st, was interested in the
history of religious beliefs and in practical sociology. He wrote _Horae
Sabbaticae_ (1826), _The Celtic Druids_ (1827 and 1829), and _Anacalypsis,
an attempt to draw aside the veil of the Saitic Isis; or an Inquiry into
the Origin of Languages, Nations, and Religions_ (posthumously published,
1836), and other works. See also page 274, _infra_.

[590] The work also appeared in French. Wirgman wrote, or at least began,
two other works: _Divarication of the New Testament into Doctrine and
History; part I, The Four Gospels_ (London, 1830), and _Mental Philosophy;
part I, Grammar of the five senses; being the first step to infant
education_ (London, 1838).

[591] He was born at Shandrum, County Limerick, and supported himself by
teaching writing and arithmetic. He died in an almshouse at Cork.

[592] George Boole (1815-1864), professor of mathematics at Queens'
College, Cork. His _Laws of Thought_ (1854) was the first work on the
algebra of logic.

[593] Oratio Grassi (1582-1654), the Jesuit who became famous for his
controversy with Galileo over the theory of comets. Galileo ridiculed him
in _Il Saggiatore_, although according to the modern view Grassi was the
more nearly right. It is said that the latter's resentment led to the
persecution of Galileo.

[594] De Morgan might have found much else for his satire in the letters of
Walsh. He sought, in his _Theory of Partial Functions_, to substitute
"partial equations" for the differential calculus. In his diary there is an
entry: "Discovered the general solution of numerical equations of the fifth
degree at 114 Evergreen Street, at the Cross of Evergreen, Cork, at nine
o'clock in the forenoon of July 7th, 1844; exactly twenty-two years after
the invention of the Geometry of Partial Equations, and the expulsion of
the differential calculus from Mathematical Science."

[595] "It has been ordered, sir, it has been ordered."

[596] Bartholomew Prescot was a Liverpool accountant. De Morgan gives this
correct spelling on page 278. He died after 1849. His _Inverted Scheme of
Copernicus_ appeared in Liverpool in 1822.

[597] Robert Taylor (1784-1844) had many more ups and downs than De Morgan
mentions. He was a priest of the Church of England, but resigned his parish
in 1818 after preaching against Christianity. He soon recanted and took
another parish, but was dismissed by the Bishop almost immediately on the
ground of heresy. As stated in the text