Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/214

 learn who first found out the Properties of Convex and Concave Glasses in the Refraction of Light. Dr. Plot has collected a great deal concerning F. Bacon, in his Natural History of Oxfordshire; which seems to put it out of doubt that he knew that great Objects might appear little, and small Objects appear great; that distant Objects would seem near, and near Objects seem afar off, by different Applications of Convex and Concave Glasses; upon the Credit of which Authorities, Mr. Molineux (n) attributes the Invention of Spectacles to this learned Friar, the Time to which their earliest Use may be traced, agreeing very well with the Time in which he lived; but how far F. Bacon went, we know not: So that we must go into Holland for the first Inventors of these excellent Instruments, and there they were first found out by one Zacharias Joannides (o), a Spectacle-maker (p) of Middleburgh in Zeland; in 1590 (q) he presented a Tellescope of Two Glasses to Prince Maurice, and another to Arch-Duke Albert, the former of whom apprehending that they might be of great Use in War, desired him to conceal his Secret. For this Reason, his Name was so little known, that neither Des Cartes (r) nor