"Mr. Harriot was contemporary with Mr. Oughtred (but elder...) and left many good things behind him in writing. Of which there is nothing hitherto made publick, but only his Algebra or Analytice... published by Mr. Warner... in... 1631. He alters the way of Notation, used by Vieta and Oughtred, for another more convenient. And he hath also made a strange improvement of Algebra, by discovering the true construction of Compound Equations, and how they be raised by a Multiplication of Simple Equations, and may therefore be resolved into such. ...In sum, He hath taught (in a manner) all that which hath since passed for the Cartesian method of Algebra; there being scarce any thing of (pure) Algebra in Des Cartes, which was not before in Harriot; from whom Des Cartes seems to have taken what he hath (that is purely Algebra) but without naming him. But the Application thereof to Geometry, or other particular Subjects, (which Des Cartes pursues,) is not the business of that Treatise of Harriot..."