Thomas Hariot, the Mathematician, the Philosopher and the ScholarStevens, Henry
Philosophy
Thomas Hariot, the Mathematician, the Philosopher and the Scholar
Stevens, Henry
Harriot, Thomas, 1560-1621; Hercules Club
Let me intreate you to advise and direct this bearer Mr. Vaughan wher
and how to prouide himselfe of a fit sphere ; that by the contemplation
of that our imaginations here may be releued in manie speculations that
perplexe our vnderstandings with diagrammed in plano. He hath monie to
prouide doe you but tell him wher the are to be had and what manner of
sphere (I meant with what and how manie circles) wilbe most vsefull for
vs to thes studies. After all this I must needs tell you my sorrowes.
God that gaue him, hath taken from me my onlie sun, by continual and
strange fits of Epelepsie or Apoloxie, when in apparence, as he was
most pleasant and goodlie, he was most healthie, but amongst other
things, I haue learnt of you to setle and submit my desires to the will
of god ; onlie my wife with more greife beares this affliction, yet now
againe she begins to be comforted. Let me heare fro you and according
to your leasure and frindshippe haue directions in the course of studie
I am in. Aboue al things take care of your health, keepe correspondence
with Kepler and wherinsoeuer you can haue vse of me, require it with
all libertie. Soe I rest ever,
Your assured and true friend to be vsed in
all things that you please.
Willm Lowër.
Tra’vent on Mount Martin [in South Wales.] 6 February, 1610.
Let me not make my selfe more able then ther is cause. I can not order
the calculation by the construction you sent me of Vieta’s 3. probleme,
to find the distances of C. & D. & B. from the Apegen or the proportion
of ia. to ac. the eccentricitie. I tooke Copernicus, 3. observations in
the, 6. chap, of his, 5. booke, therfore helpe here once againe.
_Addressed:_ To his especiall good friend
Mr. THO : HARRYOT at Sion neere London.
About this time, it is understood, Raleigh took up seriously and
earnestly the great literary work of his life, _The History of the
World._ It must have been brewing in his mind for years, for in his
preface he expressed the fears he had entertained ‘that the darkness of
age and death would have overtaken him long before the performance.’
The work, according to Camden, was published in April 1614, just before
the meeting of Parliament. It appeared anonymously, and for obvious
reasons was not entered at Stationers’ Hall. James is said to have had
his conscience so pricked by certain passages which everywhere pervade
the work on the power, conduct and responsibility of princes, that
strenuous efforts were made in January 1615 to call in and suppress it,
but the king might as well have attempted to call back a departed
spirit by Act of Parliament as to call in that ‘History of the World’
by royal proclamation. The Book was in type and in the hands of the
people of England. It could therefore no more be suppressed at that day
by princely power than could manifest destiny itself. The second
edition of 1621 was the first with Raleigh’s name.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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