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 died on the 3rd of April, 1617. He was twice married, and had twelve children, of whom Archibald, the eldest, mentioned above, was raised to

See Records of Privy Council for 22nd June, 1598, quoted in Douglas's Peerage, by Wood, ii. 292.

+ See Parkes on "The advantages of using Salt."

Thomas Dempster, a man of unquestionable learning and genius, but by no means to be always depended upon in what he states upon his own authority.

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*.

We

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. 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 benefac* Douglas's Peerage, by Wood, ii. 290.

was

tor 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 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.

CHAPTER IV.

Drummond, of Hawthornden-Tycho Brahe-Tschirnhausen- Boyle-The

Air-Pump-Cavendish.

It 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 admiration of his kindred genius. In the year 1616, the famous Ben 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 convulsions, 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 every thing they could to check an inclination which they deemed quite unsuited to his birth and prospects; and the young astronomer was obliged to conceal from his tutor the mathematical books which he purchased with his pocket-money, and to read them, as well as to make his observations on the stars, in hours stolen from the time allowed him for sleep. For, even before he was sixteen, he had begun to measure the distances of the heavenly bodies from one another, although he had no better instrument than a common pair of compasses, the hinge of which he used to put to his eye, while he opened the legs until they pointed to the two stars whose relative position he wished to ascertain. A collection of celestial observations, made by him at this early period, is still preserved at Copenhagen. When he became of age, however, and was his own master, his fortune enabled him to choose his own pursuits; and, having first spent some years in travelling through Germany and Switzerland, and visiting the different observatories in these countries, he then returned home, took up his residence on his estate, and dedicated himself almost entirely to his favourite science. Some of the results of his studies, which he published, soon drew to him the attention of the learned among his countrymen ; and, at the desire of the king, he at last left his retreat to teach astronomy in the capital. But the constant interruptions to which he was here exposed disgusted him with a town life; and he sighed to get once more back to his country retirement. All his wishes in this respect were at length gratified, by an act of extraordinary munificence on the part of his royal master, who bestowed on him the island of