The paradox being the proposition of something which runs counter to what
would generally be thought likely, may present itself in many ways. There
is a _fly-leaf paradox_, which puzzled me for many years, until I found a
probable solution. I frequently saw, in the blank leaves of old books,
learned books, Bibles of a time when a Bible was very costly, etc., the
name of an owner who, by the handwriting and spelling, must have been an
illiterate person or a child, followed by the date of the book itself.
Accordingly, this uneducated person or young child seemed to be the first
owner, which in many cases was not credible. Looking one day at a
Barker's[418] Bible of 1599, I saw an {265} inscription in a child's
writing, which certainly belonged to a much later date. It was "Martha
Taylor, her book, giuen me by Granny Scott to keep for her sake." With this
the usual verses, followed by 1599, the date of the book. But it so chanced
that the blank page opposite the title, on which the above was written, was
a verso of the last leaf of a prayer book, which had been bound before the
Bible; and on the recto of this leaf was a colophon, with the date 1632. It
struck me immediately that uneducated persons and children, having seen
dates written under names, and not being quite up in chronology, did
frequently finish off with the date of the book, which stared them in the
face.
Always write in your books. You may be a silly person--for though your
reading my book is rather a contrary presumption, yet it is not
conclusive--and your observations may be silly or irrelevant, but you
cannot tell what use they may be of long after you are gone where
Budgeteers cease from troubling.
I picked up the following book, printed by J. Franklin[419] at Boston,
during the period in which his younger brother Benjamin was his apprentice.
And as Benjamin was apprenticed very early, and is recorded as having
learned the mechanical art very rapidly, there is some presumption that
part of it may be his work, though he was but thirteen at the time. As this
set of editions of Hodder[420] (by {266} Mose[421]) is not mentioned, to my
knowledge, I give the title in full:
"Hodder's Arithmetick: or that necessary art made most easy: Being
explained in a way familiar to the capacity of any that desire to learn
it in a little time. By James Hodder, Writing-master. The Five and
twentieth edition, revised, augmented, and above a thousand faults
amended, by Henry Mose, late servant and successor to the author.
Boston: printed by J. Franklin, for S. Phillips, N. Buttolph, B.
Elliot, D. Henchman, G. Phillips, J. Elliot, and E. Negus, booksellers
in Boston, and sold at their shops. 1719."
The book is a very small octavo, the type and execution are creditable, the
woodcut at the beginning is clumsy. It is a perfect copy, page for page, of
the English editions of Mose's Hodder, of which the one called seventeenth
is of London, 1690. There is not a syllable to show that the edition above
described might not be of Boston in England. Presumptions, but not very
strong ones, might be derived from the name of _Franklin_, and from the
large number of booksellers who combined in the undertaking. It chanced,
however, that a former owner had made the following note in my copy:
"Wednessday, July y^e 14, 1796, att ten in y^e forenoon we sail^d from
Boston, came too twice, once in King Rode, and once in y^e Narrows.
Sail^d by y^e lighthouse in y^e even^g."
{267}
No ordinary map would decide these points: so I had to apply to my friend
Sir Francis Beaufort,[422] and the charts at the Admiralty decided
immediately for Massachusetts.