In a curious little book called _The Corsican’s Downfall_, by a Royal Arch Mason, published at Mansfield in 1814, at p. 6, it says, with reference to the numeration, ‘The oldest treatise on the theory of arithmetic is comprised in the seventh, eighth, and ninth books of Euclid’s _Elements_, about two hundred and eighty years before the Christian era. The first author of any consequence who used the modern way of computing by figures, instead of letters of the alphabet, was Jordanus of Namur, who flourished about 1200; and his arithmetic was afterwards published and demonstrated by Johannis Faber Stapulensis, in the fifteenth century. The name, then, and number of the Beast must be discovered (if at all) by the ancient method of computation in use at the time when the prophecies were written.’ But Bonaparte ungratefully refused to fulfil prophecy by being destroyed at the end of forty-two months, _i.e._ in June 1808, which must have put the expositors on their mettle. They were, however, fully equal to the occasion, and ingeniously solved the quotation this way.[11] ‘Power was given unto him to continue forty-and-two months: now it is well known that he was self created, or crowned Emperor of France, on the 2nd day of December 1804, and that he reigned in full power and authority over the prostrate States upon the Continent until the 2nd day of May 1808, the very day on which the gallant Patriots of Spain made so noble and glorious a struggle to throw off the abominable yoke that he had imposed upon them, which is exactly a period of three years and a half, or forty two months.’ An ingenious lunatic, named L. Mayer, found out another way of fathering the Mark of the Beast upon Napoleon. He took the number of sovereigns who had reigned in Europe until Napoleon’s arrival--some he has left out to suit his convenience, but that is a trivial matter--the case had to be made out against the unfortunate Emperor. _Sovereigns included in the Number of the Beast._[12] Numbers Roman Emperors 77 Popes 186 Kings of France 40 Kings of Spain 78 Kings of Portugal 26 Emperors of Germany 57 Kings of Bohemia 31 Kings of Hungary 34 Kings of Poland 35 Kings of Denmark 35 Kings of Naples and Sicily 30 Kings of Sardinia 36 Bonaparte 1 --- Total 666 The Society of Antiquaries have, among their handbills, one published in 1808, as follows:--