Page:The Annual Register 1758.djvu/264

 J250 A N N U A L R E

he purfucd them with fuch applica- tion, that in about fix months he was mailer oi' the rule of three with fjradlions.

The reluiftnnce with which he began to learn the po.vers and pro- perties of figures was now at an end ; he knew enough to make him carnellly defirous of knowing more; he was therefore impatieiit to pro- ceed from ihia book to one that was more diiHcult, and having at length found means to procure one that treated of more intricate and complicated calculations, he made himfelf ma(br of that alfo before the end of the year 1739. He had the good fortune foon after to meet with a treatife of geometry, written by Pachek, the fame author whofe arithmetic he had been ftudying; and finding that this fcience was in fome meafure founded on that which he h;;d learnt, he applied to his new book with great alliduity for fome time ; but at length, not being able perfeftly to comprehend the theory as he went on, nor yet to difcover the utility of the prac- tice, he laid it afide, to which he was alfo induced by the neceifity of his immediate attendance to his £eld and his vines.

The fevere winter which happen- ed in the year J 740, obliged him to keep long within his cottage, and having there no employment either for his body or his mind, he had once more recourfe to his book of geometry ; and having at length comprehended fome of the leading principles, he procured a little box ruler and an old pair of compafles, on one point of which he mounted the end of a oiiill cut into a pen. With thete inllrumcnts he employed himfclf inceflanrjy in making various geometrical figures on paper, to illufiratc the theory

GISTER, 1758.

by a folution of the problems. He was thusbufied inhiscot till March, and the joy arifjng from the know- ledge he had acquired was exceed- ed only by his defire of knowing more.

He was now neceffarily recalled to that labour by which alone he could procure himfelf food, and was befides without money to pro- cure fuch books and inftruments as were abf^/Iutely neceffary to purfue his geometrical ftudies. However, with the affiftance of a neighbour- ing artificer he procured thefigures, which he found reprefented by the diagrams in his book, to be made in wood, and with thefe he went to work at every interval of leifure, which now happened only once a week, after divine ferviceon a Sun- day. He was iViU in want of a new book, and having laid by a little fum for that purpofe againfl the time of the fair, where alone he had accefs to a bookfeller's fhop, he made a purchafe of three fmall volumes, from which he acquired a complete knowledge of trigonome- try. After this acquifition he could not retl till he had begun to iludy agronomy ; his next purchafe there- fore was an introdudion to that fcience, which he read with inue- fatigable diligence, and invented innumerable expedients tc fupply the want of proper inftruments, ia which he was not lefs fuccefsful than Robinfon Crufoe, who in an ifland, of which he was the only rational inhabitanr, found means to fupply himfelf not only with the neceffaries but the convenieiicies of life.

During his ftudyof geometry and ailronomy, he hnd frequently met with the word p/.'iU/c/ihy, and this became more and more the obje»fl of his atieniion. He conceived that

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