$53 Vroofs from old English Books, that the 



12. To proceed then: Our second quotation (§ 4.) seems 

 clearly to imply the knowledge and use of what we call the 

 Camera ohscura, which has been always believed to have been 

 iirst described by John Baptista Porta *. Whether this our 

 second quotation was written by Digges the father or son, 

 we have no absolutely certain means of determining ; for 

 the Pantometria, from whence it is taken, was begun by the 

 father, as we have seen, and *' augmented and finished" 

 by the son, who, it is possible, might have interpolated this 

 passage into that part of the work, which most probably 

 was written by the father, as it stands in the 28th page of 

 the book, which, exclusive of preface, Sec, contains 195 

 small folio pages. But is it reasonable to suppose that a 

 man who, as our first quotation shows, was acquainted with 

 the more difficult combinations of glasses, and "■' assisted 

 with demonstrations mathematicall," was ignorant of the 

 comparatively simple structure of the Camera ohscura P If 

 then Digges the father, who published the Pantometria in 

 1571, and died about the year 1574t, really knew, as in all 

 probability he did, the structure and use of that instrument, 

 he must have preceded Porta in that knowledge by more 

 than twenty years. But if Digges the father did not possess 

 that knowledge, it seems undeniable that his son did ; and 

 1591, the date of the Pantometria, will still carry an Eng- 

 lishman's pretension about three years beyond that of the 

 respectable Italian, whose work did not appear till about 

 1594. 



13. I shall next briefly discuss a more important claim, 

 that of the invention or revival (shall I call it?) of the Te- 

 lescope. Descartes, whose authority in this case, as in many 

 others, is justly regarded, tells us, that *' about thirty years 

 ago X lived one James Metius, a native of Alcmaer in 

 Holland, a man wholly ignorant of the Jiberal arts, though 

 his father and brother |j cultivated the mathematics. This 



* In his Magia Naluralis, lib. xvii. cap. 6. according to Dr. Hutton's 

 Diet. art. Camera Obscura; and in lib. iv. cap. 2. according to Wolfe, 

 and Stone, who copies much from him. They agree that that work of 

 Baptista Porta was first printed about the year 1594.. See Elem. Math. 

 TJni-v. Optic. § So, and D.o^t. § 327; and Mathem. Diet, artick-s Ca- 

 tnca Obscura and 7e!f scope. 



f Hutton's Diet. art. Diggrs. 



J That is, about the year 1607, or thirty years before 1637, when he 

 first publislied \\\i D/optricc. Sec Hutton's Diet. art. C'^r/i-;.?. The above 

 extract, which on several accorints is worthy of transcribing, is taken from 

 Klzevir's edition of that work, 1644.. cap. i. § i. p. yr. 



II Descartes here means Adri;in Rletius, professor of the mathematics 

 at Franckenaer, whcv supported his brother's claim to the discovery. 



5 flian'i 



