Genre:

Instructions, Drollery

Subjects:

Mathematics, Language, Gender

    Consists of five sections which, by punning on words such as 'figure', 'draw', 'incline', 'elevation', and 'chord', turn geometrical proofs into accounts of what will happen to various people (here named with a series of letters as if they were geometrical figures) under certain conditions. For example, in 'Theorem V.—Solution of the Vexata Quaestio in reference to Bodies moving in Space', states: 'Let pf be the Plain Figure of Fine Lady [...], and mb the circumference of a Modern Belle. Then from ac, the Acute Angle of the eye of the Candid Critic, let attention be drawn to lb, the Line of Beauty, and lb will be found to reach considerably beyond pf, the Plain Figure'.