abours of these men would have gladdened the
hearts of Euclid, Apollonius and Archimedes, and would have been chronicled
by Pappus with his usual truthfulness and judicious commendation; had they
only but so laboured in Greece, antecedently to, or cotemporarily with,
those "fathers of geometry," instead of in modern England, cotemporarily
with the Hargreaves, the Peels, and the Arkwrights. Yet not one in a
thousand of your readers, perhaps, has ever heard of these men; and the
_visible_ traces of their existence and labours are very few, scarce, and
scattered. A vague general statement respecting the prevalence of
geometrical studies amongst the "middle-classes" of England was made by
Playfair in the _Edinburgh Review_ many years ago, which is quite
calculated to mislead the reader; and the subject was dwelt upon at some
length, and eloquently, by Harvey, at the British Association in 1831.
Attention has been more recently directed to this subject by two living
geometers--one in the _Philosophical Magazine_, and the other in the
_Mechanics'_; but they both have wholly untouched a question of primary
importance--even almost unmentioned:--it is, _how_, _when_, _where_, and by
_whom_, was this most unlikely direction given to the minds of these men?

An answer to this question would form an important chapter in the history
of human development, and throw much light upon the great educational
questions of the present day. It may furnish useful hints for legislation,
and would be of singular aid to those who were appointed to work out
legislative objects in a true spirit. It cannot be doubted that a succinct
account of the origin of this taste, and of the influences by which it has
been maintained even to the present hour, would be a subject of interest to
most of your readers, quite irrespective the greater or less importance and
difficulty of the studies themselves, as the result would show how
knowledge cannot only be effectively diffused but _successfully extended_
under circumstances apparently the most hopeless.

Nor does Manchester stand as the only instance, for the _weavers_ of
Spitalfields display precisely the same singular phenomenon. What is still
more singular is, that the same class in both localities have shown the
same ardent devotion to natural history, and especially to Botany; although
it is to be remarked that, whilst the botanists of Spitalfields have been
horticulturists, those of Manchester have confin