Some Cranks and their Crotchets 413 



their &quot;dishonest&quot; behaviour. Still getting no sat 

 isfaction, the valorous captain wrote to the Royal 

 Astronomical Society with a challenge to con 

 troversy. To this letter came a polite but brief 

 answer, advising him to study the rudiments of 

 mechanics. It was not in the paradoxer s nature to 

 submit tamely to such treatment ; and he replied 

 in a printed pamphlet, wherein he called that 

 learned society &quot; craven dunghill cocks,&quot; and be 

 strewed them with other choice flowers of rhetoric, 

 much to the relief of his feelings. 



One of this naval officer s fellow sufferers was a 

 farm labourer, who took it into his head that the 

 Lord Chancellor had offered 100,000 reward to 

 any one who should square the circle. So Hodge 

 went to work and squared it, and then hied him 

 to London, blissfully dreaming of sudden wealth. 

 Hearing that De Morgan was a great mathemati 

 cian, he left his papers with him, including a letter 

 to the Lord Chancellor, claiming the 100,000. 

 De Morgan returned the papers with a note, say 

 ing that no such prize had ever been offered, and 

 gently hinting that the worthy Hodge had not 

 sufficient knowledge to see in what the problem 

 consisted. This elicited from the rustic philosopher 

 a long letter, from which I must quote a few sen 

 tences, so characteristic of the circle-squaring talent 

 and temper : 



