on a Barn in Kent, &c.

But in the preface there is an hiftorical paragraph which I will quote, as it may be a means of tracing the ufe of thefe figures be- fore he publimed what he ftyles the Ground of Arts. " If (he writes) any man object that other books have been written of Arithmetick already fo fufficient that I needed not now to put pen to the book, except I will condemn other men's writings : to them I anfwer, that as I condemn no man's diligence, fo I know that no one man can fatisfie every man : and therefore, like as many doe efteeme greatly other bookes, fo I doubt not but fomc will like this my booke above any other En glim Arithmetick hitherto written ; and namely, fuch as mall lack inftructors, for whofe fake I have fo plainly fet forth the examples, as no booke that I have fcen hath done hitherto, which thing mall be great eafe to the rude readers." The laft article of inquiry, therefore, mall be after thofe writings or books (it is not clear from the paflage cited whether they were in manufcript or print) to which Record alludes. And I think it is not a flrained inference from this treatife of a great arithmetician, that in his days the Arabian numerals could not have been in very common ufe, when the mailer found it requifite to explain to his fcholar in fuch an heterogeneous method the force, value, and utility, of thefe now vulgar figures. Mortifying is it as well as aftoniming to obferve the flow pro- grefs formerly made in acquiring a fcience, a proficiency in which is now fo eafily obtained ; for a ftripling at a fchool in a country village can now by the help of thefe figures in a few minutes work a fum, tiiat the eminent Roger Bacon could not have reckoned per- haps in a whole day with Roman capitals. Arid fuch being the benefit that has accrued to people of every degree and ftation in fociety by this admirable difcovery, much is it to be regretted that neither the fagacious inventors, or Indians or Arabians, nor the introducers of it into England or Europe, mould be known, T 2, notwithffomding