NEPER. 
Tantageoiisly altered to tlie kind which lie 
afterwards computed’ himself, whicli are 
thence called Brigg’s logarithms, and are 
those now in common use. Jlr. Briggs 
also presently wrote to Lord Napier upon 
Ihis proposed change, and made journeys 
to Seollaiid the two following years, to vi- 
sit Napier, and consult him about that al- 
teration, before lie set about making it. 
Briggs, in a letter to Archbishop Usher, 
March Kith, 1615, writes thus : “Napier, 
Lord of Merchiston, hath set my head and 
hands at work with liis new and admirable 
logarithms. I hope to see him this sum- 
mer, if it please God ; for I never saw a 
book which pleased me better, and made 
me more wonder.” Briggs accordingly 
made him the visit, and staid a month with 
him. 
The following passage from the life of 
Lilly the astrologer, contains a curious ac- 
count of the meeting of those two illus- 
trious men. “ I will acquaint you (says 
Lilly) with one memorable story, related 
unto me by John Marr, an excellent ma- 
thematician and geometrician, whom I con- 
ceive you remember. He was servant to 
King James and Charles I. At first when 
the Lord Napier, or Merchiston, made pub- 
lic his logarithms, Mr. Briggs, then reader 
of the astronomy lectures at Gresham Col- 
lege in London, was so surprised with ad- 
miration of them, that he could have no 
quietness in himself until he had seen 
that noble person the Lord Merchiston, 
whose only invention . they were : he ac- 
quaints John IMarr herewith, who went into 
Scotland before Mr. Briggs, purposely to 
be there when these two so learned persons 
should meet. Mr. Briggs appointed a cer- 
tain day when to meet at Edinburgh ; but 
failing thereof, the Lord Napier was doubt- 
ful he would not come. It happened one 
day, as John Marr and the Lord Napier 
were speaking of Mr. Briggs ; ‘ Ah, John, 
(said Merchiston) Mr. Briggs will not now 
come.’ At the very instant one knocks at 
the gate; John Marr hastened down, and 
it jiroved John Briggs, to his great content- 
ment. He brings Mr. Briggs up into my 
Lord’s chamber, where almost one quar- 
ter of an hour was spent each beholding 
the other almost witli admiration before 
one word was spoke. At last Mr. Briggs 
began; ‘ My Lord, I have undertaken this 
long Journey purposely to see your person, 
and to know by what engine of wit or in- 
genuity you came first to think of this most 
excellent help into astronomy, viz. the lo- 
garithms; but, my Lord, being by yon 
found out, I wonder nobody else found it 
out before, when itow known it is so easy.’ 
He was nobly entertained by the Lord Na- 
pier ; and evei-y summer after that, during 
the Lord’s being alive, this venerable man, 
Mr. Briggs, went purposely into Scotland 
to visit him.” 
Napier made also considerable improve- 
ments in spherical trigonometry, &c. parti- 
cularly by his “ Catholic, orUniversal Rule,” 
being a general theorem by which he re- 
solves all the cases of right-angled spherical 
triangles, in a manner very simple and easy 
to be remembered ; namely, by what he 
calls the five circular parts. His construc- 
tion of logarithms too, beside the labour of 
them, manifests the greatest ingenuity. 
Kepler dedicated his “ Ephemerides ” to 
Napier, which were published in the year 
1617; and it appears from many passages 
in his letter, about this time, that he ac- 
counted Napier to be the greatest man of 
his age, in the particular department to 
which he applied his abilities. 
The last literary exertion of this eminent 
person, was the publication of his “ Rabdo- 
logy and Promptuary,” in the year 1617, 
soon after which he died at Merchiston, the 
Sjd of April, in the same year, in the sixty- 
eighth year of his age. The list of his works 
is as follows : 
1. A Plain Discovery of the Revelation 
of St. John ; 1593. 
‘J. Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio; 
1614. 
3. IMirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Con- 
structio ; et eorum ad Naturales ipsorum 
nunieros habitndines ; una cum appendice, 
de alia eaque prsestantiore Lo;mrithraorum 
specioe, condenda. Quibus accessere jiro- 
positiones ad triangula sphserica faciliore 
calculo resolvcnda. Una cum Annotationi- 
bus aliquot doctissimi D. Henrici Briggii in 
eas, et meinoratam appendicem. Publish- 
ed by the Author’s son, in 1619. 
4. Rabdologia, seu Numerationis per 
Virgulas, libri duo ; 1617. ■ This contains 
the description and use of the bones or 
rods; with several other short and inge- 
nious modes of calculation. 
5. His Letter to Anthony Bacon, (the 
original of which is in the Archbishop’s Li- 
brary at Lambeth), intitled Secret Inven- 
tions, profitable and necessary in these days 
for the defence of this island, and with- 
standing strangers, enemies to God’s truth 
and religion ; dated June 2, 1596. 
Neper’s rods, or bones, an instrument in- 
