Your maiesties moste humble seruant
and obedient subiect,
Robert Recorde.
[ THE PREFACE,]
declaring briefely the commodi-
tes of Geometrye, and the
necessitye thereof.
Eometrye may thinke it selfe to sustaine great iniury, if it shall be inforced other to show her manifold commodities, or els not to prease into the sight of men, and therefore might this wayes answere briefely: Other I am able to do you much good, or els but litle. If I bee able to doo you much good, then be you not your owne friendes, but greatlye your owne enemies to make so little of me, which maye profite you so muche. For if I were as vncurteous as you vnkind, I shuld vtterly refuse to do them any good, which will so curiously put me to the trial and profe of my commodities, or els to suffre exile, and namely sithe I shal only yeld benefites to other, and receaue none againe. But and if you could saye truely, that my benefites be nother many nor yet greate, yet if they bee anye, I doo yelde more to you, then I doo receaue againe of you, and therefore I oughte not to bee repelled of them that loue them selfe, althoughe they loue me not all for my selfe. But as I am in nature a liberall science, so canne I not againste nature contende with your inhumanitye, but muste shewe my selfe liberall euen to myne enemies. Yet this is my comforte againe, that I haue none enemies but them that knowe me not, and therefore may hurte themselues, but can not noye me. Yf they dispraise the thinge that they know not, all wise men will blame them and not credite them, and yf they thinke they knowe me, lette theym shewe one vntruthe and erroure in me, and I wyll geue the victorye.
Yet
can no humayne science saie thus, but I onely, that there is no sparke of vntruthe in me: but all my doctrine and workes are without any blemishe of errour that mans reason can discerne. And nexte vnto me in certaintie are my three systers, Arithmetike, Musike, and Astronomie, whiche are also so nere knitte in amitee, that he that loueth the one, can not despise the other, and in especiall Geometrie, of whiche not only these thre, but all other artes do borow great ayde, as partly hereafter shall be shewed. But first will I beginne with the vnlearned sorte, that you maie perceiue how that no arte can stand without me. For if I should declare how many wayes my helpe is vsed, in measuryng of ground, for medow, corne, and wodde: in hedgyng, in dichyng, and in stackes makyng, I thinke the poore Husband man would be more thankefull vnto me, then he is nowe, whyles he thinketh that he hath small benefite by me. Yet this maie he coniecture certainly, that if he kepe not the rules of Geometrie, he can not measure any ground truely. And in dichyng, if he kepe not a proportion of bredth in the mouthe, to the bredthe of the bottome, and iuste slopenesse in the sides agreable to them bothe, the diche shall be faultie many waies. When he doth make stackes for corne, or for heye, he practiseth good Geometrie, els would thei not long stand: So that in some stakes, whiche stand on foure pillers, and yet made round, doe increase greatter and greatter a good height, and then againe turne smaller and smaller vnto the toppe: you maie see so good Geometrie, that it were very difficult to counterfaite the lyke in any kynde of buildyng. As for other infinite waies that he vseth my benefite, I ouerpasse for shortnesse.
Carpenters, Karuers, Ioyners, and Masons, doe willingly acknowledge that they can worke nothyng without reason of Geometrie, in so muche that they chalenge me as a peculiare science for them. But in that they should do wrong to all other men, seyng euerie kynde of men haue som benefit by me, not only in buildyng, whiche is but other mennes costes, and the arte of Carpenters, Masons, and the other aforesayd, but in their