Bid her end this bitter woe;
I might do something ‘in the city,’
But never pass my Little-go.
[1] We presume this is addressed to an imaginary brain wave.
[2] We observe here the dash of an indignant pen, and a substituted for e. But now the rhyme is spoiled. Gentle Muse, thou art sacrificed by the stern hand of Mathematical Truth!
[3] Query: Does the writer refer to the learned treatise on Finite Differences by Professor Boole?
[25]
PAPER III.
LECTURE ON THE SOCIAL PROPERTIES OF A CONIC SECTION, AND THE THEORY OF POLEMICAL MATHEMATICS.
Most Learned Professors and Students of this University,—From the interest manifested in my first lecture, I conclude that my method of investigation has not proved altogether unsatisfactory to you, and I hope ere long to produce certain investigations which will probably startle you, and revolutionize the current thought of the age. The application of mathematics to the study of Social Science and Political Government has curiously enough escaped the attention of those who ought to be most conversant with these matters. I shall endeavour to prove in the present lecture that the relations between individuals and the Government are similar to those which [26] mathematical knowledge would lead us to postulate, and to explain on scientific principles the various convulsions which sometimes agitate the social and political world.