DR. JOWETT'S LITTLE GARDEN. 415 Professor.-Very true. What is the mechanical law of the saw? Student. The power is to resist as the number of teeth and force impressed, multiplied by the number of strokes in a given time. Professor. Is the saw only used in slitting timber into boards? Student.-Yes; it is also used in cutting boards into lengths. Professor. Not lengths. A thing cannot be said to be cut into lengths. Student.-Shortnesses. Professor.-Very right. What are the mechanical laws of the hammer? Governor. We have just received intelligence that dinner is nearly ready; and as the medical class is yet to be examined, let the medical gentlemen come forward. Porson has always had the credit of being the author of the following verses on Dr. Jowett, Fellow of St. John's, who, having a taste for horticulture, was permitted by the head of his College to turn a strip of vacant ground into a garden. Some jokes being passed on its diminutiveness, he turned it into a plot of gravel. A little garden little Jowett made, And now, if more you'd know of little Jowett, A little time, it will a little show it. In "Blackwood's Magazine" the lines were given in a briefer form: A little garden little Jowett made, With this Latin version: Exiguum hunc hortum fecit Jowettulus iste Many sayings have been attributed to Porson that are not his. We have seen the punning observation on Brutus killing Cæsar, Nec bene fecit, nec male fecit, sed interfecit, ascribed to him; when it is certainly not his. In Charles Phillips's "Recollections of Curran and his Contemporaries," it is attributed, with as little ground, we believe, to Curran. The application of Horace's quos et aquæ subeunt et auræ to a pair of breeches, was long circulated as his, when it was Glasse's. In Barker's "Literary Anecdotes," it is said that Porson, hearing a child of Major Revell repeat Cowley's translation of an ode of Anacreon, took her on his knee, and repeated to her the ode in Greek, German, French, and Italian. Porson, it is well known, had no acquaintance with German, and, according to Mr. Maltby, very little with Italian. The following story of Porson, which has been often printed, rests wholly upon the authority of the Rev. Charles Caleb Colton, who published it in his "Lacon." Whether what he tells really occurred, or whether it is wholly or partly invention, we do not know. "Porson was once travelling in a stage-coach, when a young Oxonian, fresh from College, was amusing the ladies. with a variety of talk, and, amongst other things, with a quotation, as he said, from Sophocles. A Greek quotation, and in a coach too, roused our slumbering Professor from a kind of dog-sleep in a snug corner of the vehicle. Shaking his ears, and rubbing his eyes, I think, young gentleman,' said he, 'you favoured us just now with a quotation from Sophocles; I do not happen to recollect it there.' 'Oh, Sir,' replied our tiro, the quotation is word for word as I have repeated it, and in Sophocles too; but I suspect, Sir, that it is some time since you were at college.' The Professor, applying his hand to his great-coat, and taking out a small pocket-edition of Sophocles, quietly asked him if he would. be kind enough to show him the passage in question, in that little book. After rummaging the pages for some time, he replied, 'On second thoughts, I now recollect that the passage is in Euripides.' Then perhaps, Sir,' said the Professor, putting his hand into his pocket, and handing him a similar edition of Euripides, you will be so good as to find it for me in that little book." The young Oxonian returned to his task, but with no better success. The tittering of the ladies informed him that he had got into a hobble. At last, 'Bless me, Sir,' said he, how dull I am! I recollect now, yes, I perfectly remember that the passage is in Eschylus.' The inexorable Professor returned again to his inexhaustible pocket, and was in the act of handing him an Eschylus, when our astonished freshman vociferated: 'Stop the coach! Holloah, coachman, let me out, I say, instantly, let me out! There's a fellow here has got the whole Bodleian library in his pocket; let me out, I say, let me out; he must be Porson or the devil!'" 6 The play upon the Latin gerunds di -do -dum, one of the neatest plays on words that was ever made, has never been assigned to any one but Porson. It is said to have been produced in a company who were making puns or rhymes on words. Porson said that he would make, some say a rhyme, others a pun, on anything. Some one said that he had better try one on the Latin gerunds. He immediately replied, E E When Dido found Eneas would not come, She mourn'd in silence, and was Di -do -dum.* The following playful epitaph has, we believe, never appeared in print: Here lies a Doctor of Divinity; He was a Fellow too of Trinity: In illustration of Porson's mathematical qualifications, the following communication was made to the "Classical Journal."t "It is well known that Porson's proficiency in Algebra was very considerable; and that the solving of such problems as are commonly heard of by the appellation of Diophantine, was to him a source of particular entertainment. It is even said that some of these were found upon his person at his death. His celebrated equation given in the former part of your journal, is in every one's hands. It has, however, been urged that his knowledge of geometry was only superficial. But this, it should seem, is little better than mere idle report; as is sufficiently evident from the nature of the annexed problem, composed by him, en capricieux, as a sort of challenge to the then fellows of Trinity College. V. L. "Cambridge, October, 1814. "PROBLEM.-In Euclid, I. 47, the point in which the straight lines CF, BK, intersect, is in AL, the perpendicular drawn from the right angle to the base, BC. R. P. Barker's Lit. Anecd. vol. i. p. 90. Facetim Cantabrigienses, p. 95. † Vol. x. p. 401. PORSON'S MATHEMATICS. 419 "If not, let CF, BK, intersect in any point P, which is not in AL; that is, let the points 7, 8, not coincide. Produce BC F F K B L both ways, and from F and K let fall the perpendiculars FM, KN. "Then because (Eucl. I. 29 and VI. 8, or I. 13 and 32) the triangle BFM is similar to the triangle ABL, and that BF is equal to AB, ... BM = AL. Similarly, CN = AL, .'. |