Telescope, &c. were first known in England. 69 



one who has. The doctor's quotations by no means* satisfy 

 my mind ; as he has left us quite in the dark as to the con- 

 text, which is commonly of the utmost importance in de- 

 termining the general scope of old writers, and the manner 

 in which it may affect the sense of particular passages. 

 Hence, being afraid of doing injustice to the commentator 

 or his author by random remarks, I must confine myself to 

 such as the few authorities before me will fairly justify. 



21. In the first place, I beg leave to lay before you and 

 other scholars, the doctor's translation * of these words of 

 Bacon : — " Si vero homo aspiciat liieras, et alias res mi- 

 nutas, per medium crystalli, pel vitri, vel allerius perspicui, 

 suppositi, [i. e. as the doctor interpolates, super hn posit j\ 

 Uteris ; et sit portio minor spheres, cujus convexitas sit versus 

 oculum; et oculus sit in aire ; longe melius videhit Titeras, 

 et apparebunt ei majo?'es ;" that is, says Dr. S., " if the 

 letters of a book, or any minute objects, be viewed through 

 a lesser segment of a sphere of glass or crystal, whose plane 

 base, is laid upon them, they will appear far better and 

 larger." Now 1 appeal to any competent judge, whether 

 the literal translation be not : "' But if a man look at letters 

 and other minute things through a medium of crystal, or 

 glass or other transparent (substance) set or put before the 

 letters, and it be the smaller portion of a sphere whose con*? 

 vexity is towards the eye, and the eye be in the air, he will 

 see the letters far better, and they will appear to him larger," 

 The doctor justifies the liberty he has taken with the word 

 suppositi, by alleging that it is a contraction ; and so it 

 appears to be ; but whether of supeiimpositi, (i laid upon," 

 or of suprapositi, " set or put before f," (as a reading-glass 

 is before a book,) it would not be easy to determine ; espe- 

 cially as the doctor has not given us Bacon's fifth canon, 

 to which he refers. But, for aught I can see at present, 

 my interpretation seems to be as allowable as his. At any 

 rate, Bacon has no word for a " plane base;" though, no 

 doubt, this is implied in the glass being the portion of a 

 sphere. The doctor lays some stress on Bacon's figures; 

 more, indeed, than they will fajrly bear ; for, even in the 

 most accurate modern books, we daily meet with figures 



the libraries in that great national repository. I called twice at the por- 

 ter's lodge, as advertised, and was told first by a girl, and the second 

 time by a middle-aged woman, that no such papers had ever come to the 

 lodge. Similar anecdotes might be mentioned respecting some 9. her 

 public institutions, particularly Gresham College. 



* Complete System of O; tics, Remark 84. 



+ See Ainsworth's Dictionary. 



' E 3 which 



