PREFACE.
The contents of the present volume are so very miscellaneous, that it would be a difficult task to give a satisfactory analysis of them within the limits of a few pages. Perhaps it may be sufficient to state that the Editor has endeavoured to form such a collection of early letters on scientific subjects as would be likely to assist any future author of a critical history of English science, and that from the very limited number of such letters which now remain he has attempted a selection which he thinks will be considered a valuable addition to the few materials of this class already published. The libraries of the British Museum, Sion College, Lambeth, and Oxford have been found to contain documents suitable for this purpose, and the reader will find that the following volume includes letters from all these depositaries.
To the cursory reader any illustration of the progress of science in this country during the reign of Elizabeth will be a novelty; and even those who have paid more particular attention to the subject will, we think, be surprised to find scientific correspondence
