ions of genius. I am
indebted to Lacon for that reflection. You may point to Byron, or
Savage, or Rousseau, and say, 'Were not these eccentric people
talented?' 'Certainly,' I answer; 'but would they not have been better
and greater men if they had been less eccentric--if they had restrained
their caprice, and controlled their passions?' Do not imagine, my young
students of this university, that by being eccentric you will therefore
become great men and women of genius. The world will not give you credit
for being brilliant because you affect the extravagances which sometimes
accompany genius. Some of you ladies, I perceive, have adopted a
peculiar form of dress, half male, half female; or, to be more correct,
three-fourths male, and one-fourth female. Do not imagine that you will
thus attain to the highest honours in this university by your
eccentricity, unless your talents are hid beneath your short-cut hair,
and brains are working hard under your college head-gear. As well might
we expect to find that all females who wear sage-green and extravagant
aesthetic costumes are really born artists and future Royal Academicians.
It is apparent that many aspirers to fame and talent are eager to
exhibit their eccentricities to the gaze of the world, in order that
they may persuade the multitude that they possess the genius of which
eccentricity is falsely supposed to be the outward sign.

I may remark in passing that the eccentricity of a parabolic curve is
always _unity_. What does this prove? You will remember that a
Republican State is represented by a parabola. Therefore, however such a
nation may strive to alter its condition, and secure a settled form of
government, its eccentricity will always remain the same. It will always
be erratic, peculiar, unsettled; and this conclusion substantiates our
previous proposition with regard to the condition of a social system
represented by a parabola.

With regard to other advantages afforded by an elliptical social system,
we will defer the consideration of this important subject until my next
lecture.

PAPER IV.

THE SOCIAL PROPERTIES OF A CONIC SECTION,
AND THE THEORY OF POLEMICAL MATHEMATICS--(_continued_).

Most learned Professors and Students of this University,--You have
already gathered from my preceding lecture my method of procedure in the
investigation of the corresponding properties of curves and States. You
have perceived that we have here the elements of