PREFACE. Again, we are to prefix a few words by way of preface. Many of the thoughts in the present volume may seem new; yet the larger part of them are not our own. We believe some of the oligies that have been discarded for centuries past, and had become well nigh obsolete, will yet be searched out and flourish in the coming decades; yea, they will be like "the stone which the builders rejected,” unearthed and become "the head of the corner." It has become a sort of second nature with us to look for this stone in all quarters. We are sometimes led into discredited literature for sources of information. We disire "to pick up pearls wherever found," and give them to the world. Whenever it is shown that we are not original, so much the better. No one lifetime is sufficient to solve all the problems of the universe. Some begin the solution, while others carry it forward, for others still to finish, perhaps. For, after some facts are found, the method of science consists in assuming a hypothesis to account for them; and if that hypothesis serves the purpose, it passes over to a theory, and in time is received as the truth in the case, and thus many problems are solved. Knowledge, however, is progressive, and the car of science moves onward. A day will come when many things which may now seem novel and paradoxical, will be acknowledged by enlightened man as the actual and positive, and the embodiment of philosophy itself. A Morse pioneered the telegraph, but now an Edison walks arm in arm with Jupiter. The present time seems to be the passing into an age of physical and mental light. Many persons believe it to be that time in which "new order of things" are to prevail, as spoken of by Virgil: Magnus ab integro saeclorum nacitur ordo; Jam nova progenies cœlo dimititur alto. Thomas Browne, the philosopher of Norwich, wrote about order: "All things began in order; so shall they end, and so shall they begin again; according to the ordainer of order, and mystical mathematics of the city of heaven." Young exclaims, in "Night Thoughts, "How much is to be done!" so one might exclaim in reference to the contents of this monthly, "How much is to be answered!" Yea, the laborers are few compared to the readers. "Search all writings," for wisdom. Write out the facts, as James O'Connell puts it, “biographically, empirically, scholastically, philosophically, or scientifically," and forward the desired information. Carlyle has left the following remark, as the key of all past time: "In books lies the soul of all past time the articulate, audible voice of the past, when the body and the material substance of it has altogether vanished like a dream. No magic Rune is stranger than a book. All that mankind has done, thought, gained or been, is lying in magic preservation in the pages of books. Do not books still accomplish miracles as Runes were fabled to do? They persuade men." Many books are old friends whose memories long cling to the heart. Thomas Moore has beautifully expressed their memories in his poem entitled Farewell : "Long, long be my heart with such memories filled, S. C. & L. M. Gould. MANCHESTER, N. H., December, 1889. Unanswered Questions in Vol. VI. Page 236-1 (b, c, e, h, i,), 2 (d), 6. Page 316-2, 3, 8, 10, 11, 12, 15. Page 348-1 (b, d, e, f, g), 3, 5, 7. Page 374-1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, VOLUME VI, 1889. Animal magnetism, Mesmer's code, 138. Arithmetic, duodenal, 371; octonary, 274. Asteroids, Table of, 8, 65, 206. 66 66 Names, 14. Athens, maiden, sentence from, 15. Babbage's calculating machine, 291. Baugh-naugh-claugh-paugh, 6. Beaconsfield's, Lord, geomantic figure, 288. Biblical Canon, 2. Bibliography, cyclometry, quadratures, 106-124. Euclid, editions of, 142. College cheers, American, 301. "Constellation," largest newspaper, 296. Cork on glass full of water, 648, 400. Crescent, symbol of Mohammedans, 177, 208. Curious properties of 2.61803399., 294. Definitions, 81. Definitions of God, 290. De Morgan's, (A.) cyclometers, 126, 127. Dies Ira, Latin text and translation, 66. Dimensions of heaven, 361. Dodekaphylon, 12 tribes, apostles, 150. Mathematical publications, 213. Duodenal arithmetic, 370. N. H. Registers, 23. Notes and Queries, 164. Biped without feathers, Plato's man, 394. Birthplace of Homer, 329. Blasphemy of Abner Kneeland, 94. Bohome's wheel of birth, 55. Brahan Seer, 196. Dutch governors of New York, 243. Earth, lopsided planet, 82. Eliot's Indian Bible. 240, 284, 304, 392. Petronia (A. D. 742), 396,399. Equations, simultaneous, 17. "Ermine," opera, 287. Essay on man, poet's, Mosaic poem 70. Eureka, Archimedes or Pythagoras, 303. Familiarity breeds contempt, 341. Father time and his scythe, 349. Feast of asses, 156. Feasts, movable and immovable, 138. February, moonless month, 91. Fessennine verses, 161. F. F. V's, 244. Fifteen Ó prayers, 390. Bayard First boat, 263. First Families of Virginia, 244. First name of America, 372. First Saviour mention in the Bible, 340. First vessel launched in Massachusetts Bay,399. Kabbalah, 269. "King can kill, king can save," 305. King Cole, 209. Kingdom of heaven, 247. King Lemuel, 208- Largest newspaper ever printed, 298. Last words of the anarchists, 35. Litany of Virgin Mary, 400. Literary ingenuity, 33. Logarithms of digits, (except 8), 39. Loud-voiced personages, 268, 347, 366. Lunarians, correspondence with, 341. Luxor, Egypt, 347. Magic squares, 224, 312, 327, 350, 382. Mathematical fallacy, 7. Matter, speculations concerning, 57. Measures, palm, foot, cubit, rod, chain, 193. Millions, word first found, 245, 262. Minstrels, first band, 225. Mitchel, Gen. O. M., one 1, 347. M, most mystical letter of alphabet, 360. Moabite Stone, translation, 45, 46. Moonless month, February, 91. Monarchs and presidents, 241. Motive power of the world, 15. Mugwump, 359. Musical scale, demonstration, 156. Music of the spheres, 155. Multiplication of Roman numerals, 225. "My Grandmother's Elm," poem, 93. Mystical letter of alphabet (M), 360. Nasik magic squares, 362, 385. New England almanacs, 373. New Hampshire Registers, collection, 23. New (old) words, 281. Nicæa, Council of, 2. Oath of Hypocrates, 89; Pythagoras, 314. Octonary arithmetic, 274. Odd as Dick's hat-band, 54. |