ON KHILOS. DISCOVERIES. 



extend its dimenfions by preflure, and fo defeat the intention 

 of the experiment. Neither was the globe compreffed by a 

 machine, but merely by hammering. 



But the honour of this experiment is not due to the FIoren-Lord Bacon firft 

 tine philofophers, but to our own illuftrious countryman Lord™* c * 'sexpe- 

 Bacon, who, in the Novum Organum, Book II. Seel. 45., 

 gives the very fame experiment on water enclofed in a large 

 and flrong globe of lead, which being firft comprelfed by the 

 hammer and then by a fcrew-prefs, the water exuded through 

 the pores of the metal, and flood in a dew on its furface. 



The inaccuracy with which this experiment has been re- 

 lated, though in this cafe of no great importance, may how- 

 ever be an ufeful lefTon, and induce thofe who wifh to attain 

 to truth, to truft as little as poflible to information at fecond* 

 hand, but to recur to the original authority whenever it is prac- 

 ticable to do fo. 



Before I conclude, permit me to mention a curious circum-Thetelefcopewas 



fiance relative to the cera of the invention of the telefcope. . ufed . by Kepler 



1 , in altronomy, 



Almoft all books place it in the year 1609, and the firft dif- two years before 

 coveries of Galileo were made in 1610; yet Kepler, in his Galileo, 

 account of the comet which appeared in September, 1607, 

 (See Kepler deCometis, page 25) exprefsly ftates,,that though, 

 to the naked eye, it was only equal to certain fixed ftars near 

 it, yet, when viewed with teleicopes (perfpicillis), it ap- 

 peared larger than thole ftars. 



Although the intercourfe between the different nations of Remarks on the 



Europe was at that time much lefs than it now is, it is very progrefs ° " 



, J covery, Sec, 



difficult to fuppofe that Galileo lliould not, in upwards of two 



years, have heard, not only of the invention, but its applica- 

 tion to celeftial observations by a man fo eminent in fcience 

 as Kepler: and it is fcarcely lefs extraordinary that Kepler 

 liimfelf fhould not, in that fpace of time, have foreftalled Ga- 

 lileo in fome of thofe ciilcoveiies which rendered his name fo 

 illuftrious; for however imperfeft Kepler's telefcope might 

 be, it is hardly poflible that it could have failed to (hew him 

 the fatellites of Jupiter, which are vifible to the commonest 

 opera glafs. 



I am, Sir, 



Your obedient fervant, 



H. C. ENGLEFIELD. 

 Tilney Street, Nov. .30, 1 804. 



B 2 P. S. 



