Early Life | Edmund Stone (1690-1768)
“Edmund Stone, the mathematician, presents one of the most extraordinary' examples upon record of a man untutored and selftaught, rising by mere dint of genius to the sublimest heights of science. The celebrated Chevalier Ramsay, in a letter to Father Castel, published in the Journal of Trevoux, gives the following interesting account of Stone, and the progress of his acquisitions. ' Born,' he says, ' a son of the gardener of the Duke of Argi'le, he arrived at eight years of age before he learnt to read. By chance, a servant having taught young Stone the letters of the alphabet, there seemed 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 than pure genius.
' At eighteen years of age, he had made these con-iderable advances, without being known, and without knowing himself the prodigiousness of his acquisitions. The Duke of Argyle, who joined to his military talents a general knowledge of every science that adorns the mind of a man of his rank, walking one day in his garden, sav\' lying on the grass a Latin copy of Sir Isaac Newton's celebrated " Principia." He called some one to him to take it and carry it back to his library. Our young gardener told him that the book belonged to him. " To you !" rephed 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 knowledge and talents. The duke was surprised, and having a taste for the sciences, he entered into conversation with the young mathematician ; he asked him several questions, and was astonished at the force, the accuracy, and the candour of his answers. "But how," said the duke, "came you hy the knowledge of all these things?" Stone replied, "A servant taught me to read ten years since ; does anyone need to know anything more than the twenty-four letters, in order to learn everything else that one wishes?" The duke's curiosity was redoubled ; he sat down upon a bench, and requested a detail of his proceedings in becoming so learned. " I first learned to read," said Stone ; "the masons were then at work upon your house ; I went near them one day, and saw the architect used a rule and 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 of these sciences in Latin. I bought a dictionary, and I learned Latin ; I understood, likewise, 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 done ; it seems to me that we may learn everything 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 provided him with an employment which left him plenty of time to cultivate 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.'
What the particular nature of the employment which the duke conferred on Stone was we are are not informed ; but if we may credit a writer in the Critical Review , it was far from warranting the description given of it by Ramsay. ' His abilities,' says this writer, who appears to have spoken from personal knowledge of Stone, 'are universally acknowledged, his reputation unblemished, his services to the public uncontested, and yet he lives to an advanced age unrewarded, except by a mean employment that reflects dishonor on the donor. “
The Percy anecdotes. Collected and edited by Reuben and Sholto Percy. Verbatim reprint of the original ed., with a pref. by John Timbs, pg. 50