letters,
obtained Lord Macclesfield's consent to their publication, and induced the
Oxford Press to bear the expense. It must be particularly remembered that
there still remains at Shirburn Castle a {299} valuable mass of
non-epistolary manuscripts. So far as we can see, the best chance of a
further examination and publication lies in public encouragement of the
collection now before us: the Oxford Press might be induced to extend its
operations if it were found that the results were really of interest to the
literary and scientific world. Rigaud died before the work was completed,
and the publication was actually made by one of his sons, S. Jordan
Rigaud,[496] who died Bishop of Antigua. But this publication was little
noticed, for the reasons given. The completion now published consists of a
sufficient table of contents, of the briefest kind, by Professor De Morgan,
and an excellent index by the Rev. John Rigaud.[497] The work is now fairly
started on its career.

If we were charged to write a volume with the title "Small things in their
connection with great," we could not do better than choose the small part
of this collection of letters as our basis. The names, as well as the
contents, are both great and small: the great names, those which are known
to every mathematician who has any infusion of the history of his pursuit,
are Briggs,[498] Oughtred, Charles Cavendish,[499] Gascoigne,[500] Seth
Ward,[501] Wallis,[502] {300} Hu[y]gens,[503] Collins,[504] William
Petty,[505] Hooke,[506] Boyle,[507] Pell,[508] Oldenburg,[509]
Brancker,[510] Slusius,[511] Bertit,[512] Bernard,[513] Borelli,[514]
Mouton,[515] Pardies,[516] Fermat,[517] Towneley,[518] Auzout,[519] {301}
D. Gregory,[520] Halley,[521] Machin,[522] Montmort,[523] Cotes,[524]
Jones,[525] Saunderson,[526] Reyneau,[527] Brook Taylor,[528]
Maupertuis,[529] Bouguer,[530] La Condamine,[531] Folkes,[532]
Macclesfield,[533] {302} Baker,[534] Barrow,[535] Flamsteed,[536] Lord
Brounker,[537] J. Gregory,[538] Newton[539] and Keill.[540] To these the
Museum collection adds the names of Thomas Digges,[541] Dee,[542] Tycho
Brahe,[543] Harriot,[544] Lydyat,[545] Briggs,[546] Warner,[547] Tarporley,
Pell,[548] Lilly,[549] Oldenburg,[550] Collins,[551] Morland.[552]

{303}

The first who appears on the scene is the celebrated Oughtred, who is
related to have died of joy at the Restoration: but it should be added, by
way of excuse, that he was eighty-six years old. He is an