rinter, but not a publisher, as happens with so many
unrecorded books.

{163}

OFFICIAL BLOW TO CIRCLE SQUARERS.

1755. The French Academy of Sciences came to the determination not to
examine any more quadratures or kindred problems. This was the consequence,
no doubt, of the publication of Montucla's book: the time was well chosen;
for that book was a full justification of the resolution. The Royal Society
followed the same course, I believe, a few years afterwards. When our Board
of Longitude was in existence, most of its time was consumed in listening
to schemes, many of which included the quadrature of the circle. It is
certain that many quadrators have imagined the longitude problem to be
connected with theirs: and no doubt the notion of a reward offered by
Government for a true quadrature is a result of the reward offered for the
longitude. Let it also be noted that this longitude reward was not a
premium upon excogitation of a mysterious difficulty. The legislature was
made to know that the rational hopes of the problem were centered in the
improvement of the lunar tables and the improvement of chronometers. To
these objects alone, and by name, the offer was directed: several persons
gained rewards for both; and the offer was finally repealed.

AN INTERESTING HOAX.

Fundamentalis Figura Geometrica, primas tantum lineas circuli
quadraturae possibilitatis ostendens. By Niels Erichsen (Nicolaus
Ericius), shipbuilder, of Copenhagen. Copenhagen, 1755, 12mo.

This was a gift from my oldest friend who was not a relative, Dr. Samuel
Maitland of the "Dark Ages."[358] He found it among his books, and could
not imagine how he came by it: I could have told him. He once collected
interpretations of the Apocalypse: and auction lots of such {164} books
often contain quadratures. The wonder is he never found more than one.

The quadrature is not worth notice. Erichsen is the only squarer I have met
with who has distinctly asserted the particulars of that reward which has
been so frequently thought to have been offered in England. He says that in
1747 the Royal Society on the 2d of June, offered to give a large reward
for the quadrature of the circle and a true explanation of magnetism, in
addition to L30,000 previously promised for the same. I need hardly say
that the Royal Society had not L30,000 at that time, and would not, if it
had had such a sum, have spent it on the circle, nor on magnetic theory;