Baron of Merchiston. 87 



by the appearance of the " majestic Napier, with his calm 

 aspect, his pensive eye, and his great beard, which the King 

 never before had an opportunity of seeing." Was not this 

 an essential merit to give to the inventor of logarithms, 

 and, especially, when connected with his discovery? But, 

 then, I may be asked, why do you cite these details, and 

 make these remarks? I make them, because in the obvious 

 intention of the biographer they have an object, and one, 

 which in my opinion, is contrary to the spirit of science 

 and of sound philosophy. This object is to exhibit the in- 

 ventor of the logarithms as a light of the Protestant Pres- 

 byterian Church, as the greatest theologian of his time, and 

 as principally a theologian, and this in order to support 

 religious belief by scientific discovery, to attempt under 

 this pretext to impose on us credulous exactions which 

 good sense repulses, and which, thank God, do not exist 

 in our time. 



Undoubtedly, Napier was a theologian, a learned theo- 

 logian, and without doubt, his religious belief was com- 

 pletely sincere. This is due to his moral character. The 

 importance of the arithmetical invention, which we owe 

 to him is very great, as we have already had occasion to 

 remark. But, does it follow from this, that arithmetic 

 ought to make us receive his theology, and ihat it is neces- 

 sary with the Scotch biographer, to consider the commen- 

 tary upon the Apocalypse by Napier as admirable ? for before 

 him, Newton had made a similar commentary, in which, 

 he undertook to prove that the Pope is antichrist, and 

 Christian Rome the prostitute of Babylon. Besides it was 

 not new at this period, since it was equally the favourite 

 theme of the fiery Presbyterian preacher, Knox, who called 

 the charming Mary Stuart a Jezebel ; and King James VI. 

 himself had exercised his theological knowledge in proving 

 this point. It was at this time a current idea. But the 

 peculiar part which Napier took in this controversy, was 

 his having introduced a form of argument quite mathema- 

 tical ; an order of discussion logically arranged ; setting 

 down first a table of postulates, from which he proceeded 

 to interpret the divine figures ; postulates which he took 

 care to establish, as well as possible, upon a number of 

 learned authorities. I shall not be so rash ;is to contest 



