Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

a miracle ! The following is the passage in the original Greek (Fabricius, "Bibl. Graece," original edition, XI, 198):

"Tas on Diathekous biblous kai apokruphous, toide trope kata delous poiesasa. En gar to oiko ton Theon, kato para te theia trapeze autas parathemene proseuxato, hos eurethenai thas theopnoustous epano, ton kurion exaitusamene, kai tas kibdelous, ho kai gegonen, upokaiden."

The passage in the Latin version is as follows :

"Sacros etiam libros et apocryphos, hoc modo manifesto fecit. In domo enim Dei, inferiore loco juxta divinam nensam omnibus colloctis, Dominum invocans oravit: ut qui divinitus inspirati essent, superius; qui autem adulterini, inferius (quod et factum est) invenirentur." This may be rendered in English thus:

"The council made manifest the canonical and apocryphal books in the following manner : Placing them by the side of the divine table in the house of God, they prayed, entreating the Lord that the divinely inspired books might be found upon the table, and the spurious ones underneath; and it so happened."

The manner in which this story has obtained so general a circulation in this century, is this: Robert Taylor, an antichristian polemic of the earlier portion of the century, quotes a part of the foregoing passage in his "Diegesis (a virulent onslaught upon the Christian religion), p. 432, American edition, preceding his quotation with the following: "Pappus, in his 'Synodicon,' to the council of Nice, asserts." This gave rise to the impression that Pappus himself was the author of the passage, instead of his being only the editor of the anonymous work in which it is found; and from that day to this, Pappus has been named as the author of the statement, scarcely anybody having any idea who Pappus was or when he lived. From Taylor's "Diegesis" it passed into general literature, particularly that of the free-thinking or liberal school. I have seen it stated in a number of books, and in two cases the author has been given as the learned Pappius, instead of Pappus.

The narrative is merely one of the many legendary embellishments of the mediaeval ages, and is universally rejected by the world's scholarship as destitute of any historic foundation.

WM. EMMETTE COLEMAN, San Francisco, Cal.

"EITHER" AND "NEITHER." As the words "not either" have been contracted into neither, "not ever" into never, and "no one into none, why should not the negative or privitive, when followed by a vowel, be always contracted in the same way? For example, neven for " not even," nin for "not in," and nout for "not out"?

THE LUNAR SOCIETY.

This society was an informal association of scientific men in Birmingham, Eng., which flourished between 1780 and 1801, and perhaps later. The society numbered only seven or eight members who dined together every month near the full moon, "in order," says Priestley, "to have the benefit of its light in returning home." Hence the name, "Lunar Society." The members were accustomed to meet for dinner at two o'clock and not to part until eight; they discussed current chemical and philosophical subjects. On one occasion they considered "whether or not heat is a compound of phlogiston and empyreal air"; also, "what light is made of and how to make it." The society was probably founded by James Watt and it embraced the following eminent men of science:

James Watt (1736-1819), the celebrated inventor of improvements in the steam engine, and one of the claimants for the discovery of the composition of water.

James Keir (17-1814), a chemist and author; also, proprietor of several chemical establishments at West Bromwich, near Birmingham,

Dr. William Withering (1741-1799), physician and chemist; discoverer of the constituents of the mineral witherite named in his honor. Matthew Boulton (1728-1809), mechanical engineer, and partner of James Watt.

Dr. Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802), the distinguished naturalist, author of "The Botanic Garden," etc.

Samuel Galton, F. R. S., a wealthy man of letters.

Rev. R. A. Johnson, of Kenilworth.

Rev. Dr. Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), the noted theological writer, the discoverer of oxygen, and the father of pneumatic chemistry.

These gentlemen not unfrequently entertained guests at their philosophical banquets; among them were:

Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795), the well-known potter and inventor of the ware known by his name.

Mr. Wilkinson, a connection by marriage of Dr. Priestley. William Bewly, a surgeon and apothecary of Norfolk, author of letters on the chemistry of gases; a friend of Dr. Priestley.

H. CARRINGTON BOLTON, New York City.

"THE LOCOMOTIVE EMPEROR." (Vol. III, p. 171.) eled incessantly, and hated to remuin long in a place. agreeable wife, and was himseif of an imperious temper and philosophic taste.

Adrian trav

He had a dis

A. WILDER.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.

SONGS OF A NATION. (Vol. III, p. 59.) The songs of a nation are contrasted with its laws. In Greek, nomos was first a song; afterwards a law. The code of Drakô consisted of thesmoi - laws or ordinances of the gods; the institutes of Solôn were nomoi; so the saying, "Give me the making of the songs of a nation and I care not who makes its laws," relates to the popular rule as superseding the Eupatrid or higher-caste domination.

THE SHAMROCK. (Vol. III, p. 76.) The shamrock is the trefoil, or three-leaved Oxalis. It is the same as the device on cards called

"clubs," and is also the equivalent of the cross. It is "pagan" to the core; common alike to Ireland and Ceylon, and everywhere meaning the same-the triad God. The sacred fig is three-leaved, and therefore a symbol of life.

THE VATICAN. (Vol. III, p. 76.) Vatican is from vates a mantis or prophet-priest. It is a "pagan" word and belongs to paganism. I suspect that this long word is but

BAUGH-NAUGH-CLAUGH-PAUGH.

a merry jest, and that bonnyclabber is all that is meant.

POMPEII. (Vol. III, p. 76.) Pompeii is a Greek name from Pompaios, a name of Hermes as the psychopompos or leader of souls from this world to the next, and of the procession of candidates for initiation, who were mystically dead. Herculaneum of course is from Hercules.

GYPSIES. (Vol. p. 76.) Gypsies were called Bohemians as having been supposed to have originated in Bohemia. Penny-a-liners and other writers having no permanent work or employment also are so called by analogy.

"A" in SANSKRIT WORDS. (Vol. III, p. 140.) The letter a preponderates in Sanskrit words because in the original there is no vowel, and yet a vowel sound is required. The Semitic dialects have the same peculiarity. A short a is adopted as nearest the genuine sound.

66

DJAFAR." (Vol. III, 121.) Djafar, or Giafar, was immortalized in "Arabian Nights Entertainments" as the Virgin of Haran al Rasit the celebrated Khalif.

A. WILDER.

THE SUPPOSED "MATHEMATICAL FALLACY." (Vol. III, pp. 171, 198; IV, pp. 262, 399, 341.) Your two correspondents upon the supposed “mathematical fallacy" appear to be suffering from what the logicians call an "undistributed middle." Starting from the proposition that, if two quantities are equal, their square roots must also be equal, and disregarding the fact that every number has two different square roots, they proceed as though either square root of the first member of the equation must be equal to each square root of the second member. Hence the erroneous equations, Vol. III, pp 198, 262. When the proper signs are prefixed to the several values, the equations are true, otherwise they are not. In other words, we have, provided the correct signs are used,

[merged small][ocr errors]

in which the radical quantities are considered in their intrinsic values only, without regard to the ambiguity of signs. Now, if either the upper or the lower signs were used throughout, this would be another mode of writing +1=1, which is hardly demonstratable. But if we vary the algebraic signs in every possible way, we shall find that all the sixteen resulting equations, after being cleared from the frac tional forms, are reducible to some one of the following four, each of which must be true: (+√−1) (+√−1) (−√−1) (−√−1)

=

= -1

(+√−1) (−√−1) = +1

(−√−1) (+√−1) = +1

To omit the algebraic signs from the factors of the first members, and combine these signs into the form ±1 in the second, is a looseness which naturally leads to an absurd result in just one half the We may, however, generalize the form by writing

cases.

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

provided that the equation be accompanied by the statement, that the upper sign in the second member holds only when both the upper, or both the lower, signs are used in the first member; but that the lower sign in the second represents the cases when the upper sign is used for one factor of the first member, and the lower sign of the other.

N. P. D.

[blocks in formation]

Table of the 271 Asteroids - 1801 to 1887.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

Mar. 17, 1852, De Gasparis...

[blocks in formation]

April 17,

Luther,.

[blocks in formation]

June 24,

Hind.

[blocks in formation]

Aug. 22,

Hinde.

[blocks in formation]

Sept. 19,

De Gasparis.

[blocks in formation]

Goldschmidt,.

[blocks in formation]
« AnteriorContinuar »