Upon so potent a help as these two last mentioned Inventions a Waterwork is by many years experience[1] and labour so advantageously by me[2] contrived, that a Child’s force bringeth up an hundred foot[3] high an incredible quantity of water, even two foot[3] Diameter, [4]so naturally, that the work will not be heard even into the next Room; and with so great ease and Geometrical Symmetry, that though it work day and night from one end of the year to the other, it will not require forty shillings reparation to the whole Engine, nor hinder ones day-work.[4] And I may boldly call it The most stupendious Work in the whole world: not onely with little charge to drein all sorts of Mines, and furnish Cities with water, though never so high seated, as well to keep them sweet, running through several streets, and so performing the work of Scavengers, as well as furnishing the Inhabitants with sufficient water for their private occasions; but likewise supplying Rivers[5] with sufficient to maintaine and make them portable[6] from Towne to Towne, and for the bettering of Lands all the way it runs; with many more advantageous, and yet greater effects of Profit, Admiration, and Consequence. So that deservedly I deem this Invention to crown my Labours, to reward my Expences, and make my Thoughts acquiesce in way of further Inventions: This making up the whole Century, and preventing any further trouble to the Reader for the present, meaning to leave to Posterity a Book, wherein under each of these Heads the means to put in execution and visible trial all and every of these Inventions, with the shape and form of all things belonging to them, shall be Printed by Brass-plates.[7]
In Bonum Publicum
&
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam.[T]
Footnotes
[1]expences—for experience.
[2]by me—omitted.
[3]feet. P.
[4]The sentence:—“So naturally, that the work will not be heard even in the next room, and with so great ease and geometrical symmetry, that though it work day and night from one end of the year to the other, it will not require forty shillings reparation to the whole Engine, nor hinder one’s day-work”—does not appear in the MS. and is omitted by Partington in his edition.
[5]the rivers. P.
[6]make navigable—for, make them portable.
[7]Thus ends No. 100 of the first printed edition; but Mr. P. continues the paragraph by adding from the MS. what is clearly only a Postscript to the entire “Century.” He then concludes with the Latin phrase, thus following neither work entirely.