"It may seem extraordinary to quote Lilly the astrologer, with respect to so great a man as Napier; yet as the passage I propose to transcribe from Lilly's Life, gives a picturesque view of the meeting betwixt Briggs and the Inventor of the Logarithms, at Merchiston near Edinburgh, I shall set it down in the original words of that mountebank knave: "I will acquaint you with one memorable story related unto me by John Marr, an excellent mathematician and geometrician... When Merchiston first published his Logarithms, Mr. Briggs, then reader of the Astronomy Lectures at Gresham College in London, was so surprised with admiration of them, that he could have no quietness in himself, until he had seen that noble person whose only invention they were: He acquaints John Marr therewith who went into Scotland before Mr. Briggs purposely to be there when these two so learned persons should meet... He brings Mr. Briggs up into My Lord's chamber, where almost one quarter of an hour was spent, each beholding other with admiration before one word was spoken: at last Mr Briggs began. "My Lord, I have undertaken this long journey purposely to see your person, and to know by what engine of wit or ingenuity you came first to think of this most excellent help unto Astronomy, viz. the Logarithms; but My Lord, being by you found out, I wonder nobody else found it out before, when now being known it appears so easy." He was nobly entertained by the Lord Napier, and every Summer after that, during the Laird's being alive, this venerable man Mr. Briggs went purposely to Scotland to visit him.""