The creed of St. Athanasius proved by a mathematical parallel. Before
you censure, condemn, or approve; read, examine, and understand. E. B.
REVILO.[705] London, 1839, 8vo.
This author really believed himself, and was in earnest. He is not the only
person who has written nonsense by confounding the mathematical infinite
(of quantity) with what speculators now more correctly express by the
unlimited, the unconditioned, or the absolute. This tract is worth
preserving, as the extreme case of a particular kind. The following is a
specimen. Infinity being represented by [infinity], as usual, and f, s, g,
being finite integers, the three Persons are denoted by [infinity]^{f}, (m
[infinity])^{s}, [infinity]^{g}, the finite fraction m representing human
nature, as opposed to [infinity]. The clauses of the Creed are then given
with their mathematical parallels. I extract a couple:
"But the Godhead of the
Father, of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost, is all one:
the glory equal, the Majesty
co-eternal.
"It has been shown that
[infinity]^f, [infinity]^g, and (m [infinity])^s, together,
are but [infinity], and that
each is [infinity], and any magnitude
in existence represented
by [infinity] always was and always
will be: for it cannot
be made, or destroyed, and
yet exists.
{330}
"Equal to the Father, as
touching his Godhead: and
inferior to the Father,
touching his Manhood."
"(m [infinity])^s is equal to [infinity]^f as
touching [infinity], but inferior to
[infinity]^f as touching m: because
m is not infinite."
I might have passed this over, as beneath even my present subject, but for
the way in which I became acquainted with it. A bookseller, _not the
publisher_, handed it to me over his counter: one who had published
mathematical works. He said, with an air of important communication, Have
you seen _this_, Sir! In reply, I recommended him to show it to my friend
Mr.----, for whom he had published mathematics. Educated men, used to books
and to the converse of learned men, look with mysterious wonder on such
productions as this: for which reason I have made a quotation which many
will judge had better have been omitted. But it would have been an
imposition on the public if I were, omitting this and some other uses of
the Bible and Common Prayer, to pretend that I had given a true picture of
my school.
[Since the publication of the above, it has been stated that the author is
Mr. Oliver Byrne, the author of the _Dual Arithmetic_ mentioned further on:
E. B. Revilo seems to be obviously a reversal.]