moste mighty prince, as your most excellent Maiesty appeareth to be borne vnto most perfect felicity, not only by reasõ that God moued with the long prayers of this realme, did send your highnes as moste comfortable inheritour to the same, but also in that your Maiesty was borne in the time of such skilful schoolmaisters & learned techers, as your highnes doth not a little reioyse in, and profite by them in all kind of vertu & knowledg. Amõgst which is that heauẽly knowledg most worthely to be praised, wherbi the blindnes of errour & superstition is exiled, & good hope cõceiued that al the sedes & fruts therof, with all kindes of vice & iniquite, wherby vertu is hindered, & iustice defaced, shal be clean extrirped and rooted out of this realm, which hope shal increase more and more, if it may appear that learning be estemed & florish within this realm. And al be it the chief learnĩg be the diuine scriptures, which instruct the mind principally, & nexte therto the lawes politike, which most specially defẽd the right of goodes, yet is it not possible that those two can long be wel vsed, if that ayde want that gouerneth health and expelleth sicknes, which thing is done by Physik, & these require the help of the vij. liberall sciences, but of none more then of Arithmetik and Geometry, by which not only great thinges ar wrought touchĩg accõptes in al kinds, & in suruaiyng & measuring of lãdes, but also al arts depend partly of thẽ, & building which is most necessary can not be w^{t}out them, which thing cõsidering, moued me to help to serue your maiesty in this point as wel as other wais, & to do what mai be in me, y^t not õly thei which studi prĩcipalli for lernĩg, mai haue furderãce bi mi poore help, but also those whiche haue no tyme to trauaile for exacter knowlege, may haue some helpe to vnderstand in those Mathematicall artes, in whiche as I haue all readye set forth sumwhat of Arithmetike, so god willing I intend shortly to setforth a more exacter worke therof. And in the meane ceason for a taste of Geometry, I haue sette forthe this small introduction, desiring your grace not so muche to beholde the simplenes of the woorke, in comparison to your Maiesties excellencye, as to fauour the edition thereof, for the ayde of your humble subiectes, which shal thinke them selues more and more dayly bounden to your highnes, if when they shall perceaue your graces desyre to haue theym profited in all knowledge and vertue. And I for my poore ability considering your Maiesties studye for the increase of learning generally through all your highenes dominions, and namely in the vniuersities of Oxforde and Camebridge, as I haue an earnest good will as far as my simple seruice and small knowledg will suffice, to helpe toward the satisfiyng of your graces desire, so if I shall perceaue that my seruice may be to your maiesties contẽtacion, I wil not only put forth the other two books, whiche shoulde haue beene