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HIS CURIOUS MEMORIAL OF CHARLES XII. OF SWEDEN. 259
must necessarily retain in the multiplication table, 3969
distinct products of the 61 numbers of the first step mul
tiplied into one another ; whereas only 49 are necessary
in the octonary, and but 81 are required in the denary
arithmetic ; which last is difficult to be remembered and
applied in practice by some capacities. But the stronger
my objections were, the more resolute was his royal mind
upon attempting such a computus.
Obstructions made him eagerly aspire
All to surmount, and nobly soar the higher.
"6
He insisted that the alleged difficulties might be over
balanced by very many advantages.
" A few days after this I was called before his Majesty,
who, resuming the subject, demanded if I had made a
trial ? I still urging my former objections, he reached
me a paper written with his own hand, in new characters
and terms of denomination, the perusal of which he was
pleased, at my entreaty, to grant me ; wherein, to my
great surprise, I found not only new characters and num
bers, (the one almost naturally expressive of the other,)
in a continued series to 64, so ranged as easily to be
remembered, but also new denominations, so contrived
by pairs, as to be easily extended to myriads by a con
tinued variation of the character and denomination. And
further casting my eye on several new methods of his for
addition and multiplication by this computus, either arti
ficially contrived, or else inherent in the characters of the
numbers themselves, I was struck with the profoundest
admiration of the force of his Majesty’s genius, and with
such strange amazement, as obliged me to esteem this
eminent personage, not my rival, but by far my superior
in my own art. And having the original still in my
custody, at a proper time I may publish it, as it highly
deserves ; whereby it will appear, with what discerning
skill he was endowed, or how deeply he penetrated into
the obscurest recesses of the arithmetical science.
66
Besides, his eminent talents in calculation further
appear, by his frequently working and solving the most
difficult numerical problems, barely by thought and
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