S22 
Observations on IJr^ Wooilioust s Work 
[Nov. 1, 
book of the Anabasis, when the ten thou¬ 
sand having arrived at Trapezuns, on the 
shore of the Pontus Euxinus, are divided 
in opinion as to tlieir further progress, 
uses the word (Dorice p,c>a, from 
ptsji;, maneo), in the sense of remansio, 
a remaining behind ; and, at the begin- 
r.ioi; of the sixth chapter of the same 
book, }ie says, “ Ov osi 
you must not think of a reniain- 
mg or settling. And Polybius uses the 
word /X3i'»;, as inansio, “ Ivicvj) xjzt 
niansio et statia. The tedious 
coasting voyages of the ancients induced 
a necessity, when they intended to estab¬ 
lish an annua] trade, of leaving a part of 
the crew behind, in distant countries, to 
prepare a cargo for their next periodical 
return. Tacitus, in liisLife of Agricola, 
considers the Silures (the inhabitants of 
South Wales), as Iberians, from their 
dark complexion and black curly hair. 
Th^ Iberians were originally from Car¬ 
thage; and the Carthaginians from Phoe¬ 
nicia. The station of these Iberians, on 
the north side of the Severn, was strong, 
and convenient for trade; but those of 
the Greeks, in Anglesea and IMan, were 
still more secure, not only against tlie 
barbarous inhabitants, but against their 
rivals, the Iberians. Thev were also 
adapted to a more extensive collection 
of articles of commerce from England, 
Scotland, and Ireland. 
If Mona be considered not as a proper 
name, but as descriptive of the use to 
which the Greeks applied these islands, 
as stations, factories, or, more literally, 
as abiding-places; the difficulty arising 
from both the islands having been occa- 
sionally called Mona vanishes ; and, that 
one of them (I\Jan) should, for the sake 
of distinction, have been called IMona- 
oeda, as in Ptolemy, is to be accounted 
for also from the Greek language, Macc, 
mansio, and tumeo, the swelling 
Moyx; for, “ in the midst is a high 
mountain called Snafel.” Vide Pinker¬ 
ton.—The same author says, that “ the 
Welsh call Anglesea tlie mother of 
Wales, from its fertility the cause of 
this appellation may be obscure ; I am 
far from considering the island as the va~ 
turcJ mother of Wales, as having fur¬ 
nished its original population; but rather 
as a nursing mother^ the more polished 
and flourishing colony having gradually 
overflowed, and formed settlements on 
the coast of Caernarvonshire, and com¬ 
municated civilization and commercial 
advantages to the rude inhabitant-. 
hcckhampst^ad, J, S, A, Paro,. 
Tor the Monthly Magazine. 
OhserTations on Mr. Woodhol'se’s Work 
on, Isqpeeimetrical Problems. 
TT IS a remark that has frequently been 
made, and there appears to be too 
much tmtii in the assertion, that the 
matheinaticai sciences are, in these kini'-- 
doms, very much on the decline. Titat 
the French mathematicians have left us 
considerably in the rear, is a w hich 
few* persons will be mclmed to dispute, 
and the contraiy of which no one would 
undertake to prove. Tiie causes that 
liavc produced this falling otY are nume¬ 
rous ; trade is iiiitnicai to pure mental 
improvements; political disputes draw 
men troni their closets, and check the 
aspirings ol genius; at the same time, 
neither honors nor rewards are, in this 
country, held forth to stimulate those ex¬ 
ertions which are necessary to produce 
scientific excellence. 
These remarks have been suggested by 
reading, in the British Critic, a review 
ot Mr. Wood house’s 'I'reatiseon Isope- 
rimetrical Problems. That-there is 
either a scarcity of mathematical know'- 
ledge, or else, that arrogance sometimes 
supplies the place of merit, is, from that 
review, extremely obvious. The re¬ 
viewer of such a work ought to have 
brought to the task a considerable fund 
ot scientific information; but this man 
was doubtlessly, in his youth, stopped 
at the threshold, and was never able to 
wade through iz/d/flwds Elements; how'- 
ever, as he is veiled in obscurity, he may 
continue to spin such cobweb critiques, 
on works like the present, which are far 
above bis comprehension, till some noble 
lord shall think fit to present him with a 
cure, when he will gently descend down 
the stream of oblivion, to be heard, or 
thought of, no mere. The critic seems 
first to doubt, whether IMr. Woodhouse's 
work be of any real utility ; it would be 
difficult to ascertain the different degrees 
of utility which the dilTerent branches of 
the mathematical sciences possess; but 
it is sufficient to observe that, as a dis¬ 
cipline of the mind, they have, all of them, 
a considerable degree of utility; though, 
with respect to their practical applicatinn 
to tlie concerns of life, some are more 
eminently useful tlian otliers. He next 
complains of the complexity of the for-^ 
inuiffi ; to him they certainly may appear 
so, for they are, no doubt, more difficult 
to unravel than the algebraic formulag in 
Mr, Ludhm’i elegant iitUe work men¬ 
tioned 
