718] "So strike that he may think himself to die."

[719] "Witticism or piece of stupidity."

[720] A very truculently unjust assertion: for Sir W. was as great a setter
up of some as he was a puller down of others. His writings are a congeries
of praises and blames, both _cruel smart_, as they say in the States. But
the combined instigation of prose, rhyme, and retort would send Aristides
himself to Tartarus, if it were not pretty certain that Minos would grant a
_stet processus_ under the circumstances. The first two verses are
exaggerations standing on a basis of truth. The fourth verse is quite true:
Sir W. H. was an Edinburgh Aristotle, with the difference of ancient and
modern Athens well marked, especially the _perfervidum ingenium
Scotorum_.--A. De M.

[721] See note 576, p. 252. There was also a _Theory of Parallels_ that
differed from these, London, 1853, second edition 1856, third edition 1856.

[722] The work was written by Robert Chambers (1802-1871), the Edinburgh
publisher, a friend of Scott and of many of his contemporaries in the
literary field. He published the _Vestiges of the Natural History of
Creation_ in 1844, not 1840.

[723] Everett (1784-1872) was at that time a good Wesleyan, but was
expelled from the ministry in 1849 for having written _Wesleyan Takings_
and as under suspicion for having started the _Fly Sheets_ in 1845. In 1857
he established the United Methodist Free Church.

[724] Smith was a Primitive Methodist preacher. He also wrote an _Earnest
Address to the Methodists_ (1841) and _The Wealth Question_ (1840?).

[725] He wrote the _Nouveau traite de Balistique_, Paris, 1837.

[726] Joseph Denison, known to fame only through De Morgan. See also page
353.

[727] The radical (1784?-1858), advocate of the founding of London
university (1826), of medical reform (1827-1834), and of the repeal of the
duties on newspapers and corn, and an ardent champion of penny postage.

[728] I. e., Roman Catholic Priest.

[729] Murphy (1806-1843) showed extraordinary powers in mathematics even
before the age of thirteen. He became a fellow of Caius College, Cambridge,
in 1829, dean in 1831, and examiner in mathematics in London University in
1838.

[730] See note 442, page 196.

[731] Sir John Bowring (1792-1872), the linguist, writer, and traveler,
member of many learned societies and a writer of high reputation in his
time. His works were not, however, of genuine merit.

[732] Joseph Hume