TO THE CENTURY. 359 



&quot; practicable with my directions, by the unparalleled 

 workman both for trust and skill, Caspar Kaltoff s hand, 

 who hath been these five and thirty years as in a school 

 under me employed.&quot; So that, dating from 1663, when 

 he made this statement, we are thus carried back to 

 the year 1628, about the period of his first marriage, 

 and the whole comprises a space of time from the 27th 

 to the 62nd year of his age. How had he employed the 

 peaceable portion of those 35 years ? It seems to have 

 been peculiar to the noble experimenter to keep his 

 favourite workman fully employed in putting into prac 

 tice whatever was known, and in that way establish 

 his own improvements. We can find some analogous 

 device in old scientific writings for the greater part of 

 the subjects he investigated; and it is no disparagement 

 of his ingenuity to say that his refinements may often 

 be traced to the crude efforts made by others to 

 attain similar results. Italy, Germany, Holland, and 

 France abounded in authors whose works we may 

 easily imagine formed a favourite portion of his library, 

 Vitruvius, Vegetius, Hero, Pamelli, Branca, De Caus, 

 Fludd, Besson, Van Etten, Schwenter, Porta, Lana, 

 and other similar tomes replete with engraved brass, 

 copper, and wood-engravings. But the English press 

 likewise produced such works, as Bourne s Inventions, 

 1578 ; Lucar s Lucar-solace, 1590 ; Bate s Mysteries of 

 Art, 1634; Wilkins Mathematical Magick ; Porta s 

 Natural Magick, 1658 ; De Caus New and Eare Inven 

 tions, 1659, &c. Of all these we are disposed to think 

 that Bate s Mysteries of Nature and Art was an early 

 favourite; the second edition appeared in 1635, when 

 the Marquis was 34 years of age. The first portion of 

 the work on &quot; Water-works&quot; opens with the observa 

 tion : &quot; It hath beene an old saying amongst Philo 

 sophers, and experience doth prove it to bee true, Non 



