294 LETTERS FROM BIRCH. 



great king, to be solicitor for one of the meanest subjects 

 that he hath. 



I send my letter to my lord s grace open, that before 

 you seal it (if you shall think fit to seal it, and rather not 

 to deliver it open) you may see the reasons that I have; 

 which, if I be not partial, are very pregnant. Although I 

 confess, that till it was now very lately motioned to me by 

 some honourable friends, who have already procured to 

 disimpression his majesty of some hard conceit he had me 

 in, I did not greatly think thereof; and now I am full of 

 hope that I shall prevail. For supposing that my Lord of 

 Canterbury s mind is but made of iron, the adamant of 

 your persuasion will have power to draw it. It may please 

 you either to send a present answer hereunto, or, since I 

 am not worthy of so much favour, to tell either of those 

 honourable persons aforenamed what the answer is, that 

 accordingly they may co-operate. 



This letter goes by Sir Edward Parham, a gentleman 

 whom I have been much beholden to. I know him to be a 

 perfect honest man ; and since, I protest, I had rather die 

 than deceive you, I will humbly pray, that he may rather 

 receive favour from you than otherwise, when he shall 

 come in your way, which at one time or other all the world 

 there must do. And I shall acknowledge myself much 

 bound to you, as being enabled by this means to pay many 

 of my debts to him. 



I presume to send you the copy of a piece of a letter, 

 which Galileo, of whom I am sure you have heard, wrote 

 to a monk of my acquaintance in Italy, about the answer 

 ing of that place in Joshua, which concerns the sun s stand 

 ing still, and approving thereby the pretended falsehood of 

 Copernicus s opinion. The letter was written by occasion 

 of the opposition, which some few in Italy did make against 

 Galileo, as if he went about to establish that by experi 

 ments which appears to be contrary to Holy Scripture. 

 But he makes it appear the while by this piece of a letter 

 which I send you, that if that passage of scripture doth ex 

 pressly favour either side, it is for the affirmative of Coper 

 nicus s opinion, and for the negative of Aristotle s. To an 

 attorney-general in the midst of a town, and such a one 

 as is employed in the weightiest affairs of the kingdom, it 

 might seem unseasonable for me to interrupt you with 

 matter of this nature. But I know well enough in how 

 high account you have the truth of things : and that no 

 day can pass, wherein you give not liberty to your wise 



