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Barrow, tise On the Pope's' Supremacy. In 1676, lie was 

 vice-chancellor of the university. On the 1th of 



May 1677, he d. d suddenly of a fever, brought on, 

 it was believed, by the fatigue of preaching the pas- 

 sion sermon at Guildhall Chapel, in the city of Lon- 

 don. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. In his 

 person Dr Barrow was below the middle size, and 

 of a slender make, but remarkably firm and robust. 

 His complexion was fair, his eyes grey, his hair au- 

 burn, naturally very much curled; and it was re- 

 marked, that in his countenance there was a striking 

 resemblance to that of Marcus Brutus, as it is repre- 

 sented on ancient medals. He was always negligent 

 of his dress, and immoderately addicted to the use of 

 tobacco ; but in every other particular, his appear- 

 ance and deportment tended to ingratiate him with 

 all who saw him. His conduct was uniformly amia- 

 ble and dignified, his equanimity unruffled by the 

 storms of the times, his moderation and candour un- 

 abated by the controversies, ecclesiastical and politi- 

 cal, in which he engaged. His understanding, clear 

 and active, was highly improved by the most exten- 

 sive and varied reading ; but his imagination, fertile 

 and luxuriant, was not sufficiently controuled by the 

 correctness of his judgment. He was intimately ac- 

 quainted with the fathers of the church, and appears 

 to have inherited a share of their credulity. His 

 eermons and theological writings are. contained in 

 three volumes folio. They display a great copious- 

 ness of matter, and a still greater copiousness of 

 words. The vigour of the expression is more re- 

 markable than either its precision or its gracefulness : 

 but his language, with all its faults, is often more 

 accurate than his reasoning. His unwieldy and un- 

 disciplined eloquence frequently surprises, but seldom 

 delights. He possessed the rare talent of bring pro, 

 lix yet nervous, and difTuse without any trace of im- 

 becillity or languor. But the discourses of Bairow, 

 though far from being faultless models of style, are 

 entitled to the more substantial praise of being ani- 

 mated throughout with, the flame of piety and bene- 

 volence ; so that (to use the words of his friend Dr 

 Tillotsoii) " he must either be a perfectly good, or 

 prodigiously bad man, that can read them over with- 

 out being the better for them.'' 



Though the attention of Dr Barrow was principal- 

 ly directed to theology in the latter part of his life, 

 yet his mathematical writings have obtained him a high 

 rank among the philosophers of the 17th century. 

 Hi3 Lectiones Geometries: published in 1669,, are fil- 

 led with profound investigations respecting the pro- 

 perties of curvilineal figures ; and in the method of 

 tangents, which he has explained in that work, we 

 clearly discover the germ of the fluxional calculus. 

 This ingenious method, which is a great simplifica- 

 tion of the rule given by Fermat, differs in nothing 

 but the notation, from the method of finding the sub- 

 tangent by the, differential calculus. The optical lec- 

 tures of Dr Barrow are distinguished by the same 

 ongmal views which characterise his lectures on geo- 

 metry. His beautiful theory of the apparent place 

 of objects seen by refraction, or reflection, and the 



^-ant determinations which he has given of the 



n of the images of rectilineal objects received from 



purron and lenses, entitle hirn to the highest praise. 



VOL. in. PAtfTlI. 



By pushing these researches a little farther, Barrow Barrows, 

 could not fail to have discovered the caustic, or V"*~ 



Tschirnhausenian curves. 



Besides his sermons, which are posthumous, the 

 following works were published by him. Euclidis 

 Elementa, et Data ; Archimedis Opera ; Apollonii 

 Conicorum, lib. 4. ; Theodosii Sphecrica ; Lectiones 

 Optica; 18 ; Lectiones Geometrical ; Lectio de Sphaira; 

 et Cylindro ; Lectiones Mathematical ; Optiscula Theo- 

 logica, Poemata, Orationes. ($() 



BARROWS, are mounds of earth, generally of a 

 conical form, which were raised, in ancient times, over 

 the dead bodies of heroes, and persons of distinction. 

 The natural desire of cherishing the remembrance of 

 departed worth, has given rise, in all nations, to the 

 custom of erecting monuments to perpetuate the 

 names of those whose deeds had merited public grati- 

 tude or admiration, and to mark out to affectionate 

 curiosity the spot consecrated by their ashes. The 

 form, as well as the materials of these monuments, 

 varied with the circumstances of the people who rear- 

 ed them, and particularly with their improvement in 

 the arts ; but the obvious and simple mode of heap- 

 ing mounds of earth over the graves of the deceased, 

 seems universally to have prevailed during that rude 

 state of society, when the art of architecture was 

 unknown. Accordingly, mounds of this kind are still 

 to be found in all the quarters of the globe ; and it 

 is curious enough to trace, in these receptacles of the 

 dead, the gradual progress of elegance and refine- 

 ment, and the variations in the public taste. At 

 first, perhaps, these barrows consisted of loose earth 

 thrown upon the body, and gradually augmented, 

 like the cairns in Scotland, by the casual contribu- 

 tions of pious passengers. The height of these bar- 

 rows, being thus proportioned to the general reve- 

 rence for the deceased, would be supposed to confer 

 a corresponding distinction ; the affection or the 

 pride of individuals, would lead them to claim for 

 their departed relatives, an honour at first bestowed 

 by public favour ; and the great and the wealthy 

 would emulate each other in the magnificence of their 

 family monuments. Hence, in Egypt, where mag- 

 nitude was supposed to constitute grandeur, the sim- 

 ple cairn or barrow swelled in time to the dimensions 

 of the stupendous pyramid. In Greece, the barrow- 

 long retained its original simplicity of form ; though 

 those of the rich and eminent were distinguished by 

 the valuable and splendid urns which they enclosed. 

 Homer, in describing the funeral ceremonies per- 

 formed in honour of Patroclus and Hector, has gi- 

 ven us an account of the construction of these bar- 

 rows. We shall quote, from Mr Pope's translation, 

 the description of the interment of Patroclus, which 

 is somewhat more minute than that of Hector : 

 Where yet the embers glow, 



Wide o'er the pile the sable wine they throw ; 

 And deep subsides the ashy heap below. 

 Next the white bones his sad companions place, 

 With tears collected, in a golden vase. 

 The sacred relics to the tent they bore; 

 The urn a veil of linen cover'd o'er. 

 That done, they bid the sepulchre aspire, 

 And cast the deep foundations round the pire; 

 High in the midst they heap the swelling bed 

 Of rising earth, memorial of the dead." 



Iliad, 2'i, 310. 

 2Q 



