I thought when I set pen to paper to have given you an account of some conversation I have had with a person who is a zealous friend and admirer of this sort of knowledge, but I see I have already gone beyound bounds. I shal onely say he hath almost convinced me that it is not so hidden and obscure, so difficult and unaccountable, as men commonly seeme to beleeve. I am in hopes to receive, by Mr. Hooke's and Mr. Lodwick's favour, the lamp for which he was pleased to give directions some time since.
I have not yet seen my miller and his invention, though he promised to bring it to me; I presume 'tis not yet ready. I expect him dayly.
Pray give my humble service to our worthy friend, and to Mr. Pigott.
[628]I shall be glad to heare of a new edition of the _Theatrum_[629] and that you will speed the printing of your MS. of Raymund Lullye's. If it doe not goe soon to the presse, how joyfull should I be to have the perusall of it! 'Tis the onely grievous thing I suffer in this solitude that I may not see good bookes and good men, but I must be content.
[630]The first thing written on the back side[631] is as followes:--
At Stockeland, Bristowe, iiii myles from Brigewater, 1566.
The principall rules of naturall philosophy figuratively set fourth to the obtayning of the philosopher's stone, collectyd out of xl auctors by the unletteryd scholer Thomas Charnocke, studient in the sciencis off astronomie, physick, and naturall philosophie, the same year that he dedicatyd a booke off the science to queene Elizabeth of Englande which was Anno Domini 1566, and the viii yere off her raigne.
<MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 56ᵛ, gives the rest of the writing on the back of the roll; but the outer edge of the leaf is torn off, and the writing consequently imperfect>
[632]. . . . . . . . his pose . . . . . on the white and red rose . . . . black appere sartayne . . . xx or it wax bright . . . lx after to black againe . . . xx or it be perfet[633] white . . . it or all quick things be dedd . . . . . or this rose be redd Thomas Charnocke [in[634] red letters] 1572.
This is the philosopher's dragon which eateth upp his one tayle Beinge famisshed in a doungen of glas and all for my prevayle <Ma>ny yeres I keapt this dragon in pryson strounge. <Bef>ore I coulde mortiffy him I thought it lounge <But> at the lenght by God's grace yff ye beleve my worde <I> vanquished him wythe a fyrie sword.