The Seven Follies of Science: To which is Added a Small Budget of Interesting Paradoxes, Illusions, Marvels, and Popular Fallacies

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D. Van Nostrand Company, 1911 - Geometry - 231 pages
 

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Page 79 - AND it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
Page 13 - And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other : it was round all about, and his height was five cubits : and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about.
Page 204 - But these are all lies : men have died from time to time and worms have eaten them, but not for love.
Page 133 - And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord: and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz.
Page 164 - ... reckoning one cent for the first nail, two for the second, four for the third, and so on.
Page 118 - Empress did not like to put a direct muzzle on her guest's tongue, so the following plot was contrived. Diderot was informed that a learned mathematician was in possession of an algebraical demonstration of the existence of God, and would give it to him before all the court, if he desired to hear it.
Page 204 - Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service; two dishes, but to one table: that's the end.
Page 86 - Friend, said he, thou art more dexterous in committing theft than in applying medicine; hadst thou wrapt up thy stolen prey in yellow wax, it would have penetrated and transmuted the lead into gold. I then asked if the philosophic work cost much or required long time, for philosophers say that nine or ten months are required for it. He answered, their writings are only to be understood by the adepts, without whom no student can prepare this magistery. Fling not away, therefore, thy money and goods...
Page 170 - ... three dozen still to sell ; how was this possible, without breaking any of the eggs ? It would seem at the first view that this is impossible, for how can half an egg be sold without breaking any of the eggs?
Page 85 - I really was a disbeliever as to the existence of an universal medicine which would cure all diseases, unless the principal parts were perished or the predestinated time of death come. I replied, I never met with an adept, or saw such a medicine, though I had fervently 'prayed for it. Then I said, surely you are a learned physician. No, said he, I am a brass-founder, and a lover of chymistry.

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