PREFACE. XXXI 



thus conclude, &quot; Whilst I am speaking of this work 

 &quot; of his lordship of Natural History, there comes to 



&quot; In this book are contained experiments of light, and 

 &quot; experiments of use (as his lordship was wont to distinguish :) 

 &quot; and amongst them some extraordinary, and others common. 

 &quot; He understood that what was common in one country, might 

 &quot; be a rarity in another : for which reason, Dr. Caius, when in 

 &quot; Italy, thought it worth his pains to make a large and elegant 

 &quot; description of our way of brewing. His lordship also knew 

 &quot; well, that an experiment manifest to the vulgar, was a good 

 &quot; ground for the wise to build further upon. And himself 

 &quot; rendered common ones, extraordinary by admonitions, for 

 &quot; further trials and improvements. Hence his lordship took 

 &quot; occasion to say, that his writing of Sylva Sylvarum, was (to 

 &quot; speak properly) not a Natural History, but a high kind of 

 &quot; natural magic : because it was not only a description of 

 nature but a breaking of nature into great and strange works. 



&quot; This book was written by his lordship in the English 

 &quot; tongue, and translated by an obscure interpreter, into French 

 &quot; and out of that translation into Latin, by James Gruter, in 

 &quot; such ill manner, that they darkened his lordship s sense, and 

 &quot; debased his expression. James Gruter was sensible of his 

 S miscarriage, being kindly advertised of it by Dr. Rawley : 

 &quot; And he left behind him divers amendments, published by his 

 &quot; brother Isaac Gruter, in a second edition. Yet still so many 

 &quot; errors have escaped, that that work requireth a third hand. 



&quot; Monsieur jElius Deodatus had once engaged an able 

 &quot;person in the translation of this book; one who could have 

 &quot; done his lordship right, and obliged such readers as under- 

 &quot; stood not the English original. He began, and went through 

 &quot; the three first centuries, and then desisted; being desired by 

 &quot; him who set him on work, to take his. hand quite off from 

 &quot; that pen, with which he moved so slowly. His translation of 

 &quot; the third century is now in my hands ; but that of the two first 

 &quot; I believe is lost.&quot; Archbishop Tennison then annexes some 

 specimens of the translation. 



