The little book is now submitted with considerable diffidence, for in endeavouring to extricate Hariot from the confusion of historical ‘facts’ into which he had fallen, and to place him in the position to which he is entitled by his great merits, it is desirable to be clear, explicit and logical. A decision of mankind of two centuries’ standing, as expressed in many dictionaries and encyclopaedias, cannot be easily reversed without good contemporary evidence. This I have endeavoured to produce. Referring to pages 191 and 192 the writer still craves the reader’s indulgence for the apparently irrelevant matter introduced, as well as for the inartistic grouping of the many detached materials, for reasons there given. It ought perhaps to be stated here that the book necessarily includes notices, more or less elaborate, of very many of Hariot’s friends, associates and contemporaries, while others, for want of space, are mentioned little more than by name. The lives of Raleigh, and Henry Percy of Northumberland, Prisoners in the Tower, seem to be inseparable from that of their Fidus Achates, but I have endeavoured to eliminate that of Hariot as far as possible without derogation to his patrons. All the new documents mentioned have their special value, but too much importance cannot be attached to the recovery of Hariot’s Will, for it at once dispels a great deal of the inference and conjecture that have so long beclouded his memory. It throws the bright electric light of to-day over his eminently scholarly, scientific and philosophical Life. By this and the other authorities given it is hoped to add a new star to the joint constellation of the honored Worthies of England and America. HENRY STEVENS of Vermont Vermont House, xiii Upper Avenue Road, London, N.W. April 10 1885 THOMAS HARIOT AND HIS ASSOCIATES ‘chusing always rather to doe some thinge worth nothing than nothing att all.’ _Sir William Lower to Hariot_ July 19 1611 (see p. 99) To FRANCIS PARKMAN THE HISTORIAN and TRUSTIE FRIEND Who Forty Years ago When we were young Students of History together Gave me a hand of his over the Sea NOW Give I him this right hand of mine with Ever grateful Tribute to our life-long FRIENDSHIP MORIN Custos juris reimprimendi Caveat homo trium literarum [The touching Dedication on the opposite page was penned by my father a few months before his death on February 18, 1886. I have thought it best to leave it exactly as he had planned it, although now, alas! Mr. Parkman is no longer with us. Let us hope the old friends may have again joined hands beyond the unknown sea.-H. N. S.] EXPLANATORY IN the year 1877 the late Mr. Henry Stevens of Vermont, under the pseudonym of ‘Mr. Secretary Outis,’ projected and initiated a literary Association entitled THE HERCULES CLUB. The following extracts from the original prospectus of that year explain this platform: