(266) 
And what I fay of Galilao, 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 accommodate my general Hypothecs 
to the particular cafes 5 or that I will indeed undertake far the 
certainty of ir 5 but onely as an Efiay propofe it to further coo- 
fideration ; to fland or fall, as it fhall be found to anfwer mat- 
ter of Faft. And truly had not your importunity (which is to 
me a great Command ) required me to do it , I fhould not fo 
eafily have drawn up any thing about it, till I had firft fatisfied 
my felfe, how well the Hypothefis would anfwer Obfervation : 
Having for divers years negleCted to do it, waiting a time when 
1 might be at leifure throughly to pr.ofecute this deiign. 
But there be two reafons, by which you have prevailed with 
me, at leaft to do fomething. f zr/ 2 , becaufe it is the common 
Fate of the Englijb, that cut of a modefty, they forbear to pub- 
lifii their Difcoveries, till profecnted to fome good degree of 
certainty and perfection ^ yet are not fo wary, but that they dt£ 
courfe of them freely enough to-one another, and even to 
Strangers upon occafion j whereby others^ who are more hafty 
and venturous, comming to hear of the notion, prefently pub- 
hfh fomething of it, and would be reputed thereupon, to be the 
firft Inventers thereof: though even that little, which they can 
then fay of it, be perhaps much lefs, and more imperfeCt, than 
what the true Authors could have published long before, and 
what they had really made known ( publikely enough, though 
not in print) to many others. As is well known amongft us as to 
the btifinefs of the Lymphatie\ Vejjels i n Anatomy : the Inje&ion of 
Liquors into the veines of Living animals iihe Exhibiting of a Jlraight 
Urn equal to a crookqdqcLkt Spot in'/} upiter, whence his motion about 
his own Ax J s 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 paft di- 
verted from profecuting the inquiry or perfecting the Hypo- 
thefis, as I had thoughts to do j fo I do not know , but like E- 
mergencies may divert me longer 3 and whether I fhall ever fo 
