THOMAS HARIOT _at Sion_ 21 _June_ 1610.
_Printed from the holograph original in the British Museum_
I gaue your letter a double welcome, both because it came from you and
contained newes of that strange nature ; although that wch I craued,
you haue deserved till another time. Me thinkes my diligent Galileus
hath done more in his three fold discouerie then Magellane in openinge
the streightes to the South sea or the dutch men that weare eaten by
beares in Noua Zembla. I am sure with more ease and saftie to him selfe
and more pleasure to mee. I am so affected with this newes as I wish
sommer were past that I mighte obserue these phenomenes also, in the
moone I had formerlie observed a strange spotted-nesse al ouer, but had
no conceite that anie parte therof mighte be shadowes; since I haue
obserued three degrees in the darke partes, of wch the lighter sorte
hath some resemblance of shadinesse but that they grow shorter or
longer I cannot yet pceaue. ther are three starres in Orion below the
three in his girdle so neere togeather as they appeared vnto me alwayes
like a longe starre, insomuch as aboute 4 yeares since I was a writing
you newes out of Cornwall of a view a strange phenomenon but asking
some that had better eyes then my selfe they told me, they were three
starres lying close togeather in a right line, thes starres with my
cylinder this last winter I often observed, and it was longe er I
beleued that I saw them, they appearinge through the Cylinder so farre
and distinctlie asunder that without I can not yet disseuer. the
discouerie of thes made me then obserue the 7 starres also in, ###
[Taurus], wch before I alwayes rather beleued to be, 7. then euer could
nomber them, through my Cylinder I saw thes also plainelie and far
asunder, and more then, 7. to, but because I was prejugd with that
number, I beleved not myne eyes nor was carefull to obserue how manie;
the next winter now that you have opened mine eyes you shall heare much
frö me of this argument, of the third and greatest (that I confesse
pleased me most) I have least to say, sauing that just at the instance
that I receaved your letters wee Traventane Philosophers were a
consideringe of Kepler’s* reasons [*pag. 106. Noua Stella Serpentarii]
by wch he indeauors to ouerthrow Nolanus and Gilberts opinions
concerninge the immensitie of the Spheare of the starres and. that
opinion particularlie of Nolanus by wch he affirmed that the eye beinge
placed in anie parte of the Univers the apparence would be still all
one as vnto us here. When I was a sayinge that although Kepler had sayd
somethinge to moste that mighte be vrged for that opinion of Nolanus,
yet of one principall thinge hee had not thought; for although it may
be true that to the ey placed in anie starre of, ### [Cancer], the
starres in Capricorne will vanish, yet he hath not therfore so soundlie
concluded (as he thinkes) that therfore towards that parte of the world
ther wilbe a voidnesse or thin scattering of little starres wheras els
round about ther will appeare huge starres close thruste togeather: for
sayd I (hauinge heard you say often as much) what is in that huge space
betweene the starres and Saturne, ther remaine euer fixed infinite
nombers wch may supplie the apparence to the eye that shalbe placed in
### [Cancer], wch by reason of ther lesser magnitudes doe flie our
sighte what is aboute ### [Saturn], ### [Jupiter], ### [Mars], etc.
ther moue other planets also wch appeare not. just as I was a saying
this comes your letter, wch when I had redd, loe, qd I, what I spoke
probablie experience hath made good ; so that we both with wonder and
delighte fell a consideringe your letter, we are here so on fire with
thes thinges that I must renew my request and your promise to send mee
of all sortes of thes Cylinders. my man shal deliuer you monie for anie
charge requisite, and contente your man for his paines and skill. Send
me so manie as you thinke needfull vnto thes obseruations, and in
requitall, I will send you store of observations. Send me also one of
Galileus bookes if anie yet be come ouer and you can get them.
Concerning my doubte in Kepler, you see what it is to bee so far fro
you. What troubled me a month you satisfyed in a minute. I have
supplied verie fitlie my wante of a spheare, in the desolution of a
hogshead, for the hopes therof haue framed me a verie fine one. I pray
also at your leasure answere the other pointes of my last letter
concerning Vieta, Kepler and your selfe. I have nothinge to presence
you in counter, but gratitude with a will in act to be vsefull vnto you
and a power in proxima potentia ; wch I will not leaue also till I haue
broughte ad actum. If you in the meane time can further it, tell wher
in I may doe you seruice, and see how wholie you shall dispose of me.
Your most assured and louing friend
Tra’uenti the longest day of, 1610. Willm Lower.
~ _Addressed:_ To his espesial good frind
Mr. Thomas Hariot
Seal of Arms, _(B. M. Add._ 6789.) at Sion neere London.
[Tra’venti or Trafenty, near Lower Court, is eight or nine miles
south-west of Caermarthen, near the confluence of the rivers Taf and
Cywyn.]
The writer is fortunately able to throw some light upon these letters
of Lower to Hariot. In _the Monatlicbe Correspondenz Vol._ 8, 1803,
published by F. X. von Zach at Gotha, pages 47-56, is a most
interesting fragment of an original letter inEnglish toHariot. Dr Zach
says that he found this letter at Petworth in 1784, and it being
without date or signature he confidently assigned its authorship to the
Earl of Northumberland, and guessed the date to have been prior to
1619. In his many notes he is in raptures over his discovery, and
deplores the misfortune of its breaking off in the most interesting
place just as the Earl was about to announce the discovery of the
elliptical orbit of the comet of 1607, as reasoned out of Hariot’s
observations and the writings of Kepler. This famous letter has been
used or copied in many places, particularly in Ersch and Gru-ber’s
Algemeine Encyklopadie under Hariot.
The mystery is now solved by giving here the letter in full. It is even
more important than Dr Zach with all his enthusiasm supposed. It is
not, however, from the pen of Northumberland, though none the less
interesting on that account. The letter is in the well-known
handwriting of Lower, of Tra’venti, on Mount Martin, near Llanfihangel,
in South Wales, to his dearly loved friend and master Hariot at Sion,
and is dated the 6th of February, 1610. The letter fills two sheets of
foolscap paper. The first sheet of four pages Dr Zach found at
Petworth, and it is to be hoped that it still exists there. The other
sheet of four pages is preserved in the British Museum (Add. 6789). How
long these two sheets have been separated it is difficult to tell, but
probably from Hariot’s day, that is, for more than two centuries and a
half. The two fragments are now brought together and printed for the
first time complete, the first half from Dr Zach’s text, and the latter
half copied verbatim direct from the original autograph manuscript,
Brit. Mus. Add. 6789.