STONE (Eli:erste), in biography, a dis tinguished self-taught mathematician, was born in Scotland ; but neither the place nor time of his birth is well known ; nor have we any memoirs of his life, ex cept a letter from the Chevalier de Ram say, author of the "Travels of Cyrus," in a letter to Father Castel, a Jesuit at Paris, and published in the " Memoirs de Trevoux," p. 109, as follows : "True genius overcomes all the disadvantages of birth, fortune, and education of which Mr. Stone is a rare example. Born the son of a gardener of the Duke of Argyle, he arrived at eight years of age before he learned to read. By chance, a servant having taught young Stone the letters of the alphabet, there needed nothing more to discover and expand his genius. He applied himself to study, and he arrived at the knowledge of the most sublime geometry and analysis, without a master, without a conductor, without any other guide but pure genius.
At eighteen years of age he had made these considerable advances without be ing known, and without knowing himself the prodigies of his acquisitions. The Duke of Argyle, who joined to his mili tary talents a general knowledge of every science that adorns the mind of a man of his rank, walking one day in his garden, saw lying on the grass a Latin copy of Sir Isaac Newton's celebrated " Prin. cipia." He called some one to him, to take and carry it back to his library. Our young gardener told him that the book belonged to him. To you!' re plied the Duke. Do you understand geometry, Latin, Newton ?" I know a little of them,' replied the young man, with an air of simplicity, arising from a profound ignorance of his own know ledge and talents. The Duke was sur prised ; and having a taste for the sciences, he entered into conversation with the young mathematician : he asked him several questions, and was astonish ed at the force, the accuracy, and the candour of his answers. But how,' said the Duke, came you by the knowledge of all these things ?' Stone replied, A servant taught me, ten years since, to read : does one need to know any thing more than the twenty-four letters, in order to learn every thing else that one wishes ?' The Duke's curiosity redou bled ; he sat down upon a bank and re quested a detail of all his proceedings, in becoming so learned. ' I first learned to read,' says Stone : the masons were then at work upon your house : I went near them one day, and I saw that the archi tect used a rule, compasses, 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 called arithmetic : I purchased a book of arithmetic, and I learned it. I was told there was another science called geometry : I bought the books, and I learned geometry. By reading, I found that there were good books in these two sciences in Latin : I bought a dictionary, and I learned Latin. I understood also
that there were good books of the same kind in French : I bought a dictionary, and I learned French. And this, my Lord, is what i have clone : it seems to me that we may learn every thing, when we know the twenty-four letters of the alphabet' This account charmed the Duke. He drew this wonderful genius out of his obscurity ; and he provided him with an employment which left him plenty of time to apply himself to the sciences. He discovered in him also the same genius for music, for painting, for architecture, for all the sciences which depend on calculations and proportions " I have seen Mr. Stone. He is a man of great simplicity. He is at present sen sible of his own knowledge ; but he is not puffed up with it. He is possessed with a pure and disinterested love for the mathematics, though he is not soli citous to pass for a mathematician; vanity having no part in the great labour he sus tains to excel in that science. He des pises fortune also ; and he has solicited me twenty times to request the Duke to give him less employment, which may not be worth the half of that be now has, in order to be more retired, and less tak en off from his favourite studies. He discovers sometimes, by methods of his own, truths which others have discover ed before him. He is charmed to find on these occasions that he is not a first in ventor, and that others have made a greater progress than he thought. Far from being a plagiary, he attributes in genious solutions, which he gives to cer tain problems, to the hints which he has found in others, although the connection is but very distant," &c.
Mr. Stone was author and translator of several useful works ; viz. 1. " A new Mathematical Dictionary," in 1 vol. 8vo. first printed in 1726. 2. " Fluxions," in 1 vol. 8vo. 1730. The Direct Method is a translation from the French of Hospi tal's " Analyse des lnfiniments Petits ;" and the Inverse Method was supplied by Stone himself. 3. "The Elements of Euclid," in 2 vols. 8vo. 1731. A neat and useful edition of these Elements, with an account of the life and writings of Euclid, and a defence of his Elements against modern objectors : beside other smaller works. Stone was a fellow of the Royal Society, and had inserted in the " Philosophical Transactions" (vol. xli. p. 218.) an "Account of two species of Lines of the third Order, not mentioned by Sir Isaac Newton or Mr. Stirling." &roma, denotes a certain quantity or weight of some commodities. A stone of beef, at London, is the quantity of eight pounds ; in Herefordshire, twelve pounds ; in the north, sixteen pounds. A stone of wool (according to the statute of 11 Henry VII.) is to weigh fourteen pounds ; yet in some places it is more, in others less ; as in Gloucestershire, fifteen pounds ; in Herefordshire, twelve pounds. A stone, among horse-coursers, is the weight of fourteen pounds.