Letter from John Collins to Newton, dated 1 August 1672
Sir
Since I writt the former I received yours of the
with an Exemplar of your new Edition of Varenius for which I heartily thanke you as also for your kind Profer about sending up a Calculation for the 2d Segments of a Sphære or Sphæroid, which indeed may be of great use to Guagers (though tedious) were it but to compare with such false approaches as they are driven to use, to find how much they are erroneous. What Mr Gregory hath sent me about it I send you a Coppy of I rather wish his severall Series had been distinct than compounded and that as a Parabola is throughout Proportionall to a Sphære, he had found the genius of that Curve that is throughout Proportionall to a Segment of a Sphære, but about these things I am unwilling to put either you or him to trouble, Dr Barrow is come Up, Horroxs Posthuma are not yet finished though I hope they will be ere long. Mr Pitts is willing to take 3£ for his Interest in Kinckhuysen Introduction if the Bookseller will moreover give him 10 Coppies in quires when printed, and if you cannot procure so many I shall if he insists on it compensate what falls short the rather in regard I am willing to shun the trouble at the presse which I promised to undertake, but cheifly because I thinke that Introduction proper to accompany your doctrine of infinite Series Sir I remaine