Part iv

. So it ought perhaps, if Chaucer had followed out his own plan. But it is clear from its contents that the Prologue to the 'Astrolabie' was written _before_ the commencement of the treatise itself, and not, as prefaces generally are, afterwards. He was pleased with his son's progress. Little Lewis had asked him if he might learn something about an astrolabe. The father at once sent him a small astrolabe[50] by way of reward, constructed for the latitude of Oxford, and having 45 circles of latitude on the flat disc (see Fig. 5) instead of having 90 such circles, as the best instruments had[51]. This, however, was a 'sufficient' astrolabe for the purpose. But he believes the Latin treatises to be too hard for his son's use, and the Conclusions in them to be too numerous. He therefore proposes to select some of the more important Conclusions, and to turn them into English with such modifications as would render them easier for a child to understand, He then lays down a table of contents of his proposed five parts, throughout which he employs the future tense, as 'the firste partie _shal_ reherse,'--'the second partie _shal_ teche,' &c. This use of the future would not alone prove much, but taken in connexion with the context, it becomes very suggestive. However, the most significant phrase is in the last line of the Prologue, which speaks of 'other noteful thinges, yif god wol vouche-sauf & his modur the mayde, mo than I behete,' i.e. other useful things, _more than I now promise, if God and the Virgin vouchsafe it_. In accordance with his habits of seldom finishing and of deviating from his own plans at pleasure, we have but an imperfect result, not altogether answerable to the table of contents. I therefore agree with Mr. Brae that the 40th Conclusion would have done better for