christ."

[304] Edwards (1637-1716) was a Cambridge fellow, strongly Calvinistic. He published many theological works, attacking the Arminians and Socinians.

Locke and Whiston were special objects of attack.

[305] _Sir I. Newton's views on points of Trinitarian Doctrine; his Articles of Faith, and the General Coincidence of his Opinions with those of J. Locke; a Selection of Authorities, with Observations_, London, 1856.

[306] _A Confession of the Faith_, Bristol, 1752, 8vo.

[307] This was really very strange, because Laud (1573-1644), while he was Archbishop of Canterbury, forced a good deal of High Church ritual on the Puritan clergy, and even wished to compel the use of a prayer book in Scotland. It was this intolerance that led to his impeachment and execution.

[308] The name is Jonchere. He was a man of some merit, proposing (1718) an important ca.n.a.l in Burgundy, and publishing a work on the _Decouverte des longitudes estimees generalement impossible a trouver_, 1734 (or 1735).

[309] Locke invented a kind of an instrument for finding longitude, and it is described in the appendix, but I can find nothing about the man. There was published some years later (London, 1751) another work of his, _A new Problem to discover the longitude at sea_.

[310] Baxter, concerning whom I know merely that he was a schoolmaster, starts with the a.s.sumption of this value, and deduces from it some fourteen properties relating to the circle.

[311] John, who died in 1780, was a well-known character in his way. He was a bookseller on Fleet Street, and his shop was a general rendezvous for the literary men of his time. He wrote the _Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Mr. William Whiston_ (1749, with another edition in 1753). He was one of the first to issue regular catalogues of books with prices affixed.

[312] The name appears both as Hulls and as Hull. He was born in Gloucestershire in 1699. In 1754 he published _The Art of Measuring made Easy by the help of a new Sliding Scale_.

[313] Thomas Newcomen (1663-1729) invented the first practical steam engine about 1710. It was of about five and a half horse power, and was used for pumping water from coal mines. Savery had described such an engine in 1702, but Newcomen improved upon it and made it practical.

[314] The well-known benefactor of art (1787-1863).

[315] The tract was again reprinted in 1860.

[316] Hulls made his experiment on the Avon, at Evesham, in 1737, having patented his machine in 1736. He had a Newcomen engine connected with six paddles. This was placed in the front of a small tow boat. The experiment was a failure.

[317] William Symington (1763-1831). In 1786 he constructed a working model of a steam road carriage. The machinery was applied to a small boat in 1788, and with such success as to be tried on a larger boat in 1789. The machinery was clumsy, however, and in 1801 he took out a new patent for the style of engine still used on paddle wheel steamers. This engine was successfully used in 1802, on the Charlotte Dundas. Fulton (1765-1815) was on board, and so impressed Robert Livingston with the idea that the latter furnished the money to build the Clermont (1807), the beginning of successful river navigation.

[318] Louis Bertrand Castel (1688-1757), most of whose life was spent in trying to perfect his _Clavecin oculaire_, an instrument on the order of the harpsichord, intended to produce melodies and harmonies of color. He also wrote _L'Optique des couleurs_ (1740) and _Sur le fond de la Musique_ (1754).

[319] Dr. Robinson (1680-1754) was professor of physic at Trinity College, Dublin, and three times president of King and Queen's College of Physicians. In his _Treatise on the Animal Economy_ (1732-3, with a third edition in 1738) he antic.i.p.ated the discoveries of Lavoisier and Priestley on the nature of oxygen.

[320] There was another edition, published at London in 1747, 8vo.

[321] The author seems to have shot his only bolt in this work. I can find nothing about him.

[322] _Quod Deus sit, mundusque ab ipso creatus fuerit in tempore, ejusque providentia gubernetur. Selecta aliquot theoremata adversos atheos_, etc., Paris, 1635, 4to.

[323] The British Museum Catalogue mentions a copy of 1740, but this is possibly a misprint.

[324] This was Johann II (1710-1790), son of Johann I, who succeeded his father as professor of mathematics at Basel.

[325] Samuel Koenig (1712-1757), who studied under Johann Bernoulli I. He became professor of mathematics at Franeker (1747) and professor of philosophy at the Hague (1749).

[326] "In accordance with the hypotheses laid down in this memoir it is so evident that t must = 34, y = 1, and z = 1, that there is no need of proof or authority for it to be recognized by every one."

[327] "I subscribe to the judgment of Mr. Bernoulli as a result of these hypotheses."

[328] "It clearly appears from my present a.n.a.lysis and demonstration that they have already recognized and perfectly agreed to the fact that the quadrature of the circle is mathematically demonstrated."

[329] Dr. Knight (died in 1772) made some worthy contributions to the literature of the mariner's compa.s.s. As De Morgan states, he was librarian of the British Museum.

[330] Sir Anthony Panizzi (1797-1879) fled from Italy under sentence of death (1822). He became a.s.sistant (1831) and chief (1856) librarian of the British Museum, and was knighted in 1869. He began the catalogue of printed books of the Museum.

[331] Wright (1711-1786) was a physicist. He was offered the professorship of mathematics at the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg but declined to accept it. This work is devoted chiefly to the theory of the Milky Way, the _via lactea_ as he calls it after the manner of the older writers.

[332] Troughton (1753-1835) was one of the world's greatest instrument makers. He was apprenticed to his brother John, and the two succeeded (1770) Wright and Cole in Fleet Street. Airy called his method of graduating circles the greatest improvement ever made in instrument making.

He constructed (1800) the first modern transit circle, and his instruments were used in many of the chief observatories of the world.

[333] William Simms (1793-1860) was taken into partnership by Troughton (1826) after the death of the latter's brother. The firm manufactured some well-known instruments.

[334] This was George Horne (1730-1792), fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, vice-Chancellor of the University (1776), Dean of Canterbury (1781), and Bishop of Norwich (1790). He was a great satirist, but most of his pamphlets against men like Adam Smith, Swedenborg, and Hume, were anonymous, as in the case of this one against Newton. He was so liberal in his att.i.tude towards the Methodists that he would not have John Wesley forbidden to preach in his diocese. He was twenty-one when this tract appeared.

[335] Martin (1704-1782) was by no means "old Benjamin Martin" when Horne wrote this pamphlet in 1749. In fact he was then only forty-five. He was a physicist and a well-known writer on scientific instruments. He also wrote _Philosophia Britannica or a new and comprehensive system of the Newtonian Philosophy_ (1759).

[336] Jean Theophile Desaguliers, or Des Aguliers (1683-1744) was the son of a Protestant who left France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. He became professor of physics at Oxford, and afterwards gave lectures in London. Later he became chaplain to the Prince of Wales. He published several works on physics.

[337] Charles Hutton (1737-1823), professor of mathematics at Woolwich (1772-1807). His _Mathematical Tables_ (1785) and _Mathematical and Philosophical Dictionary_ (1795-1796) are well known.

[338] James Epps (1773-1839) contributed a number of memoirs on the use and corrections of instruments. He was a.s.sistant secretary of the Astronomical Society.

[339] John Hutchinson (1674-1737) was one of the first to try to reconcile the new science of geology with Genesis. He denied the Newtonian hypothesis as dangerous to religion, and because it necessitated a vacuum. He was a mystic in his interpretation of the Scriptures, and created a sect that went under the name of Hutchinsonians.

[340] John Rowning, a Lincolnshire rector, died in 1771. He wrote on physics, and published a memoir on _A machine for finding the roots of equations universally_ (1770).

[341] It is always difficult to sanction this spelling of the name of this Jesuit father who is so often mentioned in the a.n.a.lytic treatment of conics. He was born in Ragusa in 1711, and the original spelling was Ru[=d]er Josip Bo[vs]kovi['c]. When he went to live in Italy, as professor of mathematics at Rome (1740) and at Pavia, the name was spelled Ruggiero Giuseppe Boscovich, although Boscovicci would seem to a foreigner more natural. His astronomical work was notable, and in his _De maculis solaribus_ (1736) there is the first determination of the equator of a planet by observing the motion of spots on its surface. Boscovich came near having some contact with America, for he was delegated to observe in California the transit of Venus in 1755, being prevented by the dissolution of his order just at that time. He died in 1787, at Milan.

[342] James Granger (1723-1776) who wrote the _Biographical History of England_, London, 1769. His collection of prints was remarkable, numbering some fourteen thousand.

[343] He was curator of experiments for the Royal Society. He wrote a large number of books and monographs on physics. He died about 1713.

[344] Lee seems to have made no impression on biographers.

[345] This work appeared at London in 1852.