Words Hutton’s Dictionary, 1796 H / HARRIOT (Thomas) [vol. 1, p. 584] HARRIOT ( Thomas , a very eminent English mathematician and astronomer, was born at Oxford in 1560, and died at London July 2, 1621, in the 61st year of his age. Harriot has hitherto been known to the world only as an algebraist, though a very eminent one; but from his manuscript papers, that have been but lately discovered by Dr. Zach, astronomer to the duke of Saxe-Gotha, it appears that he was not less eminent as an astronomer and geometrician. Dr. Zach has printed an account of those papers, in the Astronomical Ephemeris of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Berlin, for the year 1788; of which, as it is very curious, and contains a great deal of information, I shall here give a translation, to serve as memoirs concerning the life and writings of this eminent man; afterwards adding only some necessary remarks of my own. “I here present to the world (says Dr. Zach), a short account of some valuable and curious manuscripts, which I found in the year 1784, at the seat of the earl of Egremont, at Petworth in Sussex, in hopes that this learned and inquisitive age will either think my endeavours about them worthy of its assistance, or else will be thereby induced to attempt some other means of publishing them. The only undeniable proof I can now produce of the usefulness of such an undertaking, is by giving a succinct report of the contents of these materials, and briefly shewing what may be effected by them. And although I come to the performance of such an enterprize with much less abilities than the different parts of it require, yet I trust that my love for truth, my design and zeal to vindicate the honour due to an Englishman, the author of these manuscripts, which are the chief reasons that have influenced me in this undertaking, will serve as my excuse. | |
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