LETTERS ON SCIENTIFIC SUBJECTS. 41 



WILLIAM LOWER TO THOMAS HARRIOT. 



[MS. Addit. 6789. Orig.] 



Ira' venti, April 13th, 1611. 



I so overwhelmed you the last time with a longe letter as 

 it is just I should make you amends now with one as shorte. 

 To send you none at all (which perchance had bene best, 

 consideringe the use you have of all your time) I could not 

 consent unto, out of the addiction and delight I have to bee 

 still conversinge with you ; therefore I will onlie signifie how 

 it is with us, and so an end. My course of calculation I have 

 stopte untill I heare from you ; the two greate causes of my 

 stay I declared in my last letters. I fell since into Vieta's 

 last probleme of his second apendicle, Apol. Gal.*, and com- 

 pared his way with yours that you last gave me : but to con- 

 iesse a truth I can have my will of nether ; and the probleme 

 appeares to me not universall, but requires determination ; 

 for let the b a given have the same sides a b, ac, that Vieta' s 

 hath, and lett v' s !l be the same that Vieta gives ; now I will 

 give a A that shall have thes sides, so as it shal bee impossi- 

 ble to find anie pointe from whence lines drawen unto the 

 corners be in the given rate, and that is by giving a A with 

 the same sides a b y a c, but in such position as the < b a c be 

 > or < , then Vieta's < b a c, in such measure as Vieta's two 

 circles doe nether cut nor touch. This rubbe put me out of 

 this course, wheruppon I betooke me to your problemes for 

 the distinguishinge of the sides of A les ? whether the summe 

 or difference of the sides and the angle adjacente or contained 

 with the other side were given in this. I proceed still with 

 much pleasure and satisfaction. I have also putt in order all 

 thos propositions which you also gave me, but I had copied 

 in lose papers and with ill diagrammes, so that all the thinges 

 stand well; and so I thanke God doe we also, excepte my 

 catle, which have al this winter bene persecuted with the 

 murraine ; since Christmas verie neere I have lost 100 beastes, 

 Vieta's sacrifices to the witch Melutina for the invention 

 of one probleme. But I skarce keepe my promise with you. 

 Farewell. I am all yours. 



WILLIAM LOWER. 



To his especial goodfrind, Mr. Thomas 

 Harriott, deliver thes. 



* The Apollonius Gallus of Vieta was first published in 1600, and contains a 

 restoration of the lost treatise on tangencies, which Pappus describes as forming 

 part of the TOTTOS avaXvopevos. See the article Apollonius in the New General 

 Biographical Dictionary, which was written by the editor of this volume. The 

 problem which Lower refers to is one of the most general in the series. 



