Telescope, &c. were first known in England. 7$ 



cessary to prove, that Bacon here talks of having men who 

 understand optical and astronomical instruments which did 

 not exist ! How Dr. S. gets over this argument, the reader 

 shall judge. " To this," says he, iC it may be answered, 

 that the ancients had some occasion for perspective in plain 

 instruments before the invention of telescopic ones." — 

 What ! Did the ancients pretend that, with their w plain 

 instruments," they could, " from an incredible distance, 

 read the smallest letters, number (the smallest particles of) 

 dust and sand, and make the sun, moon, and stars to de- 

 scend hither in appearance ?" — w But," continues the 

 doctor, " as this passage stands alone, it is not easy to 

 know the intent of it : however, had there been any more 

 to the like purpose, no doubt this gentleman (Dr. Jebb), so 

 much versed in the author's works, would have found them 

 out and obliged us with thenfc 1 ' But is it not fair and na- 

 tural to ask, why Dr. S. himself has not obliged us with 

 those passages ? He cites the number of Bacon's MS. in 

 the Cottonian library (Lib. c. v. fol. 6.) which was as ac- 

 cessible to him, or his friends, as to Dr. Jebb ; for we can- 

 not suppose that that famous Oxonian repository would 

 have been shut against a Cambridge-man, when employed 

 in recording the renown of the greatest of Oxford-men*. 

 Dr. S. it would seem, had even a better opportunitv of 

 searching for, and inserting such passages, when he had 

 yet to write 150 pages of his book, than Dr. Jebb, who, 

 by Dr. S.'s own account, appears not to have discovered 

 the above striking passage, till his edition of Bacon was 

 printed off; so that he was obliged to insert it in the dedi~ 

 cation, the part of a book which, though first in order, is 

 generally the last in execution. As to the passage itself, it 

 appears to me strongly to imply that Bacon had been pro- 

 posing to pope Clement IV., cf a wise and worthy man/' 

 (as Dr. Campbell calls him) to whom he addresses the 

 Opus Tertium, as well as the Opus Majus, some expedients 

 for promoting optics and astronomy. — M But," continues 

 he, u what is much more" (important or requisite) " than 

 these things" — an expression which seems necessarily to 

 imply other things which he had been mentioning. But, 

 leaving this to be decided by those who have access to the 



* The philosophy of Newton (the greatest of nil Cambridge-men) 

 was taught not only in Scotland, (where it was first introduced into the 

 schools; see Hutton's Diet. art. Gregory) but in France and Holland, he- 

 fore it was taught at Oxford, by Keill or Gregory, both Scotchmen. Is 

 it possible that some remains of the old prejudice could have reached the 

 year 173?, when Dr. S. published the Remarks we are considering? 



MS. 



