The duke then entered into conversation with the young mathematician, asked him several questions, and was astonished at the force and accuracy of his answers. The duke's curiosity being redoubled, he sat down on a bank, and requested to know by what means he acquired such knowledge. 'I first learnt to read,' said Stone: 'the masons were then at work upon your house: I went near them one day, and I saw that the architect used a rule and compass, and that he made calculations. I inquired what might be the meaning and use of these things; and I was informed that there was a science named Arithmetic. I purchased a book of arithmetic, and I learnt it. I was told that there was another science, called Geometry: I bought books, and learnt geometry also. By reading, I found that there were good books on these two sciences in Latin: I bought a dictionary, and learnt Latin. I understood also that there were good books of the same kind in French: I bought a dictionary,
and I learnt French. And this, my lord, is what I hare done. It seems to me that we may learn anything, when we know the twenty-four letters of the alphabet.' With this account the duke was delighted, lie drew this wonderful young man from his obscurity, and provided him with an employment, which left him plenty of lime to apply to his favourite pursuits. He discovered in
him also the same genius for music, for painting, for architecture, and for all the sciences that depend upon calculations and proportions."
Stone is said to have been a man of great simplicity; and, though sensible of his own acquirements, neither vain nor conceited. It is to be regretted that no particulars ai'e accessible, respecting the latter part of his career: we are not even informed, whether lie spent the remainder of his life in Argyleshire or in London; though it seems probable that the latter was the scene of his chief scientific labours. His works, partly original and partly translations, are as follows: "A New Mathematical Dictionary," first printed in 1726, 8vo; "A Treatise on Fluxions," 1730, 8vo: in this work, the direct method is a translation from the French of the Marquis de l'Hopital's "Analysis des Infiniments Petits," and the concise method was supplied by Stone himself: "The Elements of Euclid," 1731, 2 vols. 8vo; a neat and useful edition, with an account of the Life and Writings of Euclid, and a defence of his elements against modern objectors; besides some smaller works. Stone was a fellow of the Royal Society, and communicated to it an "Account of two species of Lines of the Third Order, not mentioned by Sir Isaac Newton or Mr Sterling," which was printed in the Philosophical Transactions, vol. xli.
STRAHAN, William, an eminent printer and patron of literature, was born at Edinburgh in the year 1715.[1] His father, who held a situation connected with the customs, was enabled to give him a respectable education at a grammar school, after which he was apprenticed to a printer. Very early in life he removed to the wide field of London, where he appears to have worked for some time as a journeyman printer, and to have with much frugality, creditably supported a wife and family on the small income so afforded him. His wife, whom he early married, was sister to Mr James Elphinston, the translator of Martial. It can be well supposed that he had for many years many difficulties to overcome; but he was of a happy temper, looking forward to prosperity as the reward of his toils, without being unduly sanguine. It is said he used to remark, "that he never had a child born, that Providence did not send some increase of income to provide for the increase of his household." After shaking himself free of his difficulties, he grew rapidly wealthy, and in 1770 was enabled to purchase a share of the patent for King's Printer of Mr Eyre. Previously to this period, Mr Strahan had commenced a series of speculations
- ↑ Memoir in Lounger of August 20, 1785 Nichol's Lit. An. iii. 399.
