| Title: | Copy Letter In Scribal Hand D, Miles Symner To Sir Robert King |
|---|---|
| Dating: | undated |
| Ref: | 47/6/1A-B |
| Notes: | Copy in British Library, Sloane MSS 427, fol. 85. |
[47/6/1A]
A Coppy of Mr. Symners Letter to Sir Rob: King.
Noble Sir
I had the happines to have a Letter of late from you, & with it Mr. William Petty his Advice for the Advancement of Learning. And for both doe most humbly thank you & doe most heartily wish, that which my Lord Verulam & some others have wished before me, that at the least an Office of Intelligence might be set vp, for those [Reasons?]. in Mr. William Petty his Booke & some others, sith wee may rather wish then hope for the foundation and maintenance of such a Colledge, as hee speakes off. For Inventions of mine, I must with Truth & some shame acknowledge, that I thinke it much, that soe shallow a brain & soe farre taken off from contemplation with Domesticall & other busines, is able to follow the steps, or at best to goe on in the path that better witts have set me in. Yet in all this, my Scope is for reall # <left margin: # & experimentall Learning. I abhor all those ventosities, froth> & idle speculations of the Schooles. Though they have some small vses for young Students, yet [the?] proove the Scyll as the Charybdis, the simple-yades, where most of the good witts, that come to our Vniversities, suffer shipwrack. For after a young Schollar hath got a little prayse for beeing able to wrangle in the Schooles about Vniversale à parte rei, that puff fils his sayles & makes him st..<eere> his cours to find out nothing, but vanity. For if I could demonstrate, Qvòd detur Vniversale à parte rei, or some such like, I could not build many Axioms, vsefull for further Learning, or Common life therevpon. But in such studies for these 2000 yeares, the purest witts have spent their golden & pretious houres, & yet are asfarr to seeke, as those were in Aristotles dayes. They gaine nothing by their paines, but a readines in wrangling & the glory of nimble disputants. If I have proffited but little more then they the fault lyes in the sterility of my vnderstanding, not the goodnes of my Method, it would have bin great ioy to me, if I could have any way benefited the world, by any births of mine, that I might not bee called Telluris invtile pondus. And therfore because I have noe such Children of mine, to serve mankind with, I am glad to become a Midwife nurse, & adopting Father to Mr Iohnsons Vniversall Character. You know Sir that if this great Rebellion had beene delayed a while, he had put his Booke into the presse: which now I beleeve, the Fryars in Athony have torne in pieces for heresy; And you know, that hee had allmost all his copper-plates cutt & graven, and wee heare, that they have suffered Tinkers to stopp kettls with them. I have that first vnpolished Coppy of his, which I conceive were worth to bee printed to sett other men on worke. And but that I feare, that the Printers would not give [catchword: me]
[47/6/1B]
me for the Copy of it soe much, as would beare my charges thither & back, in a moderate way of expense. I would when wee returne from this march, or presently after the beginning of the New yeare, come over. And it is necessary that I be at the birth of it, as being best acqvainted with it. And for other matters which you in yours reqvire of me, to give satisfaction to you of my desire, to serve you, I have sent this Observation inclosed, which if it light on Astronomicall palates, will not be vnpleasing, but pro captu Lectoris, habent sua facta libelli. I sent a note of it to a worthy & Learned friend in London heretofore. I have some few more; (relliqvias belli atque immitis Hyberni:) of the same kind, which if they may bee acceptable, shall be sent. I have for observation of such Phoenomena, made me a qvadrant of 6 foot Radius, & if my ability could stretch to it, would have a Sextant. But now I grow as tedious in this as in my last Letter, wherefore craving pardon for my want of formalities, humbly request you Sir to continue me in your favour & to assure yourselfe That I am Sir
Your most humble & ever thankfull Servant
Miles Symner./
[right margin, another hand:] Symner