(^55) 
And what I oiGalilao^ I muft in like manner defire to be 
underftood of what I am now ready to fay to you. For I do not 
profefs to be fo well skilled in the Hiftory of Tides , as that I 
will undertake prefently to d^ccovcwx^oA^ic my general Hypothe fit 
to the particular cafes ^ or that I will indeed undertake for the 
certainty of it, but onely as zn Ef ay propofe it to further con- 
fidcration ; to ftand or tall, as it fhall be found to anfwcr mat- 
ter of Faft. And truly had not your importunity (which is to 
nie a great Command ) required me to do it ^ 1 fliould not fo 
eafily have drawn up any thing about it, till I had firft fatisfied 
niy lelfe, how well the Hypothefis would anfwer Obfervation : 
Having for divers years ncglefted to do it,waiting a time when 
1 might be at Icifure throughly to profecute this defign. 
But there be two reafonSy by which you have prevailed wiih 
me, at leaft to do fomething. tirjl, becaufe it is the common 
Fate of the Englijh.^ that cut of a modefly, they forbear to pub- 
1 fli their Difcoveries, till profecuted to fome good degree of 
certainty and perfedl:on ^ yet are not fo wary, but that they dif- 
courfe of them freely enough to one another, andevcu to 
Strangers upon occafion ; whereby others^ who are more hafty 
and venturous, comming to hear of the notion, prefently pub- 
lifh fomething of it, and would be reputed thereupon, to be the 
fii ft I n venters thereof : though even that litdej which they can 
then fay of itybe perhaps much lefs^and more imperfect, than 
iwhat the true Authors could have pubhflied long before, and 
what they had really made known { publikely enoughj though 
not in print) to many others. As is well known amongft us as ta 
the bufinels of the Lymphatic^ Vejjels in Anatomy, the J nje^ien of 
Liquors into the veines of Living animals ixkc Exhibiting of ajirmght 
line equal to a erooJ^di^the Spot in Jupiter^v/hen^Q his motion about 
his own Axis may be demonftrated; and many other the like 
confiderable Inventions. 
The other Reafon ('which, with me, is more really of weight, 
though even the former be not contemptible) is^becaufe^ as I 
have been already for at leaft three or four years laft pafl di- 
. verted from profecuting the inquiry or perfecting the Hypo- 
Uiefis, as 1 had thoughts to do j fo I do not know , but like E- 
mergencies may divert me longer 5 and whether I fliall ever fo 
do 
