A Budget of Paradoxes Volume I Part 53

[796] Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel (1784-1846), the astronomer and physicist.

He was professor of astronomy at Konigsberg.

[797] This was the _Reduction of the Observations of Planets made ... from 1750 to 1830: computed ... under the superintendence of George Biddell Airy_ (1848). See note 129, page 85.

[798] The expense of this magnificent work was defrayed by Government grants, obtained, at the instance of the British a.s.sociation, in 1833--A.

De M.

[799] See note 32, page 43.

[800] Franz Friedrich Ernst Brunnow (1821-1891) was at that time or shortly before director of the observatory at Dusseldorf. He then went to Berlin and thence (1854) to Ann Arbor, Michigan. He then went to Dublin and finally became Royal Astronomer of Ireland.

[801] Johann Gottfried Galle (1812-1910), at that time connected with the Berlin observatory, and later professor of astronomy at Breslau.

[802] George Bishop (1785-1861), in whose observatory in Regent's Park important observations were made by Dawes, Hind, and Marth.

[803] James Challis (1803-1882), director of the Cambridge observatory, and successor of Airy as Plumian professor of astronomy.

[804] On Leverrier and Arago see note 33, page 43, and note 561, page 243.

[805] Robert Grant's (1814-1892) _History of Physical Astronomy from the Earliest Ages to the Middle of the Nineteenth Century_ appeared in 1852. He was professor of astronomy and director of the observatory at Glasgow.

[806] John Debenham was more interested in religion than in astronomy. He wrote _The Strait Gate; or, the true scripture doctrine of salvation clearly explained_, London, 1843, and _Tractatus de magis et Bethlehemae stella et Christi in deserto tentatione_, privately printed at London in 1845.

[807] More properly the Sydney Smirke reading room, since it was built from his designs.

[808] The Antinomians were followers of Johannes Agricola (1494-1566). They believed that Christians as such were released from all obligations to the Old Testament. Some went so far as to a.s.sert that, since all Christians were sanctified, they could not lose this sanct.i.ty even though they disobeyed G.o.d. The sect was prominent in England in the seventeenth century, and was transferred to New England. Here it suffered a check in the condemnation of Mrs. Ann Hutchinson (1636) by the Newton Synod.

[809] Aside from this work and his publications on Reeve and Muggleton he wrote nothing. With Joseph Frost he published _A list_ _of Books and general index to J. Reeve and L. Muggleton's works_ (1846), _Divine Songs of the Muggletonians_ (1829), and the work mentioned on page 396. _The works of J. Reeve and L. Muggleton_ (1832).

[810] About 1650 he and his cousin John Reeve (1608-1658) began to have visions. As part of their creed they taught that astronomy was opposed by the Bible. They a.s.serted that the sun moves about the earth, and Reeve figured out that heaven was exactly six miles away. Both Muggleton and Reeve were imprisoned for their unitarian views. Muggleton wrote a _Transcendant Spirituall Treatise_ (1652). I have before me _A true Interpretation of All the Chief Texts ... of the whole Book of the Revelation of St. John.... By Lodowick Muggleton, one of the two last Commissioned Witnesses & Prophets of the onely high, immortal, glorious G.o.d, Christ Jesus_ (1665), in which the interpretation of the "number of the beast" occupies four pages without arriving anywhere.

[811] In 1652 he was, in a vision, named as the Lord's "last messenger,"

with Muggleton as his "mouth," and died six years later, probably of nervous tension resulting from his divine "illumination." He was the more spiritual of the two.

[812] William Guthrie (1708-1770) was a historian and political writer. His _History of England_ (1744-1751) was the first attempt to base history on parliamentary records. He also wrote a _General History of Scotland_ in 10 volumes (1767). The work to which Frost refers is the _Geographical, Historical, and Commercial Grammar_ (1770) which contained an astronomical part by J. Ferguson. By 1827 it had pa.s.sed through 24 editions.

[813] George Fox (1624-1691), founder of the Society of Friends; a mystic and a disciple of Boehme. He was eight times imprisoned for heresy.

[814] If they were friends they were literary antagonists, for Muggleton wrote against Fox _The Neck of the Quakers Broken_ (1663), and Fox replied in 1667. Muggleton also wrote _A Looking Gla.s.s for George Fox_.

[815] John Conduitt (1688-1737), who married (1717) Newton's half niece, Mrs. Katherine Barton. See note 284, page 136.

[816] Probably Peter Mark Roget's (1779-1869) _Thesaurus of English Words_ (1852) is not much used at present, but it went through 28 editions in his lifetime. Few who use the valuable work are aware that Roget was a professor of physiology at the Royal Inst.i.tution (London), that he achieved his t.i.tle of F. R. S. because of his work in perfecting the slide rule, and that he followed Sir John Herschel as secretary of the Royal Society.

[817] See note 703, page 327. This work went into a second edition in the year of its first publication.

[818] See note 398, page 177.

[819] See note 528, page 233.

[820] George Jacob Holyoake (1817-1906) entered into a controversial life at an early age. In 1841 he was imprisoned for six months for blasphemy. He founded and edited _The Reasoner_ (Vols. 1-26, 1846-1861). In his later life he did much to promote cooperation among the working cla.s.s.

[821] See note 176, page 102.

[822] William Thomas Lowndes (1798-1843), whose _Bibliographer's Manual of English Literature_, 4 vols., London, 1834 (also 1857-1864, and 1869) is a cla.s.sic in its line.

[823] Jacques Charles Brunet (1780-1867), the author of the great French bibliography, the _Manuel du Libraire_ (1810).