Page:The wonders of optics (1869).djvu/160

 on the 17th of October, 1608, conceived in the following terms:—

"After two years' labour and thought I have succeeded in making an instrument, by the aid of which objects which are too distant to be visible by the eye, are seen plainly. The one I show, although constructed out of bad materials, and simply as an experiment, is, in the judgment of the Stadtholder and of several other persons, as good as the one lately presented to the States-General by a citizen of Middleburg. I am sure of improving it still further in the course of time, and I beg to ask for a patent by which any person who is not already in possession of this invention will be forbidden, under pain of a heavy fine and confiscation, to make or sell similar instruments for twenty-two years."

The States-General refused to grant the patent in this case also, but enjoined Metius to perfect his instrument, reserving to themselves the power to reward him in the future if they thought fit.

In Italy, Galileo is generally supposed to have discovered independently the method of making a telescope on the principle of the Dutch philosophers, about the beginning of 1609, having received a very imperfect account of these instruments somewhere about that time. It may be remarked that in his letter to the chiefs of the Venetian Republic, giving an account of the properties of these new instruments, Galileo states that, if necessary, they could be made specially for the use of the navy and army belonging to the state. But secrecy was useless, for telescopes were already made and sold in Holland at a cheap rate. Besides, Galileo makes no allusion to the labours of his Dutch predecessors, either in a prior letter handed down to us by Venturi, or in the decree of the Venetian Senate, dated August 5, 1609.

The Italian commentators are in error when they