MATHEMATICS, the science of quantity; or a science that considers magnitudes either as computable, or measurable. The word in its original, mathētic, signifies discipline, or science in the general; and seems to have been applied to the doctrine of quantity, either by way of eminence, or because, this having the start of all other sciences, the rest took their common name therefrom. See SCIENCE. For the origin of the mathematics, Josephus dates it before the flood, and makes the sons of Seth observers of the course and order of the heavenly bodies: he adds, that to perpetuate their discoveries, and secure them from the injuries either of a deluge or a conflagration, they had them engraven on two pillars, the one of stone, the other of brick; the former of which he says was standing in Syria in his days. See ASTRONOMY. The first who cultivated mathematics after the flood, were the Assyrians and Chaldeans; from whom, the same Josephus adds, they were carried by Abraham to the Egyptians; who proved such notable proficient, that Aristotle makes no scruple to fix the first rise of mathematics among them. From Egypt, 584 years before Christ, they passed into Greece through the hands of Thales; who having learned geometry of the Egyptian priests, taught it in his own country. After Thales, comes Pythagoras; who, among other mathematical arts, paid a particular regard to arithmetic; fetching the greatest part of his philosophy from numbers: he was the first, as Laertius tells us, who abstracted geometry from matter; and to him we owe the doctrine of incommensurable magnitude, and the five regular bodies, besides the first principles of music and astronomy. Pythagoras was succeeded by Anaxagoras, Oenopides, Briso, Antipho, and Hippocrates of Scio; who all applied themselves particularly to the quadrature of the circle, the duplicature of the cube, &c. but the last with most success: this last is also mentioned by Proclus, as the first who compiled elements of mathematics. Democritus excelled in mathematics as well as physics; though none of his works in either kind are extant, the destruction of which some authors lay at Aristotle's door. The next in order is Plato, who not only improved geometry, but introduced it into physics, and so laid the foundation of a solid philosophy. Out of his school proceeded a crowd of mathematicians