1796.] Origin of the May-poleu. Mathematical Correfpandence. 
\ 
clufions of Helvetius do not follow from 
his premifes. 
‘Thofe who have paid much attention 
to human charaéters, can hardly, I 
think, have avoided obferving, that in 
fome you difcover a greater quicknefs of 
conception than in others, greater powers 
of difcrimination, a more correct judy- 
ment, a more fertile imagination, and 
greater ftrength of memory. Nor can 
the ftriking difference which you fee in 
different men, in thefe re{peéts, ever be 
accounted for by the difference of their 
education, or the different fituations in 
which they have been placed. A great 
difference, with refpeét to intelleét, is 
obfervable in children of the fame age, 
and brought up together. It appears to 
me, that the different degrees cf vigour 
in the intellectual powers of men, whe- 
ther it arifes from material organization, 
or from whatever caufe, is as itriking, 
and as apparent, as their difference in 
ftature, or in bodily ftrength. 
Ree eg. e 7got 
—— 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
jek 
ORIGIN OF THE May-Po te. 
FTHE lerfure days after feed-time had 
been chofen by our Saxon anceftors 
for folk-motes, or conventions of the 
people. Not till after the Norman con- 
queft, the Pagan feftival of Whitfun- 
tide fully melted into the Chriftian holi- 
day of Pentecoft. Its original name is 
Wittentide, the time of choofing the 
WITS OF WISE MEN to the WITTEN- 
AGEMOTTE. It was _ confecrated to 
Hertha, the goddefs of peace and fer- 
tility ; and no quarrels might be main- 
tained, no blood thed, during this truce of 
the goddefs. Each village, in the ab- 
fence of the baron, at the affembly of 
the nation, enjoyed a kind of Saturnalia. 
The vaffals mer upon the common green 
round the May-pole, where they 
elected a village-lord, or king,.as he was 
called, who chofe his queen. He wore 
an oaken, and fhe a hawthorn wreath, 
and together they gave laws to the ruftic 
fports during thefe fweet days of free- 
dom. The MAY-POLE then is- the 
Enelifh TREE of LIBERTY! Are there 
many yet ftanding > 
MATHEMATICAL CORRESPONDENCE, 
Zo ihe Editor. 
SIR, 
N reading over, fome years ago, the 
™ dinalytics of Dr, Waring, 1 was ftruck 
29 
with the obfcurity which pervaded the 
whole work: but my attention was 
more taken up with the endeavour to 
make myfelf mafter of the author's ideas 
than to examine the general foundations 
of his reafoning. Some particular cir- 
cumftances led nre, not long ago, to re« 
view my knowledge upon this fubjeét ; 
and, with the utmoft deference to this 
celebrated mathematician, I could nor 
help admitting the conjeéture, that many 
difficulties in-his writings arife from fome 
circumftances being taken for granted, 
which have no foundation in nature, 
and from certain improprieties in lan- 
guage, which might, without any danger 
to his fubjects, have been avoided. 
Thus every perfon, converfant with 
the works of W ARING,Eiuler, and others, 
on the analytics, mutt be fenfibld of the 
many difficulties attending the celebrated 
problem, to difcover the fum of 
powers of the roots of an equation of 
any dimenfions, in terms of the co-effi- 
cients of that equation. And after hav- 
ing followed the ufual procefs in forming 
equations, obferved the increafe in the 
co-efficients in each fucceeding equa- 
tion, and brought out the general con- 
clufion, I was ftruck with the idea, that 
my labours were futile; and that the 
principle, on which my fuperftruéture 
was built, namely, that equations are 
formed by the multiplication of equa- 
tions of inferior dimenfions, was founded 
in error. 
Should my idea be right, I hope, that 
no one will fuppofe me capable of at- 
tempting to derogate in the leaft from 
the merit attached, certainly with juftice, 
to the firft mathematician in this country. 
If I cannot allow, that his conclufions 
are right, when referred to equations 
in general, ftill his theorems will be 
ftudied with pleafure and advantage, 
if, by a change of terms, we confider 
them as applicable only to the inveftiga- 
tion of the properties of a manifold | 
term, arifing from the multiplication of 
double terms, confifting each of a known 
and an unknown term. Again, if my 
idea is right, it is evident, that much of 
the labour of the ftudent in the higher 
algebra, will be fuperceded by the adop- 
tion of fimpler principles; that many 
works treating on the changes of the 
figns, in an equation, the nature of pofi- 
tive and negative roots, the ftrange pofi- 
tion and abfolute jargon, of impotlible 
roots, may be laid afide, without detri- 
ment to general knowledge; and thar 
inftead of ufelefs toil in the old beaten 
track, 
