LETTERS ON SCIENTIFIC SUBJECTS. 45 



THOMAS HARRIOT TO THE DUKE OF 

 NORTHUMBERLAND. 



[MS. Harl. 6002.] 



Syon, June 13th, 1619. 



Sir, When Mr. Warner and Mr. Hues were last at Sion, 

 it happened that I was perfecting my auntient notes of the 

 doctrine of reflections of bodies, unto whom I imparted the 

 mysteries thereof, to the end to make your lordship ac- 

 quainted with them as occasion served. And least that some 

 particulars might be mistaken or forgotten, I thought best 

 since to set them down in writing, whereby also nowe at 

 times of leasure, when your minde is free from matters of 

 greater waight, you may thinke and consider of them, if you 

 please. It had been very convenient, I confess, to have 

 written of this doctrine more at large, and particularly to 

 have set downe the first principles, with such other of ele- 

 mentall propositions, as all doubtes might have been pre- 

 vented ; but my infirmitie is yet so troublesome, that I am 

 forced^ as well that as other traits, to let alone till time of 

 better abilitie. In the meane time I have made choyce of 

 these propositions, in whose explication you shall find, I 

 hope, the summe of all that of this argument is reasonable to 

 be delivered. And if any doubtes doe arise either of the 

 hypothesis therein used, or of the concomitants and conse- 

 quences therein also intimated, although upon due considera- 

 tion onely they may be resolved, yet because I am beforehand 

 in consideration of these matters, I shall be ready when I 

 have notice of them to give your lordship full satisfaction for 

 your ease. And seeing that my purpose, God willing, is 

 within a few days to see your lordship, I cease from more 

 wordes, resting, &c.* 



T. HARRIOT. 



* The Harl. MSS., generally ascribed to Harriot, and even by the late Professor 

 Rigaud, are in the handwriting of Sir Charles Cavendish. In MS. Harl. 6083 is 

 a paper in the autograph of Harriot, " de numeris triangularibus," which appears 

 to have hitherto escaped the notice of his biographers. According to Aubrey, the 

 Duke of Northumberland gave Harriot a pension of .400 per annum, and to Ro- 

 bert Hues and Walter Warner he gave 40 (Lives, p. 368). Hues was the author 

 of a popular little work, de nsu globorum, which passed through several editions, 

 and was also translated into English. I do not know whether a Mr. Hues, who 

 is mentioned in MS. Harl. 4728, p. 5, as having been a chaplain at the Bermudas, 

 be the same person. 



