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Rh Professor Ricci says: "To-day it is hard to understand that a man of so sublime an intellect did not see the truth which he almost could grasp with his hands, and that he stubbornly tried to destroy with sophisms what he had built up with so much correct geometrical skill. Able and sagacious as he is in constructing his system, he is awkward and unskilful in tearing it down." – If for once I may be allowed to venture a conjecture, I would ask: Is it not possible that Saccheri did grasp the truth, but did not think fit to publish it boldly? He may have feared lest his contemporaries would raise a cry of indignation against such a mathematical heresy. Besides, as at that time such hypotheses would have been looked upon as mere freaks, there may have been apprehensions that the publication of such a work would injure the reputation of the college in which Saccheri taught mathematics. The attacks on the Jesuits on account of the bold theories of Hardouin (seep. 160), and similar instances in which the whole Society was reprehended for the attitude of individuals, would have been a sufficient cause for the wariness of the author. If this explanation were the correct one, it would certainly account for the weakness of the arguments which he used to pull down his splendid structure. These arguments, accordingly, would have been merely a thin veil to hide the purport of his work. I communicated this conjecture to Father Hagen of Georgetown, and was surprised to learn that this distinguished mathematician had given the same explanation of the curious phenomenon to Professor Halsted of the University of Texas, the translator of Father Saccheri's works. However, this is only a conjecture, though not void of