_liber deletitius_; accounts are called _nomina_; stock account _sors_; profit and loss account _lucri damnique ratiocinium_, _contentio_ or _sortium comparatio_; the final balance _epilogismus_; the chamber of accounts, or counting-house, _logisterium_, &c. In the end of this work Stevin endeavours to show that the Romans, or rather the Grecians (for the former knew scarcely anything but what the latter had discovered), were in some measure acquainted with book-keeping, and supports his conjecture by quoting Cicero’s oration for Roscius. I confess that the following passage in Pliny, _Fortunæ omnia expensa, huic omnia feruntur accepta, et in tota ratione mortalium sola utramque paginam facit_[14], as well as the terms _tabulæ accepti et expensi_; _nomina translata in tabulas_, seem to indicate that the Romans entered debit and credit in their books on two different pages; but it appears to me not yet proved, and improbable, that they were acquainted with our scientific method of book-keeping; with the mode of opening various accounts; of comparing them together, and of bringing them to a final balance. As bills of exchange and insurance were not known in the commerce of the ancients, the business of merchants was not so intricate and complex as to require such a variety of books and accounts as is necessary in that of the moderns. Klipstein is of opinion that attempts were made in France to apply book-keeping, by double-entry, to the public accounts, under Henry IV., afterwards under Colbert, and again in the year 1716. That attempts were made, for this purpose, under Henry IV., he concludes from a work entitled An Inquiry into the Finances of France; but I do not know whether what the author says be sufficient to support this opinion. [The system of double-entry began from the commencement of the present century to be adopted by several governments in the management of the public accounts, among others by those of Austria, France and Holland, with highly beneficial effects. Some attempts have been more recently made in this country to introduce it into the government offices, and from the great success which has attended them, this system will probably soon be generally used.] FOOTNOTES [8] La science des négocians et teneurs de livres. Paris 1754. [9] Vol. i. p. 408. [10] Those who are desirous of further information respecting Lucas de Borgo, may consult Scriptores ordinis Minorum, recensuit Fr. Lucas Waddingus, Romæ 1650;--Heilbronneri Historia Matheseos universæ, Lipsiæ 1742;--Histoire des Mathématiques, par Montucla, Paris 1758. [11] Vol. i. p. 409. [12] The title runs thus: Ein Teutsch verstendig Buchhalten für Herren oder Gesellschafter inhalt wellischem Process. [13] Bayle says, that the Latin translation of Stevin’s works was executed principally by Willebrord Snellius. [14] Lib. ii. cap. 7. ODOMETER.