serpent with a
turkey-cock's head. He was obliged to say something; but I will stake my
character--and so save a woodcut--on the scratches being more like a pair
of legs, one shorter than the other, without a body, jumping over a
six-barred gate placed side uppermost. Those who thought that Scott forged
his own nonsense, will henceforth stand corrected. As to the spirit
Peolphan, etc., no doubt Scott got it from the authors he elsewhere
mentions, Nicolaus Remigius[47] and Petrus Thyracus; but this last word
should be Thyraeus.

The tendency of Scott's mind towards prophecy is very marked, and it is
always fulfilled. Hyder, in his disguise, calls out to Tippoo: "Cursed is
the prince who barters justice for lust; he shall die in the gate by the
sword of the stranger." Tippoo was killed in a gateway at Seringapatam.[48]

FINAEUS ON CIRCLE SQUARING.

Orontii Finaei ... Quadratura Circuli. Paris, 1544, 4to.

Orontius[49] squared the circle out of all comprehension; but he was killed
by a feather from his own wing. His {51} former pupil, John Buteo,[50] the
same who--I believe for the first time--calculated the question of Noah's
ark, as to its power to hold all the animals and stores, unsquared him
completely. Orontius was the author of very many works, and died in 1555.
Among the laudatory verses which, as was usual, precede this work, there is
one of a rare character: a congratulatory ode to the wife of the author.
The French now call this writer Oronce Finee; but there is much difficulty
about delatinization. Is this more correct than Oronce Fine, which the
translator of De Thou uses? Or than Horonce Phine, which older writers
give? I cannot understand why M. de Viette[51] should be called Viete,
because his Latin name is Vieta. It is difficult to restore Buteo; for not
only now is _butor_ a blockhead as well as a bird, but we really cannot
know what kind of bird Buteo stood for. We may be sure that Madame Fine was
Denise Blanche; for Dionysia Candida can mean nothing else. Let her shade
rejoice in the fame which Hubertus Sussannaeus has given her.

I ought to add that the quadrature of Orontius, and solutions of all the
other difficulties, were first published in _De Rebus Mathematicis Hactenus
Desideratis_,[52] of which I have not the date.

{52}

DUCHESNE, AND A DISQUISITION ON ETYMOLOGY.

Nicolai Raymari Ursi Dithmarsi Fundamentum Astronomicum, id est, nova
doctrina sinuum et triangulorum..