ARGUMENT OF THE FIRST CANTO.
Warning to the profane not to approach—Nymphs and Deities of Mathematical
Mythology—Cyclois of a pensive disposition—Pendulums,
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 time—served by Gins, or Genii—transforms himself
into a
Cone—the
Three Curves requite his passion—Description of them
—
Parabola, Hyperbola, and
Ellipsis—Asymptotes—Conjugated Axes
—Illustrations—
Rewbell, Barras, and
Lepaux, the
three virtuous Directors—
Macbeth
and the
Three Witches—the
Three Fates—the
Three
Graces—King
Lear and his
Three Daughters—Catherine 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 one—
Hippona the Goddess of Hackhorses—Anecdote of the
Derby Diligence—
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.
