SYLLABUS OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF GEOMETRICAL TEACHING. 1878.

Nie. The last book to be examined is Mr. Wilson‘s new Manual, founded on the Syllabus of the Geometrical Association.

Min. We had better begin by examining the Syllabus itself. I own that I could have wished to do this in the presence of some member of the Committee, who might have supplied a few details for what is at present little more than a skeleton, but that I fear is out of the question.

Nie. Nay, you shall not have far to seek. I am a member of the Committee.

Min. (astonished) You! A German professor! No such member is included in the final list of the Committee, which a friend showed me the other day.

Nie. The final list, was it? Well, ask your friend whether, since the drawing- up of that list, any addition has been made : he will say ‘Nobody has been added.’

Min. Quite so.

Nie. You do not understand. Nobody—Niemand—see you not?

Min. What? You mean—

Nie. (solemnly) I do, my friend. I have been added to it!

Min. (bowing) The Committee are highly honoured, I am sure.

Nie. So they ought to be, considering that I am a more distinguished mathematician than Newton himself, and that my Manual is better known than Euclid's! Excuse my self-glorification, but any moralist will tell you that I—I alone among men—ought to praise myself.

Min. (thoughtfully) True, true. But all this is wordjuggling—a most misleading analogy.