"recover the interesting nakedness of human nature, by ridding ، her of the cumbrous establishments which the folly, and pride, "and self-interest of the worst part of our species have heaped 66 upon her;—you are right.-Such is my object. I do not dis “ avow it. Nor is it mine alone. There are abundance of abler ، hands at work upon it. Encyclopedias, Treatises, Novels, Maga“zines, Reviews, and New Annual Registers, have, as you are well “ aware, done their part with activity, and with effect. It remained "to bring the heavy artillery of a Didactic Poem to bear upon the ،، same object. 66 "If I have selected your Paper as the channel for conveying 66 my labours to the Public, it was not because I was unaware of "the hostility of your principles to mine, of the bigotry of your ، attachment to ، things as they are : '-but because, I will fairly own, I found some sort of cover and disguise necessary for "securing the favourable reception of my sentiments; the usual “ pretexts of humanity and philanthropy, and fine feeling, by " which we have for some time obtained a passport to the hearts ، and understandings of men, being now worn out, or exploded. "I could not choose but smile at my success in the first instance, " in inducing you to adopt my Poem as your own. 66 "But you have called for an explanation of these principles "of ours, and you have a right to obtain it. Our first principle “is, then—the reverse of the trite and dull maxim of Pope— “Whatever is, is right." We contend, that " Whatever is, is wrong :" -that Institutions, civil and religious, that Social Order, (as it " is called in your cant) and regular Government and Law, and "I know not what other fantastic inventions, are but so many 66 cramps and fetters on the free agency of man's natural intellect " and moral sensibility; so many badges of his degradation from "the primal purity and excellence of his nature. "Our second principle, is the "eternal and absolute Perfectibi"lity of Man." We contend, that if, as is demonstrable, we have "risen from a level with the cabbages of the field to our present 66 comparatively intelligent and dignified state of existence, by "the mere exertion of our own energies; we should, if these 66 66 energies were not repressed and subdued by the operation of prejudice, and folly, by KINGCRAFT and PRIESTCRAFT, and "the other evils incident to what is called Civilized Society, con"tinue to exert and expand ourselves in a proportion infinitely 6 greater than any thing of which we yet have any notion:-in "a ratio hardly capable of being calculated by any science of "which we are now masters; but which would in time raise Man "from his present biped state, to a rank more worthy of his en"dowments and aspirations; to a rank in which he would be, as "it were, all MIND; would enjoy unclouded perspicacity, and perpetual vitality; feed on Oxygene, and never die, but by his 66 "own consent. "But though the Poem of the PROGRESS OF MAN alone, "would be sufficient to teach this system, and enforce these ་ "doctrines; the whole practical effect of them cannot be ex 66 pected to be produced, but by the gradual perfecting of each "of the sublimer sciences;-at the husk and shell of which we "are now nibbling, and at the kernel whereof, in our present "state, we cannot hope to arrive. These several Sciences will be “the subjects of the several auxiliary DIDACTIC POEMS which I "have now in hand (one of which, entitled the LOVES OF THE "TRIANGLES, I herewith transmit to you), and for the better 66 66 66 arrangement and execution of which, I beseech you to direct your Bookseller to furnish me with a handsome Chambers's Dictionary; in order that I may be enabled to go through "the several articles alphabetically, beginning with Abracadabra, “under the first letter, and going down to Zodiac, which is to be "found under the last. 66 "I am persuaded that there is no Science, however abstruse, nay, no Trade or Manufacture, which may not be taught by a "Didactic Poem. In that before you, an attempt is made (not "unsuccessfully I hope) to enlist the Imagination under the banners of Geometry: Botany I found done to my hands. And though "the more rigid and unbending stiffness of a mathematical sub 66 66 ject does not admit of the same appeals to the warmer passions, "which naturally arise out of the sexual (or, as I have heard "several worthy Gentlewomen of my acquaintance, who delight "much in the Poem to which I allude, term it, by a slight mis"nomer no way difficult to be accounted for-the sensual) system R " of Linnæus ;-yet I trust that the range and variety of illustra❝tion with which I have endeavoured to ornament and enlighten "the arid truths of Euclid and Algebra, will be found to have "smoothed the road of Demonstration, to have softened the "rugged features of Elementary Propositions, and, as it were, to "have strewed the Asses' Bridge with flowers." Such is the account which Mr. HIGGINS gives of his own undertaking, and of the motives which have led him to it. For our parts, though we have not the same sanguine persuasion of the absolute perfectibility of our species, and are in truth liable to the imputation of being more satisfied with things as they are, than Mr. HIGGINS and his Associates;-yet, as we are in at least the same proportion, less convinced of the practical influence of Didactic Poems, we apprehend little danger to our Readers' morals, from laying before them Mr. HIGGINS's doctrine in its most fascinating shape. The Poem abounds, indeed, with beauties of the most striking kind,—various and vivid imagery, bold and unsparing impersonifications; and similitudes and illustrations brought from the most ordinary and the most extraordinary occurrences of nature,—from history and fable,— appealing equally to the heart and to the understanding, and calculated to make the subject of which the Poem professes to treat, rather amusing than intelligible. We shall be agreeably surprised to hear that it has assisted any young Student, at either University, in his Mathematical Studies. We need hardly add, that the Plates illustrative of this Poem (the engravings of which would have been too expensive for our publication) are to be found in Euclid's Elements, and other books of a similar tendency. LOVES OF THE TRIANGLES. ARGUMENT OF THE FIRST CANTO. Warning to the Profane not to approach-Nymphs and Deities of Mathematical Mythology-Cyclois of a pensive turn—Pendulums, on the contrary, playful—and why?—Sentimental union of the Naiads and Hydrostatics—Marriage of Euclid and Algebra.-Pulley the emblem of Mechanics-Optics of a licentious disposition -distinguished by her Telescope and Green Spectacles.-Hyde Park Gate on a Sunday morning-Cockneys-Coaches.-Didactic Poetry-Nonsensia-Love delights in Angles or Corners-Theory of Fluxions explained—Trochais, the Nymph of the Wheel-Smoke-Jack described-Personification of elementary or culinary Fire.-Little Jack Horner-Story of Cinderella-Rectangle, a Magician, educated by Plato and Menecmus-in love with Three Curves, at the same timeserved by Gins, or Genii-transforms himself into a Cone-The Three Curves requite his Passion-Description of them-Parabola, Hyperbola, and EllipsisAsymptotes-Conjugated Axes.-Illustrations-Rewbell, Barras, and Lepaux, the Three virtuous Directors-Macbeth and the Three Witches-The Three FatesThe Three Graces-King Lear and his Three Daughters-Derby DiligenceCatherine Wheel. Catastrophe of Mr. Gingham, with his Wife and Three Daughters overturned in a One-Horse Chaise-Dislocation and Contusion two kindred Fiends -Mail Coaches—Exhortation to Drivers to be careful—Genius of the Post Office— Invention of Letters-Digamma-Double Letters-remarkable Direction of oneHippona, the Goddess of Hack-horses-Parameter and Abscissa unite to overpower the Ordinate, who retreats down the Axis Major, and forms himself in a Square— Isosceles, a Giant-Dr. Rhomboides-Fifth Proposition, or Asses' Bridge—Bridge of Lodi-Buonaparte-Raft and Windmills-Exhortation to the recovery of our Freedom-Conclusion. |