206 Mr. T. S. Davies on Geometry and Geometers, 



for paper, print, instruments, and a salary for making those 

 observations ! Many strange affairs, however, have occurred 

 with respect to books printed by the Admiralty ; to some of 

 which I may hereafter direct more particular attention — rela- 

 ting, of course, to " by-gone days." 



It seems that even 80 or 100 years ago the booksellers pub- 

 lished a good deal "on commission" for the authors: but 

 they do not seem to have carried this kind of business to the 

 extent that we see it in our day, nor to have charged quite so 

 heavily for their services as we now find to be the case. Nor 

 do they appear to have been so eager for that kind of business 

 as their successors have become. 



A Mr. John Wright of Edinburgh, a friend of Marshall's, 

 sent 100 copies of a work on Trigonometry (intended as a 

 supplement to Simson's Euclid) to Nourse in 1772 for sale. 

 In 1783 it appears that copies to the amount of six guineas 

 had been sold ; and that the " charges " against this were 

 three pounds seventeen shillings ! 



Many large works that have appeared were first published 

 by public subscription. Usher's Astronomy, Vince's Astro- 

 nomy, Horsley' s Newton*, Taylor's Tables, and some others, 

 are matters relative to which there is more or less correspond- 

 ence in this mass of papers. A memorandum by Wingrave 

 respecting one work, the name of which I cannot decipher, is 

 " not enough sold to pay the advertisements." 



Several papers of Emerson's occur amongst Mr. Maynard's 

 collection, but none of them of much scientific importance ; 

 and, indeed, all that is of any value was subsequently incor- 

 porated with his published works. His books are even now 

 ubiquitous, and his name is familiar to every tongue; and 

 hence quotation would be idly superfluous. In fact, but for 

 the purpose of correcting a very general popular error with 

 respect to him, his name might have been altogether omitted 

 from these papers. 



Emerson wrote nearly twenty works in all, and upon all 

 subjects, into the service of which such mathematics as he 

 possessed could by any contrivance be pressed — from arith- 

 metic to increments, fluxions, mechanics, architecture, music 



* It appears from a printed list that Horsley had obtained 369 subscri- 

 bers : crowned heads, nobility, personages in high civil and diplomatic 

 offices, university and college libraries — in short, the elite of Europe. A 

 less pompous and less pretending editor (though as competent to the un- 

 dertaking, as Horsley was confessedly incompetent) must have sought his 

 patrons elsewhere, and have been satisfied with a smaller number of them. 



