Memoirs of John Napier of Merchiston. 261 



are, that they may learn, if it so please God, not to blaspheme 

 Christ or his Gospel,'' &c. (p. IGl). Such were the saintly pre- 

 tensions of the pious Presbyterians ! Observe, that excommuni- 

 cation involved the confiscation of the property of the impious, 

 which by right devolved upon the King, for the purpose of dis- 

 tribution among the " Saints of God," as these good people 

 then styled themselves. In vain the poor King made the most 

 vigorous efforts, and the wisest, to smother these odious procla- 

 mations, and to prevent their reaching himself. He was con- 

 strained to admit into his presence the Commissioners of the 

 General Assembly. It is curious to perceive, even yet, in the 

 present age, the hereditary effect of the ancient puritanical exal- 

 tation, upon the mind of the Scotch biographer. He is in ec- 

 stasy at the grandeur of the part assigned to Napier, in these 

 fanatical proceedings. " Our philosopher (says he, p. 162.) 

 must have been particularly conspicuous at this convention, 

 which confirmed the excommunication of his own father- in-law." 

 (This was the father of his second wife, for he had lost the first 

 in 1579.) Then pursuing, without hesitation, the consequences 

 of that act, " if the family of Napier (he adds) attended their 

 parish-church on the day appointed, they must have heard their 

 grandfather doomed to exclusion from the social comforts of 

 life, and the blessings of the Church." A little further on, he 

 delights in picturing the subduing effect upon poor James, of 

 the aspect of the " majestic Napier," with his " serene presence, 

 thoughtful eye, and ample beard, rarely seen within the royal 

 circle." Has he not discovered a merit very essential to be be- 

 stowed upon the Inventor of Logarithms, and withal very 

 closely connected with that discovery ? But, it may be said, 

 why, then, do you so pointedly quote these details ? I do so, be- 

 cause, in the evident intention of the biographer, they have 

 an object, and one, in my opinion, opposed to the spirit of the 

 sciences and of sound philosophy. That object is to represent 

 the Inventor of the Logarithms as a light of the Protestant 

 Presbyterian Church, as the greatest theologian of his times, as 

 principally a theologian ; and that, too, in order to bolster up 

 religious belief, by scientific discovery ; and under cover of that 

 pretext, to tax our credulity with demands at which common 



VOL. XX. NO. XL. APRIL 1836*. S 



