6 Britain's Heritage of Science 



matter which has been treated by many sublime 

 intellects, but solved by none; he appears to me also 

 to deserve the highest praise for his many and true 

 observations, putting to shame the lying and vain 

 authors who write not only of what they know, but 

 also of what they hear from the silly crowd, without 

 satisfying themselves by experiment of what is true 

 perhaps, because they do not wish to shorten their 

 books. What I should have desired in Gilbert is that 

 he would have been a little more of a mathematician, 

 and especially well schooled in geometry, the practice 

 of which would have made him less inclined to accept, 

 as conclusive proofs, what are only arguments in favour 

 of the deductions he draws from his observations. 

 . . . I do not doubt that in the course of time this 

 new science will be perfected by new observations, and 

 by true and cogent demonstrations. But the glory 

 of the first inventor will not be diminished thereby; 

 I do not esteem less, but, on the contrary, admire, the 

 first inventor of the lyre (though probably his instru- 

 ment was roughly constructed and more roughly played), 

 much more than the hundred other players who, in the 

 succeeding centuries, have brought his art to exquisite 

 perfection." 



Coming from Galileo this was high praise, indeed. 

 The next landmark was planted by a man of equal 

 power but different type of intellect. 



John Napier, of Merchiston, descended from a distin- 

 guished Scotch family, which, in the fifteenth century, 

 included three Provosts of Edinburgh among its members. 

 His father, Sir Archibald Napier, was Justice Deputy under 

 the Earl of Argyll, and Master of the Mint. John was 

 born at Merchiston Castle in 1550; after a short period 

 of study at the University of St. Andrews, he probably 

 spent some time in foreign travel, but returned to Scotland 

 at the age of twenty-two. Though involved in the political 

 and religious controversies of his age, he devoted his spare 

 time to the study of mathematics, and, what to him seemed 

 of greater importance, the writing of a book on the Apoca- 

 lypse. This mathematical work culminated in the discovery 



