through private favour, until three years afterwards, when they were ordered to be laid before the House of Commons; and it then appeared that two of the three computations were absolutely inconclusive,
the notion. The transient view and measured glance, by which they were required to profit, if they could, to those well acquainted with Addison's pages, may recal the story of the Gentleman who, from a habit of turning over books with great expedition, had "by frequent consultations with an ingenious joiner," contrived a circular machine, on which a number of them were placed, in such a manner, that "in the most rapid whirl he could catch a sentence out of each." The contributor of this humourous extravagance could never have foreseen that it would one day be realized, to a certain extent, in an affair of magnitude; and that too by certain literati summoned from the Professor's chair, and, by courtesy, supposed replete with learned lore, who yet have left their names to be preserved by this brand of ignorance, if they were unknown beyond their college rolls. It becomes difficult to contemplate this proceeding without a suspicion that their own superficial inspection of these papers led to such indefensible trifling: they forgot, at the moment, that the same indolence was not to be expected from a consistent man, who had so great an interest in the computations. Poetry, romances, and political intelligence, seem best adapted for such an evanescent perusal, because the imagination of the reader often supplies a sentence, by anticipation, and sometimes a paragraph; but metaphysics, didactic works, and, above all, mathematical corollaries (computations inclusively) call for a deliberate attention, very different from that expected by the scientific Professors on this occasion; who, we conjecture, were enamoured with Euclid's Elements as well as Parson Barnabas was with Sermons—which he loved (says Fielding) as much as grocers do figs.—And what will Mr. Croker, or Mr. Barrow, say to a function fitter for
