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“Writing about the middle of the eighteenth century, David
Hume proclaimed John Napier of Merchiston as the ‘person to whom the title of
a great man is more justly due than to any other whom his country ever
produced’.”[1] When Hume awarded the
first place among his countrymen to Napier, it was doubtless from an
enlightened conviction that his work had been of great service to humanity.
John Napier has gone down in history as the Scottish
mathematician who invented logarithms (1614) and ‘Napier’s bones’, an early
mechanical calculating device for multiplication and division. There is a lot,
however, about the works and life of John Napier that has been obscured by the
passage of time, and when it is revealed it will shed light on the intriguing
personality of the man who passed among his contemporaries as a trafficker with
Satan.
A Man Ahead Of His Time
Even today a certain mystery surrounds the figure of the Laird
of Merchiston. Appearing at the time he did, and in an environment totally in
contrast with his special pursuits, he strikes us as being out of time and
place in this darkly religious era. He had only one fellow-countryman as a
predecessor in the study of physical science. In the thirteenth century,
Michael Scott had also devoted himself to that study. He had gained a
continental reputation as wide as Napier’s, and an equally evil name among his
contemporaries of being in league with the infernal powers. But between those
two, Scott and Napier, there was no other Scotsman whose interest lay
especially in the domain of science, and the explanation is simple. In
Scotland, as in other countries, the universities were the exclusive centres
of intellectual activity and these were under the sole dominion of the Church,
which naturally banned all investigations which might imperil its own teaching.
Thus, by his isolation Napier is wrapped in a certain mystery and this mystery
is enhanced by the fact that we know so little about him, and what we do know
seems at times inconsistent with the main preoccupations of his life.
Family History
A closer look at his ancestry and family elucidates an aspect
of Napier’s personality that is not widely known. His ancestors seem to have
had the general characteristics of their age and class, and what is interesting
is that Napier, the philosopher, had evidently his fair share of these. The
history of the family, which begins with Alexander Napier, a burgess of
Edinburgh in the first half of the fifteenth century, reveals that they were a
strenuous race, well able to advance their interests and hold their own in an
age when force made light of law. Most of them played a more or less important
part in the public affairs of the country. The second Napier was a Comptroller
of the King’s Household and the third sat in Parliament. Several Napiers
received the honour of knighthood and with their honours they also gained land.
On the death of his father, John inherited, among others, the Castle of
Merchiston, which was considered a valuable estate for the time. This castle
with which the Napiers are associated was probably built at some period during
the fifteenth century and, although it underwent much alteration in succeeding
times, it must have been an imposing structure from the first. In Napier’s own
time, Graigmillar Castle and Merchiston Castle were the two strongest places in
the neighbourhood of Edinburgh.
Sir Archibald Napier, the father of John, fully maintained his
ancestors reputation for energy and sagacity. In his day, he also held an
important public office: he was a Justice-Depute under the Earl of Argyll and
for more than thirty years he was Master of the Mint. It should be stressed
that Sir Archibald identified himself with Protestantism from the first, but
apparently his zeal was not such as to satisfy either religious party in the
country. However, his Protestant religious inclination was to have a decisive
impact on the career of his son. Sir Archibald was twice married: he had three
children by his first wife, Janet Bothwell, of which the eldest was John and
ten by his second wife.
The ‘marvelous Merchiston’ - A passionate Protestant
The ‘marvelous Merchiston’ (as he was known to the populace of
his day) was born at Merchiston Castle in 1550. The period of his birth and
boyhood was momentous for the national history and it determined to a large
extent the peculiar character of Napier’s fundamental conceptions of human life
and destiny.
When John Napier was born the struggle between Roman Catholism
and Protestantism, which was to cleave Scotland in two, had already began.
During the first ten years of his life the conflict between the two religions
was virtually settled. Between the years 1560 and 1570 the country was emerged
in civil war, one party being for the old religion and an alliance with France
and the other for Protestantism and alliance with England. The civil strife
ended with the victory of the Protestant Party, and in 1560 a Convention of the
Estates set up Protestantism as the national religion. The origin of Napier’s
abiding horror of the Church of Rome can be traced to his youth and the
prejudices against Catholism which he formed at that time. Eventually, it came
to be his burning conviction that the salvation of mankind was bound up with
the overthrow of Papacy.
Education
No record has been preserved of his early days, although we
know that he mainly spent them at Merchiston Castle. It is not even certain
where he received his early education. The High School of Edinburgh had existed
from 1519 and the sons of barons usually attended it, but from a letter of his
uncle, the Bishop of Orkney, to his father we are led to infer that John may
have been educated at home. In 1563, the year of his mother’s death, John was
sent to the University of St Andrews, the mother university of Scotland. He was
only thirteen, but this was the usual age for young boys to enter universities.
Of the three colleges that composed St Andrews, St Salvador’s was chosen for
him – probably because its Head was the most distinguished teacher of his time
in Scotland. He was Dr. John Rutherford, who was a remarkable person for many
reasons – one of them being that he combined the study of philosophy with a
taste for humane letters. Napier partly owes Rutherford his interest in
theology and philosophy as well as the direct and simple Latin style in which
he afterwards came to write.
It is uncertain how long Napier remained at St Andrews, but as
he left the university without taking a degree, his stay there was probably
short. There is some indication that after he left St Andrews he attended
Cambridge University for a few years and then studied for some time abroad,
possibly in Paris, thus following a common custom of the time for the sons of
Scottish nobles and gentlemen. Wherever he spent them, of these years we have
no records and he is next mentioned in 1571, when he was settled in Scotland.
He took up residence not in Merchiston Castle, but at Gartness, in the parish
of Drymen in Stirlingshire, and he resided here until the death of his father
in 1608. In 1572, he married Elisabeth Stirling of Keir, whose estate adjoined
that of the Napiers in Menteith.
A Man Of Counsel And Action
Napier took no part in the wild conflict which ripped the
country apart during the ‘Douglas Wars’ (1570-72) between the supporters of
Mary on one hand and the supporters of her son on the other, which finally
decided that Protestantism was to prevail with the capture of the Castle of
Edinburgh by the King’s party. Nevertheless, it would be wrong to assume that
he was an absent-minded dreamer, indifferent to his own and public affairs.
From what we know of him, he appears to have been a man of counsel and even of
action. In affairs of business, he was the adviser of his own family and men in
divers walks of life revered his opinion. There are references in contemporary
records which prove that in many respects he was a child of his age and well
able to hold his own in the most adverse situations. Some of these references
cast a curious light on character of the man who is generally known to the
world as the inventor of logarithms and a revealer of the mysteries of the
Apocalypse.
Political And Religious Beliefs
We have seen how passionately Napier upheld the beliefs of the
Protestant party in both politics and religion. This is obvious from his
actions in the following event: When the Protestants became aware of the Papist
conspiracy with the Spanish in 1593 to sent an army in Scotland with the
ultimate objective the conquest of Britain, they besieged the King with demands
for immediate and effective dealing with the enemies of Church and State. On
three different occasions, Napier accompanied deputations sent by the Assembly
to lay its protest before the King. Moreover, he took a bolder step on his own
initiative – a step which proved not only the strength of his convictions, but
his courage in maintaining them. In the same year, he wrote a book entitled,
A Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation of St. John, which was
essentially a condemnation of the Church of Rome as wicked and of the Pope
himself as the Antichrist based on his interpretation of the Apocalypse. In
addition, he sent a letter to the King, advising him in strong words to purge
his house of “Papists and Atheists and
Newtrals.”[2] Napier, it is clear, was a
man of his time, with no hesitations regarding the absolute truth of his own
convictions.
Superstitious stories
Another interesting aspect of Napier’s life remains to be told,
and this suggests curious reflections regarding the character of the man. As
previously mentioned, he was reputed to be a dealer in the black arts among the
people of his time, and many tales were told of his superhuman powers. He
allegedly had a jet-black cock as a familiar, which had the uncanny gift of
revealing to him the most secret thoughts of his domestics. Another story,
which shows the popular belief in the power of his enchantments, concerns the
impoundment of pigeons. The pigeons of a neighbouring laird provoked him by
eating his corn; he protested and threatened to impound them. His protests
were, however, ignored and he was taunted to do so if he could. The next
morning the fields were covered with pigeons apparently under enchantment –
their impounding by the magician’s servants immediately following.
Mathematical Genius
As already stated, John Napier acquired international fame for
his contribution to mathematics, primarily by the invention of logarithms in
1614 and to a lesser extent by the development of Napier’s
bones or rods and a mnemonic for formulas used in solving spherical
triangles. Napier also found exponential expressions for trigonometric
functions and was the first who used and then popularised the decimal point to
separate the whole number part from the fractional part of a number.
English mathematician Henry Briggs went to Edinburgh in 1616
and later to discuss the logarithmic tables with Napier. Together they worked
out improvements, such as the idea of using the base ten. Napier’s discussion
of logarithms appears in Mirifici logarithmorum canonis descriptio /
Description of the Marvellous Canon of Logarithms (1614), the first important
work on mathematics produced in Great Britain. Napier’s hope was that his
logarithms would greatly facilitate the task of astronomers by saving them time
and enabling them to avoid errors in calculations. Two hundred years later,
Laplace verified this hope, stating that logarithms, by reducing significantly
the labours, doubled the astronomer’s life. Other mathematical works by John
Napier include: De arte logistica (1573 but not published until 1839), Mirifici
logarithmorum canonis constructio, published two years after his death and
Rabdologiae (‘numeration by little rods’, 1617). In the latter, he explained
his calculating system constructed of 10 rods on which was engraved the
multiplication table. This simple system made the process of multiplying and
dividing numbers (even very large ones) faster and easier.
Inventions For War And Peace
Mathematics was not the only scientific preoccupation of John
Napier. A document from Napier’s own hand, illustrates the restless ingenuity
of his mind. It is a list of war engines which “by the grace of god and worke
of expert craftsmen” he hoped to produce “for defense of this Island”. These
terrific engines were as follows: a burning mirror which would consume an
enemy’s ship “at whatever appointed distance”; another mirror constructed on a
different principle which would produce like effects; a piece of artillery
which would sweep a whole field clear of the enemy; a chariot which would be
like the moving mouth of a mettle and scatter destruction on all sides; and
finally “devices for sailing under water, with divers other devises and
stratagems for harming the enemyes.” [3]
Napier’s ingenuity was also turned to more peaceful
applications. He made advances in scientific farming, especially by the use of
salt as a fertiliser. In 1597, he patented a hydraulic screw by means of which
water could be removed from flooded coal pits.
Epilogue
Napier died on April 4, 1617 – apparently of gout, with which
he had long been afflicted. The place of his burial is uncertain, but it was
probably in the old church of the parish of St. Cuthbert’s, Edinburgh.
From the aforementioned sketch, it is obvious that the
materials do not exist for a comprehensive picture of Napier’s life.
Nevertheless, it has been said that great men should be regarded on their great
sides, and the great, salient sides of Napier’s character are sufficiently
illustrated in the evidence that we have from his day. His most notable
achievement – his invention of logarithms – has given him a high and permanent
position in the history of European culture, a position which guarantees his
posterity. In Napier we find a breath of humanity, a passionate interest in the
welfare of his fellow-men which would earn our respect regardless of the
special gifts he was endowed with. If we cannot accept now Hume’s praise and
regard Napier as the greatest man whom his country has ever produced, he should
be remembered at least as one of the most distinguished names in Scotland’s
annals.
References
- Hume Brown, P. “John Napier of Merchiston”. In Napier Tercentenary
Memorial Volume. C. G. Knott. Edinburgh: Longmans, Green & Co. 1915.
pp. 33.
- Napier, Mark. Memoirs of John Napier of Merchiston, his lineage,
life, and times, with a history of the invention of logarithms.
Edinburgh: William Blackwood. 1904. pp. 171.
- Napier, Mark. Memoirs of John Napier of Merchiston, his lineage,
life, and times, with a history of the invention of logarithms.
Edinburgh: William Blackwood. 1904. pp. 247.
Bibliography
- Augarten, Stan. Bit by bit: an illustrated history of computers.
London: George Allen & Unwin. 1985
- C. G. Knott. Napier Tercentenary Memorial Volume. Edinburgh:
Longmans, Green & Co. 1915.
- Napier, Mark. Memoirs of John Napier of Merchiston, his lineage,
life, and times, with a history of the invention of logarithms.
Edinburgh: William Blackwood. 1904.
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