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The first edition was Edinburgh, 1593, 4to. Napier always believed that his great mission was to upset the Pope, and that logarithms, and such things, were merely episodes and relaxations. It is a pity that so many books have been written about this matter, while Napier, as good as any, is forgotten and unread. He is one of the first who gave us the six thousand years. 'There is a sentence of the house of Elias reserved in all ages, bearing these words: The world shall stand six thousand years, and then it shall be consumed by fire: two thousand yeares voide or without lawe, two thousand yeares under the law, and two thousand yeares shall be the daies of the Messias….'

I give Napier's parting salute: it is a killing dilemma:—

—Strange that Napier should not have seen that this appeal could not succeed, unless the prophecies of the Apocalypse were no true prophecies at all.

Of the great work on the magnet there is no need to speak, though it was a paradox in its day. The posthumous work of Gilbert, 'De Mundo nostro sublunari philosophia nova' (Amsterdam, 1651, 4to) is, as the title indicates, confined to the physics of the globe and its atmosphere. It has never excited attention: I should hope it would be examined with our present lights.

This is a ridiculous attempt, which defies description, except that it is all about lunules. Porta was a voluminous writer.