278 
don, throwing by those he had calculated 
upoti his former scheme, made others in 
the manner suggested by the Baron; and 
having calculated near the first thou- 
sand,* which he calls here precipwos, 
not. from their number, but the difficulty 
and: labour of their calculation, the sum- 
mer following he took a second journey 
to Edinburgh, and communicated them 
to the Baron, who highly approved of 
them, and earnestly pressed him to pro- 
ceed. 
saw an alteration from the first plan in 
the Canon would be very convenient, 
and had formed a different scheme, be- 
fore they knew each other’s sentiments ; 
but when they came afterwards to con- 
verse together, Mr. Briggs gave in to 
that proposed by the Baron, as the more 
commodious, Upon this plan Mr. Briggs’s: 
Arithmetica: Logarithmica was formed 
and published in the year 1624. How- 
ever, Mr. Wingate, in a small tract, 
which he printed two years after, attri- 
butes the invention of this latter kind of 
logarithms solely to him. ‘“ John Neper 
So a Baron Marcheston, in Scot- 
and, hath due right to challenge the 
first invention of the legarithms in gene- 
ral. Then to Master Henry Briggs, Profes- 
sor of Geometry, in the University of Ox- 
ford, is duly attributed the inverition and 
fabric of that kind of logarithm, which 
are far more expedite than those of 
Master Neper’s invention.t” As to the 
fabric, his claim is incontestible; but 
how far the invention was his, may, I 
think, be understood best from his own 
account of that matter, as he thought fit 
to relate it himself. The reason of his call- 
ing Mr. Briggs Professor of Geometry 
at Oxford was this: In the year 1719, 
Sir Henry Savil, Warden of Merton Col- 
lege, having founded both an astronomy 
and geometry lecture in Oxford, gave 
the-former to Dr. Bainbridge, and offer- 
ed the latter to Mr. Briggs, which he ac- 
cepted, and became his first professor in 
that science. _Sir Henry had himseif, for 
some time, discharged that province, and 
read thirteen lectures upon the first eight 
propositions of Euclid’s Elements, which 
were afterwards printed ;{ and then he 
surrendered the chair to Mr. Briggs, 
taking leave of his audience, in his last 
lecture, in these words: Trado lampadem 
successori meo, doctissimo vireo, qui vos ad 
Ee en TP 
. * Pref, ad Chil. prim. Logarith. 
} Pref. to the Construction and Use of the 
Logarithmic Tables. Lond. 1626, 
} Oxonii, 1621. ar 
ts- 
It is plain, therefore, they both- 
Memoirs of Henry Briggs, the Mathematician. [Oct..1,4 
intima Geometrie mysteria perducet.*—. 
Mr. Briggs entered upon this new pro-- 
vince, Jan. 8, that year, which he open= 
ed with an eloquent oration; and the. 
week following began his lectures, with. 
the 9th proposition of Euclid, where Sir _ 
Henry Savil had left off.¢ However, he. 
continued to hold his professorship at 
Gresham College till the 25th of July, _ 
1620, and then resigned it. } 
Upon his going to Oxford, he settled 
himself at Merton College, and soom 
-after was incorporated Master of Arts. 
into that University, where he continued 
till his death. In the year 1622, hé 
published a small tract of the North-west 
Passage to the South Sea, through the 
continent of Virginia, and. by Hudson’s 
Bay, prefixing to it only H. B. the imi- 
tial letters of both his names. The reason 
that led him to this was, probably, that 
he was then a member of the company 
‘trading to Virginia,f the first English co- 
lony in America. - His next performance 
was the great and elaborate work above- 
mentioned, called Arithmetica Logarith- 
mica, containing (as is said in the title). 
30,000 logarithms, frem 1 to. 20,000, 
and from 90,000 to 100,000, with~ the. 
addition of another 1000, from 1,000,000 
to 101,000 at the end, not expressed in. 
the table. The learned Gerard Vossius, 
therefore, has been guilty of a mistake, 
in the account he has given of this book, 
when he savs, Anno 1624, effulsit Hen- 
ricus Briggius, Professor prius Londinen= 
sis ac postea Oxoniensis. Hie cum acces - 
pusset posteriorem logarithmorum formam &@ 
Nepero Scots, inventam, ac sibi ab eo 
commissum, eam cum chiliadibus viginté 
et una logarithmorum, ad numeros t0« 
tidem absolutis, Londini prelo commisit.§ 
In this passage, instead of the word vis 
ginti, should have been written triginta, 
for the book contains in the whole $1,000 
logarithms. To these Mr. Briggs has 
prefixed a large dissertation, of the na- 
ture, construction, and use of Joga- 
rithms, which part of the work, as has 
been said, was devolved upon him bythe 
death of the Baron of Marcheston. In 
this dissertation, he laid down a method 
for supplying the intermediate numbers 
from 20,000 to 90,000, which, as he shows, 
had no remaining difficulty, and required 
only the time and labour of calculation. 
And, in order to encourage some. skilful- 
* Ibid. in fin. Pe LEE §: 
T Hist. et Ant. Ox. 1. i. p. 144, 
t MS. Mr. Peck. 
§ De Natur. Art. p. 173, h.. vey 
. «. ». persons 
f 
