20 
nations. But this is conjeCtural :. all that 
he could have written on the fubject of 
numbers is loft, and time hath only re- 
sar his multiplication- table, which we 
ftill ufe. 
g. In whatever manner the arithmetie 
we now ufe, which originated in India, 
became known to the Arabians, it is to 
this la& people that we immediately owe 
that art ; and it was not till the year 960 
or 970, that it was tranfmitted to the 
weftern Chriftians by the famous Gerbert, 
whofe merit and wifdom afterwards ele- 
vated him to the Papal chair, under the, 
name of Silvelter II.* 
x0. The form of our prefent arithme- 
tical charatters hath undergone fome 
change. The figures ufed by Alfephadi 
and Bostius+ were almoft all different from 
ours. Thofe of Sacro Bofcot and Ro- 
ger Bacon§’ in the 13th century had a 
great refemblance to thofe ufed at the 
pref-nt day, the form of "which they have 
gradually affumed. 
* Gerbert was the fon of indigent parents 
tn Auvergne, and was educated ina monafe 
gery. Scarcely had he acquired the firft prin- 
«iples of the fciences, when he left a country 
then immerfed in ignorance, and travelled into 
Spain, where he remained fevers years. He 
amage {uch progrefs in the mathematics, that 
itis faid, he foon excelled his inftru€tors. On 
his return into France, 
ces, which he had learned from the Arabians, 
particularly arithmetic. Gerbert, having 
become Pope, died in the year 1003. 
+ Anicius-Manlius-Severinus-Boetius, de- 
fcended from an illuftrious Roman family, was 
Confulinthe year 487, minifter of Theodoric 
king of the Goths, and one of the mot fkil- 
ful mathematicians of his time. He was im- 
prifoned on mere fufpicion, and during his 
confinement compofed his excellent book 
*< On the Confolation of Philofophy.”? After 
fuffering different kinds of punifhment, he 
was beheaded at Pavia, in Odtober 524 or 
Bes. 
J Johannes de Sacro Bofco was born in 
Great Britain, and ftudied at Oxford, and in 
Paris, where he acquired great reputation for 
his mathematical talents. 
treatife, in technical verfes, on the Arabian 
arithmetic, and. died at Paris, in the year 
EGU: . 
’ § Roger Bacon, an Englith Cordelier, was 
bork in 1214, in the county of Somerfet. 
He made fuch a progrefs in Attronomy, Che- 
miftr ry, and the Mathematics, tat his cotem- 
poraries furnamed him, the Ani rable Do&tor. 
He a€tually made burning Mirrors, and pro- 
pofed ideas which paved the way for the dif- 
covery of fpedtacles, teiefcopes, and micro- 
copes. “Some writers look upon him as the 
inventor of gunpowder, Rog ser Bacon died 
at Oxford, in 1294. 
4 Sketch of the Hiftory of Pure Mathematics, 
he taught the fcien- - 
He compofed a. 
(Feb. 1, 
ra. The Arabians enriched arithmetic 
with fome ufeful rules, fuch as thofe of 
falfe polition, fingle and double, of which 
they were undoubtedly the authors. 
12. Decimals, which were introduced 
by Regiomontanus* into mathematical cal- 
culations, fimplified the management of 
fractions, and compleated our fyftem of 
numeration. And the difcovery of the 
logarithms carried arithmetic perhaps. to 
the utmoft perfetion of which it is we 
ble. T his happy idea of Napier}, which 
chaneee 
ote Hi the. Tranflator.—It appears that 
ees Bacon was not only well verfed in pure 
mathematics ; but knew how to apply them 
to perfpeCtive, catoptrics, dioptrics, geogra- 
phy, and aftronomy, and’ we may add chrono- 
logy ; for he was fenfible of the error in the 
calendar, knew the caufe, and pointed out 
the remedy. Though his chemical difcove- 
ries fall not within our province, we cannot 
omit, that he certainly invented gunpowder 5 ~ 
but dreading its deftruGtive effets (though it 
has been fince found to be lefs fatal to human 
life, than. the ancient modes of war) he con- 
cealed his difcovery, by tranfpofing the letters 
of his recipe for making it, a copy of which 
Doétor Henry has given us in his Hiftory of 
"Great Britain. For a fuller account of the 
difcoveries of that extraordinary friar, fee 
Molyneux’s Dioptrics, 2d. ed. p. 256.— 
Mufschenbrock’s Elementa Phyfice, p. 424, 
and L’efprit des ‘Four NOU y Parisy Fuin 1739. 
* Regiomontanus, whofe real name was 
John Muller, was born at Koningfberg, in 
1436. He'rendered great fervices to the ma- 
thematics, and particularly to aftronomy. He 
died at forty years of age, having been poi- 
i as was faid, by his enemies. 
+ John Napier, baron of Merchifton, in 
Scotland, lived inthe beginning of the feven- 
teenth century. 
Note by the Tranflator.—The ingenious 
author might have faid with more propriety, 
that Napier died, than that he lived, in the 
beginning of the 17th century. He was - 
born in 1550, difcovered the logarithms about 
1594, publifhed his Canon Mirificus, at Edin- 
burgh, in 1614, and died inr617. ** Napier 
of Merchifton,” fays Hume, *<the famous 
inventor of the logarithms, is the perfon to 
whom the title of a great man is more juftly 
due, than to any other whom his country ever 
produced,”  Hiftory of England, Vol. vii. 
Po 35, edd, 177 Se His family was ancieift 
and honourable ; ¢¢ but,” fays his noble bio- 
srapher, on his anceftors he refleéted more 
honour than he received, and his name will 
probably be famous, ee the lineage of 
Plantagenet will be remembcred only by ge- 
nealogifts, and when pofterity will know no 
more of his, than we now know of the fa- 
milies of Plato, Ariftotle, Archimedes, or 
Euclid.” See Napier’s life by Lord Buchan, 
the {cientific part by Dr. Minto, p. 11. The 
' gee) tes . Dotto: 
