Of the life of this extraordinary man we have little information. He was
probably born in Argyleshire, Scotland, at the close of the seventeenth
century. His father was gardener to the Duke of Argyle, and the son
assisted him. The duke was walking one day in his garden, when he
observed a Latin copy of Newton's Principia, lying on the grass, and
supposing it had been brought from his own library, called some one to
carry it back to its place. Upon this, young Stone, who was in his
eighteenth year, claimed the book as his own. "Yours!" replied the duke;
"do you understand geometry, Latin, and Newton?" "I know a little of
them," said the young man.
The duke was surprised, and having a taste for the sciences, he entered
into conversation with the young mathematician. He proposed several
inquiries, and was astonished at the force, the accuracy and the
clearness of his answers. "But how," said the duke, "came you by the
knowledge of all these things?" Stone replied, "A servant taught me to
read ten years since. Does one need to know anything more than the
twenty-six letters, in order to learn everything else that one wishes?"
The duke's curiosity was now greatly increased, and he sat down upon a
bank and requested a detail of the whole process by which he had
acquired such knowledge. "I first learned to read," said Stone;
"afterwards, when the masons were at work at your house, I approached
them one day, and observed that the architect used a rule and compass,
and that he made calculations. I inquired what might be the meaning and
use of these things; and I was informed that there was a science called
arithmetic. I purchased a book of arithmetic, and studied it. I was told
that there was another science, called geometry. I bought the necessary
books, and learned geometry.
"By reading, I found there were good books on these two sciences in
Latin; I therefore bought a dictionary and learned Latin. I understood,
also, that there were good books of the same kind in French; I bought a
dictionary and learned French; and this, my lord, is what I have done.
It seems to me that we may learn everything when we know the twenty-six
letters of the alphabet."
Under the duke's patronage, Stone rose to be a very considerable
mathematician, and was elected a member of the Royal Society of London,
in 1725. He seems to have lost the favor of the Duke of Argyle, for, in
the latter part of his life, he gave lessons in mathematics, and at last
died in poverty.