[A15]. Alhazen was one of the greatest of the Arabian astronomers. He went, about the year 1100, to Spain, where many of his nation had established themselves in the eighth century, and carried thither their knowledge of astronomy; yet, from the year 800 down to about 1300, science remained shrowded with the darkest ignorance, throughout Europe.

Mr. Lalande observes, that the theory of Refractions is an important one, in astronomy; although it was considered of little consequence until the time of Alhazen. W. B.

[A16]. Aristotle, as though he had been of the race of the Ottomans, thought he could not reign except he first killed all his brethren. Insomuch as he never nameth or mentioneth an ancient author or opinion, but to confute or reprove. Bacon. Advancement.

[A17]. Timocharis of Alexandria endeavoured, with Aristillus, a philosopher of the same school, to determine the places of the different stars in the heavens, and to trace the course of the planets. Dr. Lempriere places him 294 years before Christ; and the Abbé Barthelemy has inserted his name in the list of illustrious men, who flourished in the fourth century before the Christian era: he probably lived some time after the commencement of that century. W. B.

[A18]. By its peculiar situation it will continue to do so for a long time.

[A19]. According to Lalande, Kepler was as celebrated in astronomy by the consequences he drew from the observations of Tycho Brahé, as the latter was for the immense mass of materials which he had prepared for him: and the Abbé Delaporte (in his Voyageur François) represents him as precursor of Descartes in opticks, of Newton in physicks, and as a law-giver (“legislateur”) in astronomy.

John Kepler, for this was the name of that famous mathematician, was born at Wiel, in the duchy of Wirtemberg, in the year 1571; and the Abbé Delaporte says, his family was illustrious. He died at Ratisbon, in 1630. W. B.

[A20]. The true invention of the telescope cannot be carried back to an earlier date than the beginning of the seventeenth century. Johannes Baptista Porta, a Neapolitan, in his Natural Magic, which was published in the year 1589, says, “Si utramque (lentem concavam et convexam) recté componere noveris, et longinqua et proxima majora et clara videbis:” and he is said to have made a telescope, accordingly, about the year 1594. But Porta is represented as having made this discovery such as it was, by accident; and, as not well understanding the proper use of his own invention.

According to Baron Bielfeld,[[A20a]] however, telescopes were first constructed a long time after, in Holland; some say, by John Lippersheim, a spectacle-maker at Middelbourg in Zealand; others, by James Metius, brother to the celebrated professor Adrian Metius, of Franeker. Although the invention of this instrument, of indispensable use in astronomy, is sometimes attributed to the great Galileo, he has himself acknowledged, in his treatise, entitled Nuncius Siderius, that he took the hint from a report of a German having invented an instrument, by means of which, and with the assistance of certain glasses, distant objects might be distinguished as clearly as those that were near. This is precisely what Porta had mentioned in his book, in 1589; and therefore, if Galileo had not referred to a German, he might be supposed to have had in his view the Neapolitan’s conception of a telescope, announced long before such an instrument was properly constructed.

Whatever may have been the merit of Porta’s discovery, or the pretensions of Lippersheim, the spectacle-maker, and Metius, Peter Borel (in his treatise De vero Telescopii Inventore) is of the opinion that Zachariah Johnson, who, like Lippersheim, was a spectacle-maker, and in the same city, made this discovery by chance, about the year 1500; that Lippersheim imitated him, after making numerous experiments; and that he instructed Metius. There are others, who have been considered as having had some sort of claim to this important invention; among whom were a Mr. Digges, of England, and a M. Hardy, of France, both towards the commencement of the seventeenth century.