Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Square
To measure wind, and weigh the air,
And turn a circle to a square.
Butler.—A Satire on the Royal Society, Line 87. Cawthorne.—Wit and Learning, Line 129.
Circles to square, and cubes to double,
Would give a man excessive trouble.
Prior.—Alma, Line 1436.
For take thy balance, if thou be so wise,
And weigh the wind that under heaven doth blow;
Or weigh the light that in the east doth rise;
Or weigh the thought that from man’s mind doth flow.
Spenser.—Fairy Queen, Book V. Canto II. Stanza 43.
Weigh the sun.
Tennyson.—Locksley Hall, Verse 93.
Whether he measure earth, compute the sea,
Weigh sunbeams, carve a fly, or split a flea;
The solemn trifler with his boasted skill
Toils much, and is a solemn trifler still.
Cowper.—Charity, Line 353.