[588] He was a shoemaker, born about 1765 at Haddiscoe, and his "astro-historical" lectures at Norwich attracted a good deal of attention at one time. He traced all geologic changes to differences in the inclination of the earth's axis to the plane of its orbit. Of the works mentioned by De Morgan the first appeared at Norwich in 1822-1823, and there was a second edition in 1824. The second appeared in 1824-1825. The fourth was Urania's Key to the Revelation; or the analyzation of the writings of the Jews..., and was first published at Norwich in 1823, there being a second edition at London in 1833. His books were evidently not a financial success, for Mackey died in an almshouse at Norwich.
[589] Godfrey Higgins (1773-1833), the archeologist, was interested in the history of religious beliefs and in practical sociology. He wrote Horae Sabbaticae (1826), The Celtic Druids (1827 and 1829), and Anacalypsis, an attempt to draw aside the veil of the Saitic Isis; or an Inquiry into the Origin of Languages, Nations, and Religions (posthumously published, 1836), and other works. See also page [274], infra.
[590] The work also appeared in French. Wirgman wrote, or at least began, two other works: Divarication of the New Testament into Doctrine and History; part I, The Four Gospels (London, 1830), and Mental Philosophy; part I, Grammar of the five senses; being the first step to infant education (London, 1838).
[591] He was born at Shandrum, County Limerick, and supported himself by teaching writing and arithmetic. He died in an almshouse at Cork.
[592] George Boole (1815-1864), professor of mathematics at Queens' College, Cork. His Laws of Thought (1854) was the first work on the algebra of logic.
[593] Oratio Grassi (1582-1654), the Jesuit who became famous for his controversy with Galileo over the theory of comets. Galileo ridiculed him in Il Saggiatore, although according to the modern view Grassi was the more nearly right. It is said that the latter's resentment led to the persecution of Galileo.
[594] De Morgan might have found much else for his satire in the letters of Walsh. He sought, in his Theory of Partial Functions, to substitute "partial equations" for the differential calculus. In his diary there is an entry: "Discovered the general solution of numerical equations of the fifth degree at 114 Evergreen Street, at the Cross of Evergreen, Cork, at nine o'clock in the forenoon of July 7th, 1844; exactly twenty-two years after the invention of the Geometry of Partial Equations, and the expulsion of the differential calculus from Mathematical Science."
[595] "It has been ordered, sir, it has been ordered."
[596] Bartholomew Prescot was a Liverpool accountant. De Morgan gives this correct spelling on page [278]. He died after 1849. His Inverted Scheme of Copernicus appeared in Liverpool in 1822.
[597] Robert Taylor (1784-1844) had many more ups and downs than De Morgan mentions. He was a priest of the Church of England, but resigned his parish in 1818 after preaching against Christianity. He soon recanted and took another parish, but was dismissed by the Bishop almost immediately on the ground of heresy. As stated in the text, he was convicted of blasphemy in 1827 and was sentenced to a year's imprisonment, and again for two years on the same charge in 1831. He then married a woman who was rich in money and in years, and was thereupon sued for breach of promise by another woman. To escape paying the judgment that was rendered against him he fled to Tours where he took up surgery.