Page:Archaeologia Volume 13.djvu/202

 Additional Remarks on the rafters. Evident then is it that the Arabic numerals were known to the hiftorian, though it may be reafonably inferred that he was not aware of their amazing capabilities* Had he had a notion of thefe cxtenfive powers, he could never, as figures, have given a preference to the Greek letters. As changes of millions, ad infi- nitum, can be fo eafily rung, if I may be allowed the expreffion, on thefe ten arithmetical marks, he mufl have feen that they were the moft admirable. Mr. North urges the ignorance of the Arabians againft the no- tion entertained of the characters called after their name having originated with them, and offers as a proof of it the remarkable piece of hiftory cited in the fecond year of the emperor Juflinian, their then wanting cyphers to denote one, two, and three, and eight and a half. If in the year 566 the knowledge of thefe people was really fo limited, it will not follow that the Arabians, even in their own country, had not made the fmall improvement of complet- ing the number of cyphers to ten in the four fubfequent centu- ries. But in the territories which the Saracens conquered their pro- grefs in literature was aftoniftiing, and to them principally were the Europeans indebted for the cultivation of arts and fciences. In pp. 373, 374, of the fame article, Mr. North mentions his having feen in Benet Coll. Library a MS. with Arabic numerals, that contained a table of eclipfes from the year 1330 to 1348, of expreffing them. To this account I ihall again refer, after ex- amining another MS. communicated to me by Mr. Gough, in which there are tables and delineations of eclipfes for fifty-fix years of the fifteenth century in fucceffion. This MS. comprifes a very copious calendar of the twelve months, and feveral of the columns in every month have Arabic numerals only. Eclipfes, folar and lunar, are exhibited from 1406 to 1463, both years
 * and there being prefixed an account of numbers and the manner