"Quale è 'l geometra che tutto s' affige
Per misurar lo cerchio, e non ritruova,
Pensando qual principio ond' egli indige."[[439]]
And Quarles[[440]] speaks as follows of the summum bonum:
"Or is't a tart idea, to procure
An edge, and keep the practic soul in ure,
Like that dear chymic dust, or puzzling quadrature?"
The poetic notion of the quadrature must not be forgotten. Aristophanes, in the Birds, introduces a geometer who announces his intention to make a square circle. Pope, in the Dunciad, delivers himself as follows, with a Greek pronunciation rather strange in a translator of Homer. Probably Pope recognized, as a general rule, the very common practice of throwing back the accent in defiance of quantity, seen in o´rator, au´ditor, se´nator, ca´tenary, etc.
"Mad Mathesis alone was unconfined,