Telescope, &c. icere first known in England. £55 



varietie of such straunge inuentions, as Archimedes and 

 others haue wrought by geometric, I should not onely ex- 

 cede the order of a preface, but I should also speake of 

 suche things as can not well bee understoode in talke with- 

 out some knowledge in the principles of geometrie. But 

 this will I promise, that if I maie perceiue my paines to be 

 thankfully taken, I will not onely write of suche pleasaunte 

 inuentions, declaryng what they were, but also will teach 

 how a great noniber of them were wroiighte, that they maie 

 be practised in this tyme also. Whereby shall be plainly 

 perceiued that many thyngcs seeme impossible to bee done 

 which by arte maie verie well bee wrought. And wheu 

 they bee wrought, and the reason thereof not understoode 

 then saie the vulgare people, that those thynges are doun by 

 negromancic. And hereof came it that frier Bacon was 

 accompted so greate a negromancier, whiche ncuer used 

 that art (by any coniecture that I can finde), but was ia 

 geometric and other mathematicall sciences so experte that 

 he could doc by them suche thynges as appear wonderful} 

 in the sight of moste people. Great talke there is of a 

 glasse that he made in Oxforde, in whiche men might see 

 thinges that weare doen in other places, and that wasludged 

 to bee doen by power of euill spirites. But 1 kfioive the rea- 

 son of it to bee good and naturall, and to he zvrought hy ^eo- 

 metrie {s'lih perspective is a parte of it), and to stande as well 

 with reason, as to see yonr face in a commoji glasse. But 

 this conclusion, and other diuers of like sort, are more meete 

 for princes, for sundry causes, then for other men, and ought 

 not to be taught commonly." ' 



17. On this passage I shall only observe, at present, that 

 we have no right to doubt that Recorde actually " knew the 

 reason" of the reputed magic of Roger Bacon's glasses, of 

 which there was « great talke" in his time. For, besides 

 his reputation as a physician, he had a mathematical cha- 

 racter at stake ; having for some time publicly lectured on 

 geometry at Oxford*. Nor can it be said that Recorde 

 might affect a knowledge of optical glasses which he did 

 not possess, and cloak his ignorance under the strange opi- 

 nion (as it appears to us) that such knowledge was only 

 " meete for princes." For he dedicates his book to Ed- 

 ward VI. in a long address, dated 28th January 1551 ; and 

 i> said to have been physician to that excellent young prince, 

 as well as to his miserably bigoted and tyrannical successor 

 Mary f, either of whom might have required him to com- 



'* S<e Dr. Hutton's Die:, art Recorde, f Id. Ibid. 



municate 



