Memoirs ofJoJin Napier of Merchiston. 259 



ancestors, according to*thc fashion of Scotland, are discovered to 

 be related, in one degree or other, to personages who then played 

 a conspicuous part, (among the rest the famous Bothwell, whose 

 espousals of Mary Stuart were none of the most gentle,) our 

 author gives at full length the history of Mary, of Bothwell, of 

 Darnley, with occasional digressions, by way of by-play, in 

 which figure Louis XI., Charles-le-Tdmeraire, and even certain 

 characters, of an association yet more bizarre in such a subject, 

 namely, the page Quentin Durward, and the Abbot of Misrule. 

 Then, as it appears that young Napier passed some years at the 

 University of St Andrew"*?, we are presented with its history, or 

 rather the history of the most celebrated persons of the times 

 who were reared at that University. From all this we can gather 

 no more respecting the inventor of logarithms, than that he 

 sprung from an ancient, wealthy, and distinguished family, who 

 had unavoidably taken a part, though reserved and prudent, in 

 the political affairs of the times. Born in the Castle of Mer- 

 chiston, in the year 1550, Napier was entered as a student at St 

 Andrew's in 1563, and quitted it a few years afterwards for the 

 Continent, where probably he went to complete his education, a 

 practice then very prevalent among Scotchmen of distinguished 

 rank. Returning to Merchiston in 1571, he married in the year 

 following, and immuring himself in that retreat, divided the rest 

 of his days between two principal occupations, the manage- 

 ment of his family domains, in which his father had invested 

 him, and his studies, theological and mathematical, for which he 

 appears to have had an equal predilection. But with all his in- 

 clination for repose, too frequently was he compelled to quit that 

 asylum, sometimes that he might escape a siege, and sometimes 

 to take that part in the political transactions of his day, which 

 his position in society and his religious opinions suggested. 

 There, by means of the numerous and unquestionable docu- 

 ments which his biographer has collected, we can trace his steps, 

 and our contemplation of the particular system of ideas, or the 

 peculiar turn of mind which he brought upon the stage of mun- 



stood by a foreign philosopher; and we must add, that the first chapter of M. 

 Biot's abstract, which gives such poj)ular interest to his paper, api;ears to 

 have been entirely luggested bj the historical portion of Mi Napier's work.— 

 TranalaUtr, 



