heir derision; so much does long-fostered
prejudice stand in the way of truth. The author complains bitterly that men
of science will not attend to him and others like him: he observes, that
"in the time occupied in declining, a man of science might test the
merits." This is, alas! too true; so well do applicants of this kind know
how to stick on. But every rule has its exception: I have heard of one. The
late Lord Spencer[28]--the Lord Althorp of the House of Commons--told me
that a speculator once got access to him at the Home Office, and was
proceeding to unfold his way of serving the public. "I do not understand
these things," said Lord Althorp, "but I happen to have ---- (naming an
eminent engineer) upstairs; suppose you talk to him on the subject." The
discoverer went up, and in half-an-hour returned, and said, "I am very much
obliged to your Lordship for introducing me to Mr. ----; he has convinced
me {10} that I am quite wrong." I supposed, when I heard the story--but it
would not have been seemly to say it--that Lord A. exhaled candor and
sense, which infected those who came within reach: he would have done so,
if anybody.

THE TRISECTION AND QUADRATURE AGAIN.

A method to trisect a series of angles having relation to each other;
also another to trisect any given angle. By James Sabben. 1848 (two
quarto pages).

"The consequence of years of intense thought": very likely, and very sad.

1848. The following was sent to me in manuscript. I give the whole of it:

"_Quadrature of the Circle_.--A quadrant is a curvilinear angle traversing
round and at an equal distance from a given point, called a center, no two
points in the curve being at the same angle, but irreptitiously graduating
from 90 to 60. It is therefore a mean angle of 90 and 60, which is 75,
because it is more than 60, and less than 90, approximately from 60 to 90,
and from 90 to 60, with equal generation in each irreptitious
approximation, therefore meeting in 75, and which is the mean angle of the
quadrant.

"Or suppose a line drawn from a given point at 90, and from the same point
at 60. Let each of these lines revolve on this point toward each other at
an equal ratio. They will become one line at 75, and bisect the curve,
which is one-sixth of the entire circle. The result, taking 16 as a
diameter, gives an area of 201.072400, and a circumference of 50.2681.

"The original conception, its natural harmony, and the result, to my