ce the Budget opened, there is a pamphlet of quadrature of two pages and
a half from Professor Recalcati,[585] already mentioned. It ends with
"Quelque objection qu'on fasse touchant les raisonnements ci-dessus on
tombera toujours dans l'absurde."[586] A civil engineer--so he says--has
made the quadrature "no longer a problem, but an axiom." As follows: "Take
the quadrant of a circle whose circumference is given, square the quadrant
which gives the true square of the circle. Because 30 / 4 = 7.5 x 7.5 =
56.25 = the positive square of a circle whose circumference is 30."
Brevity, the soul of wit, is the "wings of mighty-winds" to quadrature, and
sends it "flying all abroad." A _surbodhicary_--something like M.A. or
LL.D., I understand--at Calcutta, published in 1863 the division of an
{315} angle into any odd number of parts, demonstration and all in--when
the diagram is omitted--one page, good-sized, well-leaded type, small
duodecimo. But in the Preface he acknowledges "sheer inability" to execute
his task. Mr. William Dean, of Todmorden, in 1863, announced 3-9/64 as
proved both practically and geometrically: he has been already mentioned
anonymously. Next I have the tract of Don Juan Larriva, published at Leiria
in 1856, and dedicated to Queen Victoria. Mr. W. Peters,[587] already
mentioned, who has for some months been circulating diagrams on a card,
publishes (August, 1865) _The Circle Squared_. He agrees with the
Archpriest of St. Vitus. He hints that a larger publication will depend
partly on the support he receives, and partly on the castigation, for which
last, of course, he looks to me. Cyclometers have their several styles of
wit; so have anticyclometers too, for that matter. Mr. Peters will not
allow me any extra-journal being: I am essentially a quotation from the
_Athenaeum_; "A. De Morgan" _et praeterea nihil_.[588] If he had to pay for
keeping me set up, he would find out his mistake, and would be glad to
compound handsomely for a stereotype. Next comes a magnificent sheet of
pasteboard, printed on both sides. Having glanced at it and detected
quadrature, I began methodically at the beginning--"By Royal Command," with
the lion and unicorn, and all that comes between. Mercy on us! thought I to
myself: has Her Majesty referred the question to the Judicial Committee of
the Privy Council, where all the great difficulties go now-a-days, and is
this proclamation the result? On reading further I was relieved by findi