ts of the plain corollary, that all the motions of
the Earth are 'part and parcel' of these great motions, and those again and
all like them consecutive displays of still greater motions in equality of
action and reaction, is A QUESTION which must be reserved for the casuists
of other generations.... I cannot expect that on a sudden you and your
friends will come to my conclusion, that the present philosophy of the
Schools and Universities of Europe, based on faith in witchcraft, magic,
&c., is a system of execrable nonsense, _by which quacks live on the faith
of fools_; but I desire a free and fair examination of my Aphorisms, and if
a few are admitted to be true, merely as courteous concessions to
arithmetic, my purpose will be effected, for men will thus be led to think;
and if they think, then the fabric {245} of false assumptions, and
degrading superstitions will soon tumble in ruins."

This for posterity. For the present time I ground the fame of Sir R.
Phillips on his having squared the circle without knowing it, or intending
to do it. In the _Protest_ presently noted he discovered that "the force
taken as 1 is equal to the sum of all its fractions ... thus 1 = 1/4 + 1/9
+ 1/16 + 1/25, &c., carried to infinity." This the mathematician instantly
sees is equivalent to the theorem that the circumference of any circle is
double of the diagonal of the cube on its diameter.[562]

I have examined the following works of Sir R. Phillips, and heard of many
others:

Essays on the proximate mechanical causes of the general phenomena of
the Universe, 1818, 12mo.[563]

Protest against the prevailing principles of natural philosophy, with
the development of a common sense system (no date, 8vo, pp. 16).[564]

Four dialogues between an Oxford Tutor and a disciple of the
common-sense philosophy, relative to the proximate causes of material
phenomena. 8vo, 1824.

A century of original aphorisms on the proximate causes of the
phenomena of nature, 1835, 12mo.

Sir Richard Phillips had four valuable qualities; honesty, zeal, ability,
and courage. He applied them all to teaching {246} matters about which he
knew nothing; and gained himself an uncomfortable life and a ridiculous
memory.

Astronomy made plain; or only way the true perpendicular distance of
the Sun, Moon, or Stars, from this earth, can be obtained. By Wm.
Wood.[565] Chatham, 1819, 12mo.

If this theory be true,