Introduction Footnote 2
See Part ii. sect. 1, l. 4; sect. 3, l. 11. `Obviously, nobody
putting a hypothetical case in that way to a child would go out of his
way to name with a past verb [see the second case] a date still in the
future.' -- Morley's Eng. Writers, v. 270. Similarly, the expression `I
wolde knowe', in the former case, precludes a date in the past;
and hence we are driven to conclude that the date refers to time present.
Curiously enough, there is an exactly parallel case. Blundevill's
Description of Blagrave's Astrolabe, printed at London by William Stansby,
is undated. Turning to his Proposition VI, p. 615, we find -- `As
for example, I would know the Meridian Altitude of the Sun ye first of
July, 1592.' The same date, 1592, is again mentioned at pp. 619,
620, 621, 636, and 639, which renders it probable that the book was printed
in that year.