26 LIFE, TIMES, AND SCIENTIFIC LABOURS [1G39. 



shall be stamped as an impossibility, as absurd as 

 it is impossible. Now the dilemma is, How has the 

 author of the u Century of Inventions&quot; fallen into the 

 common, vulgar error of believing in the possibility of 

 perpetual motion and not only so, but publicly exhi 

 biting a machine pretending to that character ? 



We are not disposed to question either his talent, or 

 his veracity, hence the difficulty of offering any simple, 

 direct, satisfactory reply to what otherwise appears to 

 be an easily answered interrogative. Eminent writers 

 of the seventeenth and previous centuries maintained 

 that perpetual motion was possible. Dr. Dee, in his 

 very curious preface to the first translation of Euclid 

 into English, wrote favourably on this very topic 5 so 

 that, however the modern scientific sceptic may blame 

 his Lordship for want of skill, or, worse, of veracity, his 

 opinion was quite in accordance with the estimation in 

 which the subject was viewed in his day. But he goes 

 a step farther, he speaks of a practical result. Hence 

 he leaves us no alternative but to declare that he pro 

 pounds either a truth or a falsehood ; and if false that 

 he was either himself mistaken, or deceived by others. - 

 But either way it is difficult to arrive at a thoroughly 

 satisfactory conclusion, even as to what his Lordship 

 actually intended and performed in this instance, owing 

 to the usual vagueness of his own statements. 



At 38 years of age Lord Herbert had enjoyed seven 

 years of matrimonial felicity, and had been during four 

 years a widower. In 1639, his son Henry would be 

 10 years old, his two daughters much younger, so that 

 as well for their education as for the gratification of his 

 own scientific investigations, he may have continued for 

 some time to reside at Worcester House : the Strand 

 and all that neighbourhood being then in the occu 

 pancy of families of title, wealth and high position. 



