Published to Recreate Ingenious Spirits ; and to induce them to make farther fcrutiny into thefe (and the like) SUBLIME SCIENCES.

AND

To divert them from following fuch Vices, to which Youth (in this Age) are fo much Inclin'd.

By WILLIAM LEYBOURN, Philomathes.

To this Work is also Annext,

A TREATISE of ALGEBRA, According to the late Improvements, applied to Numerical Questions and Geometry; with a NEW SERIES for the speedy ExtraEtion of Roots; as also a CONVERGING SERIBS for all manner of adfected Equations.

By R. SAULT, Master of the Mathematick School in Adam'sCourt, in Broadftreet, near the Royal Exchange, LONDON,

LONDON:

Printed for Richard Baldwin, and John Dunton; near the OxfordArms in Warwick-Lane: And at the Raven in the Poultrey. 1694.

29283

9-12-34. HRI

To the INGENIOUS

READERS:

And principally

To fuch as are MATHEMATICALLY Inclined.

R.

ECREATION, (faith a late Learned
Divine) is a fecond CREATION,
when Weariness hath almost annihilated our
Spirits: It is the breathing of the Soul,
which would otherwise be ftifled with con-
tinual Business.

And this Interval of Reft or Recreation
produceth the same Effect, as well in Senfitives and Vegitives,
as it doth in Man: According to that of the Scholiaft.

Ager veritanus, &c.

A Field left Fallow fome few years, will yield
The Richer Crop, when it again is Till'd:

A River stopped by a Sluice a space,

Runs after rougher, and a swifter pace:

A Bow a-while unbent, will after caft

Its Shafts the farther; and them fix more fast:
A Soldier that a season ftill hath lain,

Comes with more fury to the Field again.
Even fo Man's Body, while to gather Breath,
From Reft, to Pain again, it fojourneth;
It re-collects its Poars, and with Cheer
Falls fresh again into its first Carreer.

In the Choice of our Recreations, we ought to be well fa-
tisfied, (1.)-In the Lawfulness of them. (2.) That they be
Ingenious: And (3.) That they bear proportion with the Age,
Sex and Conftitution of Body of the Party using them: For,

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As Recreations and Exercifes (whether of Body or Mind) are
Various: So one Dish of Meat may as well please all Palates ;
as one Recreation fuit all Difpofitions: And (as I have faid elfe-
where upon
the like occafion), That, although fome Corpo-
real Exercises may to fome Bodies tend more to Health, and
fome Mental Labours more to Wealth; yet none affords the
Mind more pleasure with lefs repentance, than those of the Ma
thematicks do.

For inftance in a few Corporeal Exercises; with Reflections upon fome of them.

Ringing,] It oft-times makes good mufick on the Bells; but (being a violent and boisterous Exercife) puts Mens Bodies out of tune: So that by over-heating of themselves, they have rung their own Paffing-bell.

Fishing with the Angle,] (an Exercife with which Dr. Whittaker was much delighted) is a Recreation relifhing beft with fome; but to other Difpofitions most distasteful; and rather a torture than a pleafure; to ftand an whole hour, or more, as mute as the Fish they hope to take.

Hunting] is an Exercise most delightful, and much in request both with the Nobility and Gentry of thisLand; yet William Cecill, fometime Lord Treasurer of England, took no pleasure in it : For, when fome Noble men had gotten him to ride with them a Hunting, and the Sport began to be cold; What call you this, fays My Lord? Oh! Now, faid they, The Dogs are at a fault. Yea, quoth the Treasurer, take me again in fuch a Fault, and I'll give you leave to punish me for't.

Cornelius Agrippa terms it a most deteftable Recreation, and vain Exercife; a Paftime cruel, and totally Tragical: And. from the beginning (fays he) was the Exercife of the worst of men; for Cain, Lamech, Nimrod, Ifhmael and Efau, were mighty. Hunters: But in the New Teftament we read not of any one that was given thereunto: Yet Nicholaus the Third, a Roman, and Pope of Rome, was fo extreamly delighted in Hunting, that he inclosed a Warren of Hares on purpose for his Holiness's Recreation.

Fowling, Ulyffes is faid to be the first Inventer thereof; who after the taking of Troy, was the firft that brought into Greece Birds of Prey manur'd for Game; to comfort with New Recreations thofe that had loft their Parents and Acquaintance in

the

the Trojan War: And yet he commanded his Son not to make any use thereof. Notwithstanding this and the foregoing Exercises (tho mean and fervile in themselves) are now come to be so far efteemed, that the Nobility and Gentry, forsaking other Liberal and Noble Sciences, make these their chief Learning. Mr. Burton in his Melancholy, tells a Merry Story out of Poggius the Florentine, condemning the folly of thofe Fowlers; which is this. "A Phyfician of Millain (faith he) that "cured Madmen and Idiots, had a Pit of Water in his House, " in which he kept his Patients; fome up to the Knees, fome to the Girdle, and fome to the Chin, pro modo infanie, as they "were more or less affected. One of his Patients, which was pretty well recovered, ftanding at the Phyficians Gate, and feeing a Gallant ride by with a Hawk on his Fift, with his Spaniels after him, would needs know to what use all this preparation served? the Gallant made answer, To kill Par"tridges and other Fowl. The Patient demanded again, What "his Fowl might be worth which he killed in a year; he "reply'd, Five or Ten Crowns: And when he urged him fur"ther, What his Hawk, Horfe and Dogs stood him in ? he "told him Four hundred Crowns: With that, The Patient bad "him be gone, as he tendred his Life and Safety: For (faid "he) if our Master should come and hear you say so, he "would put you into his Pit up to the very Chin.

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Shooting with the Long Bow is a Noble Recreation, and an half Liberal Art: There is hardly any comparable to it, for ftirring every part of the Body: It openeth the Breast and Pipes ; exercifeth the Arms and Feet with lefs violence than Running, Leaping, and the like. And herein was Domitian the Emperor fo cunning, that it is reported of him, That let a Boy a good distance off hold up his Hand against a Wall, and ftretch his Fingers abroad, he would shoot through the spaces without touching the Boys Hand, or any Finger of it. And it is reported of Domitian the Emperor, That at two fhoots he fhould fix his Shafts in the Front of Wild Beafts like a Pair of Horns. King Edward the Sixth of England, with the Long Bow (though he drew no Strong one) fhot very well: And once, when John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, commended him for hitting the Mark: You shot better (quoth the King) when you shot off my Good Uncle Protector's Head.

Running, Leaping, Dancing and Walking,] are all Excellent Recreations, ufed in the Morning; as we read Alexander and

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Epima.