Philosophical Dictionary (Vol. 2)

thirty-two feet. It was Torricelli who guessed that a column of air was equivalent to thirty-two feet of water and about twenty-seven inches of mercury.

The same author, more occupied with thinking than with citing accurately, claims that this epitaph was written for Cromwell:

Here lies the destroyer of a legitimate power,
Favored by the heavens until his final day,
Whose virtues deserved better
Than the scepter acquired by a crime.
By what destiny must it be, by what strange law,
That to all those born to wear the crown,
It is the usurper who gives
The example of the virtues a king should have?

These verses were never written for Cromwell, but for King William. This is not an epitaph; these are verses meant to be placed at the bottom of that monarch’s portrait. There is no "Here lies"; it says: "Such was the destroyer of a legitimate power." No one in France was ever foolish enough to say that Cromwell had provided the example of all virtues. One could grant him courage and genius, but the name "virtuous" was not meant for him.

In a Mercure de France of September 1769, an epigram written impromptu on the death of a famous usurer is attributed to Pope. This epigram has been recognized in England for two hundred years as being by Shakespeare. It was indeed written on the spot by that famous poet. A stockbroker named John Dacombe, who was vulgarly called