JONES. 



cd himself of the opportunity to testify 

 his regard for the merit and character of 

 his friend, by conferring upon him the 

 office of secretary for the peace. He 

 was also introduced to the friendship of 

 Lord Parker (afterwards President of the 

 Royal Society) which terminated only 

 with his death; and, amongst othe; distin- 

 guished characters in the annals of science 

 and literature, the names of Sir Isaac 

 Newton, Halley,Mead, and Samuel John- 

 son, may be enumerated as the intimate 

 friends of Mr. Jones. By Sir Isaac New- 

 ton he was treated with particular regard 

 and confidence; and having afterwards 

 found, among some papers of Collins 

 which fell into his hands, a tract of New- 

 Ion's, entitled "Analysis per quantita- 

 tum Series, Fluxiones, ac differentias : 

 cum Enumeratione Linearum tertii Ordi- 

 nes," with the consent and assistance of 

 that great man, he ushered it into the 

 world, accompanied by other pieces on 

 analytical subjects, in 1711, quarto. 



By being thus the means of preserving 

 some of Newton's papers, which might 

 have otherwise been lost, he secured to 

 his friend the honour of having applied 

 the method f infinite series to all sorts 

 of curves, some time before Mercator 

 had published his "Quadrature of the 

 Hyperbola," by a similar method. And 

 its appearance at a time when the dispute 

 ran high between Leibnitz and the 

 friends of Newton, concerning the inven- 

 tion of fluxions, contributed to the deci- 

 sion of the question in favour of our il- 

 lustrious countryman. 



Mr. Jones was elected a member, and 

 afterwards a Vice-President, of the Royal 

 Society. After the retirement of Lord 

 Macclesfield to Sherborne Castle, Mr. 

 Jones resided with his lordship as a mem- 

 ber of his family, and instructed him in 

 the Sciences. While he was in this si- 

 tuation, he had the misfortune to lose the 

 greatest part of his property, the accu- 

 mulation of industry and economy, by 

 the failure of a banker; but the friend- 

 ship of Lord Macclesfield diminished the 

 weight of the loss, by procuring for him- 

 a sinecure place of considerable emolu- 

 ment. From the same nobleman he had 

 the offer of a more lucrative situation ; 

 but he declined the acceptance of it, as 

 it required a more close official attendance 

 than was agreeable to his temper, or com- 

 patible with his attachment to scientific 

 pursuits. 



While he was in this situation, also, he 

 entered into a matrimonial connexion, 

 from which sprang three children, the 

 last of whom was the late Sir William 



Jones. Mr. Jones survived the birth of 

 this son only three years, being attacked 

 with a disorder, which the sagacity of Dr. 

 Mead, who attended him \vith the anxie- 

 ty of an affectionate friend, immediately 

 discovered to be a polypus of the heart, 

 and wholly incurable. He died in July, 

 1749, whenr about sixty-nine years of age, 

 leaving behind him a great reputation 

 and moderate property. 



"The history of men of letters," says 

 Lord Teignmouth, from whom we have 

 chiefly extracted the preceding particu- 

 lars, " is too often a melancholy detail of 

 human misery, exhibiting the unavailing 

 struggles of genius and learning against 

 penury, and life consumed in fruitless ex- 

 pectation of patronage and reward. We 

 contemplate with satisfaction the reverse 

 of this picture in the history of 

 Jones, as we trace him in his progr 

 from obscurity to distinction, and in his 

 participation of the friendship and bene- 

 ficence of the first characters of the times. 

 Nor is it less grateful to remark, that the 

 attachment of his professed friends did 

 not expire with his life; after a proper 

 interval, they visited his widow, and vied 

 in their offers of service to her: amongst 

 others, to whom she was particularly 

 obliged, I mention with respect Mr. Ba- 

 ker, author of a treatise on the improved 

 microscope, who afforded her important 

 assistance, in arranging the collection of 

 shells, fossils, and other curiosities, left 

 by her deceased husband, and in dispos- 

 ing of them to the best advantage." 



Mr. Jones's papers in the Philos.' 

 are, " A Compendious Disposition 

 Equations for exhibiting the Relations 

 Goniometrical Lines," in the forty-foui 

 volume; "A Tract on Logarithms," ii 

 the sixty -first ; " An Account of the Per 

 son killed by Lightning in Tottenhai 

 court Chapel, and its Effects on the Buil 

 ing," in the sixty-second ; and *' Pi 

 perties of the Conic Sections, dedu< 

 by a Compendious Method," in the sixty- 

 third volume. These pieces, and ind< 

 all his works, are distinguished by re- 

 markable neatness, brevity, accuracy, ar 

 perspicuity. If, however, Mr. Nichols is 

 not deceived in his information, th< 

 world has been deprived of his last ar 

 most laborious work, which he lived 

 complete, but not to see it printed, 

 was a work of the same nature with 

 "Synopsis,* but far more copious ar 

 diffusive, and intended to serve as a gene 

 ral introduction to the sciences, or, wh'w 

 is the same thing, to the mathematu 

 and philosophical works of Newton, 

 work of this kind was a desideratum 



