Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

I never heard any more of it, and cannot persuade myself that he had had better success than the whole body of Chronologers. There could be little doubt of this paragraph having come immediately from my friend, as the time agreed exactly; and as about the same time another appeared of a flint in his (but nameless) possession, which exhibited a wonderful representation of a volcano, &c. upon it. This was no more than a beautiful flint stained with a deeper red than common; but which had no more reference to a volcano than to the man in the moon. I have one or two somewhat like this, but not so strongly coloured. He had besides a beautiful echinite adhering to a flint, with one spine fallen off and fastened to the flint; also one of the short antique swords, broken in two, and an intermediate part wanting.

"At another time I mentioned to him that there were ten or eleven years difference not accounted for between the reigns of the Kings of Judah and Israel. He instantly replied, 'Oh! those are the years, to be sure, that I want to make my system complete! How he could be perfectly ignorant of two such well-known facts in chronology, is utterly inconceivable, at least unaccountable by me.

"He possessed also a curious book on Chinese Gardening, which, being vastly romantic, and quite different in the engraving from any thing done in Europe, he concluded must be a Chinese production.

"He was a friend of Dr. Stukeley, from whom he received as a present Bertram's Richard of Cirencester,' with the map, as he had noted in the blank page. This copy I bought, after his death, at Deck's, the bookseller of Bury.

"He had also several medals, which had been found at different times at Icklingham; these were consumed when his house was burnt which he had built, and had to re-build again.

"In the latter part of his life, he had a cabinet of

medals by the decease of a brother, or some near relation. When he showed me these, he kept lifting up his hands, and crying out that, as he had no reason to believe that his brother knew any thing of these matters, he was astonished to think how he could have collected so many fine things; that they must be of great rarity, for that he could find few or none of them in books; and truly no wonder, for they were the most grossly false and spurious that could possibly be. Of medals he knew little, as may be inferred from this specimen of his abilities; and in his favourite study of Chronology, he could never make himself intelligible to, or convince a single person. What Mr. Burton meant by the Julian period being that alone which equates time, is not easily understood; for, if the years of the vulgar æra run parallel with it, must they not be both of the same length; and, if so, does not one equate time the same as the other? This is certainly not the case with the vulgar æra and the Mohammedan Hegyra; the difference between which is continually increasing."

The Editor of these volumes is in possession of a MS. "Common-place Book, collected by George Burton, of Elden, in 1744-5; consisting of Extracts from various Authors." It contains nothing interesting in it, but the particulars of a tithe cause at Lakenheath.

In the first sale of "the Curious and Valuable Library of Craven Ord, Esq." dispersed by public auction in 1829, were the following MSS. in the handwriting of Mr. Burton, viz. :

"Registrum Monasterii St. Edmundi, anno 1980; a transcript from the Album Registrum, folio." Sold for £.3. 6s. to Thorpe the bookseller, and now in the extensive collection of MSS. belonging to Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bart. F.S.A.

"Album Registrum, sive Chartularium Sancti Salvatoris in Buria, transcribed by G. Burton," 4to. Sold for £.11 to Thorpe, the bookseller; now penes Sir Thomas Phillipps.

"Consuetudinarium Sancti Edmundi, ex codice pergamensi

1

penes Comitem de Cornwallis; compilatum a monacho Buriensi circiter A. D. 1234, transcriptum et collatum per me Georgium Burton, A.D. 1762," folio. Sold for £.12 to John Gage, Esq. Director S. A.

"Registrum Curteys, olim pertinens Abbatiæ Sci Edmundi, by G. Burton, Rector of Elvedon, folio." Sold for £.7 to Cochran the bookseller; now penes Sir T. Phillipps.

History of the Hundred of Elvedon*, Suffolk, by G. Burton, Rector of Elvedon. The original MS. with numerous papers and letters inserted, folio." Sold for .21. 10s. to Cochran; now penes Sir Thomas Phillipps.

MR. JOHN MOLE.

"A Shepheard's boy, no better doe him call." SPENSER.

Mr. John Mole, deservedly eminent for his skill and knowledge in the science of Algebra, was descended from poor yet respectable parents, and was born at Old Newton, near Stowmarket, in the county of Suffolk, on the 10th of March 1743, O. S. His father was bailiff to John Meadows, Gent. of that parish; and, having a numerous family of children, was unable to give them the benefit of a school education. Fortunately, however, the mother, whose maiden name was Sarah Martin, had it in her power to remedy, in some measure, this disadvantage. During her intervals of leisure, she taught them their letters, as well as to read a few easy lessons; and thus unconsciously laid the foundation of her son's future celebrity. At thirteen years of age, young Mole was placed with Mr. John Cooper, a farmer in his native village, where he remained two years. He then resided with Mr. Thomas Riches of the same place; and from thence removed to Mr. William Harpur's, of Donham-bridge farm, in the vicinity of Ipswich. Here it was that Mole,

There is no such hundred in the county. The parish of Elvedon is in the Hundred of Lackford.

who had now attained his twenty-seventh year, first evinced a predilection for his favourite pursuit. One of those accidents occurred, which, as Dr. Johnson observes in his Life of Cowley, produce that particular designation of mind and propensity for some certain science, commonly called genius, and which Mole, in after life, was very fond of relating. Having been sent with a waggon to the shop of a neighbouring carpenter for a load of timber to repair his master's premises, one of the workmen asked him, if he could tell him how many cubical quarters of inches could be cut out of a solid foot of timber; when Mole replied, that he could inform him how many cubical quarters of inches could be cut out of ten thousand solid feet. The carpenter betted him a trifling wager that he could not; but Mole soon satisfied him of his mistake, and won the wager. Some other questions were then started; one of which was, how many farthings there were in a million of moidores of the value of twenty-seven shillings each. These Mole as readily answered; and, in lieu of the wager he had won, asked the carpenter to teach him the method of multiplication. The carpenter asked him, if he was acquainted with that of addition, which Mole told him he was not; he then showed him how to multiply a small number by twelve, making two lines of the product, and the manner of adding them up. Our young arithmetician had previously made himself acquainted with numeration by setting down figures with chalk, and then asking some one of his fellowservants to read and decypher them to him. Having quickly nastered the rules of multiplication, and made a rapid progress in solving such questions as it would reach, he resolved to follow the bent of his inclination, and accordingly applied himself with diligence to figures. He soon acquired, by his own exertions, a thorough knowledge of the rule of three; and his residence being situated within a short dis

tance from Ipswich, he applied to Mr. Carter*, who at that time kept a school there, to teach him, during the summer evenings, vulgar and decimal fractions as well as the extraction of the square and cube roots. In the science of Algebra, however, he was not indebted to the instruction of others; but acquired his intimate knowledge of that difficult branch of arithmetic solely from himself.

He now relinquished his occupation as a farmer's servant, and applied himself most diligently to his studies; and, in 1773, at the suggestion of some friends who had kindly interested themselves in his behalf, commenced the superintendence of a school at Nacton. In 1788 he published in octavo his "Elements of Algebra; to which is prefixed a choice Collection of Arithmetical Questions, with their Solutions; including some new improvements worthy the attention of Mathematicians. London;" a work, which, as an introduction to that science, possesses considerable merit. It gives the notation and common rules with great ease and perspicuity, diffusely explains the several methods of solving affected equations; and comprises, in one view, all that is necessary to be known for solving infinite terms for quadratic, cubic, and biquadratic equations, where such solution is possible. The common rules, likewise, are given with the utmost perspicuity; and the principles on which they are founded clearly demonstrated. Both the Monthly and Critical Reviews of that period expatiate largely on the merits of this treatise; and speak of it in terms of the highest commendation. After the publication of this work, Mr. Mole was sent for by several schools in Ipswich to teach them Algebra; and, what is somewhat remarkable, he instructed in that branch of science, as well as in the solution of astronomical problems, the then master and ushers of the very

*The author of an excellent English Grammar for the use of schools.

« ПредишнаНапред »