2nd s. No 93., Oct. 10. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



281 



LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER, 10. 1857. 



iJotPiS. 



BOOK DUST. 



(^Continued from p. 243.) 



18. Mr. De Sargues' Universal Way of Dyal- 

 ing. By Daniel King. London, 1659. The 

 author is no less a person than Gerard Des 

 Argues, commonly written Desargues, the geo- 

 meter to whom Des Cartes (who was never De 

 Scartes that I know of, though I have known a 

 boy imagine he was an ancient Greek, Aeo-icaprTji;) 

 attributed Pascal's conic sections, thinking that 

 no other man in France could have written them. 

 Very little is known of Desargues, and in the 

 meagre account given in the Biographie Univer- 

 selle, no work on dialling is mentioned. I never 

 saw or heard of the original, which Collins says 

 was published in 1643, in a sentence in which the 

 printer divides the name into De-sargues. There 

 is a preface to the translation by Jonas Moore, 

 who calls the author Du Sargues, and says that 

 King is very industrious in antiquities and he- 

 raldry. This means, I suppose, that he is the 

 same person as the historian of Chester and of the 

 Cathedrals. Moore also hints that King will pro- 

 bably translate some French works on perspective, 

 which makes it worth while to propose, as a query, 

 whether any of them can now be found, as they 

 will probably be other works of Desargues. 



19. A Letter to Martin Folkes, Esq., .... con- 

 cerning the Rise and Progress of Astronomy among 

 the Ancients. By G. Costard. London, 1746, 8vo. 

 (pp. 158.) Of all titles, " a letter to . . . ." is the 

 worst. It may catch a few readers in the first 

 year, but it repels for ever after. Here is a letter 

 full of notes with citations at length in Latin, 

 Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic, making one of the 

 most learned dissertations on the subject ever 

 written : but wholly unknown to those who write 

 on the history of astronomy. Costard's other work 

 on astronomy, which has much history in it, is 

 well known. 



20. The Theory of the Motion of the Apsides in 

 general, and of the Apsides of the MoorHs Orbit in 

 particular. Written in French by D. C. Walmes- 

 ley. London, 1754, 8vo. It is, I think, but little 

 known that this tract was translated, though the 

 tract itself is well known. The preface is of in- 

 terest with reference to Clairaut. Walmesley, 

 then a priest, afterwards a bishop, of the Roman 

 Church in England, aided in the formaticm of the 

 tables at the time of the discussions on the change 

 of style (1751). He was brought into the Royal 

 Society about that time : but his share in the 

 matter was not made public, from motives of pru- 

 dence. It may be presumed, nevertheless, that 

 this translation was promoted by the notoriety 



which its author gained among the men of science 

 from his share in the change of style. 



21. An Introduction to Chronology. By Jas. 

 Hodgson, F.R.S. London, 1747, 8vo. A pre- 

 cursor of the change of style, containing, among 

 other things, the reports of Dee, Wallis, &c. on 

 the subject in older times. 



22. The Gregorian and Julian Calendars. By 

 Aaron Hawkins. London, 1752, 8vo. This was 

 published while the bill for the change of style 

 was before the Commons, having passed the Lords. 

 There is a sheet of memorial verses, some of 

 which are by Canton, the electrician. 



23. Appendix to Commandine's Euclid. By 

 Sam. Cunn. London, 1725, 8vo. A work in 

 which solid diagrams are contrived by turn-up 

 slips of paper. A list of such works would be of 

 some utility. Others which I can lay my hands 

 and memory on at this moment are Joh. Lodo^e 

 Cowley's Appendix to the Elements of Euclid^ 

 London, no date, folio : the same author's Theory 

 of Perspective, London, 1766, folio (quarto size 

 both) : and Thomas Malton's Compleat Treatise on 

 Perspective, London, 1778, folio. Cowley's Per- 

 spective has a very good short history of the 

 subject. 



24. A Philosophical Amusement upon the Lan- 

 guage of Beasts. London, 1739, 8vo. This is a 

 translation from the French of a Jesuit, Bougeant, 

 who was sent to the * prison of La Fleche for it, 

 immediately on its publication. This gave rise to 

 an immediate translation, and " now confined at 

 La Fleche on account of this work " was a taking 

 element for a title-page. But Bougeant was soon 

 released. His theory is that the soul of every 

 living animal, man excepted, is a devil : every fly, 

 every locust, every oyster, every infusorium, is 

 animated by a devil. He admits transmigration, 

 or the number of evil spirits in his system would 

 be perfectly bewildering. Part of the tract is- in 

 dialogue, and the ladies are shocked when they 

 hear what their little pets really are ; to which 

 Bougeant replies as follows : 



" Do we love beasts for their own sakes .' No. Aa 

 they are altogether strangers to human society, they can 

 have no other appointment but that of being useful and 

 amusing. And what care we whether it be a devil or 

 some other being that serves and amuses us ? The 

 thought of it, far from shocking, pleases me mightily. I 

 with gratitude admire the goodness of the Creator, who 

 gave me so many little devils to serve and amuse me. If 

 I am told that these poor devils are doomed to suffer 

 eternal tortures, I admire God's decrees ; but I have no 

 manner of share in this dreadful sentence.- I leave the 

 execution of it to the Sovereign judge, and notwithstand- 

 ing this, I live with my little devils as I do with a multi- 

 tude of people of whom religion informs me that a great 

 number shall be damned." 



I wonder what religion would say to such a 

 Jesuit as this ? The following comment is in- 

 structive : 



" As man ia a soul and an organised body united, so is 



