"I Have undertaken to write the Life of John Napier, of Merchiston, a man famous all the world over, for his great and fortunate discovery of Logarithms in Trigonometry, by which the ease and expedition in calculation, have so wonderfully assisted the Science of Astronomy, and the arts of practical Geometry and Navigation. Elevated above the age in which he lived, and a benefactor to the world in general, he deserves the epithet of Great. Napier lived in a country of proud Barons, where barbarous hospitality, hunting, the military art, and religious controversy, occupied the time and attention of his contemporaries, and where he had no learned society to assist him in his researches."