It is impossible to give any adequate conception of the scientific importance of this incomparable invention.

The modern physicist and astronomer will most cordially agree with Briggs, the Professor of Mathematics in Gresham College, in his exclamation: "I never saw a book that pleased me better, and that made I me more wonder!" Not without reason did the immortal Kepler regard Napier "to be the greatest man of his age, in the department to which he had applied his abilities." Napier died in 1617.
It is no exaggeration to say that this invention, by shortening the labors, doubled the life of the astronomer.
But here I must check myself.

I must remember that my present purpose is not to give the history of mathematics, but to consider what science has done for the advancement of human civilization.

And now, at once, recurs the question, How is it that the Church produced no geometer in her autocratic reign of twelve hundred years?
With respect to pure mathematics this remark may be made: Its cultivation does not demand appliances that are beyond the reach of most individuals.

Astronomy must have its observatory, chemistry its laboratory; but mathematics asks only personal disposition and a few books.