On Bonmjcastle's Trigonometry. 63 



taken are, I doubt not, such as Mr. Keith had previously 

 borrowed from other authors ; lor Mr. Keith lias himself 

 borrowed practical examples from at least ten authors on si- 

 milar topics whose treatises I have read, and to which I am 

 at any time prepared to refer him, if such a reference w^ere 

 necessary. Indeed, all authors follow the practice of se- 

 lecting examples from preceding writers on similar subjects; 

 and Mr. Keith has, in conformity with this practice, copied 

 into some of his former works matter from other perform- 

 ances of the very person agamst whom he is now preferring 

 complaints. But there is this difference, it seems, between 

 the habits of Mr. Bonnycastle and Mr. Keith : when the 

 former collects from different works, he is accused of copy- 

 ing; when the latter copies from one work, as from the 

 Nautical Almanac, he calls it collecting ; and then, when 

 another adopts the same tables from the same place, he is 

 accused of copying from Mr. Keith ! 



Mr. Keith, when particularizing the plagiarisms with 

 which he accuses Mr. Bonnycastle, refers to two diagrams, 

 which he says are the same size '' as if pricked from his 

 plates by schoolboys." Now, sir, this T will without hesi- 

 tation assert, from a careful examination of the matter, is 

 far from true. There are lines in Mr. Bonnycastle's figures 

 not to be found in Mr. Keith's : and further, those figures 

 are not the same size as Mr. Keith's ; neither are the re- 

 spective points of intersection at the same relative distance. 

 So that what Mr. Keith asserts positively, in a case where 

 detection is easy, is directly impossible ; and the public will 

 therefore be able to give a due degree of credit to all his 

 sweeping charges. 



Since there is in general but one method of con-structing 

 these figures, a great similarity must necessarily prevail, as is 

 really the case amongst all the works in which this part of 

 the subject is introduced; so that the cry of plagiarism on 

 fiiich an occasion is perfectly ridiculous, as f have no doubt 

 Mr. Keith very well knows. How far Mr. Bonnycastle 

 may judge it right to enter into any altercations with Mr. 

 Keith, in consequence of the liberties he has taken with his 

 cliaracler, is nc't for me to decide, 1 have only to add, tliat 



u ll.lt 



