Dr. Moll O7i the Invention of Telescopes. 485 



now used at night to look at the moon and stars. He further 

 says that, in 1620, a man of the name of Metius came to 

 Middelburg, and procured such a telescope, the construction 

 of which he afterwards tried to imitate ; and he adds, that 

 Drebbel did the same. 



This witness, fixing the epoch of the invention at 1590, speaks 

 only from hearsay. Besides, he is in contradiction with Boreel, 

 who states that the invention of the telescope by Hans and 

 Zacharias was in 1610, at which time Boreel was nineteen, 

 and this John Zacharias only seven years of age. John 

 says nothing of the microscope, which Boreel actually saw and 

 described. It is certainly possible that one of the Metii, per- 

 haps the Professor, came to Middelburg in 1620, and bought a 

 telescope. But this does not decide the question of priority, as 

 we know, from incontrovertible authority, that Jacob Metius 

 was in possession of the invention in 1608. What happened 

 in 1620, when so many splendid discoveries were made by 

 means of the telescope, is not of the least consequence, as far 

 as concerns the first invention of the instrument. 



There still remains another witness, whose evidence is very 

 immaterial and of little importance. It is a woman called 

 Sarah Goedard ; she is a sister of Zacharias Jansz : she 

 merely says, that it is forty-two or forty-four years ago since 

 her brother invented the long telescopes in Middelburg. She 

 often saw her brother at work making telescopes ; but she can- 

 not speak positively as to time. 



This woman's evidence, who brings the invention to 1611 or 

 1613, cannot be of the slightest use in settling the question 

 between Zacharias and Lippershey. 



It was then the soldier of Sedan, who first brought the in- 

 strument to France ; but his endeavours met with no great 

 success in that country. It is most astonishing to find the 

 French philosopher Peirese doubting the truth of the invention 

 of telescopes as late as 1622, and ascribing it to Drebbel, a 

 person wholly unconnected with it. In a letter to William 

 Camden, he says, * I should like to know what is true about 

 the inventions of Cornelius Drubelsius Alkmariensis, who, as is 

 said, has invented in your parts a globe representing ebb and 

 flood, a covered boat going between two waters, and long 



VOL. I.- MAY, 1831. 2 K 



