The science of mathematics owes much to the tasteful, vigorous, and indefatigable genius of this extraordinary man. Its progress was considerably furthered and facilitated by his publication of the elementary works relating to it; and he revived and re-created a taste for the pure, ancient, Greek analysis. Robert Simson was born on the 14th of October, 1687, at Kirton Hill, a small patrimonial estate in Ayrshire, which he afterwards inherited. His grandfather, a man of a noble presence, was a minister of the Church of Scotland, and, being attached to the Presbyterian form of worship, underwent perplexing fluctuations of fortune, in the troublous period preceding the Revolution. The representative of the next generation, in all probability not relishing the idea of braving the winds and hurricanes, to which the course of an ecclesiastic through life was then exposed, followed the calling of a merchant in the Scottish emporium on the Clyde, then beginning to rise into importance, and seems in that capacity to have done "excellently well." At all events he added, by purchase, to his territorial heritage, and sent his numerous family creditably into the world; one of his grandchildren being mother of the hero of Corunna.

The future mathematician was, however, at once intended to follow the footsteps of his venerable grandsire, on whose knee he, no doubt, often sat, listening as the time-tried worthy related how Queen Mary and the ladies of her court were struck with his fine appearance. He soon began in this way to entertain a strong passion for books, and perhaps showed something of that love of music which, when many a long year had rolled over his head, prompted him, on well-enjoyed holidays, to adapt and sing some modern air to Greek verse. It appears that he early manifested a turn for mechanical arts by forming a sun-dial, which he had placed in his father's garden.

At the usual early age he was sent to be educated for the clerical office at Glasgow University, and forthwith made great progress in the various branches of learning; a change of purpose in re-gard to a profession occurred, and medicine for some time occupied his thoughts. Of botany he became peculiarly fond; and the practical pursuit of it, subsequently, formed his favourite relaxation, when divesting himself, for a while, of the cares incidental to more severe studies.

It is stated, that at the time when Simson was enrolled as a student, no mathematical lectures were delivered by the individual who nominally filled the chair, and whose duty it was to have given them, so that his intellect had little encouragement in the direction which it took. Nevertheless, his curiosity was keen enough to make him desire some information as to the nature of the science thus neglected, and, with that view, he borrowed from one of his comrades a copy of Euclid, with no conception, assuredly, that he was ever to give the world so perfect an edition of the work. Over the well-thumbed tome he hung long and earnestly, occasionally aided in his comprehension of its mysteries by hints from a more advanced fellow-student; and his meditations terminated in a resolution to devote his life and energies to the difficult science. Though apparently without any proper instruction, he soon blundered into excellence, and Ms mathematical proficiency attracted attention and notice. In fact, on completing his twenty-first year, he had won a provincial fame.

It happened that a vacancy in the mathematical chair was then apprehended. The patronage was vested in the body of professors; and these very learned functionaries, with a temerity so little characteristic of their countrymen as to lead one to imagine they must, at the time, have been seeking wisdom and inspiration in the capacious china-howl of the prosperous hut frugal trader, offered the important office to the immature but talented stripling. The latter, however, though doubtless pluming himself on his good fortune, seems to have ingenuously expressed some doubts as to his ability to fill it with honour to himself and advantage to others He requested that the appointment might be postponed for a year, during which he repaired to London, in order, by study and communication with men versed in the science, to qualify for the performance of the duties that were thus to devolve upon him. While on this visit to the metropolis, Simson made the acquaintance of the afterwards celebrated Dr. Halley, and profited largely by his conversation.

Meantime the mathematical chair actually became vacant, and the youthful presentee returned to the scene of his future labours; yet he was not allowed to assume-the professorial gown without some slight fuss and formality, rather unnecessary in the circumstances. Indeed, while absent from the sight of the erudite body in which he was henceforth to rank high, he seems to have got slightly out of favour. The reader may probably recollect the scene, wherein six attorneys, who had arrived at the resolution of thrusting a retaining fee into the hand of a young advocate, gradually changed their minds, shook their heads, and sagely remarked, as they restored the money to their pouches, that, "though the lad was clever, they would like to see more of him before they engaged him in the way of business." Treatment somewhat similar, more tantalising, and less justifiable, did Simson now experience from the heads of the University. They were seized with a sudden fit of prudence; and when he appeared with his tall, dignified stature, expressive face, and graceful manner, not the worse in any respect, it may be conceived, of having been exposed for a season to the mellowing influence of a southern atmosphere, he was capriciously required by the plenipotent sages to demonstrate his fitness for the promised professorship by solving a geometrical problem to their satisfaction. In the end, all difficulties being happily overcome by his production of testimonials, he applied himself to the discharge of his new duties with ardent zeal for the interests of science, and exemplary anxiety for the welfare and advancement of his pupils.

Perseveringly pursuing his investigations, and bending his mind dauntlessly to details, Simson undertook, from scanty and mutilated materials to restore Euclid's Porisms, and communicated to the Royal Society a valuable paper on the subject which was printed in the "Philosophical Trans-actions" of 1723. He next engaged on the "Loci Plani" of Apollonius, which was issued in 1738 After this appeared his treatise on "Conic Sections,' which was received with great applause, and tended to establish his reputation as one of the first geometricians of the age. His restitution of the "Elements and Data" of Euclid was published about 1758, and his restoration of the "Lectio Determi-nata" of Apollonius after his death, which took place in 1768, in his eighty-first year.