Genre:

Extract, Poetry

Publications extracted:

Literary Gazette

Subjects:

Mathematics, Mental illness

    One couplet reads: 'In figures, unable with Newton to dare, / Yet found in the circle attempting to square.' A note includes the explanation: 'the quadrature of the circle is one of the baits that science holds out to lure mathematicians on towards insanity—it has triumphed as much over heads, as love has over hearts.'