This friend, whom I must not name, has since made it up to about 800
anagrams on my name, of which I have seen about 650. Two of them I have
joined in the title-page: the reader may find the sense. A few of the
others are personal remarks.
"Great gun! do us a sum!"
is a sneer at my pursuits: but,
"Go! great sum! [Integral]a u^{n} du"
is more dignified.
"Sunt agro! gaudemus,"[287]
is happy as applied to one of whom it may be said:
"Ne'er out of town; 'tis such a horrid life;
But duly sends his family and wife."
"Adsum, nugator, suge!"[288]
is addressed to a student who continues talking after the lecture has
commenced: oh! the rascal!
"Graduatus sum! nego"[289]
applies to one who declined to subscribe for an M.A. degree.
"Usage mounts guard"
symbolizes a person of very fixed habits.
"Gus! Gus! a mature don!
August man! sure, god!
And Gus must argue, O!
Snug as mud to argue,
Must argue on gauds.
A mad rogue stung us.
Gag a numerous stud
Go! turn us! damage us!
Tug us! O drag us! Amen.
Grudge us! moan at us!
{139}
Daunt us! gag us more!
Dog-ear us, man! gut us!
D---- us! a rogue tugs!"
are addressed to me by the circle-squarers; and,
"O! Gus! tug a mean surd!"
is smart upon my preference of an incommensurable value of [pi] to 3-1/5,
or some such simple substitute. While,
"Gus! Gus! at 'em a' round!"
ought to be the backing of the scientific world to the author of the
_Budget of Paradoxes_.
The whole collection commenced existence in the head of a powerful
mathematician during some sleepless nights. Seeing how large a number was
practicable, he amused himself by inventing a digested plan of finding
more.
Is there any one whose name cannot be twisted into either praise or satire?
I have had given to me,
"Thomas Babington Macaulay
Mouths big: a Cantab anomaly."