to the extended converse must be
identical with some one or other of the cases under the universal
affirmative proposition with which we set forth, which is absurd."

{296}

On this I cannot help transferring to my reader the words of the Pacha when
he orders the bastinado,--May it do you good! A rational study of logic is
much wanted to show many mathematicians, of all degrees of proficiency,
that there is nothing in the _reasoning_ of mathematics which differs from
other reasoning. Dr. Day repeated his argument in _A Treatise on
Proportion_, London, 1840, 8vo. Dr. Ritchie was a very clear-headed man. He
published, in 1818, a work on arithmetic, with rational explanations. This
was too early for such an improvement, and nearly the whole of his
excellent work was sold as waste paper. His elementary introduction to the
Differential Calculus was drawn up while he was learning the subject late
in life. Books of this sort are often very effective on points of
difficulty.

NEWTON AGAIN OBLITERATED.

Letter to the Royal Astronomical Society in refutation of Mistaken
Notions held in common, by the Society, and by all the Newtonian
philosophers. By Capt. Forman,[642] R.N. Shepton-Mallet, 1833, 8vo.

Capt. Forman wrote against the whole system of gravitation, and got no
notice. He then wrote to Lord Brougham, Sir J. Herschel, and others I
suppose, desiring them to procure notice of his books in the reviews: this
not being acceded to, he wrote (in print) to Lord John Russell[643] to
complain of their "dishonest" conduct. He then sent a manuscript letter to
the Astronomical Society, inviting controversy: he was answered by a
recommendation to study {297} dynamics. The above pamphlet was the
consequence, in which, calling the Council of the Society "craven dunghill
cocks," he set them right about their doctrines. From all I can learn, the
life of a worthy man and a creditable officer was completely embittered by
his want of power to see that no person is bound in reason to enter into
controversy with every one who chooses to invite him to the field. This
mistake is not peculiar to philosophers, whether of orthodoxy or paradoxy;
a majority of educated persons imply, by their modes of proceeding, that no
one has a right to any opinion which he is not prepared to defend against
all comers.

David and Goliath, or an attempt to prove that the Newtonian system of
Astronomy is directly opposed to the Scr