LETTERS ON SCIENTIFIC SUBJECTS. 81 



bookes or papers with me : nor hardly clothes, for the worst 

 I had seemed good enough to weare o' shipboard. I then 

 thought not to stay heere above a fortnight ; nor did I imagine 

 that before I gat out of this towne againe, I should be per- 

 suaded to clime the cathedra, and make inaugurate orations 

 and prolusions, and afterward reade publikely 5 dayes in a 

 weeke, an houre every day in Latine. Which had I foreseene, 

 I thinke that all the bookes and papers that I had, both 

 yours and mine, should have come along with me to enable 

 me to doe those things the more easily. And yet I have no 

 great minde to goe fetch them, nor to send for them ; so long 

 as they are there unstirred, they seeme to be safe. But the 

 disasters of the whole kingdome put me in minde of what 

 Melancthon used so often to say, non est tutum quieta moyere. 

 What may happen to them in the remoovall, by searchers, 

 pirats, &c., I am not willing to try. Yet so long as they are 

 there we cannot count them out of danger. But should that 

 befall Mr. Warner's papers and mine which we feare, it would 

 put me into an humour quite contrary to that in which I have 

 hitherto beene. I Jiave thought nothing elaborate enough to 

 be printed, till it were so complete that no man could better 

 it, and did therefore so long keepe my name out of the presse : 

 but now I begin to count nothing safe enough till it be 

 printed, and therefore I have almost resolved to secure my 

 thoughts, not by burying my papers in England, nor by 

 fetching them hither, but by publishing the same notions 

 heere that I have committed to paper there. 



I had thought heere to have given you account of what I 

 have now in hand ; but being desirous by this poste to let 

 you know that your letter came safe to my hands, I am con- 

 strained to breake off heere, deferring the rest till my next. 

 In the meane time I remaine, Sir, 



Your humble servant, 



JOHN PELL. 



SIR WILLIAM PETTY TO JOHN PELL. 



[MS. Birch, Brit. Mus. 4279, fol. 173, Orig.] 



Leyden, August 14, 1644. 



Sir. On Sunday noone I received youre lettre of Friday, 

 together with nine copies of youre refutation of Longomon- 

 tanus, the whicHe, according to your desire, I have distributed 

 as followeth, viz : to Golius, who, upon perusall of it, said it 

 was a most solid refutation, thanking you very much that you 



