<>\ M-IKNTIKIC SI'IUK( 11 



WILLIAM LOWER TO THOMAS HARRIOT. 



[MS. Ad.lit. C.789. Orig.] 



Ira' vfiiiti, April l.'Jth, Kill. 



I so overwhelmed you the last time with a longe letter ;is 

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

 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- 

 tesse 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 1 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, 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 avaXvoficvos. See the article Apollonius in the New (Jem-nil 

 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. 



