, SIMSON. 
fior, the first professor of mathematics. 
This person, greatly his inferior in mathe- 
maticaf accomplishments, did what he could 
to make his situation uneasy, and even to 
depreciate him in the public opinion ; hut 
it was a vain endeavour, and only served to 
injure himself. At length his physicians 
advised his native air for his recovery, and 
he set out in February, 1761 ; but was so fa- 
tigued by his journey, that upon his arrival 
at Bosworth, he betook himself to his cham- 
ber, and grew continually worse till the 
day of his death, which happened on the 
Ktli of May, in the 51st year of his age. 
SIMSON (Dr. Robert), in biography, 
professor of mathematics in the university 
of Glasgow, was born in the year 1687 of a 
respectable family, which had held a small 
estate in the county of Lanark for some ge- 
nerations. He was, we think, the second 
son of the family. A younger brother was 
professor of medicine in the university of 
St. Andrew’s, and is known by some works 
of reputation, particularly “ A Dissertation 
on the Nervous System,” occasioned by 
the dissection of a brain completely os- 
sified. 
Dr. Simson was educated in the univer- 
sity of Glasgow under the eye of some of his 
relations who were professors. Eager after 
knowledge, he made great progress in all 
his studies ; and as his mind did not, at the 
very first openings of science, strike into 
that path which afterwards so strongly at- 
tracted him, and in which he proceeded so 
far almost without a companion, he ac- 
quired in every walk of science a stock of 
information, which, though it had never 
been much augmented afterwards, would 
have done credit to a professional man in 
any of his studies. He became, at a very 
early period, an adept in the philosophy 
and theolosy of the schools, was able to 
supply the place of a sick relation in the • 
class of oriental languages, was noted for 
historical knowledge, and one of the most 
knowing botanists of his time. As a relief 
to other studies, he turned his attention to 
mathematics. Perspicuity and elegance he 
thought were more attainable, and more 
disceinible in pure geometry, than in any 
other branch of the science. To this there- 
fore he chiefly devoted himself; for the 
same reason he preferred the ancient me- 
thod of studying pure geometry. He con- 
sidered algebraic analysis as little better 
than a kind of mechanical knack, in which 
we proceed without.ideas, and obtain a re- 
sult without meaning, and without being 
conscious of any pi’oeess of reasoning, and 
therefore without any conviction of its 
truth. Such was the ground of the strong 
bias of Dr. Siinson’s mind to the analysis 
of the ancient geometers. It increased as 
he advanced, and his veneration for the an- 
cient geometry was carried to a degree of 
idolatry. His chief labours were exerted in 
efforts to restore the works of the ancient 
geometers. The inventions of fluxions and 
logarithms attracted the notice of Dr. Sim- 
son, but he has contented himself with de- 
monstrating their truth on the genuine prin- 
ciples of ancient geometry. 
About the age of twenty-five. Dr. Simson 
was chosen Regius Professor of Mathematics 
in the university of Glasgow. He went to 
London immediately after his appointment, 
and there formed an acquaintance with the 
most eminent men of that bright era of 
British science. Among these he always 
mentioned Captain Halley (the celebrated 
Dr. Edmund Halley) with particular, re- 
spect ; saying, that he had the most acute 
penetration, and the most just taste in that 
science, of any man he had ever known. 
And, indeed. Dr. Halley has strongly ex- 
emplified both of these in his divination of 
the work of “ Apollonius de Sectione 
Spatii,” and the eighth book of his “ Conics,” 
and in some of the most beautiful theorems 
of Sir Isaac Newton's “ Principia.” Dr. 
Simson alsp admired the wide and masterly 
steps which Newtpn was accustomed to 
take in his investigations, and his manner of 
substituting geometrical figures for the 
quantities which are observed in the pheno- 
mena of nature. It was from Dr. Simson 
that his biographer, to whom we are in- 
debted for this article, learnt, “ That the 
thirty-ninth proposition of the first book 
of the Principia was the most important 
proposition that had ever been exhibited to 
the physico-mathematical philosopher 
and he used always to illustrate to his more 
advanced scholars the superiority of the 
geometrical over the algebraic analysis, by 
comparing the solution given by Newton of 
the inverse problem of centripetal forces, in 
the forty-second proposition of that book, 
with the. one given by John Bernoulli in the 
Mjsmoirs of the Academy of Sciences at 
Paris for 1713. He had heard him say, 
that to his own knowledge Newton fre- 
quently investigated his propositions in the 
symbolical way; and that it was owing 
chiefly to Dr. Halley that they did not 
finally appear in that dress. But if Dr. 
Simson was well informed, we think it a 
