[400] 
there 5 ( which is I fuppofe the Parfonage houfe, apper- 
taining to theRedor of the place: ) belonging to his 
Parlour Chimny. 
That which, to me, makes it very remarkable ( and 
which caufed me to get it thus delineated , ) is the date 
of it ( expreffing Ifuppofe, the time when it was firft 
made^ defcribed ( partly ) in numeral Figures, A° Do* 
M"" / 3 J. But both the Letters and the Figures are of an 
Antique form, agreeing well enough with that Age. 
That the Numeral Figures y now in frequent ufe, 
I J 2, 3,4, 7, 8 9, o. with the manner of computation 
by them ("and the names of Algorifm, appropriated to 
that way of computation ) came to us from the Arabs 
(but fomewhat altered, as tothefliape of the Figures in 
lucceding Ages; as are alfo the LatineLettersy'wMxzh. 
were originally derived from thofeofthe Gree\ \ ) and to 
them from the Indians (^who are fuppofed to have been the 
firft inventers offuch Figures, and the way of computati- 
on by them, ^ is generally agreed (I think) by all who 
have been inquifitive into thefe affairs. But it is not fo 
generally agreed, of what antiquity the ufe of them, 
in our European parts, hath been. 
JohnGerard l^ojlius mhis Treatife De Scientijs Mathe- 
maticis C^p. ("Printed in the year i(J (Jo, but written at 
leaft ten years before, as appears by the Epiftles prefixed; 
whichare dated i^yo.) fays, they have not been of^ufe in 
Europe for much more then three hundred and fifty yearss 
or, at th^ i^nhQ&^Jhort of four hundred. So that he thinks 
they came not into ufe here, till about the year of our 
Lord 1 3 oo ; or at the fartheft , later then the year iiyo- 
P^Mabillion^ in his Treatife lately printed De J{e Di^ 
flomatica, ( by which he appears to have been a Diligent 
and Curious inquirer into ancienLRecords and Charters) 
tells us [L.IL cap, 28 .) that he hath not found them any 
where uled fooner than t\\Q fourteenth Century: which is, 
yet fomewhat later than the time affigned by Voffius. 
What time is afligned by others I cannot fay. 
But( as I had oecaiion elfewhere to difcourfey in k 
Trea- 
