150 MEMOIR OF THE REV. JOHN LAWSON, B.D., 



neglected the more immediate duties of his high vocation 

 while thus engaged in promoting the study of the ancient 

 geometrical analysis. He was a man of fervid but unas- 

 suming piety, and had ever the temporal and spiritual welfare 

 of his parishioners at heart. His discourses always breathed 

 the spirit of pure and earnest piety, and not unfrequently 

 bore the marks of originality and deep study. A volume of 

 " Occasional Sermons on the Office and Duty of Bishops," 

 which was published at London in 1765, was very favorably 

 received by the theological critics of the day, while their 

 style and matter do equal credit to the head and heart of 

 their author. During the interval which elapsed between 

 this and his next publication, Mr. Lawson entered into 

 an extensive correspondence with the cultivators of his 

 favorite science, and in common with his talented neigh- 

 bour and associate, the Rev. William Crakelt of Northfleet, 

 became one of the most distinguished contributors to the 

 mathematical periodicals. The Ladies' Diary, Hutton's 

 Mathematical Miscellany, the Gentleman's Diary, the 

 London Magazine, and the British Oracle, contain many 

 elegant geometrical questions and solutions from his pen, 

 almost all of which bear the impress of his good taste 

 and extensive reading. To the latter work he furnished 

 several translations of geometrical and other papers from the 

 foreign transactions, and the seventh number contains a 

 " Synopsis of Data for the Construction of Plane Triangles," 

 which was afterwards expanded and published as a separate 

 treatise in 1773. This was a most useful publication to 

 geometricians, since it contained abundant references to 

 almost every work then known which treated on geometrical 

 problems. Professor Leybourn subsequently published a 

 much enlarged edition of this tract, and Mr. John Farey, of 

 London, has followed up Mr. Lawson's ideas in several of 

 the concluding numbers of the Gentleman's Mathematical 

 Companion, 



