WARBURTON'S
LITERARY REMAINS.
Bath, May 18. 1850.
* * * * *
CULTIVATION OF GEOMETRY IN LANCASHIRE.
It has been a frequent subject of remark, that geometry in its purest form
has been cultivated in the northern counties, but more especially in
Lancashire, with extraordinary ardour and success; and this by a class of
men placed in a position the most unpropitious that can be conceived for
the study--by operatives of the humblest class, and these chiefly
_weavers_. The geometrical labours of these men would have gladdened the
hearts of Euclid, Apollonius and Archimedes, and would have been chronicled
by Pappus with his usual truthfulness and judicious commendation; had they
only but so laboured in Greece, antecedently to, or cotemporarily with,
those "fathers of geometry," instead of in modern England, cotemporarily
with the Hargreaves, the Peels, and the Arkwrights. Yet not one in a
thousand of your readers, perhaps, has ever heard of these men; and the
_visible_ traces of their existence and labours are very few, scarce, and
scattered. A vague general statement respecting the prevalence of
geometrical studies amongst the "middle-classes" of England was made by
Playfair in the _Edinburgh Review_ many years ago, which is quite
calculated to mislead the reader; and the subject was dwelt upon at some
length, and eloquently, by Harvey, at the British Association in 1831.
Pages:
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41