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the decimal places went to the twenty-sixth, with the admirable 
result of an exactitude not reaching beyond the twelfth place, 
where differences of even the third order barely appear. And above 
all, he has failed to perceive that what confidence we can now have 
in these prodigious piles of figures is derived from the labours of a 
single individual, whose zeal and perseverance led him to collate 
with the Cadastre table, the only two tables which preceded them, 
and to examine the divergences by help of calculations more trust- 
worthy than either; that, in fact, the portion of the “Grande 
Tables ” entitled to claim our confidence rests that claim on the 
joint labours of Adrian Ylacq and M. F. Lefort. The further dic- 
tum, that these tables are more exact than later ones which have 
not been compared with them, is supported by no evidence or argu- 
ment, besides implying an obvious absurdity. 
Concerning the rest of the Logarithmic Table, that belonging to 
numbers from 100,000 to 200,000 we have no information, because 
there existed no table for comparison, and our confidence must be 
founded exclusively on what we know of the principles of the 
method followed, of the fidelity of the execution, and of the candour 
of the statements. On these three heads, M. Lefort has placed 
before us information which it is not necessary for me to reca- 
pitulate. 
The advantages of a uniform scale of numeration have been 
recognised in all ages. The ancient geometers adopted the basis 
60, and their system has come down even to the present day. If the 
circumference of the earth be divided into 60 parts, each of these 
again into 60, and, once more, each of these subdivisions into 60 
parts, we come almost exactly to the stadium; according to the 
same plan, the hour and the degree are each divided in sixtieths. 
It is the uniformity, the self-consistency of this system, which has 
so long preserved it. Twenty centuries ago, the sage of Syracuse 
placed before ‘King G-elo the powers of the more convenient denary 
system ; he showed how a few steps of a progression by myriads 
enabled him to express the number of grains of sand, not in the 
bay of Syracuse, not on the whole shores of Sicily, but that would 
be contained in a sphere having the moon’s distance for its radius. 
The denary system has gradually gained supremacy in the languages 
