EMERALD. See ORYCTOGNOSY.
•RSON, `ViLt!Ad1, an eminent mathematician, was born on the 14th May 1701, at Hurworth, near Dar lington, in the county of Durham. His father, Dudley Emerson, who appears to have been possessed of some little property, taught a school, and seems to have been a person of some information and genius. From him William received the rudiments of his education in read ing, writing, and arithmetic, and a little Latin, per haps as far as the Cordery or Be za's Latin Testament. It appears that he made some further progress in the learned languages afterwards, and received assistance in acquiring them from a young clergyman, then curate of Hurworth, who was boarded at his father's. In his early days he appears to have been idle and inattentive, and exhibited none of those symptoms of superior genius for which he was afterwards so remarkable. Indeed, so careless and inattentive to learning was he, at this period, that he was frequently heard to say, till he was nearly twenty years of age, that his principal and favom he employment for one season of the year, was looking after birds nests. But his attachment to child ish amusements was soon to pass away, and as he ad vanced in years, his mind began to relish, and to be sensible of the charms and beauties of science. He went first to Newcastle, and afterwards to York, where he applied himself with considerable attention and di ligence to the study of the mathematics, under the di rections of schoolmasters whose names he always men tioned with respect. He used also to say, that his fa ther was a tolerable mathematician, and without his books and instruments, his own genius would, perhaps, never have been unfolded. After his return from York he resided principally at Hurworth, where he conti nued to pursue his studies and amusements at intervals, till the time of his marriage, which happened about his 32d year. From this period we may date the com mencement of his mathematical labours, or, perhaps, rather the communication of them to the What he had done before in this line was merely an occasion al application for his own amusement, or for the exer cise and employment of his leisure bout s. But one of those accidents, which, Dr Johnson observes, produce that particular designation of mind, and propensity to some certain science, commonly called genius, took place on this occasion, and added a powerful stimulus to his native thirst for knowledge and for fame. His
wife was the niece of a Dr Johnson, rector of Hurworth, vicar of Manfield, in the county of York, and a pre bendary of Durham. A man, who, by practising sur gery, and from the emoluments arising from his livings, had accumulated a considerable fortune.
Johnson had promised his niece, who lived with him, five hundred pounds for her marriage portion. Some time after the marriage, Mr Emerson took an opportu nity to mention this matter to the Doctor, and to re mind him of his promise. The Doctor, who appears to have been a man destitute of honour with regard to his word, did not chuse to recollect any thing of the matter, but treated our young mathematician with some contempt, as a person of no consequence, and beneath his notice.
Emerson's independent mind could easily have sur mounted pecuniary disappointment, his patrimony, though not large, being equal to all his wants, but this contemptuous treatment excited his indignation. He went home, packed up his wife's clothes, and sent them off to the Doctor, swearing, at the same time, that he would scorn to be beholden to such a fellow for a single rag, adding, with great vehemence, that he would prove himself the better man; and, in order to demonstrate this, he determined to labour till he became one of the greatest mathematicians of the age.
Emerson made himself a perfect master of the whole circle of the mathematics; and having carefully plan ned and digested the work to his own satisfaction, he published, in the 42d year of his age, his book of Flux ions, and at his first appearance as an author, he oh tamped a respectable place among contemporary mathe maticians. Having thus secured his fame upon a firm and solid basis, he continued from time to time to favour the public with other valuable publications, on several branch es of the mathematics, a list of which may be seen in an excellent and well written account of his life, by the Rev. W. Bowe, prefixed to his Tracts, from which the chief part of this account is taken. He was also a frequent correspondent to the Ladies Diary, a work which has greatly contributed to the diffusion of mathematical knowledge, and added a stimulus to youthful exertion.