CORRESPONDENCE, 1867-70, 371 



sake of education, and the furtherance of arithmetic among the 1867. 

 labouring classes. 



Yours very truly, 



A. DE MORGAN. 



To Sir John Herschel. 



91 Adelaide Road, August 8, 1867. 



MY DEAR SIR JOHN, Many thanks for the Latin original of 

 Schiller's poem. 1 I always take the older language as being the 

 original. I see Spaziergang in my dictionary it is Spatzier- 

 gang in the German-English and Spaziergang in the English- 

 German means a walk. Now, I have not taken a walk for 

 many a year. Had I done so, I might have started off something 

 at this kind of pace : 



Good morning, Mr. Mountain, with the light upon your top, 

 Just the rubbing of Apollo's eyes before he opens shop ; 

 And you, you ' daisy-spangled meads,' and you ' resounding grove,' 

 Where the feathered songsters make a row ; I'd feather 'em, by 

 Jove, &c. 



But seniores priores : Schiller has the start. I hope your hexes 

 and pents show that you are in a good condition. I see you 

 don't care for the dissyllabic ending. No more did I when I 

 was at school ; and I was reprimanded, which I should not have 

 cared for ; but I was then remanded to set it right, and this was 

 a bore. 



Of all the verses I made at school, I only remember one 



couplet. The subject was poetic inspiration, and was very 



classically intended. It pleased me to take it that dinner was 



the thing, and I have always been inclined to support my thesis. 



The pair of lines I remember is 



Gustat Virgilius procul o procul este Camoenae 

 Conclamat vates hoc mihi numen erit 



If you look into the AtJienceum of Saturday week, you may 

 chance to see a little account of the last mare's-nest at Paris the 

 discovery that Pascal preceded Newton in the theory of gravita- 

 tion. The letters, if genuine, prove nothing. -^-. was guessed 



P* 



to be the law before Newton or Pascal by Bouillaud. But the 

 funny point is that Pascal is made to talk of a tasse de cafe, years 



1 A Latin translation from Schiller by Sir John. 

 B B 2 



