there was a wonderfull gyant, whiche had a hundred
handes, and coulde shoote a hundred dartes at ones. And as this
fable was spredde of Archimedes, so many other haue been fayned
to bee gyantes and monsters, bycause they dyd suche thynges,
whiche farre passed the witte of the common people. So dyd they
feyne Argus to haue a hundred eies, bicause they herde of his
wonderfull circumspection, and thoughte that as it was aboue
their capacitee, so it could not be, onlesse he had a hundred
eies. So imagined they Ianus to haue two faces, one lokyng
forwarde, and an other backwarde, bycause he coulde so wittily
compare thynges paste with thynges that were to come, and so
duely pondre them, as yf they were all present. Of like reason
did they feyn Lynceus to haue such sharp syght, that he could
see through walles and hylles, bycause peraduenture he dyd by
naturall iudgement declare what commoditees myght be digged out
of the grounde. And an infinite noumbre lyke fables are there,
whiche sprange all of lyke reason.

For what other thyng meaneth the fable of the great gyant Atlas,
whiche was ymagined to beare vp heauen on his shulders? but that
he was a man of so high a witte, that it reached vnto the skye,
and was so skylfull in Astronomie, and coulde tell before hande
of Eclipses, and other like thynges as truely as though he dyd
rule the sterres, and gouerne the planettes.

So was Eolus accompted god of the wyndes, and to haue theim all
in a caue at his pleasure, by reason that he was a wittie man in
naturall knowlege, and obserued well the change of wethers, aud
was the fyrst that taught the obseruation of the wyndes. And
lyke reson is to be geuen of al the old fables.

But to retourne agayne to Archimedes, he dyd also by arte
perspectiue (whiche is a parte of geometrie) deuise such glasses
within the towne of Syracusae, that dyd bourne their ennemies
shyppes a great way from the towne, whyche was a meruaylous
politike thynge. And if I shulde repete the varietees of suche
straunge inuentions, as Archimedes and others haue wrought by
geometrie, I should not onely excede the order of a preface, but
I should also speake of suche thynges as can not well be
vnderstande in talke, without somme knowledge in the principles
of geometrie.

But this will I promyse, that if I may perceaue my paynes to be
thankfully taken, I wyll not onely write of suche pleasant
inuentions, declaryng what they were, but also wil teache howe a
grea