They have given me a place in the Jesus Eight, which I shall take now that I am released from your professorial ban, and have time for rowing. But I don’t half like giving up mathematics. You see, I [70] have grown fond of the study. Do you think you could make a wrangler of me? At any rate, I should like to come to your lectures again. May I?
Your Grateful Pupil.
* * *
[4] It is to be regretted that this letter has evidently fallen into the hands of some autograph collector, who has ruthlessly cut off the signature; but the reader will easily determine, after careful perusal of the document, from whose pen it emanated.
[71]
PAPER V.
A LECTURE UPON SOCIAL FORCES, WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF POLEMICAL KINEMATICS.
Most noble Professors and Students of Girtham College,—Since last ‘I wandered ’twixt the pole and heavenly hinges, ’mongst encentricals, centres, concentricks, circles, and epicycles,’ like the great Albumazar, and found them full of life and wisdom for the guidance of our States and laws, I have turned my attention to the Applied Mathematics, in order to determine what other truths this shaft may yield.
The strength of all sciences, according to Bacon, consists in their harmony; and it is truly marvellous how perfect this harmony is, if our ears are tuned aright to hear it. We have observed how the [72] beautiful and regular laws of curves and cones correspond to the social laws of States and nations, guiding them as if by word of counsel, admonishing them on what principle they ought to regulate their governments and inter-relations. We have seen that the laws which govern thought and light and sound are almost identical, and that harmony pervades not merely the ordinary sciences, but extends her benign influence over these newly discovered fields of scientific research, which I claim to have discovered.