254 Proofs from old English Booh, that the 



«ee both remote and near objects enlarged. In this respect I 

 have given no small assistance to many of my friends," &c. 

 From this passage, Wolfius concludes that *' Primus duhio 

 procul, &c. Beyond all doubt Porta was the first who con- 

 structed a telescope." But Wolfius adds that " he did not 

 understand his own invention, for which he acknowledges 

 Ke was indebted to chance," 8cc.* It is however highly 

 p-obable that the candid Wolfius, for such, from many in- 

 stances, he appears to be, and the honest, ingenious, Scot- 

 tish gardener, Stone, who here translates his words, would 

 not have spoken so very positively in favour of Porta's pre- 

 tensions, had they been apprised that Digges, the father, not 

 only constructed, but understood the telescope in the year 

 1571, when the Pimtometria was first printed. 



15. But the knowledge of the telescope in this country, 

 at least of its theory, may be distinctly traced to a still ear- 

 lier date. In proof of this assertion, which to some will 

 appear a bold one, 1 beg leave to refer you and your readers- 

 to Recorde's " Path-way to Knowledge," a book on the 

 elements of geometry, printed in the year 1551, and dedi- 

 cated to king Edward VI. of England. Though this book 

 IS, I believe, not remarkably scarce, I may venture to say 

 that its contents are but little known. For, after all the 

 disputes about the discovery of the Telescope, can it be sup- 

 posed that the following paragraph would have been so long 

 withheld from public view, if the book itself had not lain 

 neglected, in the repositories of the curious, ever since the 

 days of Jan sen, Kepler, and Galileo ? In the repositories of 

 the curious ! Shall I speak out a melancholy fact ? — For little 

 more than the price of waste paper I delivered my venerable 

 Kecorde, once the companion and instructor of an amiable 

 prince f, from the merciless hands of a snuft-man, who, 

 regardless of his gemovves, likeammcs, nooks, and cantells J, 

 had stripped oft' his outer garments, and, proh pudor ! con- 

 demned him to the meanest purposes of a vulgar trade, thus 

 forcing snuff into the indignant embrace of geometry ! 



16. Recorde, in his preface, has triis remarkable passage: 

 ** But to retourne againc to Archimedes, he did also by art 

 perspectiue (whichc is a part of geometrie) deuise suche 

 glasses within the townc of Syracusa that did burnc their 

 enemies shippes a greate waie from the towne, whiche was 

 a mcruailous, politike thynge. And if I should repeate the 



* See Wolfii Elementa Matbncos Univerac, Diopt. § 327 j and Stone's 

 Mathemat. Diet. art. TtUscope. 

 t Edward VI. 

 J Fitrallcls, paraliclograras, sectors, and segments, 



2 'Varietie 



