METIUS (James), of Alemaer, in Holland, the inventor of telescopes with glasses, one of which he presented to the States General in 1609. Tubes extended, by uniting them, to a great length, were known to the ancients; but Metius was the first who added glasses, and he was indebted to chance for the discovery: he had frequently observed some schoolboys playing upon the ice, who made use of their co-
Metropolis. py books rolled up in the shape of tubes, to look at each other, to which they sometimes added pieces of ice at each end, to view distant objects: this led him to the invention of optic glasses.