"The secret unfolded in the following book," says J. A., "is so precious, that [the author's] countrey and kindred would not have been more honoured by him had he purchased [procured] millions of gold, and severall rich territories of a great and vast extent, then [than] for this subtile and divine invention, which will out-last the continuance of any inheritance, and remaine fresh in the understandings of men of profound literature, when houses and possessions will change their owners, the wealthy become poor, and the children of the needy enjoy the treasures of those whose heires are impoverished. Therefore, seeing for the many-fold uses thereof in divers arts and sciences, in speculation and practice, peace and war, sport and earnest, with the admirable furtherances we reape by it in the knowledge of sea and land, and heaven and earth, it cannot be otherwise then [than] permanent, together with the Author's fame, so long as any of those endure; I will, God willing, in the ruines of all these, and when time it selfe is expired, in testimony of my thankfulnesse in particular for so great a benefit, if after the resurrection there be any complementall [complimentary] affability, expresse myselfe then as I doe now, The Author's most affectionate, and most humbly devoted servant, J.A."[171]
Why our author should have resorted to this device for recommending himself and his book, we cannot tell. Perhaps he felt that some strong affirmations were needed in the case. Probably he agreed with the old saying that, if you wish work to be thoroughly done, you had better do it yourself. The moral aspect of the matter we leave in the hands of our readers for discussion.
In five Latin elegiac couplets of a very neat and polished kind, Alexander Ross[172] recommends _The Trissotetras_ to the reader, and assures the author that Scotia, whom by his writings he was exalting to the stars, looked down upon him with a benignant smile. Ross himself is now only known to most of us from the mention made of him in _Hudibras_, in the well-known passage--
"There was an ancient sage philosopher Who had read Alexander Ross over."
It is to be feared that Alexander Ross had not performed the same feat with regard to Sir Thomas Urquhart's treatise; for his verses[173] would have been equally appropriate if the subject of them had been a flying-machine or a water-tricycle invented by his friend.