THE SEVEN FOLLIES OF SCIENCE / 



spinning the glass into thread which they twisted. Michael, 

 thoroughly disconcerted, hit upon the plan of setting some 

 to square the circle, others to find the perpetual motion, 

 etc. He commanded each of them to transmigrate from 

 one human body into another, until their tasks were done. 

 This explains the whole succession of cyclometers and all 

 the heroes of the Budget. Some of this correspondence is 

 very recent; it is much blotted, and we are not quite sure 

 of its meaning. It is full of figurative allusions to driving 

 something illegible down a steep into the sea. It looks 

 like a humble petition to be allowed some diversion in the 

 intervals of transmigration; and the answer is: 



" 'Rumpat et serpens iter institutum* 



a line of Horace, which the demons interpret as a direction 

 to come athwart the proceedings of the Institute by a sly 

 trick." 



And really those who have followed carefully the history 

 of the men who have claimed that they had solved these 

 famous problems, will be almost inclined to accept De 

 Morgan's ingenious explanation as something more than a 

 mere " skit." The whole history of the philosopher's stone, 

 of machines and contrivances for obtaining perpetual motion, 

 and of circle-squaring, is permeated with accounts of the 

 most gross and obvious frauds. That ignorance played an 

 important part in the conduct of many who have put forth 

 schemes based upon these pretended solutions is no doubt 

 true, but that a deliberate attempt at absolute fraud was the 

 mainspring in many cases cannot be denied. Like Dou- 

 sterswivel\s\ "The Antiquary," many of the men who ad- 

 vocated these delusions may have had a sneaking suspicion 

 that there might be some truth in the doctrines which they 

 promulgated ; but most of them knew that their particular 

 claims were groundless, and that they were put forward for 

 the purpose of deceiving some confiding patron from whom 



