98 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF 



quotidianarum formanim, — I am weary of these con- 

 tinual forms,, or applications, to take up sucli profitless 

 schemes. With all his hopefulness Hartlib was far 

 from being of a speculative turn j it was only when con- 

 vinced of some ultimate public good that he staked his 

 reputation on a venture. In some matters he may 

 appear to have been Utopian, but he always erred on 

 the right side, only over-estimating the improvability 

 of poor frail human nature, and relying too fondly on 

 the affectionate regard of the great world around him ; 

 but the sad resulyu assured him that the latter was as 

 unimpressible by individual distress, as the former was 

 unchangeable by individual efforts. 



We are at present interested in Cressy Dymock, first 

 as the author of An Invention of Engines of Motion ; 

 and next as regards the nature of the invention of which 

 he had a large model at Lambeth. 



His two letters are extremely indefinite ; they indi- 

 cate no peculiarity in the mechanical construction of the 

 mills recommended, make no offers of terms, and 

 promise no guarantee for the proposed remarkable 

 performances of the invention declared to exist in a 

 model form. 



The devotional style of the writer is scarcely to be 

 offered in extenuation of this meagre information; 

 indeed it looks too much like an avoidance on the part 

 of the inventor of committing himself to what he might 

 fail to execute on trial elsewhere, or on a larger scale* 



