, the
first impression bearing date of 1678. Augustus de Morgan in his
_Arithmetical Books_ (1847) adduces proofs, which may be held to be
conclusive, that the work was a forgery of the editor and publisher,
John Hawkins; and there appears to be no doubt that the _Decimal
Arithmetic_ (1684), and the _English Dictionary_ (second edition, 1715),
issued by Hawkins under Cocker's name, are forgeries also. De Morgan
condemns the _Arithmetick_ as a diffuse compilation from older and
better works, and dates "a very great deterioration in elementary works
on arithmetic" from the appearance of the book, which owed its celebrity
far more to persistent puffing than to its merits. He pertinently
adds,--"This same Edward Cocker must have had great reputation, since a
bad book under his name pushed out the good ones."

COCKERELL, CHARLES ROBERT (1788-1863), British architect, was born in
London on the 28th of April 1788. After a preliminary training in his
profession, he went abroad in 1810 and studied the great architectural
remains of Greece, Italy and Asia Minor. At Aegina, Phigalia and other
places of interest, he conducted excavations on a large scale, enriching
the British Museum with many fine fragments, and adding several valuable
monographs to the literature of archaeology. Elected in 1829 an
associate of the Royal Academy, he became a full member in 1836, and in
1839 he was appointed professor of architecture. On Sir John Soane's
death in 1837 Cockerell was appointed architect of the Bank of England,
and carried out the alterations that were judged to be necessary in that
building. In addition to branch banks at Liverpool and Manchester he
erected in 1840 the new library at Cambridge, and in 1845 the university
galleries at Oxford, as well as the Sun and the Westminster Fire Offices
in Bartholomew Lane and in the Strand; and he was joint architect of the
London & Westminster Bank, Lothbury, with Sir W. Tite. On the death of
Henry Lonsdale Elmes in 1847, Cockerell was selected to finish the St
George's Hall, Liverpool. Cockerell's best conceptions were those
inspired by classic models; his essays in the Gothic--the college at
Lampeter, for instance, and the chapel at Harrow--are by no means so
successful. His thorough knowledge of Gothic art, however, can be seen
from his writings, _On the Iconography of Wells Cathedral_, and _On the
Sculptures of Lincoln and Exeter Cathedrals_. In his _Tribute to the
Memory of Sir Chr