would be a great
improvement, and I am sure we should get through a great deal more work.

They have given me a place in the Jesus Eight, which I shall take now
that I am released from your professorial ban, and have time for rowing.
But I don't half like giving up mathematics. You see, I have grown fond
of the study. Do you think you could make a wrangler of me? At any rate,
I should like to come to your lectures again. May I?

Your Grateful Pupil.
* * *

[4] It is to be regretted that this letter has evidently fallen
into the hands of some autograph collector, who has ruthlessly
cut off the signature; but the reader will easily determine,
after careful perusal of the document, from whose pen it emanated.

[5] Cf. page 36.

PAPER V.

A LECTURE UPON SOCIAL FORCES, WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF POLEMICAL KINEMATICS.

Most noble Professors and Students of Girtham College,--Since last 'I
wandered 'twixt the pole and heavenly hinges, 'mongst encentricals,
centres, concentricks, circles, and epicycles,' like the great
Albumazar, and found them full of life and wisdom for the guidance of
our States and laws, I have turned my attention to the Applied
Mathematics, in order to determine what other truths this shaft may
yield.

The strength of all sciences, according to Bacon, consists in their
harmony; and it is truly marvellous how perfect this harmony is, if our
ears are tuned aright to hear it. We have observed how the beautiful
and regular laws of curves and cones correspond to the social laws of
States and nations, guiding them as if by word of counsel, admonishing
them on what principle they ought to regulate their governments and
inter-relations. We have seen that the laws which govern thought and
light and sound are almost identical, and that harmony pervades not
merely the ordinary sciences, but extends her benign influence over
these newly discovered fields of scientific research, which I claim to
have discovered.

All this may appear at first sight surprising; but the real philosopher,
who knows that all kinds of truth are intimately connected, will receive
such revelations of science with satisfaction rather than astonishment;
for this new science, which has opened itself out before me, is only an
extension of other well-known laws and discoveries which have come down
to us from the remote past.

If my investigations should appea