William Oughtred: A Great Seventeenth-Century Teacher of Mathematics — John Shaqi
William Oughtred: A Great Seventeenth-Century Teacher of MathematicsCajori, Florian
History
William Oughtred: A Great Seventeenth-Century Teacher of Mathematics
Cajori, Florian
Mathematicians -- Biography; Mathematics -- Study and teaching -- History -- 17th century; Oughtred, William, 1575-1660
Ever since my departure from the Vniversity, which is about thirty
yeares, I have lived neere to the Towne of Guildford in Surrey: where,
whether I have taken so much liberty to the losse of time, and the
neglect of my calling the whole Countrey thereabout, both Gentry and
others, to whom I am full well knowne, will quickely informe him; my
house being not past three and twenty miles from London: and yet I so
hid my selve at home, that I seldomly travelled so farre as London once
in a yeare. Indeed the life and mind of man cannot endure without some
interchangeablenesse of recreation, and pawses from the intensive
actions of our severall callings; and every man is drawne with his owne
delight. My recreations have been diversity of studies: and as oft as I
was toyled with the labour of my owne profession, I have allayed that
tediousnesse by walking in the pleasant and more then Elysian fields of
the diverse and various parts of humane learning, and not the
Mathematics onely.
Even the opponents of Delamain must be grateful to him for having been
the means of drawing from Oughtred such interesting biographical details.
Oughtred proceeds to tell how, about 1628, he was induced to write his
Clavis mathematicae, upon which his reputation as a mathematician largely
rests:
About five yeares since, the Earle of Arundell my most honourable Lord
in a time of his private retiring to his house in the countrey then at
West Horsley, foure small miles from me (though since he hath a house
in Aldebury the parish where I live) hearing of me (by what meanes I
know not) was pleased to send for me: and afterward at London to
appoint mee a Chamber of his owne house: where, at such times, and in
such manner as it seemed him good to imploy me, and when I might not
inconveniently be spared from my charge, I have been most ready to
present my selfe in all humble and affectionate service: I hope also
without the offence of God, the transgression of the good Lawes of this
Land, neglect of my calling, or the deserved scandall of any good man.
. . . .
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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