The elements of non-Euclidean plane geometry and trigonometry, by H. S. Carslaw.

17,18] GAUSS, BOLYAI, AND LOBATSCHEWSKY 37

Then he goes on to remark that in the world of science discoveries are not unlikely to be made about the same time; but
he cannot help wondering whether someone had not brought
his own work to Lobatschewsky's notice; after which the
latter might have attempted to reach the same goal by another
path. And he also makes the absurd suggestion that Lobatschewsky's work might really be due to Gauss himself; that
Gauss, unable to endure that anyone should have anticipated
him in this matter, and yet powerless to prevent it, might have
himself written this work under Lobatschewsky's name. Bolyai
was undoubtedly a great genius, but he seems to have been the
possessor of an extraordinarily suspicious nature!
The opinion of Gauss on the same work is given in a letter
to Schumacher of 1846: *
".. I have lately had occasion again to go through the
little book.... by Lobatschewsky. It contains the outlines
of that geometry which must exist, and could quite consistently
exist, if the Euclidean Geometry is not true. A certain Schweikart called such a geometry the Astral; Lobatschewsky calls it
the Imaginary. You are aware that for fifty-four years (since
1792) t I have had the same conviction (with some extension
later, of which I shall not say more here). I have found nothing
really new to myself in Lobatschewsky's work; but the
development is made on other lines than I had followed, and by
Lobatschewsky, indeed, in a most masterful fashion and with
real geometrical spirit. I feel compelled to bring the book under
your notice. It will give you exquisite pleasure...."
Lobatschewsky died in 1856 and Bolyai four years later:
one of them, probably, a disappointed man; the other,
certainly, an embittered one. Public recognition they had
not gained, and in all likelihood the number of mathematicians
acquainted with their work was extremely small. Had Gauss
only made public reference to their discoveries, instead of
confining himself to praise of their work, cordial and enthusiastic though it was, in conversation and correspondence, the
world would earlier have granted them the laurels they
deserved.
A few years after they had passed away the correspondence
of Gauss and Schumacher was published, and the numerous
* Gauss, Werke, vol. viii. p. 238.
+ Rather an early date, surely, for Gauss was born in 1777.