BARROW, SIR JOHN. 



BARRY, JAMES. 



n, 1MO. 2. < Koclidis Data, 1 Cambridge, Ii7. afur- 

 to the preceding. S. ' Ltetionea Option XVIII., 1 

 London.'!***, hit celebrated lecture, on optiot; they wens revised 

 oJ augmented by Newton before their appearance. 4. ' Lectione* 

 Oeometriosi XII..' London, 1670. oonUiuing hi* method of UngenU. 

 Afterward*, 1073 and 1074. printed with the opticm. 5. Edition of 

 Anhimedea, ApoUoniut, and Thoodorui, London. 1475. 



The work* of Dr. Barrow, pabliibed after hit death, were 1. ' Lectio, 

 in qua,' few London. 1678. Thii it Arobimedet on the iphere and 

 ejUnder, demonrtratod by the ' indiviaiblea' of Cavaleriua. 2. ' Mathe- 

 ma.Ho* Laetionat,' 4o. Th(e ara Lnoaaun lecture* at Cambridge, 

 and the preface b the preliminary otation delivered by Barrow. 

 3. ' Work*,' it, edited by Dr. TilloUon, dean of Canterbury, London, 

 IMS, UtTPnfaoe being Mr. HUT* Life of Barrow : they oontain hi. 

 al work*, being eetmona, exposition*, 4c. ; thews hare 



reprinted. 4. ' Opuscula,' oontaining Latin sermons, 

 tc. There i* a list of manuscript* in the ' Bio- 

 mphia Briunnicm,' and in Ward'a Live* of the Qreaham Professors. 1 

 The 'Lection** Geometric*' and ' Hathematicn' hare been tranalated, 

 the Ant by Stone, 1795, the aooond by Kirkby, 1734. 



A* a mathematician Dr. Barrow ha* by numerous English writer* 

 bwn declared to be second only to Newton. This i* much higher praiie 

 than hi* mathematical writing* will justify. Foreign writer* hare been 

 leu partial, and not alway* just in their estimate of hi* attainment* a* 

 a mathematician. Barrow produced in a geometrical form that pre- 

 lude to the differential calculu* which goea by the name of the method 

 of tangent*. It was, in point of fact, what wu afterwords the funda- 

 mental notion of the differential* of Leibnitz, and, in Newton'* lan- 

 guage, aaaerted the ultimate equality of the ratio of the difference* 

 of two ordinatet and abaci to that of the ordinate and subtangent. 

 It w* 10 like the previous method of Format that Montncla call* it 

 Format'* method simplified. But if Barrow wa* not the great mathe- 

 matician many of hi* countrymen hare been willing to believe, he 

 wa* Tery far from the ' obacure ' mathematician, which the French 

 Encyclopaedist* ityled him. Barrow wo* neither an obscure mathe- 

 matician, nor second only to Newton. He was profoundly versed in 

 geometry, acquainted with all it* elegancies a* well a* all its depth, 

 and had a facility of application. " Nihil quod tetigit non ornavit ;" 

 and he carried hi* method*, a* many others have done, into theorem* 

 both curiou* and useful. In reference to the style of his geometrical 

 writings Hootucla says "The merit of these works is a singular 

 brevity (concision) which does not destroy their clearness" Barrow, 

 who in his theological writings is often painfully verbose, is one of 

 the first writers who attempted, by throwing away circumlocutions 

 and introduction of symbol*, to distinguish between Euclidean rigour 

 and unnecessary load of language. 



In the elucidation of principle* Dr. Barrow in not so happy as in 

 hi* application of them. The ' Mathematical Lectionos,' a commentary 

 on the first principle* of geometry and arithmetic, in a cloud of words, 

 filled with ancient learning of every kind ; and, though sound and 

 logical, difficult to understand. He sometimes complain* of his owu 

 prolixity, but this i* a very poor compensation for so annoying a 

 defect; and wa frequently feel the force of the self-accusing terms in 

 which he end* one of hi* geometrical lectures " I think I hear you 

 exetaim *** t>iV /9oA*Vif<." 



The character of Barrow as a theological writer has always stood 

 high among the Kngliah divine*. Hi* sermon*, as Le Clerc observe*, 

 an rather treatise* and dissertation! than harangues; and he wrote 

 and ro- wrote them three or four time*. They are always cited a* 

 not and oottpnheoaiv* argument*, the produce of a graip which 

 could collect, and of a patience which could combine, alt that was to 

 be aaid upon the subject in question. But in addition to this, Barrow 

 wa* an original thinker of no mean character : learning fall* into hi* 

 work, but a work then would have been if he had had no learning 

 at all From hi* deairo to set the whole subject before hi* hearer* he 

 i* often prolix ; the style i* frequently redundant ; and hi* sermon* 

 require an amount of attention which neither nearer nor reader is 

 often dupoecd to afford to such production*, and which in truth they 

 would vary aaldom repay. But the sermon* of Barrow are store- 

 house* of thought, and they an often resorted to aa storehouses by 

 popular preacbere and writer*. Nor an they often wanting in passages 

 which, a* examples of a somewhat redundant, but grave, powerful, 

 and exhaustive style, it would be difficult to parallel in the whole 

 range of Engliab pulpit literature. 



BARROW, SIR JOHN, wa* born at Dragley-Back, near Ulverstone, 

 North Lancashire, June 1, 1761. Having paated through the Town 

 Bank Oratamar School, young Barrow waa placed when about four- 

 teen year* old at clerk and overlooker in an iron-foundry at Liverpool, 

 bat quitted this situation two yean afterward* to make a voyage in 

 a whaler to Greenland. Having removed to London, he for awhile 

 wa* employed at mathematical teacher in a school at Greenwich, when 

 b* obtained in 17W, through the influence of Sir Oeorge Staunton, to 

 whose son he had given leatoni in rnathemstlca, the appointment 

 nominally of comptroller of the honwbold to Lord Macartoey in his 

 eslsbraled emba*ey to China; but really to take charge of the various 

 l instruments carried out a* pnssut* to tho Emperor of 

 Of thi* journey b* published an amount tome ten yean later 

 a a thick quarto volume, entitled Travels in China.' ID thu, embassy 



Mr. Barrow secured so far the goodwill of Lord Macartney, that his 

 lordship made him hit private secretary on being appointed Governor 

 of the Cape of Good Hope in 1797 ; and when Lord Macartney quitted 

 the Cape in 1798 he left Mr. Barrow in the post of auditor-general 

 of public account*. During his stay at the Cape Mr. Barrow devoted 

 his leisure hour* to the study of the geography and natural history 

 of South Africa, and made several journeys into the interior. On hi* 

 return to England he published the results of hi* investigation* in a 

 quarto volume entitled ' Travels in Southern Africa.' In 1804 Hi. 

 Harrow was appointed by Lord Melville to the responsible post of second 

 Secretary to the Admiralty, the duties of which he continued to dis- 

 charge for a period of forty yean under thirteen administrationa. In 

 this office Mr. Barrow was earnest and indefatigable in the promotion 

 of every project which commended itself to hit judgment at calcu- 

 lated to advance the program of geographical or scientific knowledge. 

 Especially did he labour by every possible means to commend to the 

 various government* under which he served, and to the country, the 

 prosecution of the various voyage* to the Arctic regions which have 

 so characterised the naval history of England during the forty years 

 of his connection with the admiralty ; and though hi* services bad 

 been fitly commemorated by associating his name with the point of 

 land, Cape Barrow, yet such was the sense entertained of them by 

 those officers who had been engaged in those voyages, that, on hU 

 retirement from his secretaryship, they presented him with a costly 

 candelabrum, bearing a suitable inscription on the pedestal. 



Mr. Barrow wa* a man of untiring industry. The leisure hours 

 afforded by hi* official employment wen devoted to literary and 

 scientific pursuit*; and his literary labours would in extent have 

 seemed not unworthy of one whoso whole time was given to literature. 

 Neither in literature nor science would he be regarded as having 

 attained a high place, but for many years ho held a distinguished 

 position in the literary and scientific circles of the metropolis. He 

 wa* for a long period a member of most of the leading learned societies 

 of London. In 1805 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society ; 

 in 1830 be took a leading part in the foundation of the Geographical 

 Society, of which some years later he was chosen president. In 1835 

 he was created a baronet 



In the beginning of 1S45 Sir John Barrow, then in his eighty-first year, 

 resigned his office at the Admiralty, and retired from public life. He hud 

 as early as 1806 received in consideration of his various public services, 

 the grant of a pension of 10001. per annum, to be deducted from tho 

 emolument* of any place' he might hold under government. He died 

 almost suddenly on the 23rd of November 1348, in the eighty-fourth 

 year of his age. Besides the works mentioned above, Sir John Barrow 

 published a ' Life of Earl Macartney ; ' ' Life of George Lord Auson ; ' 

 ' Life of Lord Howe ;' ' Life of Drake; ' ' Memoirs of Naval Worthies 

 of Queen Elizabeth's Reign;' 'Chronological History of Arctic 

 Voyages;' 'Voyages of Discovery and Research within the Arctic 

 Regions ; ' ' Sketches of Royal Society and Royal Society Club ; ' thu 

 'Life of Peter tho Great;' and the 'Mutiny of the Bounty 1 iu the 

 ' Family Library ; ' and his ' Autobiographical Memoir,' written in his 

 eighty-third year. He was also for a long series of yean a frequent 

 contributor to the 'Quarterly Review, 1 having in all furnished HI.'I 

 articles to that journal, and he wrote some papers for the ' Encyclopaedia 

 Britannic*, 1 ai well as for one or two other periodical publications. 



(An Autobiographical Memoir of Sir John Barroa, Bart. ; Sir G. T. 

 Staunton, Memoir of Sir John Barrow, edited by J. B. [John Barrow, 

 ton of the subject of the above article].) 



BARIIY, JAMES, a distinguished historical painter, wu born in 

 Cork, October 11, 1741. In his early youth he frequently accompanied 

 his father, who was a coasting-trader, in several voyages across the 

 channel. His father regarded his son's predilection for literature and 

 the art* with extreme avenion, yet the young Barry made such rapid 

 progress in bit scholastic acquirements as to excite the attention of his 

 superior*. Hit power of application was intense, and he was accus- 

 tomed to tit up whole nights in succession drawing and transcribing 

 from book*. At the age of two-and-twenty Barry went to Dublin, 

 when he exhibited, at tho Society of Arts, an historical picture which 

 he had recently executed ; the subject was drawn from a tradition 

 relating to the first arrival of St. Patrick in Ireland. This work intro- 

 duced Barry to Edmund Burke, who discerned iu it such evidence of 

 gcniu* a* induced him shortly afterwards to take the artist with him 

 to England, whore he procured fur him in the first instance employ- 

 ment in copying pictures for Athenian Stuart, and gavo him all the 

 advantages of his powerful patronage. In the ensuing year he tent 

 him to Rome, whore he remained for five years at the joint expense of 

 Edmund Burke and hi* brother William. 



Barry's irritable temper was from the first a constant source of 

 annoyance both to himself and others. Shortly after hi* arrival iu 

 Rome he became involved in a series of disputes with the artists and 

 virtuosi, which being reported to Burke, that gentleman sent him a 

 long and admirable letter of remonstrance and advice : but notwith- 

 standing these disputes Barry proceeded with indefatigable diligence 

 to investigate the principle* of the great work* which surrounded him, 

 both in ancient and modern art. His mole of study was singular. 

 He drew from the antique by means of a patent delineator, not aiming 

 to make academic drawings, but a sort of diagrams, in which a scale 

 of proportions was established, to which ho might at all times refer as 



