To the Reader.

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0icd, and I* have now ventured forth thisdiscourse*, wherein besides the great ddightAnd pleasure ( which every rational Readermust needs find in such notions as. carrywith them their own evidence and demon-stration) there is also much real benefit to belearned ; particylarly for such GentLmen asemploy their cstates so those chargeable ad-ventures of Drawning, Mines, CoIe-pits,&c.who may from hence learn the chief groundsand Yialsre of Enginesy‘°and thereby moreeasily dvoid the delusidn$ of any cheatingImpostor : And- also for such common Arti-ficetr,a4 are well skHfedln she practise of thesearts, who’ may be much advantaged by theright understanding of their grounds andIheOty

> Ramui hath observed, that the reason whyGermany hath been so eminent for Mechanicalinventions, is because there have been pub-lics Lectures of this kind instituted amongstthem, and those not only in the learnedlanguages, but also in the vulgar tongue, forthe capacity of every unlettcr’d ingeniousArtificer.

’ This whole Discourse I call Mathemati-cal tJlsagick^, because the art of inch Me-chanical inventions as are here chiefly insistedupon, hath been formerly so styled *, and inallusion to vulgar opinion, which dothcom-jnonly’attribute all luch strange operationsi: "... ■ : ' unto