As it is, plain John Smith is not very high-sounding; it does not suggest aristocracy. It is not the name of any hero in die-away novels; yet it is good and honest. Transferred to other languages it seems to climb the ladder of respectability.
Thus in Latin it is Johannes Smithus; the Italian smoothes it off into Giovanni Smithi; the Spaniards render it Juan Smithus; the German adopts it as Hans Schmidt; the French flatten it out into Jean Smeets; the Russian turns it into Jonloff Smitowski; the Icelanders say he is Jahnne Smithson. Among the Tuscaroras he becomes Tam Qua Smittia; in Poland he is known as Ivan Schmittiweiski; among the Welsh mountains they call him Jihom Schmidt; in Mexico his name is written Jontli F’Smitri; in Greece he turns to I’on Sinikton; in Turkey he is almost disguised as Yoo Seef.
MATHEMATICAL PUZZLES.
“Magic Squares” Were Held in Veneration by the Egyptians and Pythagoreans, and They Constitute the Oldest Numerical Problems Known to Man—Bewildering Results Obtained by Simple Methods.
The art of arranging numbers in the form of squares, so that the sum of the various rows—vertical, horizontal, and diagonal—would in each case be the same, is, without question, the oldest of mathematical puzzles.
The Egyptians and Pythagoreans held them in the greatest veneration—especially the latter, who dedicated them to the then known seven planets.
The magic 34 square was probably the strangest freak of figures known at this time.
| 16 | 3 | 2 | 13 |
| 5 | 10 | 11 | 8 |
| 9 | 6 | 7 | 12 |
| 4 | 15 | 14 | 1 |
This strange freak may be found in Dürer’s “Melancholia,” engraved on copper in 1514, being included in the series of symbolical engravings of “The Death of the Devil,” “The Knight on Horseback,” etc.
The aim in this instance, as shown by ancient writings, was not only to obtain the same total (34) in the ten rows of four, but to discover as many symmetrical combinations as possible giving the same result. According to the ancients, “symmetrical combinations which no man could number” were to be found in this arrangement of the numbers from 1 to 16, inclusive. As an example, take 16, 3, 5, and 10, or 2, 8, 9, and 15, or 1, 9, 16, and 8, and so on indefinitely. The result is the same.