Telescope, &c. were first known in England, 7 1 



things than these may be performed by refracted vision* 

 For it is easy to understand, by the canons above mentioned, 

 that the greatest things may appear exceeding small, and 

 on the contrary. For we can give such figures to transpa- 

 rent bodies, and dispose them in such order, with respect 

 to the eye and the objects, that the rays shall be refracted 

 and bent towards any place we please ; so that we shall see 

 the object near at hand, or at a distance, under any angle 

 we please. And thus, from an incredible distance we may 

 read the smallest letters, and may number the smallest par- 

 ticles of dust and sand, by reason of the greatness of the 

 angle under which we may see them ; and, on the contrary, 

 we may not be able to see the greatest bodies just by us, by 

 reason of the smallness of the angle under which they may 

 appear. For distance does not affect this kind of vision, 

 excepting by accident, but the quantity of the angle. And 

 thus a boy may appear to be a giant, and a man as big as a 

 mountain; forasmuch as we may see the man under as 

 great an angle as the mountain, and as near as we please. 

 And thus a small army may appear a very great one, and, 

 though very far off, yet very near us; and on the contrary. 

 Thus also the sun, moon, and stars may be made to descend 

 hither in appearance, and to appear over the heads of our 

 enemies; and many things of the like sort, which would as- 

 tonish unskilful persons." 



24, No great fault, I think, can reasonably be found 

 with this translation, of which Dr. S. also gives us the ori~ 

 ginal. But I must say, that his reasonings upon it appear 

 to me to be even more inconclusive than those we have been 

 considering. " It seems then, (says the doctor, Remark 

 116,) as if he did not think of performing these problems 

 by a single portable instrument like a telescope ; but by fix- 

 ing up several glasses in proper places at large intervals from 

 one another, which would certainly prove ineffectual ." But 

 how does this seem to be the sense of Bacon? Certainly not 

 from (c making the sun, moop, and stars to appear over the 

 heads of our enemies," who being in continual and uncer- 

 tain motion over the face of the country, any optical in- 

 strument employed to watch those motions must also be 

 movable pr portable. 



25. (f What he mentions (continues the doctor, Remark 

 117,) of Julius Ciesar, that he raised up speculums to a 

 great height upon the coast of France, to discover the dis- 

 position of the cities and camps in England, is therefore 

 impracticable, and probably a fiction, if there be not a 

 mistake in the interpretation of the word specula for glasses, 



E 4 instead 



