[159] The title-page, according to the custom of the time, gives a somewhat elaborate account of the contents of the volume. It runs as follows:--"THE TRISSOTETRAS; Or, _A most Exquisite Table_ for Resolving all manner of Triangles, whether plain or sphericall, Rectangular or Obliquangular, with greater facility, then [than] ever hitherto hath been practised: Most necessary for all such as would attaine to the exact knowledge of Fortification, Dyaling, Navigation, Surveying, Architecture, the Art of Shadowing, taking of Heights and Distances, the use of both the Globes, Perspective, the skill of making Maps, the Theory of the Planets, the calculating of their motions, and all other Astronomicall Computations whatsoever. Now lately invented, and perfected, explained, commented on, and, with all possible brevity and perspicuity, in the hiddest and most researched mysteries, from the very first grounds of the Science it selfe, proved, and convincingly demonstrated. By Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromartie, Knight. Published for the benefit of those that are mathematically affected. _London_, Printed by James Young. 1645."
[162] Sir Theodore Martin remarks that this conclusion nearly resembles that of Socrates, upon being asked his opinion of the book of Heraclitus the Obscure. "Those things," he said, "which I understood were excellent; I imagine so were those I understood not; but they require a diver of Delos" (_Rabelais_, p. xviii.).
[166] The author of the above sentences is one of the very few persons in history or fiction known to us who would have been qualified to join in the conversation of the pleasant company in Illyria, when they began "to speak of Pigrogromitus, and of the Vapians passing the equinoctial of Queubus" (_Twelfth Night_, Act II. Sc. iii.)--the allusion to which has caused so many German commentators on Shakespeare to spend sleepless nights in their libraries.
[167] John Napier, of Merchiston (1550-1617), who published his invention in 1614. Our author calls him Lord Napier, but we are to understand the title as simply equivalent to "_laird_." He calls himself on one of his title-pages _Baro Merchistonii_, but that phrase is merely the designation of the superior of a barony, or lord of a manor. In the old Scottish Parliament men of this rank sat as "_lesser barons_."