apparently new inventions have been only the forgotten discoveries of a preceding age revived, and also that there were some things known in former times which modern ingenuity has not yet recovered from oblivion. Such machines as those which Napier professes to have constructed are exactly of the description least likely, for very obvious reasons, to occur to a modern speculator.

In that curious record, Birrell's Diary, which was published in Edinburgh many years ago, we find, under date of the 23d October 1598, the following notice: Ane proclamation of the Laird of Merkistoun, that he tuik upon hand to make the land mair profitable nor it wes before, be the sawing of salt upon it.' There can be little doubt, we think, that this was another scheme of the inventor of the logarithms; although the patent for the new mode of manuring appears to have been taken out in in the name of his eldest son, Archibald, who had been infeft in the fee of the barony by his father about a year before. The patent, or gift of office, as it is called, was granted upon condition that the patentee should publish an account of his method in print, which he did accordingly shortly afterwards, under the title of The new order of gooding and manuring all sorts of field land with common salt. This tract is now probably lost; but the facts that have been mentioned

are interesting as establishing Napier's claim to an agricultural improvement which has been revived in our own day, and considered of great value. The profits of the invention were probably given up to his son, who was at this time a young man of only twenty-five years of age, from the same disinterested feeling which had led his father previously to enfeoff him in his estate. Devoted to his books, Napier appears to have been very indifferent about money; and one of his contemporaries even goes so far as to assert that he dissipated his fortune by his experiments. Of this, however, there is no evidence; and the truth, in all likelihood, is merely that he bestowed but little attention upon his pecuniary concerns, occupied as his whole mind was about other matters. But if he suggested this method of manuring with salt, he must be allowed to have directed his speculations occasionally to the improvement of the arts of common life, as well as to that of the abstract sciences.

Napier was twice married, and had twelve children, of whom Archibald, the eldest, mentioned above, was raised to the peerage by the title of Lord Napier in 1627. A small volume of Memoirs of this person, written by himself, was published in 1793. The second part of Napier's explanation of his Logarithms was published by his third son,

Robert, from his father's papers, in 1619. There are said to be still in the possession of the family some productions of their distinguished ancestor on scientific subjects which have not been printed, especially a treatise, in English, on Arithmetic and Algebra, and another on Algebra in Latin.

The life which we have thus sketched may be considered as affording us an eminent example of the manner in which the many advantages enjoyed by the wealthy may be turned to account in the pursuit of learning and philosophy. A good education, access to all the best means of improvement, uninterrupted leisure, comparative freedom from the ordinary anxieties of life, the means of engaging in inquiries and experiments the expense of which cannot be afforded by the generality of students,-the possession of all these things, to the mind that knows how to profit by them, is indeed invaluable. We have seen what they produced in Napier's case. In dedicating his time and his fortune to pursuits so much nobler than those that have usually occupied persons

of his station, this illustrious individual had his ample reward. We can scarcely doubt that he led a happier life in his studious retirement, in the midst of his books and his experiments, than if he had given himself either to the ordinary pleasures of the world or to the hazards and vexations of political ambition. The more useful and more honourable path he certainly chose. By his great and fortunate discovery he made the science of all succeeding times his debtor, and constituted himself the benefactor of every generation of posterity. And then for fame, which our very nature has made dear to us, that, too, this philosopher found in his closet of meditation. Even in his own day his renown was spread abroad over Europe, and he was greeted with the publicly expressed admiration of some of the most distinguished of his contemporaries; and the time that has since elapsed has only served to throw an increasing light around his name, which is now sure to retain its distinction so long as the sciences which he loved shall continue to be cultivated among men.

Ir would be easy to add to that of Napier a long list of other names of men of wealth and rank who in like manner have devoted themselves to science or literature, in preference to all other pursuits. But we can afford to mention only a very few. One name which Napier's naturally suggests to us is that of his contemporary and countryman, WILLIAM DRUMMOND of Hawthornden, one of the most elegant poetical writers of the early part of the seventeenth century. Drummond and Napier were neighbours, but probably no record has been preserved of any intercourse between the mathematician and the poet. As the former, however, was resorted to every year by his scientific English friend Mr. Briggs, so the latter also had his visitor from the south who came to pay his respects to him, from dmiration of his kindred genius. the year 1616, the famous Jonson walked all the way

from London to Hawthornden, to see his brother poet, and remained for some time as his guest. Of this visit a curious account is preserved, written by Drummond himself, which has been often printed. Drummond, who was distinguished for his learning as well as his poetry, died in 1649, in his sixty-fourth year, having lived through a very agitated period without mixing in its political convul sions, satisfied with philosophy and the Muses. Another contemporary of Napier, whose labours and speculations were more similar to his own, was the celebrated Danish astronomer TYCHO BRAHE. Brahe's family was both wealthy and noble; but when by his contributions he first manifested his attachment to the science in which he afterwards acquired so much reputation, being then only a boy at school, his friends did everything they could to check an inclination which they deemed quite unsuited to his

tinction who came to see him was our James I., then King of Scotland, who passed a week with him in the year 1590; but if the story that is told be true, this visit was anything rather than a fortunate incident for Brahe. Some years afterwards, it is said, his protector Frederick II. being dead, he was visited one day by the young King Christian IV., accompanied by his chief minister, Walckendorf; and it so happened that this latter personage, who was very sensitive and choleric, was barked at as he approached the house by two dogs belonging to the astronomer, at which he chose to be so much offended that he went up to the animals and beat them severely. The dogs had been presented to Brahe by the Scottish monarch; and, irritated at seeing them ill-treated, he interfered to prevent the enraged senator from continuing his chastisement. This gave rise to some high words between the two, and the result was a quarrel, which Walckendorf, at least, never forgot. From that day Brahe's ruin was resolved upon by his powerful enemy. A commission was soon after appointed to report upon the public utility of his establishment; and upon this compliant body declaring that they saw nothing in his splendid observatory but a source of useless expense to the State, a decree was passed recalling all the grants he had received from

the former king, and dispossessing him of his island. On this Brahe determined to bid adieu for ever to his ungrateful country; and, taking with him all his instruments, he retired to Germany. About two years afterwards, however, he was invited to take up his residence at Prague by the Emperor Rodolph II.; and by this prince, who was warmly attached to science, he was provided with a second asylum, almost as splendid as that which he had enjoyed in his native country. But he lived only a very short time after this, having died in 1601, in the fifty-fifth year of his age. Tycho Brahe, as most of our readers are probably aware, was the inventor or reviver of a peculiar scheme of the universe, according to which the earth is conceived to be immoveable in the centre of the system, the sun to revolve round it, and the other planets round the sun.

It is unnecessary to say that this hypothesis has been long exploded. Indeed, even at the time when it was proposed by its author, it was, although supported by him with much ingenuity, a most unphilosophical retrogression from the true system previously established by Copernicus. But although Brahe, it thus appears, has no very high claims upon our admiration as a theorist, he undoubtedly did much in another way to promote the improvement of astronomy. His extraordinary devotion to