Attention has been more recently directed to this subject by two living
geometers--one in the _Philosophical Magazine_, and the other in the
_Mechanics'_; but they both have wholly untouched a question of primary
importance--even almost unmentioned:--it is, _how_, _when_, _where_, and by
_whom_, was this most unlikely direction given to the minds of these men?
An answer to this question would form an important chapter in the history
of human development, and throw much light upon the great educational
questions of the present day. It may furnish useful hints for legislation,
and would be of singular aid to those who were appointed to work out
legislative objects in a true spirit. It cannot be doubted that a succinct
account of the origin of this taste, and of the influences by which it has
been maintained even to the present hour, would be a subject of interest to
most of your readers, quite irrespective the greater or less importance and
difficulty of the studies themselves, as the result would show how
knowledge cannot only be effectively diffused but _successfully extended_
under circumstances apparently the most hopeless.
Nor does Manchester stand as the only instance, for the _weavers_ of
Spitalfields display precisely the same singular phenomenon.
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