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Show Page 249 "...now in Liverpool, resting my lungs...I have had the last ten weeks severe cough and cold...I learn that many of my writings are not approbated. Anything that I have written that is erroneous, the sooner it is destroyed the better, both for me and the people; for truth is our motto, and eternal truth alone will stand...most sincere regrets, in having put you and the highest authorities of this Church to so much trouble and expense... (I) most sincerely hope...to live near enough to the Lord to avoid all error, and cleave most steadfastly to the light. In the meantime, let me humbly crave forgiveness...as touching anything which may have come from my pen, either erroneous or unwise. In relation to doctrine, or prophecy, or philosophy, or science, truth and truth alone is all that I desire..." 26 For Brigham's part, the Deseret News announced that "whoever publishes 27 any new doctrines...will be liable to lose his priesthood." With this firm warning in mind, Orson took over the presidency of Britain from Brigham Young Junior, and genially set about an innocuous series of articles published weekly in Millennial Star. Most of his writings dealt briefly with principles well-known among the Saints and were homiletic in character; however, he did not refrain from subjects as diverse as "Discovery of an American Mastodon" and"Con-sanguineous Marriages." Reporters of Orson's sermons and articles were generally complimentary, impressed with his "lucid, impressive and interesting manner,...which appeared to make a deep and very favorable impression 28 on both Saints and strangers." Accessibility to the printing press in the Star office made possible at this time Orson's only published work on mathematics. In June, 1866, he offered for sale A New and Easy Method of Solution of the Cubic and Biquadratic Equations, a pamphlet which drew sporadic interest in the States and in England, mostly among math hobbyists and a few teachers. A safe outlet for his abstruse spirit, the symmetry and economy of numbers drew his attention more and more, as a shorthand substitute for describing the universal balance he felt demonstrated the existence of |