John Stuart Mill: A Criticism with Personal Recollections

CRITICISM OF LEGENDRE. 1 9
returned and corrected Dialogue till 3^ ; Thomson till 4 (din
ner), resumed till 6 ; Mr. G. corrects his French exercises ;
went out for his French lesson, but the master did not teach
on Sundays and Thursdays ; back to Thomson till 8 ; repeated
Fables to Mr. G. , miscellaneous affairs ; supped ; journal
always written just before going to bed. yth. Rose 5| ; five
chapters Voltaire till 7; till 7 1, 46 lines of Virgil; till 8,
Lucian s Jupiter Confutatus ; goes on a family errand ; Music-
lesson till 9 (Principes) ; Lucian continued till 9!, and finished
after breakfast at io| ; a call required him to dress ; read
Thomson and made Tables till 12^; seven propositions of
Legendre ; has him over the coals for his confusion in regard
to ratio
"
takes away a good deal of my opinion of the merit
of the work as an elementary work"; till i|, wrote exercises
and various miscellanies; till 2^, the treatise on Adverbs; till
3! , Thomson ; Livre Geographique and Miscellanies till 5 ;
eats a little, dinner being uncertain, owing to a family event ;
goes for first lesson to music-mistress, a lady reduced by the
Revolution, and living by her musical talents ; henceforth to
practise at her house daily from n to 12, and take a lesson
in the evening ; dined on return, then dancing-lessor.
9th. Rose at 5 ; five chapters Voltaire ; 6f, Adverbs ; 7|,
the Prometheus of Lucian ; 8J till 9, first lesson of Solfeges
together with Principes ; continued Prometheus till break
fast ; miscellaneous occupation till the hour of music-lesson
at Mad. Boulet s ; home at 12^, ten propositions of Legendre :
"
if anything could palliate the fault I have noticed of
introducing the ratio and the measure of angles before
the right place, it is the facility which this method gives to
the demonstration of the subsequent propositions; this, how
ever, cannot excuse such a palpable logical error,
&c." Mr. G. is
to procure Cagnioli s Trigonometry, but a Praxis in the higher
Mathematics is not yet forthcoming, icth. Starts at 4 with
Mr. G. and the Russells on a day s excursion to the forest of
Bouconne, three leagues from Toulouse, the object being to