250 MEMOIR OF AUGUSTUS DE MORGAN. 



1856. by reason that of all the other numbers it is most divisible, being 

 divisible into units, as all numbers are ; into two parts, as no odd 

 number is ; into three parts, as no even number is but six, and 

 the numbers that consist of sixes ; into fourths, into which six is 

 not divisible ; and into sixths. 



In the memoir dictated by Napoleon at St. Helena is 

 this paseage : 



On avait prefere le diviseur 12 au diviseur 10 parceque 10 n'a 

 que deux facteurs, 2 et 5, et que 12 en a quatre, savoir 2, 3, 4, et 

 6. II est vrai que la numeration decimale . . donne des 

 facilites aux astronomes et aux calculateurs; mais ces avantages 

 sont loin de compenser 1'inconveuient de rendre la pensee plus 

 difficile. Le premier caractere de toute methode doit etre 

 d'aider la conception et l'imagination, faciliter la memoire, efc 

 donner plus de force a la pensee. 



To the quotations from Yaughan and the Emperor 

 Napoleon this answer is given : 



When an old writer is stript of his conceits, translated into 

 correctness, and under those changes presented as a sage of 

 antiquity, the only way to meet his authority is to restore his 

 true form, and to allow his whole character to be judged. 

 Whether the divisors of 12 gain anything by Mr. Vaughan's 

 advocacy may be ascertained by reading the whole passage. . . 

 The punctuation may be excused, since the work was printed 

 after the author's death by his crotchety brother, Henry 

 Vaughan, the Silurist, He is speaking of the proportion of gold 

 to silver in value, which he would have 12 to 1, because 12 has 

 many divisors. (Pp. 73, 74.) 



' But the most, and the most judicious propositions that I 

 have seen, both at home and in other parts, do agree upon twelve 

 for one as the most equal proportion ; and it agrees with the 

 proportion of Spain, upon which in this subject we ought prin- 

 cipally to have onr eye fixed ; and for my part I do the rather 

 incline to this proportion, because 12 of all the numbers is the 

 most proper for money, being most clear from all fractions and 

 confusion of an accompt, by reason that [here the divisors 

 enumerated as in the question]. And to the sixth this proportion 

 seems like to square with the conceit of the alchemist, who 

 called gold $0Z, and silver Luna, whose motions do come near upon 

 the point of 12 for 1.' 



