The study of mathematics Jefferson held in high esteem. This important science has a history whose commencement goes backward for thousands of years. That a goodly number of cultured Greeks had made interesting progress in mathematical knowledge is well established. The Grecians, it is supposed by some writers, were indebted for this knowledge to the Egyptians. Others would suggest that there is a strong probability that the people of Hindustan and of China had possessed valuable mathematical knowledge in a remote age and that modern civilization is probably especially indebted to the Orient for its knowledge of algebra. The historic Roman Empire having become a wreck and various revolutions sweeping over a large part of Europe, the science of mathematics was ultimately led to seek, for some centuries, refuge from barbarism and neglect in the bosoms of Mussulmans. The professors of Islam, after conquering a territory twice or thrice the size of all Europe,— committing deeds of woful and almost incredible cruelty, -turned their furious zeal into the cause of learning. Without pausing to dwell upon the great universities and vast libraries which Mahometans, in the golden age of their religion reared, suffice it to say that the followersof Mahomet recognized the value to mankind of the science of mathematics. The great Caliph Almamon caused the relics of Grecian science to be sought for and translated into Arabic. As an absolute sovereign he exhorted his subjects to acquire an acquaintance with the volumes which he provided for their welfare. If the Arabians did not add as much to mathematical science as they did to some departments of useful learning, yet it is to them that modern civilization is supposed to be indebted for the mystic numerals-sometimes called Arabic figures-used in arithmetic and to a great extent

in all branches of mathematics. In the Arabic seats of learning youth of various religious beliefs were sometimes to be found enjoying a scholarly fellowship. Even Pope Sylvester II., whom some Roman Catholic historians are wont to regard as having been an uncommonly learned man for his age, and who was even accused, by the ignorant populace by whom he was surrounded, of using magical arts, when a youth acquired a part of his education at one of these Mahometan establishments of learning. Even young women were to be seen in these universities enjoying the same advantages as did their brothers. Indeed it is recorded that the devoirs paid by the most distinguished men to the ladies of their choice were often as truly in homage of their intelligence as to the charms of their beauty and of their virtue.* Unhappily, the Saracens, after suffering greatly by the wars of the Crusades, which misguided, so-called Christians waged against them, wars in which millions of lives were lost,—and after enduring in Spain bitter persecution culminating in half a million of them-at the instance of the Inquisition-being compelled to leave by way of the sea under circumstances of cruelty so awful that the historian may well shudder as he contemplates its enormity,—the impoverished Mussulmans made the fatal mistake of not adequately providing institutions of learning for their youth.

Without pausing to dwell upon the improvements which have been made during recent centuries in mathematical science, suffice it to say that in all lands and by all intelligent communities, the inestimable value to nations of an acquaintance with the science of mathematics is in a good degree appreciated. To the astronomer who turns his telescope towards the abyss of space; to the navigator who recognizes the sun in its meridian splendor, and many of the

*Philobiblius' "Hist. of Education."

stars, as friendly sign-boards in the heavens to point out to him his way across the waters of the deep; to the engineer who builds any one of a thousand different structures useful to man; to the mechanician who makes inventions, sometimes of priceless worth to mankind,— and indirectly to every one who enjoys the privilege of living surrounded with the advantages of modern civilization, the science of mathematics is a blessing worth preserving.

The University of Virginia was to have a department of mathematics in which youth, who chose to do so, could sometimes laboriously indeed - prepare themselves for future usefulness to the world. There, the student's mind, if given to idle wandering, was to be disciplined and invigorated and given an exactitude of judgment on various subjects, while at the same time it was to be furnished with mystic knowledge which would aid it, sometimes, in philosophic enquiries of deep concern to humanity.

In the University of Virginia the various useful sciences which are embraced under the name of natural philosophy -including chemistry-were to be fearlessly, honestly, and earnestly taught. The authority of no man, whether he was celebrated, and had been held in as high esteem in mediæval institutions of learning as was Aristotle, or whether he was arbitrary and powerful as were certain hierarchs, was to be valued beyond its worth. Sciences were also to be taught about which Aristotle and Italian Pontiffs had been as ignorant as babes. Students were to be taught how to examine in an intelligent and just manner, by philosophical experiments, various phenomena. worthy of the consideration of the godlike mind of man.

It is wonderfully strange that men and women, surrounded for thousands of years by the wonders of

creation, should not have studied more closely than they have the handiwork of the Almighty and his ordainings, commonly called laws, respecting the government of the material universe. In all ages, doubtless, there have been enquiring minds who have looked with mysterious inquisitiveness at various phenomena. They have become fascinated as they have made, and in many instances recorded and classified, observations of one kind and another respecting the materials of which the world is composed. Thus each generation has added to the knowledge of mankind respecting the mysteries of creation. There have been, perhaps indeed, wonderful arts and sciences lost to the world because past generations have not always been as considerate as they should have been about providing for their transmission to their posterity, or, because the iron hand of despotism has been permitted to hold a withering sway over the best interests of the human family, yet the world to-day owes a debt of gratitude to many a student of bygone ages.

Millions upon millions of men and women have looked on clear nights at the glories of the varied heavenly canopy over them, as by ones and twos a vast assemblage of worlds have, to a certain extent, illumined the night. That the sun as it shone in its splendor in the day had certain peculiarities;-that, for example, its rays warmed the earth and enabled the husbandman to accomplish much that without its friendly aid could not be accomplished by man, would be noticed and in time recorded. Though man with all his wonderful dormant capabilities lived until comparatively recent times without a telescope and without other marvellous instruments with which the civilized nations of to-day are blessed, and could not with the unaided eye know how orderly and interesting are the wonderful movements of the celestial bodies, could not,

perhaps, realize the greatness of the distances from the earth to the planets and mighty suns-so-called fixed stars-upon which he gazed; indeed though man before the invention of the telescope and other astronomical instruments could not know of many of the wonders of the illimitable heavens which are known at the present day to science, yet he could and did make and record many an observation which has added to the intellectual wealth of his fellow-man. Thoughtful men engaged in pastoral employment and looking at times after their flocks at night, or travellers obliged to sleep under the starry skies, would learn to note the time of night when certain brilliant luminaries would arise above the horizon or assume certain positions in the great heavens, and thus be enabled to assure themselves from time to time of the number of hours which would pass ere the welcome sun would cast his golden light upon their way. They would learn to welcome the brilliant star which heralded the morning. In their admiration of its beauty they would name it Venus. By collecting and intelligently grouping together facts respecting the celestial bodies, valuable knowledge would be obtained. These studies would in time be called the science of astronomy. Age after age new and wonderful facts respecting the great orbs which sweep through space would be noted. For various reasons some of these observations would require hundreds or even thousands of years to satisfactorily make. Who would have believed that a time would come when youth in a very short time could learn from competent instructors in universities, truths-some of them of great practical utility to the human race—which had required ages of observations and study by men, some of whom were as gifted and devoted in labor as were Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and Herschel, to discover!