( 77 ) 
am acquainted with their ufe, I (hall not 
only fignify diftinclly the greateft imagina- 
ble numbers; but fhall alfo be able by an 
artful pofition and dexterous ufe of them, 
to anfwer the moft difficult queftions in 
which numbers are concerned. The en- 
lightened Greeks and Romans knew nothing 
of thefe ten magical figures : they were, it 
feems, invented by the Arabians. It ap- 
pears to have been an invention infinitely 
ingenious and important, and I now ar- 
dently' .wilh for a philofophical acquaint- 
ance with thefe inftruments." 
The firft fmgularity which you will ob- 
ferve in thefe Arabian figures, is that, when 
any number of them fucceed each other, we 
eftimate them, as we read the Hebrew lan- 
guage, from right to left, thus, 796. The 
firft figure on the right hand \sjix units; the 
fecond, nine tens; the third, feven hundreds. 
If to thefe three figures I add three more, 
thus 428,796, they alfo exprefs, like the 
firft three, units, tens, hundreds ; the 8 is 
eight thoufand units, the 2 is twice ten 
thoufand or twenty thoufand units, and the 
4 is four hundred thoufand units. If to 
thefe I add a feventh figure, it will exprefs 
fo many millions of units, an eighth figure 
fo 
