him over; and he
has never attempted to point out any error in the short and easy method by
which that powerful investigator condescended to show that, be right who
may, he must be wrong. There are some persons who feel inclined to think
that Mr. Smith should be argued with: let those persons understand that he
has been argued with, refuted, and has never attempted to stick a pen into
the refutation. He stated that it was a remarkable paradox, easily
explicable; and that is all. After this evasion, Mr. James Smith is below
the necessity of being told that he is unworthy of answer. His friends
complain that I do nothing but _chaff_ him. Absurd! I winnow him; and if
nothing but chaff results, whose fault is that? I am usefully employed: for
he is the type of a class which ought to be known, and which I have done
much to make known.

{344}

Nothing came of this until July 1869, when I received a reprint of the
above letter, with a comment, described as Appendix D of a work in course
of publication on the geometry of the circle. The _Athenaeum_ journal
received the same: but the Editor, in his private capacity, received the
whole work, being _The Geometry of the Circle and Mathematics as applied to
Geometry by Mathematicians, shown to be a mockery, delusion, and a snare_,
Liverpool, 8vo, 1869. Mr. J. S. here appears in deep fight with Professor
Whitworth,[648] and Mr. Wilson,[649] the author of the alleged amendment of
Euclid. How these accomplished mathematicians could be inveigled into
continued discussion is inexplicable. Mr. Whitworth began by complaining of
Mr. Smith's attacks upon mathematicians, continued to correspond after he
was convinced that J. S. proved an arc and its chord to be equal, and only
retreated when J. S. charged him with believing in 3-1/8, and refusing
acknowledgment. Mr. Wilson was introduced to J. S. by a volunteer defense
of his geometry from the assaults of the _Athenaeum_. This the editor would
not publish; so J. S. sent a copy to Mr. Wilson himself. Some
correspondence ensued, but Mr. Wilson soon found out his man, and withdrew.

There is a little derision of the _Athenaeum_ and a merited punishment for
"that unscrupulous critic and contemptible mathematical twaddler, De
Morgan."

MR. REDDIE'S ASTRONOMY.

At p. 183 I mentioned Mr. Reddie,[650] the author of _Vis Inertiae Victa_
and of _Victoria toto coelo_,[651] which last is not {345} an address to
the whole heaven, either from a R