.
C. T. Longley,[697] of Christchurch, from a cousin of my own of the same
college, long since deceased, who spoke of him much, and most
affectionately. Dr. Longley passed from Durham to York, and thence to
Canterbury. I cannot quite make out the two Archbishoprics; I do not
remember any other private channel through which the name came to me:
perhaps Dr. Longley, having two strings to his bow, would have been one
archbishop if I had never heard of him.

5. When Dr. Wm. Thomson[698] was appointed to the see of Gloucester in
1861, he and I had been correspondents on the subject of logic--on which we
had both written--for about fourteen years. On his elevation I wrote to
him, giving the preceding instances, and informing him that he would
certainly be an Archbishop. The case was a strong one, and the law acted
rapidly; for Dr. Thomson's elevation to the see of York took place in 1862.

Here are five cases; and there is no opposing instance. I have searched the
almanacs since 1828, and can find no instance of a Bishop not finally
Archbishop of whom I had known through private sources, direct or indirect.
Now what do my paradoxers say? Is this a pre-established harmony, or a
chain of coincidences? And how many instances will it require to establish
a law?[699]

{326}

THE HERSCHEL HOAX.

Some account of the great astronomical discoveries lately made by Sir
John Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope. Second Edition. London, 12mo.
1836.

This is a curious hoax, evidently written by a person versed in astronomy
and clever at introducing probable circumstances and undesigned
coincidences.[700] It first appeared in a newspaper. It makes Sir J.
Herschel discover men, animals, etc. in the moon, of which much detail is
given. There seems to have been a French edition, the original, and English
editions in America, whence the work came into Britain: but whether the
French was published in America or at Paris I do not know. There is no
doubt that it was produced in the United States, by M. Nicollet,[701] an
astronomer, once of Paris, and a fugitive of some kind. About him I have
heard two stories. First that he fled to America with funds not his own,
and that this book was a mere device to raise the wind. Secondly, that he
was a protege of Laplace, and of the Polignac party, and also an outspoken
man. That after the revolution he was so obnoxious to the republican party
that he judged it prudent to quit France; whi