was neuer granted to haue any being or existence much lesse any causality in nature Some perhaps will say that not the vacuum it selfe but the euitation and auoiding it is the cause of the motion I deny not but this may in some sort be interpreted a cause but the doubt is not answered For wee seeke not a Finall but an Efficient cause and a curious searcher into Nature will hardly rest in a meere finall cause For the finall cause so farre forth as it is a cause preceding the effect can no otherwise bee conceiued than in the intention of the Agent then must enquiry bee made againe what the Agent should bee and so will the probleme rest vncleered 1. Because one parcell of the Aire could not moue another except the same were first moued it selfe and so a new Agent must of necessity bee found out 2 The Agent and the thing moued or Patient ought to bee two separate and distinct bodies But the parts of the ayre meeting together become one continuate body No shift is there left for these Philosophers but one distinction wherein they distinguish betwixt the Vniuersall and Speciall forme The Aire as they affirme according to his Speciall forme ascâ—nds vpward from the Center of the Earth yet by the Vniuersall for the conseruation of the whole vniuerse it may sometimes suffer a contrary motion as to moue downeward toward the Center In which distinction they suppose they haue cut the throat of all contrary reasons But who so vnderstands himselfe shall finde it but as a weake reed to hurt his hand which rests on it for a second enquiry will bee made what this vniuersall forme should bee For by it they vnderstand of necessity either an Internall forme or Nature or an Externall resultancie and harmony of the parts such as wee haue described in the first Chapter of this booke If they vnderstand this latter it cannot any way bee a cause of this motion because it followes and ariseth out of this motion concurring with the rest and no way preceeds it wheras on the contrary part euery cause is to goe before his effect Secondly this vniuersall forme or nature compared with the speciall there would arise a Subordination and not a Coordination or opposition forasmuch as the speciall is subordinate to the generall or vniuersall But subordinate causes can produce no other than subordinate effâ—â—ts But here we see the effects or motions to bee quite opposite the one to the other in asmuch as the motion of Descent in the Aire which they ascribe to the vniuersall forme is cleane opposite to the motion of Ascent ascribed to the speciall nature Thirdly these Philosophers vrging the necessity of Nature to preserue the Vniuerse are much deceaued in the manner and meanes thereof True it is that all Earthly and heauy bodies are directed and disposed to the conseruation of the earthly Globe But euery such body as wee haue shewed before seekes first the safeguard and preseruation of it selfe and secondarily by the safeguard of it selfe the preseruation of the whole For how can any part when it neglects its owne safety endeauour the preseruation of the whole sith the whole is but one compounded of many parts And therefore can it not bee auoided but that the disorders and disharmony of one part should preiudice and destroy the whole frame If they turne to the other part and grant this vniuersall forme to bee Internall many reasons stand opposite For first I would demand whether this vniuersall forme bee simple or compounded It cannot bee simple because it would alwayes produce one simple and vniforme effect but experience hath tâ—ught the contrary because wee shall not alwayes find the aire to descend but sometimes to moue obliquely to the left or right hand backward and forward as when it enters into the house by a doore or windowe On the other side it cannot well be called a compound forme because all formes the more vniuersall they are the more simple they are to be accounted because the speciall includes more composition than the generall Moreouer all compounded substance arise out of simples which are to bee esteemed first in nature Secondly I would aske whether this vniuersall forme bee vna numero the selfe same indiuiduall in all the parts and bodies or diuerse according to the diuersity of the said Bodies It cannot bee one and the selfe same in all bodies because according to the opinion of Aristotle the whole vniuerse is not one continuate body composed of essentiall parts but rather a heape or masse collected and digested out of many bodies Secondly the forme being thus one indiuiduall would bee singular or speciall not vniuersall If they affirme that this forme is diuerse according to the diuersity of the bodies it cannot bee the cause of this motion or descent in the Aire For this motion as they suppose is destined and appointed to no other end than to comfort Nature in her distresse when shee stands in feare of rupture or dissolution But how can this forme being bounded within the limits of the Aeriall superficies perceaue or feele this exigence of Nature in other Bodies Whatsoeuer they can say in this is altogether vncertaine and not warranted by any sound demonstration A second reason for the naturall descent of the Aire may bee drawne from a possible supposition from which wee may enforce a true conclusion Let vs suppose a portion of Aire by some violence to bee carried aboue his proper orbe as for example to the space which by our common Philosophers is ascribed to the Element of Fire neere the concaue superficies of the Moone I would here demand whether this portion of Aire thus transposed would ascend higher or descend lower or rest still in the same place It could not ascend higher first because in this wise it should be moued farther out of his owne place whereas according to the principles of Philosophie all bodies transposed from their proper places haue an aptnesse or inclination to returne againe to their proper seats and not to roue farther off Secondly this granted the Aire should inuade the place of the fire and so the Elements should suffer a confusion which Aristotle holds absurd Thirdly there cannot be imagined in that higher orbe any point or center to which it should direct his motion and therefore there is no such motion found or it must bee very irregular If on the other side it were granted that such a portion of Aire so separated should descend I aske againe whether they hold this motion naturall or violent It cannot bee a violent motion because it is directed to his owne naturall and proper place and this motion in the Elements is alwayes accounted naturall Last of all it cannot rest still in the same place because all bodies forced out of their places all obstacles being remoued must needs returne vnto their proper place Wherefore no other starting hole is here left to our opposites but that they
The Motiue is that by which all magneticall bodies are inclined and stirred vp to the motion In the Reasonable soule of a man wee haue two faculties which shew themselues a motiue and a directiue or disponent power whereof the one stirres vp the motion the other regulates conformes and directs it The former is the Will the later the Discourse and Iudgement This distinction of faculties howsoeuer more euident in the soule findes place in all Naturall agents in which a Philosopher ought to distinguish betwixt that which giues them a power to moue and that which limits determines and as the Schoolemen are wont to speake modificates the action Amongst others the magnet-stone seemes most to partake of these two powers as that which amongst all naturall agents in Gilberts opinion seemes most to haue resemblance with the soule of a man so that by an apt Trope it hath been called of many the Magneticall soule of the Earth for hence wee may well perceiue one vertue or inclination which â—â—useth the magneticall needle to moue out of its place another by which it is apt to conforme it selfe North and South as also to obserue certaine angles correspondent to the latitude of the place as shall bee demonstrated in due place Of the motiue power we will produce these Theoremes 1 The Magneticall motion is excited in a small vnperceiuable difference of time This proposition may be shewed out of euident experiment wherein euery mans sight may be a witnes For if an Iron-needle touched with the Loadstone be placed within the Spheare of the magneticall vertue of the stone it will presently moue it selfe notwithstanding the interposition of solide bodies which made Gilbert to imagine this motion to bee effected by a meere spirituall and immateriall effluxe which may well be compared to the light which neuerthelesse it surpasseth in subtility for the light is moued from East to West so quickly that many haue thought this motion to haue been in a moment or instant of time But this quicknes of motion may much more be imagined in the Magneticall vertue being of a more subtile and piercing nature as may bee gathered from this reason to wit That the light is alwayes hindered by the interposition of a thicke and opacous body but the vertue Magneticall findes a passage through all solide bodies whatsoeuer and meets with no impediment 2 This Motiue quality is Spherically spread through euery part of the Magneticall body Here againe may wee finde a great resemblance betwixt the magneticall vertue and the light for as all light Bodies as the Sunne Moone and Starres cast their beames euery way into an orbicular forme so this Magneticall vigour casts it selfe abroad not only from the center toward the superficies but from the superficies outward into the Aire or Water where this magneticall body is placed and so makes vp a Spheare but yet with this difference that if the body bee meere and perfectly Sphericall the Orbe of the magneticall vertue will end in a perfect Spheare as wee see the magnet G to confine his vertue within the Circle BF But if it be a square or any other figure not Sphericall it imitates a Spheare as neere as the body will suffer in that it spreades it selfe euery-where from the center by right lines yet will it be confined in a square figure correspondent to the body whence it proceeds as we see the vertue of the square magnet A to cast his beames into the square figure LD 3 The motiue quality of the Magneticall body is strongest of all in the Poles in other parts by so much the stronger by how much these parts are situated neere the Poles Wee suppose out of the principles of Magneticall Philosophie that a Magnet hath two Poles whose vse wee shall shew hereafter These Poles are found by experiment to haue more force and vigour in them then other parts and all other parts to enioy more or lesse force by how much neerer or farther off they are situated to their Poles The reason is ascribed by these Writers to the disposition of the Magneticall vigour in the body of the Load stone as shall appeare by this figure following in Gilbert expressing the great Magneticall Body of the earth Let the Sphericall superficies of it bee HQE the Pole E the Center M HQ the plaine of the Equinoctiall from euery point of this Equinoctiall plaine the vigour Magneticall is conueyed and extended to CFNE and to euery point from C to E the Pole but not towards the point B so neither from G towardâ— C. The vigour is not strengthned in the part FHG from that which is GMFE but FGH doth increase the vertue in H so that there can arise no vigor so far from the parallels to the Axel tree aboue the said parallels but internally from the parallels to the Pole So wee see that from euery point of the Equinoctiall plaine the force is deriued to the Pole E. But the point F hath only the vigour from GH and the point N from OH but the Pole E is corroborated and strengthened from the whole plaine of the Equinoctiall HQ Wherefore the vigour magneticall in this Pole is most eminent and remarkable but in the middle spaces as for example in F the magneticall quality is so far strengthened as the portion of the Equinoctiall plaine H can giue But Dr Ridley in his late Magneticall Treatise in the 6. Chapt. seemes to oppose this Demonstration For although hee acknowledgeth that the vigour is strongest of all in the Poles yet saith hee if tryall bee made what the Pole will take perpendicularly and also what the parts aboue 34 degrees will lift vp it will appeare to bee halfe asmuch perpendicularly so that the Pole doth not take vp as much as this and the other part doth on the other side But the decision of these differences I leaue to such as are more experimentall then my selfe being destitute of those helpes and instruments which they enioy 4 It behoues vs in the second place to speake of the Disponent vigour of Magneticall bodies The Disponent force we call that facultie by which magneticall Bodies are disposed or directed to a certaine site or position 1 Magneticall bodies moue not vncertainly but haue their motions directed and conformed to certaine bounds This Proposition is confirmed by manifold experiments For magneticall bodies are neuer found to moue vncertainly and at all adventures but conforme themselues to certaine Poles and make certaine angles proportionall to the latitude as we shall shew hereafter in particular The reason of which experiment wee can draw from no other cause then the first institution of Nature in all Naturall agents which wee would haue directed to certaine ends that nothing in her Common-wealth might seeme idle or vnnecessary wherefore shee giues all agents not only a power to worke their ends but also shewes them the way squares and regulates the meanes which direct vnto the end No-where is this
hath taught the Heauens are moued or turned round by an Angell or Intelligence fixed to his Orbe of a spirituall and immateriall substance which in a body meetes no opposition Not in the body moued because of it's owne Nature it is prone and inclinable to this motion But this reason is like a reed that hurts his hand that leanes on it for first what indigence or necessity in Nature is obserued so great to bee the father of such Intelligences What serious iudgment can euer imagine the Angels to bee like gally-slaues chained fast to their gallies or turne-spit-dogs labouring in their wheeles To what vse shall they serue not to stirre vp and beginne the motion for why should we debarre the Heauens from the priuiledge ofall other Bodies farre lesse excellent whose motions challenge no other cause or beginning then their owne forme and nature Not to Regulate and confine this motion for Nature which beginnes any action or motion is able of her selfe to set limits and bounds vnto it without the helpe of any externall agent Finally not to continue this motion for as wee are taught in our Philosophie Euery Naturall Agent if it bee not hindered still acts to the vttermost of his power and therefore needes no externall coadiutor to continue his action for otherwise we might suppose the Heauens to grow weary and faint in their intended course Secondly whereas they say there can bee no Resistence in the body moued they contradict their owne grounds for it is agreed by all that the higher Orbs doe turne and wrest about the lower I would willingly aske by what kinde of action either by a vertuall influence or emanation or els by a corporall touch and application The former is improbable and as farre as I can gather not auuouched by any and were it so it would seeme ridiculous for why should wee rather ascribe this effect to an vnknowne influence of an externall body then to the vigour of his owne forme and nature For if one orbe in this sort can moue another why could it not moue it selfe being more present to it selfe then any other If they say by a corporall application of bodies and their parts I see not how they can auoid this Renitencie and reaction which alwayes doth suppose some resistence for how can one solide and hard body bee imagined to heaue and push another forward without some reluctancy in the patient because the inferiour Orbe hauing of it selfe a proper motion this must needes be violent as supposing a forcing wresting of Nature from her proper course whereof it is not hard to shew a sensible demonstration because the Orbe naturally directed one way is turned and directed another way at the same time which both motions concurring in the same body must needes offer violence one to the other Moreouer the immunity from corruptible qualities granted to the Heauens which is the ground of this opinion hath beene muh talked of amongst the Aristoteleans but neuer warranted by any certaine demonstration wee see say these Philosophers the Heauens to haue remained since the beginning of the World without any sensible alteration and change and therefore must all the Elementary and corruptible qualities bee excluded To disproue this I need goe no farther then the last Comet which Mathematicians by the parallax found to bee in the heauens And whereas otherwise they seeke a sensible alteration in other parts they deceiue themselues for as in the earth whereon wee dwell howeuer the parts interchangeably corrupt and ingender dayly yet the whole Globe will apparantly remaine the same keeping it's integrity so may it happen to many of the superiour Globes whose parts dayly corrupted and renewed againe although for the great distance to vs insensible the whole Globe remaineth still perfect in his perfect Sphericity I cease any further to inuade anothers Prouince and therefore descend to a second argument to proue this extraordinary violent and swift motion in the heauens to bee improbable It is ordinarily obserued in other Orbes of the heauens that the higher the Orbe is placed the motion is slower as for example the Spheare of the Moone which is next the Earth is carried about in 27 dayes Mercury and Venus are slow enough in their course as the former in 80 dayes the latter in 9 moneths the Sunne in a yeere Mars in 2 yeeres Iupiter in 12 Saturne in 30. Also those Astronomers which giue the fixt starres a motion would haue them to finish their course according to Ptolomie in 36000 but if wee will beleeue Copernicus in 25816 yeeres so that the higher and greater the circles be so much slower will be the motion what iniury were it then to the concord and harmony of Nature to impose vpon the highest Orbe of all such an vnmeasurable strange motion which might strike the most Sâ—raphickâ— Angell into admiration To these may bee added other Arguments in Copernicus which albeit they be not demonstratiue will make the matter more probable First that Nature in all things is a compendious and short worker and vseth not many helpes for such thinges as may bee performed by fewer and therefore need wee not to vse the helpe of so many Orbes and concamerations to square our obseruations which will find more steady footing in this one ground once granted of the Earth's circular motion Secondly it will seeme more consonant and agreeable to Nature that the highest and vttermost Spheare of all which bounds and engirts in all the World besides should rest quiet and vnmoueable then to suffer such an intollerable motion as might endanger the whole Fabricke Lastly I may adde this one that this diurnall motion granted to the first Moueable can in my iudgement hardly stand with the regularity of heauenly Bodies if wee expresse it no otherwise then the ordinary sort of Astronomers For a regular motion is defined to bee that whereby in equall times a body is moued through equall places But this Diurnall motion receiued from the first Moueable concurring with the Sunnes annuall motion will exclude this equality For first it is granted that the Sunne in his motion from the Aequator to the Tropicke according to sense runnes â—uery day in a distinct parallell for although euery minute hee declines somewhat from the Aequator toward the Tropicke yet the difference is not sensible so that wee may well euery day assigne a parallelll-inâ— to the Sun's motion Secondly they must grant that these parallells are diminished and grow lesse and lesse toward the Tropicke from the Aequator Thirdly that as wee haue foreshewed of two bodies mouing in the same time on the same center that should moue faster which is greater so one body mouing in diuerse vnequall circles in equall time it must of necessity follow that it must needes moue faster in that which is greater here wee may conclude he moues faster in the Aequator then in the Tropicke because in the one hee is carryed in a greater parallell in the
hath a two-fold Motion The first is common to all heauy Bodyes as well as the Earth in which is an inclination to come as neere as they can to the Center of the Earth whereof wee haue spoken in our former booke The second is that which more properly agrees to the Sea which is againe twofold either the Naturall or the Violent The Naturall howsoeuer requiâ—ing perhaps the concurrence of some externall cause is notwithstanding so called for as much as it chiefly seemes to proceede from the Disposition of the Sea-water The Violent is caused meerely by the violence of the winds mouing the Ocean The Naturall motion we haue againe diuided into generall or speciall because the Affluxe and Refluxe of the Sea whereof we are to treat is generall throughout the whole Ocean some petty creekes perchance excepted whereas the Currents which is the second kinde of motion are more speciall as agreeing not to all or most parts as it seemes but to some one or other speciall place as we shall shew 1 The Sea twice euery day ebbes and flowes The flowing and ebbing of the Sea howsoeuer it cannot be precisely obserued in all Seas yet because few places of the maine Ocean are exempted from it deserues the first chiefest consideration That such a motion there is experience shewes but the searching out of the cause is for ought I can obserue one of the greatest difficulties in all Naturall Philosophie in so much as Aristotle one of the acutest Philosophers is reported to haue stood amazed at the flowing and ebbing of Euripus and despairing of finding out the cause at length enforced to cast himselfe into the Riuer which had before confounded him Wherefore it may seeme sufficient for mee to trace their steps who haue waded far into the search of this cause hauing very little hope to goe further The first opinion was of the Stoickes who supposed the whole World to bee a great liuing creature composed of diuerse Elements which inioyes both breath and life This liuing creature they imagine to haue his nostrils placed in the maine Ocean where by drawing in and sending foorth breath the ebbing and flowing of the Sea is caused but this seemeth rather to bee a Poeticall fiction or Allegory then any conceit of a Philosopher Apollonius Tianaeus was of an opinion that certaine Spirits eithervnder or aboue the Water breathed into it this motion Timaeus taught the cause of this moisture to be the riuer breaking into the Ocean by the great mountaines Plato thought that it was made by the swallowing vp of the Sea into a gulfe or hole which being againe cast out was the cause of that motion in the Sea Seleuous the Mathematician which affirmed that the Earth was carried round with a perpetuall motion thought that the Moone was turned round with a motion contrary to the motion of the Eâ—rth and from this to proceed that motion of ebbing and flowing of the Sea whereof wee now treat What Aristotles opinion was concerning this matter is an vncertaine coniecture forasmuch as litle or nothing can bee gathered touching this point in controuersie out of any booke which is certainly knowne to be Aristotles for the tract of the propriety of Elements where the cause of this motion is ascribed to the Moone is iudged to be none of Aristotles but of some later Authour Yet Plutarch imposeth on Aristotle this opinion that this motion of the Sea should come from the Sun because by it are raised vp many windy exhalations which should cause the Sea to swell blowing into the great Atlantick Ocean But thisopinion is charged by Paâ—ricius of a threefold errour 1. That it should proceed from the Sun 2 From the wind 3 That it is only in the Atlantick Sea He saw saith Patricius that in the Atlantick which he could not in the Aegean Sea at home and neere Athens For 1 No wind blowes so regularly that for one six houres it should blow forward the other six houres backward for the wind oftentimes blowes many daies the same way without ceasing yet is their not one only flowing or one ebbing in the Sea 2. The Sunne stirres vp sometimes windes and sometimes stirres them not vp But of a perpetuall effect which is daily why would this Philosopher giue a cause meerely violent and not quotidian which notwithstanding would haue nothing violent to be perpetuall If the Sea bee somewhere moued naturally by other motions as the Euripus which is said to be his death wherefore will he deny this motion to be Naturall seeking out an externall cause of this effect But all this while our Platonick Philosopher seems to fight with shadowes for what iudicious man can imagine so iudicious and wise a Philosopher as Aristotle should so grossely ouershoot himselâ— to father this opinion I should much rather beleiue that no such opinion is to be found in Aristotle at least that it is indirectly related which I the rather beleiue because one Caesalpinus a late Writer aswell opposite to Aristotle as the other hath related Aristotles opinion otherwise to wit that the ebbing and flowing of the Sea is deriued from a double cause whereof the one is the multitude of Riuers bringing in a great force of waters into it whence it comes to passe that it flowes only towards one paâ—t which is the lower as it happens to the Mediterranean For the Egaean and Ponticke Sea with Maeotis flow into the Tyrrhene and not on the opposite side The other cause hee makes to bee the libration of the whole Sea for it is often turn'd from one side to the other which in so great a vastnes seemes but little but in straights narrow places much more So that Aristotle saith Caesalpinus would haue that to agree to the Sea which vsually happens to a paire of ballance which hauing receiued the beginning once of their motion are inclined sometimes this way sometimes that way by reason of the equality of the weight for if the weight of one should ouercome thewhole would incline thatway and would not riâ—e vpon the other side But against this opinion imposed on Aristotle Caesalpinus not without good reason excepts that the Superficies of the Water being Equidistant from the Center as is supposed by Geographers no reason may bee giuen why it should incline more to one side then another hauing once obtained his true place sith according to Aristotles owne grounds no violence câ—n be perpetâ—all To which I may adde another answer that no satisfactory reason can be alleadged why it should alwayes obserue so true and iust periods of time in its motion sith all Riuers are sometimes encreased and other times diminished according to the season of the yeere and variety of the weather wherefore the said Authour which impugnes this opinion hath framed another conceit grounded on the circular motion of the Earth which he explaineth in this sort It agrees â—o reason saith he that the Water should not altogether follow the motion
of Madera the Canaries and S. Thomas it surpasseth not the hight of Venice But in America on the hithermost coast from Florida Sinus Mexicanus the coasts of Brasile and Pariâ— more then three thousand leagues euen to the Magellane straights it increaseth almost to two Palmes bredth but farther South to Panama and all those Southerne shores the ebbing and flowing is of an excessiue hight as may appeare by the coasts of Cambaia India and Taprobana Thirdly if the Moone by a naturall vertue should moue the Waters of the Sea then would it moue the Ocean and the Mediterranean Seas in the course of windes with the same Fluxe and Refluxe in the same windes But this thwarts experience which is thus proued The Mediterranean Sea when as it flowes in the Adriaticke Ionian and Sycilian Seas the Water flowes towards the Land when the Moone is as the Marriners speake in Sirocco and in Maestro but ebbes or flowes backe from the Land when it is in Graeco atque Garbinio And contrariwise the Ocean swells when the Moone is in Graece and Garbinio but asswageth it selfe againe when it is carried in Sirocco and Maestro Fourthly if the ebbing and flowing of the Sea should follow the Moone then all places in the same distance should ebbe flow alike at like houres But the contrary is proued by an experiment of Patricius who reports that at the same houre places distant 20 degrees haue bin seen to ebbe or flow alike and the places betwixt also to vary and obserue no iust proportion Fourthly if these Surges should be stirred vp by the Moone then the same superficies of the Water the same houre should bee carried by the Moone but this iâ— contrary to the obseruations of Marriners who haue obserued that on the Norman coasts and that of Picardy to Callice the Tide happeneth the ninth houre from Midnight but ten miles from the shore not a full houre but at the twenty and sixt mile from the middle of the channell and vnder the same Meridian at 22 houres Fiftly if the ebbing and flowing should proceed from the Moone then should the Water at the same houres increase and decrease but this is opposite to obseruation for at Venice the Sea is knowne to flow sometimes for seuen sometimes for eight but ebbes in fewer houres But about the mouth of the Riuer Senega in the Atlanticke it is comming in foâ—re houres but goes not backe vnder eight so about Goâ—umniae Ostia the Tide is comming in seuen houres but goes backe in fiue Sixtly if the Waters flow by the Moone then should they bee drawne and carried by the light of the Moone because all action is by a touching and the Moone toucheth the Water by her light but it is found by experience that at midnight when the Moone is most distant in her light our seas doe no lesse ebbe and flow then when it is present so the Seas neere the Antipodes doe ebbe flow when the Moone is present with vs. 7ly if the Moone were the onely ancient cause of this motion then the same light being present the same ageÌ„â— mouing the same effect should necessarily follow But we find that it produceth two contrary one to the other because in her ascent to the Meridian it is supposed to lift vp the water but a little declining from the MeridiaÌ„ it is thought to depresse asswage the waters 8ly if this effâ—ct were ascribed to the light of the Moone then wheÌ„ the Moone shines not there should be no such motion because contrary causes produce contrary effects But wee obserue the same ebbing flowing in the coÌ„iunâ—tion or New Moon wheÌ„ she hath no light as in the full Moone when with full face she beholds the Sea for in both these times we haue highest â—ides These many more argumeÌ„ts are vrged by Patricius to shew that the Moone cannot be the cause of this motioÌ„ in the Sea of the other opinioÌ„ that this effect is ascribed to the Sun amongst others I find the chiefe patron to be Tâ—â—esius who taught that the Sea was moued in this wise because it would auoide the operation of the Sun fearing lest it should bee too much dissolued into vapours and so perish But this opinion seemeth far more weake then the former For first I would aske concerning this motion wherein it is thought to auoide the Sunnes heat whether it be voluntary or necessary It caÌ„not be Voluntary oâ— a free action because the Sea is no liuing creature to which only such a motion is incident If it be necessary then it is Naturall or Violent It cannot bee Naturall because according to Aristotle one Body can haue but one naturall motion but the Water being a simple Body hath another motion to fall downewards towards the Center wherefore it cannot also admit of this It cannot be violent first because no violent thing can be perpetuall Secondly no cause can be thoughâ— vpon Externall which should cause this violent motion and if any such cause there be found then is not this of Telesius the first and principall cause sith it is referred to a farther cause Thirdly no cause can here be shewne according to this opininion why all other waters as fresh Riuers should not likewise striue to â—ide themselues from the face of the Sun Fourthly hee should giue a reason why in the Belgicke and Armoricke shores which are far more distant from the Sun the same motion is no lesse eminent then in Taprobana which is subiect to the Torride Zone and why in the Iland of S. Thomas which is immediatly vnder the Equatour there is not a greater working of the Water then at Venice Fifthly that which Telesius brings to confirme his opinion is no lesse warrantable then the maine point in controuersie In the Summer saith he the floâ—ds are lesser because the Sun raiseth vp thinner vapourâ— which are eâ—sily dissolued But in the Winter they are lesse because the Sunne is of least force and so raiseth vp fewer vapoâ—rs to worke vpon the Sea But both these matters are proued â—alse by experience first because in the Summer wee haue as great a working of the water as at other times In the Winter also as great or greater Secondly saith the said Author in the full Moone the motion is greater because the much light arising from the Moone drawes vp many vapours 〈◊〉 the New Moone because the Aire being refrigerated the internall Heat of the sea collecting it selfe is made stronger with more vapours In the quarters of the Moone because there is not much light caâ—t from the Moone and the Heat of the sea is not so much collected by the externall cold of the Aire To all these matters wee may easily answer First how can the Moone bestow any light on our seas when shee is with the Antipodes Secondly where he saith that the internall Heat is gathered together and made stronger by externall cold 1 First I aske how the sea can send
the concauities and hollowgapings of the Earth are euery-where choaked and filled vp with Water whose superficies is Sphaericall and therefore helpes together with the Earth to accomplish perfect this Terrestriall Spheare To confirme which opinion these reasons out of common experience may be alleadged The first is drawn-from the parts of Earth and Water For we may euery-where obserue that a portion of Earth and another of Water being let fall will descend in the same right line toward the same center whence we may euidently conclude that the Eearth Water haue one and the selfe-same center of their motion and by a consequence conspire to the composition of one and the selfe-same Spheare Secondly to a like Arch or space in the Heauens is found answerable alike Arch in the Terrestriall Globe whether it bee measured by the Earth or Water which could not happen were they not accounted parts of the same Spheare The third reason may bee drawne from the Ecclipse of the Moone wherein the part of the Moone shadowed obscured is obserued to be one Sphaericall or round-figure This shadow by the consent of all Astronomer's is caused by the Terrestriall Spheare interposed betwixt the Sun and the Moone intercepting the Sun-beames which should illuminate the Moone and the shadowes imitate the opacous bodies whence they arise But in the Ecclipse we find only the shadow of one body or Spheare and therefore according to the ground of the Opticks we may conclude the body whereof such a shadow proceedeth to be but one and the selfe-same Spheare 8 The Forme of the Terrestriall Spheare is the naturall Harmony or order arising from the parts working together We ought here to remember what we said before that the Earth and the Water concurre together to make one Terrestriall Spheare wherefore the whole being accounted one coacernated and collected Body made of two other we are not to expect an Internall Essentiall and Specificall Forme such as Aristotle recounts amongst the principles of a Naturall Body but only such a one as in it self is Externall and Accidentall yet concurring as it were Essentially to the constitution of the Terrestriall Spheare whose Fabricke and first composition cannot well be vnderstood without it Some haue imagined the whole Globe of the Earth to bee informed with one Internall and Essentiall Forme which opinion seemes to haue much affinity with that of Plato's concerning the Soule of the World Not that Plato and his followers were so absurd to defend that the World with all his parts was animated with a true vitall Soule in the nature of a liuing Creature but that all the members of it were vnited together quickned and disposed by a certaine Energeticall power or vertue which had great resemblance and representation of the Soule of man Which assertion seemes to be restored and embraced by our late Magneticall Philosophers whose opinion we shall discusse and examine hereafter in place conuenient In the meane time grounding our discourse on knowne principles we can admit no other Forme in the Spheare of the Earth then the mutuall Harmony order and concent of the parts concurring together and working the perfection perpetuation of the whole A fit resemblance whereof we may obserue in an artificiall Clock Mill or such like great Engine wherein euery part duly performing its owne office there will arise and result a naturall Harmony whch not vnaptly may bee termed the Forme of the whole Engine Why the World should not consist of an Internall and Essentiall Forme sundry reasons haue been alleadged by our common Philosophers First because Nature neuer attempteth any thing in vaine or without a determinate end But the particular Formes of speciall Bodies say these Philosophers are sufficient for the vnity and conformation of this Terrestriall Globe so that to grant an vniuersall Forme of the whole were to multiply causes without any necessity make Nature the Mother of superfluity which to all Philosophers seemes most absurd Secondly if this were admitted the whole Spheare of the Earth would bee as one continuate Body whose parts should as it were suffer a fellow-feeling one of the other Thirdly it were a difficult matter to assigne to what kind such a Forme might be reduced whether Animate or Inanimate If Inanimate whether it were simple or compound If Animate whether Vegetatiue Sensitiue or Rationall vnder the which are couched many great difficulties as yet vndisclosed Whether these reasons bee of any great force to ouerthrow the aduerse opinion I leaue it to further inquiry intending here a Geographicall not a Physicall Discourse CHAP. II. Of the conformity of parts in the constitution of the Terrestriall Spheare 1 IN the former we haue treated of the Naturall constitution of the Terrestriall Spheare aswell in Matter as Forme It is needfull in the next place to treat of such Affections and proprieties as neceâ—sarily arise out of such a Constitution 2. Those Affections or Proprieties are of two sorts Reall or Imaginarie Reall I call such as agree to the Terrestriall Globe by Nature Imaginary such as agree to it by vertue of our vnderstanding 3 Againe the Affections Really or Naturally agreeing to the Terrene Spheare are assigned either in respect of the Earth it selfe or in respect of the Heauens 4 These Affections are said to agree to the Earth in respect of it selfe which may be expressed and vnderstood without any comparing of it with the celestiall Bodies 5 These againe are twofold either Elementarie or Magneticall Elementary I terme such as haue commonly been knowne or obserued by ordinary Philosophers Here is chiefly to bee considered the conformity of the Terrestriall parts in the making and constitution of the whole Spheare In the former Chapter we haue shewed that the Forme of the Terrestriall Spheare is nothing els but the concinnity and apt conspiration of the parts whereof the whole is compounded This conformity being diuers and manifold as well in regard of the parts conforming themselues as the manner of the conformity we shall particularly and distinctly treat of so far as appertaines to a Cosmographer Here by the way I cannot but taxe some defect in most of our common Cosmographers who taking the Sphaericall roundnes of the Earth for a granted supposition are nothing curious to search into the first grounds and causes of this rotundity whereby it first became a globous Body and afterwards retaines in it selfe a Naturall vigour or power if any violence should be offered to restore her selfe to her former right and perfection All which are very pleasant profitable to giue an industrious Learner some satisfaction To explaine this before we descend to particulars we will lay this ground and Theoreme 1 The parts of the Terrestriall Spheare doe naturally conforme and dispose themselues aswell to the production and generation as to the continuance and preseruation of it The forme of the Terrestriall Spheare albeit as wee haue shewed it be Externall in respect of the whole Globe yet may
we call it naturall forasmuch as it issueth and ariseth from the naturall disposition and inclination of all the parts To vnderstand which clause the better wee are to consider that a thing may bee called Naturall two manner of wayes first in regard of the primary intent of Nature as the neerest and immediate end or scope to which shee is directed Secondly in respect of her secundary intent or purpose as that which must of necessity follow the former True it is that euery Terrene Body according to Natures first intention seeks and works it 's owne perfection and conseruation Neuerthelesse according to her secundary Intent it concurres to the perfection and good of the whole vniuerse which we shall plainely see in a stone or clodd of earth which separated and remoued from it's mother the Spheare of the Earth by his descent and falling downewards seeks first his owne conseruation by reuniting it selfe to the Earth whence it was taken Secondly of the whole Globe of the Earth which by this vnion and addition no doubt is made more compleat and perfect This conformity of the Terrestriall parts out of which ariseth the Earths Sphaericity I call the naturall inclination they haue to moue and settle themselues in such a site or position as may bring forth a Sphaericall consistency so that if it were possible as what cannot be to Gods Almighty power that the whole Globe of the earth were dissolued and rent into little peeces yet were that vigor and motiue inclination remaining in the parts whereby they might settle and conforme themselues to the same Sphaericall nature and composition which it formerly enioyed For all the parts thus supposed to be distracted would no question meet together conforme themselues to the same point or Center and so equally poising themselues would restore the same Spheare so dissolued So that wee here note a double inclination and motion of earthly bodies first by a Right line of the parts tending towards the Center the other Sphericall of the whole Spheare whereof the first in nature preceedes the composition of the Spheare the other followes But this latter motion I leaue doubtfull till place conuenient 6 The conformity of the Terrene parts is twofold Primarie or Secondary The former is that whereby all earthly bodies are by a right line carried and directed to the Center of the Terrestriall Globe As in an Artificiall Spheare or circle drawne by a Geometrician their principall parts are expressed to wit the Center Ray and circumference so in the Naturall Globe of the Earth these three as it were Naturally Really discouer themselues vnto vs. For first there is set a fixt point to which all heauy bodies moue and conforme themselues Secondly there is set the line or Radius in which such bodies are carryed and conueyed Thirdly the confluence of all these parts begets the roundnesse and Sphaericall forme To begin first with that which is first in nature we will take these grounds 1 All Earthly Bodies incline and approach to the Center as neere as they can This proposition so farre forth as it concernes the two Elements of Earth and Water is confirmed by common experience and therefore needs no long demonstration For we see plainly that not only these two doe incline as much as may be all obstacles being remoued to the Center of the Earth but also all mixt bodies compounded of them being ouerswayed with the most predominant element doe challenge to theÌ„selues the same motion I say not that all these Terrestriall bodies driue meeâ— in the Center for that were impossible that all this massy Spheare should bee contracted to one point but that all the parts haue a mutuall inclination to approach as neere the Center as the necessity of the place and the concurrence of them amongst themselues will suffer By these Terrestriall Bodies which inioye this motion and inclination wee vnderstand first the two Elements of Earth and Water with all other bodies arising out of their mixture To these I may adde the Ayre which by reason of his affinity with the Earth and Water and naturall coÌ„formity to the same Center we may well tearme an earthly body It is commonly reported that the Ayre is lâ—ght and therefore carried vpwards not inclining at all to the Center of the Terrestriall Globe as the parts of these two Elements are But this assertion although bolstred vp both with antiquity and authority I take either to bee false or misunderstood and that I speake no more herein than I can proue I will produce some reasons strong enough as I thinke to perswade that the Ayre is a heauy body hauing a due inclination and conformity to the Center of the Earth First therefore will I produce this experiment When a Well or deepe Trench is digged vp in the earth I would willingly demand whether the Aire descends to fill up this Trench or concauity or else a void space is left vnfurnished of any naturall body to fill it If they admit the latter they will consequently bring in againe that vacuum or void space which Arist. and all sound Philosophers haue long since proscribed the confines of nature If they affirme the former that the Ayre descends to fill vp this empty space I will aske againe whether this descent of the Ayre be violent or naturall If they say Naturall they admit our assertion that the Ayre naturally descends towards the Center and so by consequence that it is heauy and not light by nature Neither according to our Peripateticall-Philosophy can wee ascribe more than one motion to the Aire because it is a ground generally receaued among Aristoteleans that One simple body can claime but one simple motion much lesse one simple forme as that of the Aire can produce two opposite and contrary motions such as are Ascent and Descent of the same body If they chance to light on the other member of our distinction and say that the motion of the Aire in this sort is violent it must needs follow that it must haue some externall cause or principle whence it should proceed because all such motions proceed from externall causes But here no such cause can be assigned For the cause would bee either the Earth which is so made hollow or the emptinesse or vacuum or at least the other parts of the Aire That it is not the Earth may be proued first because no Philosopher hath euer shewed any such Attractiue power to reside in the Earth but rather the contrary because the Earth and Ayre by most haue beene thought opposite in nature and repugnant one to the other Secondly because Philosophy teacheth that no agent can worke vpon a separate and distinct patient except there be a meeting of the Agent and Patient in some meane But here in this supposition the Earth is imagined to drawe and attract the Aire which as yet it toucheth not That this externall cause is not the Vacuum or Emptinesse is plaine because it
magnitude for as the Philosopher hath taught vs continuate and diuisible things cannot bee made out of such things as are meerely discontinuate and indiuisible but because it is the first Mathematicall principle or beginning of termination and figuration This point although it haue euery-where an vse in Geometrie yet no-where more remarkeable then when it becomes the center of a circle which center wee ought not to imagine a meere Geometricall conceit but such as findes ground in the Naturall constitution of the Terrestriall Spheare For seeing all terrene bodies are carried in a right line as by a Radius to one point from euery part of the circumference we may obserue a center as it were designed and pointed out by Nature it selfe in the Globe Some haue here distinguished betwixt a point Physicall and a point Mathematicall as allotting the former Latitude and sensible existence but making the other meerely Indiuisible But if the matter bee rightly vnderstood they are not two points but all one distinguished only by a diuers name of conceit or consideration For wee consider first a point as it is existent in a sensible particular body and so we call it Physicall Secondly wee abstract it from this or that body sensible but alwayes conceit it withall to bee in some body and in this sort wee terme it Mathematicall for the Mathematician abstracts not a Quantity or Quantitatiue signe from all subiects for so being an accident hee should conceiue it abstracted from its owne nature but from this or that sensible body as wood or stone Such a point ought we to imagine the center of the Earth to be not participating of any latitude or magnitude albeit existent in some magnitude I am not ignorant that some Writers haue taken a Physicall point for a small and insensible magnitude in which sense the Globe of the Earth is called the center of all heauenly motions But this sense is very improper and besides in this example is to bee vnderstood a point Opticall as such as carries no sensible or proportionable quantity in regard of the sight Taking then the center of the Earth to bee a point fixt in the middest of the Earthly Spheare as we haue described wee will further describe the nature of it in two Theoremes 1 The center of the Earth is not an Attractiue but a meere Respectiue point An Attractiue point I terme that which hath in it a vertue or power to draw and attract the Terrestriall parts or bodies in such sort as the Loadstone hath a power to draw iron or steele But a Respectiue point is that which the Bodies in their motions doe respect and conforme themselues vnto as the bound or center to which their course is directed Which may bee illustrated by the directiue operations of the Load-stone which wee shall hereafter handle by which the Magneticall Indix or needle pointeth directly Northward not that in the North is fixed any Attractiue vertue or operation whicâ— might cause that effect but because the Magneticall Instrument is directed towards such a point or center That the Center of the earth hath no Attractiue force may bee proued 1 Because it cannot in any probability bee thought that an Imaginary point hauing only a priuatiue Being and subsistence should challenge to it selfe any such operation For all positiue effects proceed out of positiue causes neither can it be imagined that this Attraction should grow out of a meere priuation Secondly should this be granted that the motion of Earthly parts should be from the Attractiue vertue of the Center it would follow necessarily that this motion should not bee Naturall but violent as proceeding from an externall cause which all ancient and moderne Philosophers deny 2 The same point is the center of Magnitude and waight in the Terrestriall Spheare That the same point in the Terrene Globe should make the center both of Magnitude and Waight may seeme very plaine 1 Because we are not to multiply things and Entities in our conceit without any necessary consequence drawne from Nature or Reason enforcing vs thereunto But what reason could euer perswade any man that the Earth had two Centers the one of Waight the other of Magnitude but only a bare Imagination without proofe or demonstration Secondly if this were granted that the Center of magnitude were remoued some distance from the other then consequently would one part of the Earth ouer-poize the other in ponderosity and so the whole Spheare would either be shaken out of its place or dissolue it selfe into its first principles Both of which being by experience contradicted our assertion will stand sure and vndoubted In the meane space we deny not but that some little difference may be admitted in regard of the vnequall parts of the Earth but this must needs be so small and insensible as cannot bee cacullated or cause any alteration 8 The Terrene parts conforming themselues to this center may bee considered two wayes either Absolutely or Comparatiuely Absolutely as euery part is considered in it selfe 9 A terrestriall part considered in it selfe vndergoes the respect either of a Point of Magnitude as a point when any signe or point in it selfe is considered in regard of his conformity to the center A Point albeit existing still in some magnitude as we haue shewed may notwithstanding bee abstracted from this or that body as seruing for the center of any body whose naturall inclination and conformity to the vniuersall center of the Earth we may in the first place handle as the Rule by which the motion and inclination of the whole magnitude ought to bee squared 1 Euery point or center of waighty body is moued toward the center of the Terrestriall Spheare by a right line A Right line is the measure and rule almost of all Naturall actions which albeit it be familiar in almost euery operation yet most of all in the motion of the Earthly bodies tending to the center of the Earth Why Nature in this kind should chiefly affect a Right line sundry reasons may bee alleaged 1 From the End which Nature doth propose it selfe which is to produce the worke which shee intends the readiest and shortest way as Aristotle testifies of her in the 5 of his Metaphisickes Now it is manifest that a Right line drawne betwixt the same points is alwayes shortest as Euclide shewes in his Elements where hee demonstrates that two sides of any triangle being counted together are longer then the third The better to vnderstand the working of Nature wee shall obserue in the motion of a heauy part to the center a double scope or end first that the said part of a terrestriall body should bee moued or separated from the place to which it is by violence transposed Secondly that this body should bee restored home and vnited to the Sphericall substance of the Earth in which it must chiefly seeke its preseruation That these two ends are best and soonest compassed by a right line is most manifest For
downe for an Axiome that one simple body hath but one simple motion yet being absolutely vnderstood without any limitation will bee found by experience false for it is manifest out of the experiment of the new Perspicils that the Bodies of the Sunne and Iupiter simple in nature if wee beleeue Aristoteleans haue at least a double motion the one vpon their owne Poles lesse then Diurnall the other of their Centers which are moued from the West vnto the East vpon other Poles familiarly knowne vnto Astronomers The Peripatetickes heere seeke an euasion by distinguishing the motions of the Planets into a proper or naturall and Accidentall or mutuaticious but this answer comes not home to this present question First because these two motions of the Sunne and Iupiter will easily bee proued to bee naturall and without violence or restraint Secondly because in this answer they suppose the Heauens to bee cut and diuided into diuerse Orbes Sections and Conâ—amerations which later Astronomers vpon better experience haue derided or at least omitted as Hypotheses or suppositions to settle Imagination rather then reall or true grounds If they would vnderstand this Principle of Aristotle to wit That one simple body should challenge one simple motion of a motion of the same kinde it might perhaps obtaine some credit But the right motion of the parts ioyning to the whole and the Circular motion also the Circular motion of a Planet about his owne Axell and the Circular motion it selfe about the Earth are found to bee diuerse kindes and therefore no way incompatible in the same subiect Moreouer what infallible argument can perswade vs that the Globe of the Earth is a meere simple Body such as Aristotle describes vnto vs in his Philosophie Either this imaginary simplicitie must bee sought in the Reall Existence of the Earth or els in our mentall Abstraction The former they cannot auerre because not only the Elements themselues by their owne confession are impure and corrupted But the whole Globe of the Earth seemes to consist of diuerse mixtures and Heterogeneall bodies which apparantly exclude such simplicity If they would haue it rather to consist in the Abstraction or separation of the minde which may diuide and distinguish betweene the true nature of the Earth and his Accidentall Natures I shall not contradict although it seeme â—ather grounded on imaginary coniecture then experience That the Earth of it selfe distinguished from the waters should haue any such simple Nature If wee follow reason and experience as our Guides wee shall obserue in the Terrestriall Globe a twofold constituâ—ion The one Elementary from the parts whereof it consists out of which it cannot challenge any motion but the right which is of the parts separated from the whole agreeing to the Earth Water and all other heauy bodies thereof consisting The other magneticall wherein all other bodies are vnited in one Magneticall forme of the Earth In which sort the whole Globe of the Earth may bee termed a Homogeneall substance for howsoeuer the matter and the Elements whereof it consists seeme Heterogeneall and diuerse one from the other yet since in this Magneticall Nature there is a Harmony and Communion well wee may call it a Homogenity of the Forme and Nature not of the Matter and Quantity as common Philosophers commonly vse the word So that euery part or Element whereof this Terrestriall Spheare is compounded may claime his owne motion and properly yet all conspiring in one vniuersall forme of a Sphericall Body may notwithstanding be turned round with a Sphericall motion In the last place wee are to proue that this Circular motion granted vnto the Earth can no way oppose or indanger the naturall site or position of the Earth If the situation or position were feared to bee changed it must needes happen one of these wayes either that the Center of the Earth should bee moued out of his place or that the parts should bee separated distracted one from the other or that the Poles should be changed and altered The first cannot touch our assertion because in this place wee affirme not that the center of the Globe is moued out of his place but that the whole Earth in the same place is turned round vpon her owne Center For the opinion of Copernicus which holdes the Center of the Earth to moue round about the earth wee shall censure in our next Chapter In the second place the parts of the Earth by this motion cannot bee separated or disunited one from the other first because all the parts are vnited to the whole by their naturall grauity that if by chance they should bee separated they would naturally returne backe vnto their owne place Secondly this motion is supposed Naturall not violent which in so great and massie a Body can make no sensible Alteration Lastly the Poles of the Earth by this meanes cannot bee moued out of their places because by a certaine Magneticall verticity as wee haue formerly shewed the same Poles of the Earth alwayes naturally respect the same points of the Heauens as if they were bound vnto two firme Pillars indissoluble Hitherto hauing proued the Circular motion of the Earth neither to bee giuen to the Heauens without some absurdity and yet no way to contradict or oppose the Nature of the Terrestriall Globe wee are in the third place to examine the reasons vsually vrged against this Assertion The first reason is drawne from sense If there were any such Sphericall motion say they how comes it to passe that it cannot of vs bee perceiued an Argument worthy such Philosophers as measure all rather by seeming sense then Demonstratiue reason who cannot obserue on the sea in a calme that the ship wherein hee is carried will seeme to rest or at least to moue slowly and the clifts and shores to moue vnto the opposite part What then should wee thinke of the motion of the whole Terrestriall Globe which hath lesse cause to bee perceiued then that of a ship The Bulke of a ship in respect of the Earth is small and of no quantity the other being huge and massie The motion of the ship meerely violent inforced by the windes of the Earth naturall and vniforme stirred vp of his proper and naturall inclination so that if any such motion be in the earth it were impossible to bee perceiued by sense Secondly they vrge against vs that in Homogeneall Bodies there is the same motion of the whole and all the parts But euery part of the Earth as experience teacheth is moued downeward toward the Center and therefore the whole can haue no other motion To this obiection wee haue partly answered before yet to giue further satisfaction wee will adde something more It is one thing to speake of the whole Terrestriall Globe and Spheare another of the seuerall parts and Elements whereof it consists If the whole Spheare bee vnderstood wee ascribe vnto it no other motion but the circular which wee here labor to establish
The parts whereof this Terrestriall Spheare consists may bee considered two wayes either as they are vnited in the whole by a Magneticall forme or disioyned and taken by themselues In the former the parts of the Earth are supposed to moue in the same motion by which the whole Spheare of the Earth is moued because the whole and all the parts taken together are the same and subiect to the same circular reuolution Notwithstanding this any part seuerall and disioyned from the whole hath a right motion downeward toward the Center by which it returnes to its true naturall vnion This inclination of the parts agrees not with the whole Earth neither vnto any part vnited and conglobated to the whole but onely to a part separated from his place so that the whole may notwithstanding in his place inioy a circular motion Now to come more neerely home vnto their Arguments drawne from the Homogeneity of the Earth wee answer as before that there is a twofold Homogeneity The one of the matter and quantity the other of the Magneticall forme and Nature of the former wee may conclude out of the right motion of all the parts the disposition of the whole so wee vnderstand it in a good sense first that euery part is here to bee vnderstood not in but out of his proper place Secondly that by the whole wee ought not to vnderstand the whole Globe with all his parts conformed in one Sphericall frame but all the parts indefinitely taken for if wee should vnderstand of the whole Globe their Argument will in no way hold true If according to the later wee might well grant them their Conclusion yet can it not oppugne our Assertion Because it will follow out of the Naturall inclination of euery part that all the parts seuerally taken haue such a disposition of returning to the Earth being separated there from Yet will not this by any necessary inference bee proued to agree to the whole Globe of the Earth but rather will it follow contrarywise that the whole Spheare of the Earth is moued circularly and therefore euery part with and in it is moued with the whole in the same motion A third argument which is thought greater then all the other is drawne from two experiments The first is that a stone or Bullet let fall from a higher place to the ground will perpendicularly descend to the point of the Earth right vnder Secondly that two Bullets imagined to bee of equall weight and matter being discharged from equall pieces of ordinance with the like quantity of powder the one towards the East the other towards the West will reach an equall distance in the Earth both which would seeme impossible if wee grant this supposition of the Earths circular reuolution For in the former case the Earth sliding away swiftly during the fall of the stone would change the point marked out for another And in the second for the like cause the Bullet shot towards the East being preuented by the swiftnesse of the Earth's motion carrying along with it the Ordinance out of which it proceeded should returne backe ouer the shooters-head and contrarywise that Bullet shot towards the West besides his owne motion by the motion of the Earth the other way should bee carryed so much farther as the Earth is remoued from the place where it was first discharged Both which experiments seeme to crosse this circumgyration of the Terrestriall Globe which our magneticall Cosmographers labour to confirme But with them to giue an answer to these and the like experiments wee must distinguish the parts of the Earth into three sorts some are hard and solide parts adioyned to the Globe as stones mineralls what else in the bowels of the Earth is vnited to it or at least necessarily adherent to the outward face of it Some other parts there are of a thinne and fluid substance as the Aire and other vapours in it deriued from the Earth A third sort there are of such parts as being in themselues solide are notwithstanding by some violence separated from the solide globe as stones cast into the Aire Arrowes Bullets and such like discharged from the hand or Engine For the two former wee may easily imagine them carried with the same circular motion which we assigne vnto the whole being no other then the parts of it depending from the whole masse For the third sort whereof consists the difficulty wee cannot imagine them so moued round as if they were wholly separated from the Communion of the Earthly Spheare for howsoeuer there seemes a separation according to matter and quantity yet retaine they the same magneticall inclination to the whole masse as if they were vnited to it and therefore such solide parts are moued with the same vniforme and naturall motion wherewith the Earth it selfe is turned so that in solide bodyes so separated from the superficies of the Earth of an Arrow or Bullets shot wee must imagine a twofold motion The one Naturall vniforme whereby they are moued as homogeneall parts according to the reuolution of the whole Spheare The other violent by force impressed from the Agent The right motion proceeding from the strength of the shooter cannot crosse or hinder the Naturall because the one being right and the other circular admit no such proportion as that one should hinder or further the other Neither can these motions well be tearmed contrary or opposite which are in diuers kindes To explaine this matter farther we will adde this Diagramme Lâ—t the whole orbe of the earth bee imagined to bee LQM whose center is A the thicknesse of the Aire ascending from the Earth O Q. Now as the orbe of this fluid substance of the aire asceÌ„ding vniformely is moued round with the Globe of the earth so must wee imagine the part of it marked out by the right line OQ to bee carried round with an vnalterable Reuolution Wherefore if any heauy body should bee placed in the Line OQ as for example P it will fall downe toward the center by the shortest way in the same line OQ which motion downewards towards the center can neither bee hindered by the circular motion of the Earth nor yet Mixt or compounded with it It cannot bee hindred because as wee haue shewed a Right motion and a circular being not in the same kind cannot properly bee reputed contrary Neither for the same cause can they bee mixt or compounded Wherefore this motion will be no other then one simple and Right motion neuer varying from the Line OQ which being once vnderstood it is no hard thing to imagine a Bullet or stone forced by equall strength from Q towards L and from Q. towards the point M to obserue alwayes a like distance notwithstanding the Earth's cirâ—ular Reuolution Hauing hitherto shewed this Sphericall motion of the Earth to bee possible and no way to contradict Nature wee are in the next place to shew it to bee no way opposite to the sense of
not backt with any necessary demonstration For it proues not thing else but the Earth to bee the Center of all earthie and heauy bodies and not to bee absolutely placed in the exact middle of the world Another reason not much vnlike the former is drawne by some from a finall cause and the naturall harmony of the parts of the world one with the other The Earth say they is of all other bodyes the most vile and sordid Therefore it is agreeable to nature that it should be placed in the middle equally distant from each part of the Heauens that one part might not seeme to complaine of this vnpleasing vicinity more then another But this reason takes as granted to matters as yet not decided First that the Earth amongst all other bodyes is most vile and sordid depending on the ground of Peripateticks that the heauenly bodies suffer no corruption a thing sooner spoken then proued Secondly that pure and impure bodies the most excellent and most vile in nature are alwayes most distant as in nature so in place which is a peremptory assertion without ground A third reason more probable then the former is drawne from the apparences of Starres aboue the Horizon It is manifest that the Starres aboue the Horizon appeare alwayes to bee of one and the selfe-same magnitude and quantity whether in the verticall point or in the East or the West or any other place whence we may collect that they differ equally in distance from the Earth and by consequence the Earth is seated in the middle of the world for if it were otherwise that the Starres in some place should bee neerer in other farther ofâ— they would some-where seeme greater otherwhere lesser according to the grounds of the Opticks This reason howsoeuer popular seemes to admit a two-fold exception First because it implies that a man standing on the superficies of the Earth is equally distant from all places and parts of the Heauens whereas the heauens in the Horizon are farther distant by reason of a whole semidiameter of the earth interposed Secondly all Starres arising in the East or setting in the West ordinarily seeme greater then in the Verticall point by reason of vapours ascending and interposed Whence wee cannot well gather the Earth to bee seated in the middest from the like apparence of the Starres when experience teacheth the coÌ„trary that they seeme not alwayes of the like magnitude Concerning the first we answer that the Semidiameter of the earth interposed betwixt the Superficies and Center is in it selfe greater But this as wee shall proue in respect of the Heauens is so little that the sense cannot gather any difference in obseruation of the Starres but that they should alwayes appeare of the like magnitude Concerning the second wee must needs acknowledge that vapours ascending about the Horizon by an Opticall Refraction make the Starres seeme greater then other wise they would doe But the reason may bee vnderstood in this sort that whether a â—an be placed in the same Horizon where the Sunne is when hee riseth or vnder that Horizon where the Sunne is now vnder his Meridian or vnder that horizon where hee is setting hee will appeare to bee of one and the selfe-same greatnesse without any sensible difference Whereas therefore they speake of the appearance of Starres they would haue them taken as abstracted from all impediments of sight or interposed vapours and so the reason may obtaine her force The fourth reason why the earth should bee seated in the midst alleaged by Ptolomie and others is this wheresoeuer any man stands on the Surface of the Earth six signes of the Zodiacke will shew themselues and the other six signes will lye hid and by consequence halfe the heauens will appeare the other halfe will bee vnder which is an euident reason that the Earth is in the midst for otherwise it could not so happen The former is confirmed by Ptolomie Alphraganus and the best Astronomers the consequence may bee inferred out of naturall reason This argument will sufficiently hold vpon this supposition mentioned before and to bee proued hereafter That the Earth hauing no sensible magnitude in respect of the Firmament no sensible difference can shew it selfe betwixt the Sensible and the Rationall Horizon Besides these reasons which make the matter more then probable others are produced by Ptolomie demonstratiue â—ot admitting any euident or probable exception or euasion The first is this If the Earth bee placed out of the Center of the world it must haue of necessity one of these three Sites or positions Either it must be in the plaine of the Equinoctiall or at least it must bee placed not onely without the plaine of the Equinoctiall but without the Axell-tree That is to expresse it plainer It must either bee placed beside the Axell-tree yet equally distant from both the Poles or else it must bee on the Axell-tree and so consequently neerer to one Pole then the other or thirdly it must needs be beside the Axell-tree yet neerer to one Pole then another If the first position were admitted these absurdities would of necessity follow First that in a right Spheare there would happen no Equinoctiall but onely in that Horizon which passeth by the Center of the world for example sake â—et there be imagined a Spheare BDCE whose Center is A let the Equator bee DE the Axel-tree of the world BC and let the Earth bee in F the right Horizon HG not passing by the Center of the world A which shall bee parallell to the Axis BC since the Equator cuts the Horizon in right angles It is most manifest that not only the equatour but other parallells of the same will bee vnequally diuided of the Horizon for as much as it passeth not by the Center or the Poles of the world wherefore it must needs follow that the dayes must continually be vnequall to the nights which contradicts all experience because in a right Spheare the dayes are alwayes found to bee equall to the nights Secondly out of this position it would follow that no man in a right Spheare should behold the halfe or hemispheare of the heauens but either a greater or lesser part as may be demonstrated out of the same Diagramme whereas sense can testifie that six signes of the Zodiacke are alwayes conspicuous aboue our Horizon and the other six alwayes hid only excepting that Horâ—zon which passeth by the Center of the Earth wherein the Mediety of Heauen is conspicuous Thirdly the same Starres in a cleere aire should not alwaies seeme of the same magnitude for if the earth be placed in the Equinoctiall plaine and beside the Axis of the world toward the Zenith or Meridian the Starres which are in the Meridian will appeare greater then in the East or West because they are neerer But if it bee placed neere the Nadir or midnight point they will appeare greater in the East or West then in the Meridian if it should bee placed towards
vnderstood wee are first to set downe in a Scheme or Diagram both the number and order of all the heauenly Orbs conceiued according to our grounds Secondly we must shew in particular how this ranging of the heauenly bodies is capable of all the motions and apt to satisfy the apparences In which parts I wil not too nicely descend to Astronomicall curiosities being too many and subtile for a Geographer to discusse Only I will giue a tast to satisfie such as suppose no middle way can bee troden out betwixt Ptolomies stability of the Earth and Copernicus his three Motions I might seeme perhaps presumptuous beyond my knowledge to reiect and passe by the draughts and delineations of Ptolomy Alphonsus and their followers which are commonly defended and in vse or that other of Copernicus supported with the authority and credit of so great an Astronomer or that of Tichobrahe more corrected then either and to preferre my own being an Embrion or halfe fashioned To this I answer First that I only expose this Scheme following to the view of the iudicious iustifying it no farther then will stand with Astronomicall obseruation Secondly I herein arrogate little or nothing to my selfe for as much as I haue digested and compounded it out of the obseruations and experiments of late Astronomers and only collected together what they scattered The Scheme it selfe is expressed in this manner wherein to beginne from the lowest The Center is the Globe of the Earth to which wee haue giuen a Diurnall motion from the West to the East vpon her owne Poles whose Reuolution is made in 24 houres About the Earth as the Center of the whole world the Moone is carried in her circle which amongst all the Planets is found more neerely to respect the Earth as well in place as nature Next succeeds the Sunne as the leader of all the Planets which carried round about the earth in an Annuall circuit describes the Ecliptick circle about the Sun as the proper Center are all the Planets moued except the Moon The two immediate coÌ„panions of the Sun are Venus Mercurie which so coÌ„passe him about that the Earth neuer comes betwixt them and the Sunne The other three Planets as Mars Iupiter and Saturne howsoeuer they enuiron the Sunne as their proper Center yet so as within their circles they comprehend the body of the Earth The Planet Mars because hee is found by Astronomers to moue sometimes aboue sometimes vnder the Sunne is vnderstood to moue in such a circle which on the opposite side shall cut the circle of the Sunne yet so as Mars and the Sunne can neuer meet in one point Forasmuch as Mars as well as the other Planets is supposed to be carryed in an Epicycle about the Sunne and to keepe an equall distance from him howsoeuer moued Neither is he euer found vnder the Sunne but about the time of the opposition as Astronomers obserue whence a cause hath beene giuen why Mars should appeare greatest at the time of Opposition These fiue Planets to wit Saturne Iupiter Mars Venus and Mercury may bee considered according to a double motion The one is proper and naturall wherein they are moued about the Sunne as their proper Center The other Accidentall and as it were by a consequence of Nature whereby in their circuit mouing about the Sunne as their Center they must of necessity by a consequent site of the place be carryed about the Earth For the Sunne placed in his Eclipticke line so compasseth round the Earth that with him hee is supposed to carry the Epicyâ—les wherein these Planets are moued round a-about him Whence wee finde the motion of these Planets about the Sunne as their owne Center to bee regular but about the Earth irregular which proceeds from their Excentricity in respect of the Earth Aboue all the Planets wee place the Firmament or Starry Heauen hauing a very slow motion not to bee finished in many thousand yeeres and this motion is on other Poles then the Poles of the world to bee sought out in or neere the Poles of the Eclipticke This Heauen would Aristotle haue to bee the first moueable and therefore gaue it a very swift motion which is the same which wee call Diurnall and haue giuen to the Earth But it seemes more consonant to nature that the slower motions should agree to the higher bodies and the swifter to the lower that there might be a proportion betwixt the time and the space of motion It remaines that wee probably shew that out of their suppositions the Celestiall Apparences may bee as well or better salued then by the ordinary grounds The Apparences which are most called in question concerne either the Motion or the Places and Positions All the rest are either of lesse moment or at least are thereunto reduced Euery motion which is found or thought to bee found in the Heauens is either the Diurnall or Periodicke The Diurnall Motion as wee haue already shewed belongs to the Earth which according to our grounds is supposed to moue from the West vnto the East in 24 houres Which may answer to the Motion of the first moueable Spheare which according to Aristotle is the Starry Firmament and thought to moue from the East to the West The Periodicke Motion is either a slower Motion to be finished not vnder many thousand yeeres or else a swifter Reuolution of the Planets This slow motion the common Astronomers would haue towfold The one from the West to the East on the Poles of the Eclipticke the other a Motion as they call it of Trepidation from the South point to the North and backward againe but one slow Motion of the sixt Starres vpon the Poles of the Eclipticke granted to the Firmament will for ought I see satisfy both The reason why they put two distinct Motions is 1 Because they haue obserued the Starres of Aries Taurus and the rest of the Zodiacke not to be seated in the same place wherein they were anciently found but to be moued certaine degrees from the West towards the East Whence they would conclude a Motion to bee from the West vnto the East 2. It will stand with no lesse experience that the foresaid Starres of the Firmament haue moued themselues from the South towards the North. To passe ouer the râ—st the Pole-star which in Hipparchus time was distant from the Pole about 12 Degrees is now obserued to approach almost three degrees These two Motions should they bee esteemed in the account of Astronomers might seeme deficient Notwithstanding wee may probably coniecture this to bee no other then one and the selfe-same Motion vpon the Poles of the Eclipticke Whence it may come to passe that the fixt Starres are not only carryed from West to East but also by reason of the obliquity of the Eclipticke line encline more and more dayly to the Pole of the World whence they may againe returne For this motion from the West to the East is of the primary intent of
our Easterne winde is found to bee driest of all others whereof no other cause can bee giuen then that it comes ouer a great Continent of land lying towards the East out of which many drie and earthly exhalations are drawn so the Westerne winde is obserued to be very moist because it passeth ouer the hugie Atlanticke Ocean which must needs cast forth many watrie and moist vapours which beget raine and showres from the moisture of which Westerne winde some haue sought out an answer to that Probleme why hunting hounds should not sent nor hunt so well the winde being in the West as at other times For say they it is caused by the moisture of it either in making hinderance to their legges in running or at least to their smell being very thicke and foggy In this Westerne winde we may also perceiue much cold which is caused by the quality of those watrie vapours through which it passeth which being drawne from the water are naturally cold In our South wind wee shall finde both heat and moisture whereof the former ariseth from the Sunne which in those Southerne Regions neere the Equatour is most predominant The latter from the naturall disposition of the places because before it approacheth our coasts it passes ouer the Mediterranean Sea out of which the Sunne begets abundance of watry vapours which mixt themselues with the windes Finally the North-winde is obserued to bee cold and drye It must of necessity bee cold because it is carried ouer diuerse cold and snowy places most remote from the heat of the Sunne It is drie because it passeth ouer many Ilands and dry places sending out store of dry exhalations as also because the Sunne being very remote from those Regions fewer exhalations are drawne vp which might infect it by impressions of their watrie quality These instances may serue to proue our assertion That Meteors wherewith the Aire is vsually charged and by consequence their qualitâ—es imprest into the Aire are depending from the Earth out of which they are drawne either Directly from the same Region which they affect or Obliquely from some other Region remote from it Howsoeuer wee obserue that the disposition of the Ayre depends from the Soile wee cannot altogether exclude the Heauens as shall bee taught hereafter in place conuenient CHAP. III. Of the Adiuncts of a place in respect of Heauens 1 WE haue in the former Chapter spoken of the Adiuncts of a place in respect of it Selfe We are now to proceed to such Accidents as agree to a place in respect of the Heauens 2 The Adiuncts of the Earth in respect of the Heauens are of two sorts either Generall or Speciall Generall I call such as are abstracted from any speciall quality or condition of the Earth or any place in the Earth These accidents concerne either the Situation of the Inhabitants or the Diuision of the places both which we haue handled in our Sphericall part of Geographie The Speciall are such as concerne the nature of the place in respect of the Heauens not Absolutely but Respecting some speciall qualities or properties depending on such situation which more properly belongs to this part For the vnfolding of which before we descend to particularities we will premise this one generall Theoreme 1 Places according to their diuerse situation in regard of the Heauens are diuersly affected in quality and constitution This Proposition needs no proofe as being grounded on ordinary experience for who findes not betwixt the North and the South a manifest difference of heat and cold moisture and drouth with other qualities thereon depending as well in the temper of the soyle it selfe as the naturall disposition of the inhabitants Only three points will here require an exposition First by what Meanes and instruments the Heauens may bee said to worke on the Earth Secondly how farre this operation of the Heauen on the Earth may extend and what limits it may suffer Thirdly how these operations are distinguished one from the other Concerning the first wee are taught by our ordinary Philosophers that the Heauens worke on inferiour bodies by three instruments to wit Light Motion and Influence By Light as by an instrumentall agent it ingendreth heat in the Aire and Earth not that the light being in a sort an Immateriall quality can immediatly of it selfe produce heat being materiall and elementary But by attrition and rarefaction whereby the parts of the aire being made thinner approach neerer to the nature of fire and so conceaue heat This is againe performed two wayes either by a simple or compo unded beame The simple Ray is weaker The compounded inferring a doubling of the Ray by Reflection is stronger and of more validity in the operation and by consequence so much the more copious in the production of heat by how much more the reflection is greater if wee meerely consider it in regard of the Heauens without any consideration of the quality of the Earth By motion the heauens may exercise their operation on the Earth two wayes First by attenuating and rarefying the vpper part of the Aire next adioyning turning it into Fire as some Philosophers would haue it whence the inferiour parts of the ayre communicating in this affection must needs partake some degrees of heat But this I hold to bee a conceit grounded onely vpon Aristotles authority who supposed the heauens to bee a solide compact body which will not so soone bee granted of many more moderne Mathematicians Secondly the heauenly bodyes may bee said to worke on inferiour things by motion in that by motion they are diuersly disposed and ordered to diuerse Aspects and configurations of the Starres and Planets whereby they may produce diuerse effects so that in this sense the heauens are imagined as a disponent cause which doth not so much produce the effects themselues as vary the operation Hereon is grounded all Astrologie as that which out of diuerse aspects and combinations of the Planets and Signes foresheweth diuerse euents The third Instrument by which the Heauens are said to worke is the heauenly influence which is a hidden and secret quality not subiect to sense but only knowne and found out by the effects This third agent being by some questioned would hardly bee beleeued but that a necessity in nature constraines it For many effects are found in inferiour bodies caused by the heauens which can no way bee ascribed to the Light or Motion As for example the production of Mettals in the bowels of the earth the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea whereof neither the one or the other can challenge any great interest in the Light For as much as the former is farre remote from the Sunne-beames the other ceaseth not to moue in his channell when the Sunne and Moone are both vnder the Earth Besides who can giue a reason of the excesse of heat in the Canicular or Dog-dayes if hee exclude this influence For if wee consider the Light of the Sunne wee shall finde
the Sea were dâ—uided into many parts it would more easily dissolue and putrify The grounds of this opinion being ouerthrowne there want not reasons to contradict First sayes one if the Sea were not created salt then was there some time wherein it was fresh To this I answer two wayes First that it might bee created fresh yet being apt from the heat of the Sunne to receiue saltnesse it might almost at the first receiue it Secondly if I should grant that it was a long time before it embraced this quality I know neither History to confute mee or reason to conuince mee Secondly it is vrged from the Nature of liuing creatures in the Sea that they cannot well liue in fresh waters and therefore it seemes originally salt and not by Accident But this is of no great force First because experience shewes that many kind of fishes liue in both and many rather couet and desire the fresh Water then the Sea Secondly it is not improbable that as the Sea by little and little and by degrees turned from freshnesse to saltnesse the temper and disposition of the fishes was in like manner changed and altered Whence it may come to passe that fishes since bred and nourished in fresh Waters cannot so well endure the salt Moreouer who knowes whether all these seuerall kinds of fishes now found in the Sea were from the beginning since wee see by experience that sundry kinds of liuing creatures dayly arise out of putrefaction on the land which may with like probability or more bee admitted in the Sea There are yet behind other reasons of one Patricius a Platonist who would oppose Aristotle in good earnest Aristotle saith hee speaking of the saltnesse of the Sea Water shewed not the cause For I would aske why that parcell of water from whence the thinner parts are extracted should remaine salt was it so from the beginning or afterwards imprest was it Inbred or Accidentall If hee would haue it an inbred quality from the beginning hee vainly goes about to seeke out the cause If the saltnesse bee aduentitious the cause is to bee giuen but the cause giuen by him is not true for as much as it rather takes away the saltnesse But to these obiections of Patricius spunne out in many words wee may answer two wayes either that the saltnesse is meerely aduentitious bred by an exhalation drawne vp by the Sunne and so distilling downe againe or else because this answere seemes not wholely to satisfy For as much as rainy Water is seldome salt and if it were could hardly flow in so great quantity to feed the saltnesse of the Sea I will answer secondly that the saltnesse is radically or originally in the matter of the Water yet so as it cannot bee drawne out and sensibly bee perceiued in the mixture of many sweet humours ioyned with it without a separation first made by the heat of the Sunne of the thinner parts from the thicker So that the Sunne is a disponent though not a productiue cause of this saltnesse in the Sea 2 Seas absolutely salt are neuer frozen This may seeme a Paradoxe to some men in regard that amongst our Geographers wee haue so often mention made of Mare Congelatum taking it's name from the Ice wherewith it is shut vp from passage as also for that in the voyages of Frobisher Dauis Hudson and other later Nauigatours which haue beene imployed in the search of the Northwest passage wee find such strange relations not onely of Seas closed vp with Ice and hindring their passage towards the North but also of Rocks and Ilands of Ice of an incredible greatnesse The truth of these Relations I no way disapproue but rather out of these testimonies approue our former assertion that Seas which are wholly Salt are neuer found to freeze For first whereas it is called Mare Congelatum it may beare the nâ—me well enough from the multitude of Ice floating on the water or collected into a Rocke or Iland This Ice as it will easily appeare is not produced out of the substance of the Salt water of the maine Ocean but rather carryed into the Sea by great riuers of fresh water running into the Ocean For the riuers are not alwayes frozen but sometimes by a remission of the cold are thawed and the peeces broken a sunder and floating into the Sea in it oft times meet in great heapes which may bee proued 1 In that these great râ—cks of Ice melting with the heate of the Sunne haue dissolued into fountaines of fresh water gushing downe in great abundance wherewith sometimes in case of necessity they haue fraughted their shippes as wee haue testified by the fore-named Nauigatours 2 Because some part of the maine Sea situate perhaps more Northerne and in a colder Climate suffers not this accident whereas places neere the shore farther South are almost alwayes frozen The reason whereof is because the Sea neere the shore is commonly mixed with fresh waters conueyed in either by great Riuers or infinite secret passages vnder ground which wee see not The reason why that salt waters exclude this propriety incident or the fresh I take to bee the Hot-spirits hid in the salt humor which are more feruent and operatiue then those of the fresh water 9 So much for the saltnesse The next is the Thicknesse whereof we will set downe this short Theoreme 1 The Water of the Sea is thicker then other Water This Proposition hath it's light from the former because thicknesse of Water is a companion of the saltnesse as depending from the same cause to wit the exhalation and extraction of the thinner parts of the Water There are many small causes giuen by Patricius of this thicknesse of the Sea-Water Fâ—â—st because the parts of it should more strongly hold together and not couer and ouerflow the firme land But this seemes to bee grounded on an errour that the Water should be aboue the Land and that it should containe it selfe within it's owne bounds and limits which opinion we haue elsewhere reiected The second cause of the thicknesse of the Sea is that it might bee more apt to beare and carry ships and other great weights for the vse of man Thirdly the Water being thicke may more easily bee conuerted into salt out of which many saltish minerals in the Earth are ingendred Other causes are giuen by this Author but lesse forceable which we will omit as referring them to the Philosopher whose proper taske it is to seek them out CHAP. VI. Of the Motions of the Sea 1 THe Motion of the Sea whereof we are in this Chapter to treate is either Naturall or Violent The Naturall I call that which is partly incident to the Naturall Disposition of the Sea 2 This againe is two-fold either Generall or Speciall Generall is that which agrees generally to all or at least to most parts of the Sea such as is the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea Wee must here obserue that the Water
of the Earth but should in part bee driuen backe and in part flow besides for since it is of a moist nature while the Earth is carried from the Aire about it the Water iâ— somewhat left behind as wee may see in a small vessell which is moâ—e laâ—ge then deep for if it be moued forward the Water will leape back to the opposite part will oftentimes poize it selfe hither thither seeking an aequilibration when therefore the Earth is a litle caried forward the water as it were left behind being out of his Aequilibrium or aquall poize it will runne to the other part but beyond the true poize forthe violence of the motion oppressed into it in the beginning from thence for the same cause it will tend againe to the opposite part doing this oftentimes seeking an equall weight wherein it may rest so that if the Earth should at any times rest from her naturall motion the Water would also leaue off the Libration to and fro But because the circumvolution of the Earth is imagined to be perpetuall the libration of the sea is also per petuall so farre forth then that this motion is of the continent or Earth it is onely accidentall in the Water neither besides his proper nature neither according to nature But so farre forth as the Water is in some sort moued in the Earth it may be said to be according to nature for it alwaies seekes the lower place because it cannot aequally follow the motion of the Earth Hence they giue the reason why this motion is not perceiued in Lakes and Riuers as well as in the maine Ocean for sith the motion of the Earth is not very sensible it cannot be perceiued but in a great masse of waters The reasons to confirme this opinion besides the refutation of other opinions are chiefly these two If the Water by it selfe should be mou'd without the motion of the Earth it must needs be moued either according to or against his nature But neither of them can be graunted First if according to Nature there would not be one only motion of one body according to nature but many which is denyed by Arâ—stotle If besides or against Nature some violent motion would bee perpetuall which also seemes absurd wherefore it must needs follow that the sea should moue accidentally For sith the Water is conteined outwardly of the Aire internally of the Earth And that part of the Aire which toucheth the Water is of Aristotle called Stagnans or standing still not flowing as that which is aboue the Earth but is onely troubled variously with windes This libration or motion of the Water cannot bee caused by the wind or Aire wherefore it must proceed from the motion of the Earth The second reason may be drawne from the quantity of tides in diuers places of the Earth for it is â—ound by experience that the Water swels higher greater in the maine Ocean then in other lesser Seas For it is obserued that about great Brittaine it mounts sometimes aboue 80 cubits also it oftner ebbes and flowes in lesser currents because the spaces of this libration are shorter and straâ—ghter or because besides the motion of ebbing and flowing which the Mediterranean seas partake from the Ocean at Hercules Pillars they haue a proper libration in their owne channels whence it comes to passe that in some narrow seas as in the Euripus besides Euboia the sea seauen times a day ebbs and flowes whereof there can no sufficient reason be giuen from the motion of the Moone or other cause whereto other Philosophers ascribe this effect This opinion of Caesalpinus seemes to carry great likelyhood of reason and congruity with experience yet because it is grounded on the circular motion of the Earth which seemes a paradox to most men I dare not warrant it otherwise then probable neither can it well stand with the grounds of our Magneticall Philosophers because they affirme the whole spheare of the Earth and Water together with the Aire to moue round with one Vniforme revolution in such sort as one should not moue to the opposite part or stay behind the other as they would haue it here to doe There is yet another opinion more commonly defended in the schooles of naturall Philosopherâ— that this motion of the sea is to bee ascribed to the Moone as the principall cause others againe as they admit the Moone to haue her operation in this effect ioyne other causes to it and indeed this seemes more probable for there want not arguments in Patricius and other later writers to shew that the Moone cannot be the sole cause of this motion First because this motion is not obserued in all seas Lakes and Riuers wheâ—eupon neuerthelesse the Moone hath the like dominion But experience shewes the contrary for besides fresh Riuers it is manifest by obseruation of trauailers that this ebbing and flowing is not to be found in the Hircâ—â— Mantian and Dead sea also in Maotis Palus in the Pontick Propontiâ—ke Ligurian and Narbon streytes neither in the Tyrrhene sea Moreouer it is not obserued in a great part of the Red sea Neither can the Narrownesse of the channell excuse it because these seas are great and also for the most part within the Tropicke of Cancer and therefore exposed sometimes to the perpendicular beames of the Moone Secondly If the Moone should by her owne â—orce excite and moue these waterâ— then would it moue those seas which it doth moue Altogether and not only in parts The contrary whereof we may find First in the Red Sea which in the beginning and end Ebbes and flowes but in the middle not at all moreouer the Mediterranean sea ebbes flowes as one sea on all the coasts of Africa wherein it is in a sort diuided and yet those seas with which it is ioyned as the Tyrrhene Ligurian and Gallican Seas feele not any such motion Thirdly it is obiected that if the Moone were the only cause of this Flâ—x and Reflux of the sea then those seas which are said in whole to moue should aequally flow in hight but this is contradicted by experience because some flow higher and some lower As for example The Adriatick sea in the inmost creeke neere Venice swels neere foure foote in hight but the rest of it not aboue two â—oote which increase is likewise obserued in the Aegean Cretian Ionian and Cyprian Seas also the Syrian and Aegyptian euen to Portus Ferinae But from mons pulcher to the Herculean streytes it increaseth aboue two foot in length But without these straights the same Ocean by the coasts of Portugall and Biscay and France the Sea riseth vsually to 15 foot in hight and neere the coasts of Belgia and Brittaine 18 foot At the confines of Bristoll to 60 and thence to the borders of S. Michael to 60 But at the coasts of Aethiopia neere the Atlantick shores it riseth not higher then in the Adriatick Sea But neere the Ilands
Albertus Magnus who in his Commentaries vpon the great Coniunctions of Albumazar obserued that before Noahs flood chanced a coniunction of Iupiter and Saturne in the last degree of Cancer against the constellation since termed Argo's ship out of which he would needs collect that the floud of Noah might haue beene fore-showne because Cancer is a watry signe and the house of the Moone being mistrisse of the Sea and all moist bodyes according to Astrologie which opinion was afterwards confirmed by Petrus de Alliaco who affirmes in his Comment vpon Genesis that although Noah did well know this flood by diuine Reuelation yet this coniunction being so notable hee could not bee ignorant of the causes thereof for those were not only signes but also apparant causes by vertue receiued from the first cause which is God himselfe Further to confirme this assertion hee would haue Moses by the cataracts of Heauen to haue meant the the great watry coniunction of the Planets A reason wherof hee seemes to alleage because it is likely that God would shew some signe in the Heauens by which all men might be warned to forsake their wicked courses But notwithstanding this curious opinion I rather cleaue to those which thinke this Deluge to be meerely Supernaturall which I am induced to belieue for diuers causes vrged by worthy writers First because this is set downe in Holy Scripture for a chiefe token or marke of Noahs extraordinary faith dependance vpon Gods promises which had been much diminished and of small moment had it any way been grounded on the fore-sight of second causes For this was no more then might haue beene discouered to the rest of the wicked worldlings who no doubt would in some sort haue prouided for their safety had they receiued any firme perswasion of this dreadfull Deluge To which others adde a second reason that second causes of themselues without any change or alteration are not able to produce such an admirable effect as the drowning of the whole World for it is not conuenient say they that God the Author of Nature should so dispose and direct the second causes that they might of themselues bee able to inuert the order of the Vniuerse and ouer-whelme the whole Earth which hee gaue man for his habitation But this reason is thought very weake for as much as it seemeth to imply a new creation The conceit of a new Creation is pronounced by a learned Countreyman of ours both vnlearned and foolish for whereas it is written saith hee that the fountaines of the deepe were broken open it cannot otherwise be vnderstood then that the waters forsooke the very bowels of the Earth and all whatsoeuer therein was dispersed made an eruption through the face of the Earth Now if wee compare the height of the waters in this deluge aboue the highest mountaines being onely 15 cubits with the depth of the semi-diameter of the Earth to the Center we shall not find it impossible answering reason with reason that all these waters dispersed vnder the Earth should so far extend as to drowne the whole Earth for the semi-diameter of the Earth as Astronomers teach is not aboue 35 â— miles wherein the waters contained and dispersed may bee sufficient for the hight of the greatest mountaines which neuer attaine 30 miles vpright whereas this distance of 30 miles is found in the depth of the Earth 116 times Secondly the extension of the Ayre being exceeding great it might please God to condensate and thicken a great part thereof which might concurre to this Inundation We willingly assent to the worthy Authour that this Inundation might bee performed without any new creation Notwithstanding we cannot hence collect that it was Naturall But to compose the difference the better and to shew how far Nature had a hand in this admirable effect we will thus distinguish that an effect may be called Naturall two manner of wayes First in regard of the causes themselues Secondly in respect of the Direction and Application of the causes If we consider the meere secondary and instrumentall causes wee might call this effect Naturall because it was partly performed by their helpe and concurrence But if we consider the mutuall application and coniunction of these second causes together with the first cause which extraordinarily set them a worke we must needs acknowledge it to be supernaturall For other particular Inundations in particular Regions we may more safely terme them Naturall as directed and stirred vp by second causes working no otherwise then according to their owne naturall disposition Two causes concurring together are here most notable whereof the first is the great coniunction of watry Planets working on the water their proper subiect the other the weaknes of the bounds and banks restraining the water which by processe of time weare out and suffer breaches both these causes sometimes concurring together cause an Inundation which assertion wee may lawfully accept but with this caution that Almighty God working by second causes neuerthelesse directs them oftentimes to supernaturall and extraordinary ends 2 Particular alterations haue happened to Bounds of Regions by Particular Inundations Howsoeuer some inundation haue not continued long but after a small time leâ—t the Earth to her owne possession yet others haue been of such violence as they haue beene found to haue fretted away or added and so altered the bounds and limits of places which besides diuerse examples produced by vs in our former chapter Aristotle seemes to acknowledge in the 1 booke ofhis Meteors the 14 Chapter where he saith that by such Accidents sometimes the Continent and firme land is turned into the Sea and other-where the Sea hath resigned places to the Land for sith the agitation or mouing of the water depends ordinarily vpon the vertue of Heauenly bodyes if it should happen that those Starres should meet in coniunction which are most forceable and effectuall for stirring vp of Tempests and Flouds the Sea is knowne to rage beyond measure either leauing her ancient bounds or else vsurping new By this meanes as we haue shewed in the former Chapter some Ilands haue been ioyned to the Land and some Peninsula's separated from the Land and made Ilands somewhere the Sea hath beene obserued for a great space to leaue the Land naked as Verstegan coniectures of the most part of Belgia which hee sayes was in ancient time couered with water which besides many other arguments hee labours to proue out of the multitude of fish-shells and fish-bones found euery-where farre vnder ground about Holland and the coasts thereabouts which being digged vp in such abundance and from such depthes could not saith hee proceed from any other cause then the Sea which couered the whole Countrey and strewed it with fishes Lastly that the Sea might seeme as well to get as lose shee hath shewed her power in taking away and swallowing vp some Regions and Cities which before were extant Such fortune had Pyrrha and Antisâ—a about Meotis
Helicâ— and Bura before mentioned in the Corinthian straites some haue beene of opinion that the whole Mediterranean within Hercules pillars was in time past habitable land till it gaue way to the violency of the Seas inuasion But in this I credit nothing without farther ground The like vncertainties are also related of the Atlantick Ilands greater then all Africa swallowed vp of the Ocean which Columbus was said in a sort to haue discouered in the Sea finding a great shallow fraught with weedes where he supposed this great Iland to haue stood But I rather beleeue that this Atlanticke Iland spoken of by Plato was either a Poeticall fiction as Moores Vtopia with vs or at least the Continent of America perhaps in those dayes obscurely discouered but the discouery lost againe to after ages 3 Certaine Regions by reason of great Riuers are subiect to certaine Anniuersary Inundations which commonly happen betwixt the Tropicks in the Summer without the Tropicks in the Winter The former clause is proued by experience almost in all great Riuers in the world which at some times of the yeere swell higher ouerflowing their bankes and drowning a part of the land about them But this happens not alike in all places for in Riuers included within the Tropicks as Nilus Niger in Africa and Oregliana in America with others there-about this Anniuersary Inundation is in the SuÌ„mer else-where it is commonly in the Winter For the former these causes may be assigned 1 The melting of the snow on the tops of the great mouÌ„taines in those parts which is greatest of all when the Sun is neerest or verticall vnto them which we are to accompt their Summer 2 The daily raines showres such Regions are subiect vnto These showres are much more frequent greater when the Sun is neerest their verticall point or in it The reason whereof we haue formerly shewed to bee this That the Sun daily in those parts drawes vp more vapours then he can dissipate consume Whence meeting with the cold of the middle Region of the Aire they are condensated into drops so turned into raine For the later case in riuers situat without the Tropicks coÌ„monly happens the contrary to wit that such Inundations happen rather in the winter then in the Summer whereof these reasons may bee rendred 1 Because Raine and showres whereof such ouer-flowing are ingendred in those parts are more frequent in winter then in the Summer 2 whereas neere the Equatour the snow is known to melt with the Sunne from the tops of high Mountaines in other parts it seldome or neuer melts at all as may bee thought vnder the Pole or thereabouts or else if it melt it happens as in the temperat Zones we see it doth oftner by raine then the heat of the Sunne 4 Next are we to speake of Earthquakes An Earthquake is a sensible motion and shaking of the parts of the Earth Amongst other remarkeable affections of a place which are not so ordinary an Earthquake hath no small consideration being oftentimes a meanes which God vseth to shew some great and extraordinary iudgement But not to spend more on this subiect then may seeme meete for Geography wee will shew the causes and kindes of it by which we may the sooner come to learne what Regions and places of the Earth are most subiect to this affection which is necessary of a Cosmographer to bee knowne Concerning the cauâ—es of it much dispute hath been among Philosophers some haue ridiculously affirmed that the Earth is a liuing creature and suppose with no lesse if not greater abâ—urdity that the Earth being in good temper doth rest settle quietly according to her naturall disposition From which temper if she be any way remoued as if she were sicke or pain'd in some part she shakes and shiuers The relation of this opinion is a sufficient confutation Thales Milesius would haue the Earth as a shippe to swimme on the Waters which being sometimes as a vessell by tempests turned on one side too much it takes a great quantity of water which is the cause of Earthquakes But this opinion is a poeticall fiction Little more probable is the opinion of Democritus that the Earth drinking in raine water more then her cauernes can well containe the water reuerberated backe is cause of such a motion But who can imagine that drops of raine falling into the Earth can bee reuerberated backe with such violence to cause such an extraordinary motion of the Earth Anaximenes Milesius was of opinion that the Earth her selfe was cause of her own motion for the parts of it being taken out as it were and broken fall downe sometimes into a great depth causing the vpper face of it to shake and tremble to which opinion also Seneca seemes to subscribe in the sixt booke of his naturall questions the 10 chapter To which also accords the Philosophicall Poet Lucretius in these words Terra superna tremit magnis concussa ruinis Subter vbi ingentes speluncas subruit aetas Quippe cadunt toti montes magnoque repentè Concussu laâ—è dispergunt inde Tremores Et meritò quoniam plaustris concussu tremiscunt Tecta viam propter non magno pondere tota The vpper Earth seaz'd with great ruines shakes When surrowed age her vast ribbes ouertakes For mountaines great fall downe and with the blow The Tremblings are dispersed to and fro Not without reason when a small-siz'd waine Makes houses neere the way to shake amaine This last opinion seemes to carry more shew ofprobability then the former neither can any man deny that sometimes the Earth in some parts may shake by the breaking downe of some subterranean parts whose suddain and violent motion may cause the rest being continuate to entertaine the like conuulsion But yet more generall seemes the opinion of Aristotle who would haue Earthquakes to proceed from a spirit or vapour included in the bowells of the Earth as he testifies in the 2 of his Meteors the 7 chapter For this vapour finding no way to passe out is enforced to returne backe and batred any passage out seekes euery corner and while it labours to breake open some place for going forth it makes a tumultuous motion which is the Earth-quake Now least it should seeme improbable that so great a masse of Earth should bee moued and shaken by so thinne and rarefied a body as is a fume or vapour Aristotle in the same place shewes the admirable force of Winds as well vpon the Aire as on the bodies of liuing creatures In the Aire because experience shewes that being stirred vp by a Windy vapour it sometimes is knowne to moue rockes from one place to another to plucke vp trees and shrubbs by the rootes and sometimes to throw downe the strongest and most stately buildings In mans body because by the stirring vp and agitation of the spirits which are the Instruments of vitall and animall functions sometimes one sicke man can doe that which cannot
extreame or Middle 6 The extreame inhabitants are either the Northerne or Southerne The former in the higher Hemispheare The other are the inhabitants thereunto opposite in the other Hemispheare 7 The middle Inhabitants are such as are situate in the middle betwixt the Aequator and the Pole in either Hemispheare The mistaking of the true limits of North and South in this our Northerne Hemispheare hath caused great errour amongst the Ancients Insomuch as Hippocrates pronounced the people of the North to be of a leane dry disposition of a small and dwarfish statuâ—e whereas either writers out of a good obseruation haue found them to be of a tall stature big-boned of a most able constitution in respect of those of the South To compose which difference we must haue recourse to that sub-partition of the Hemispheare before mentioned wherein we allotted of the 90 degrees accompted from the Aequatour to the Pole 30 for heat 30 for cold 30 for temperament Whereof the former lyeth Southward to the Aequatour The second is accompted from the pole the other is conceiued to lye betwixt both But because wee find this Mathematicall diuision to be too precise to answere the obseruation of Writers in this kinde we must a little alter these bounds that these rules may rather stoop to Nature and obâ—eruation then Nature bee sqâ—ared to our owne conceits yet shall wee shew in a generality and for the most part that the naturall disposition of the Inhabitants ought to be iudged and measured according to these limits though not exactly answering in precise degrees Wherefore towards the North wee limit these with Bodin other good writers which lie from the 50th degree Northward to the 70th in which Tract we shall find our Brittaines Ireland Denmarke Gotland the lower Germany from Moenus and Hipanus to Scythia and Tartary which â—ake vp a great part of Europe Asia on the South we place the mosâ— Southerly Spaniards â—he Sicilians Peloponnesians Cretians Syrians Arabians Persians Sufians Gedrosians Indians Egyptians Cyranians Carthaginians Numidians Lybians Moores and the Inhabitants of Florida in America The middle Region is meant that which lyes iust in the middle place betwixt the Tropicke and the Pole not that which lyes betwixt the Pole and the Line the reason whereof wee haue shewed before because the places vnder the Tropicks are found to bee hottest but vnder the Line more temperate so that our temperate Clime here we place that which beginnes at the 40 and endeth at the 50 degree of latitude In which Climat be the Northernmost Spaine France Italy the higher Germany as farre as the Mase both Hâ—ngaries Illyria both Mysâ—as Daâ—ia Moldauia Macedon Thrace and the better part of Asia the lesser Armenia Parthia Sogdiana and a great part of the greater Asia so that all the Nations as yet mentioned in histories and perfectly discouered in our Northerne Hemispheare are contained betwixt the 30 degrees of latitude and the 60. What to thinke of the Nations dwelling betwixt the two Tropicks and those which are 60 degrees to the Pole for want of accurate obseruation and History we can set downe no certainty yeâ— so farre as men may iudge by coniecture we may aâ—compt in the Region betwixt the Tropicks the 15 degrees from the Tropicke towards the Line to be of like quality with the 15 degrees without the Tropicke The Tract in the middle vnder the Equatour being more temperate theâ— that of the Tropicks may be iudged to come neere the tempâ—r of the middle Region betwixt the Tropicke and the Line though perhaps somewhat hotter For the Regions very neere the Poles lesse câ—rtainty can be collected yet that litle which we find concerning the nature of these Inhabitants we will â—ot omit According to this partition of our Northern Hemispheare we may maâ—â— iudgment of â—he otheâ— because where no other cause shewes it selfe we may wel guesse these places which are of equall site to be of equall disposition so far forth as they respect the heauenly operation All which concerne the nâ—turall disposition of the Inhabitants wee will reduce to these â—hree heads to wit either 1 the bodily qualities 2 the mentall Affections 3 the outward Actions 1 The Extreame Inhabitants towards either Pole are in complexion Hot and Moist Those toward the Equatour Cold and Dry those of the middle indifferent as partaking of both The confirmation of this proposition depends on 2 points the first is the Declaration of the Cause of this diuersity the second is the â—ffects and diuerse tokens which this variety of â—empeâ— pâ—oduces aâ— well in the Accidents of the Body as the Mind The cause we haue partly befoâ—e opened which is tâ—e Heat of the Sunne in â—limates neerer the Equatour and the Cold iâ— places fartheâ— remote and situate neerer the Pole whereof the former working on the Internall heat and moisture of men and all other liâ—â—ng creatures liuing in those hot Climats dâ—awes it oâ—t and consumes it in such â—ort that little remaines but Cold and Dry Melancholy as the Seas in the bottome the other parts being as it were euaporated For by how much more heat any man receiues outwardly from the heat of the Sunne so much more wants he the â—ame inwardly which euery man may see confirmed out of ordinary experience since that our naturall heat is far more vigorous in Winâ—er then in Summer and that our ioints are more operaâ—â—ue in frosty weather and then when the Northwinde is stiâ—â—ing On the other side in the Summer wee commonly obserue the contrary we find our ioints lazy and heauy our Appetites dull as may also bee perceiued in the English Germans and French traâ—ailing from the Norâ—h Southerly into Iâ—aly and Spaine who if they confine not their dyet to a sparing rate they commonly are surprized by surfets an example we haue of Philip Duke of Austria liuing in Spaine after his German fashion But on the contrary if a Spaniard who in his owne Country is inured to great Niggardlinesse arriue in our Northerne Countrey he commonly proues a better â—rencher-man then our natiue Inhabitants And this Bodin obserues to fall out true not onely in Men but also in beasts which driuen towards the North waxe fat and proue well but towards the South they pine away and waxe â—eane which may well be confirmed out of Leo Afer who auerres that almost throughout all Africke you shall find fâ—w or no heards of cattle or horse few sheepe and scarce any milke whereas each mans Table almost in Germany and Britaâ—ny can giue a plaine demonstration of our Countreyes store in this kind Hence may appeare that as the heat of the Sunne towards the Equatour by drawing out the internall heat and moisture causeth men inwardly to bee left cold and â—ry so towards the Pole the internall moisture being prâ—seâ—â—ed from the Excesse of Externall heate and the internall heat being strengthned and thickned by externall cold haue left vnto them a
Greekes call Sciographie or Sâ—enographie Fourthly and lastly Geographie is distinguished from Chorographie in that the former considering chiefly the quantity measure figure site proportion of places as well in respect one of the other as of the Heauens requires necessary helps of the Sciences Mathematicall chiefly of Arithmeticke Geometrie and Astronomie without which a Geographer would shew himselfe euery-where lame impotent being not able to wade thorough the least part of his profession whereas a man altogether vnpractised in those faculties might obtaine a competent knowledge in Chorography As we find by experience some altogether ignorant in the Mathematicks who can to some content of their hearers Topographically and Historically discourse of Countries as they haue read of in books or obserued in their trauaile Notwithstanding all these differences assigned by Ptolomie I see no great reason why Chorography should not bee referred to Geography as a part to the whole forasmuch as the obiects on which hee hath grounded his distinction differ only as a generall and a speciall which being not opposite but subordinate as the Logicians vse to speake cânnot make two distinct Sciences but are reduced to one and the selfe-same at least the differences thus assigned will not be Essentiall but Accidentall Wherfore my scope in this Treatise shall bee to ioyne them both together in the same so far forth as my Art and leisure shall be able to descend to particulars which being in Chorographie almost infinite wil not all seeme alike necessary in the description of the vniuersall Globe of the Earth The name of Geographie thus distinguished wee define it to be a Science which teacheth the Measure and Description of the whole Earth It is properly tearmed a Science because it proposeth to it selfe no other end but knowledge whereas those faculties are commonly tearmed Arts which are not contented with a bare knowledge or speculation but are directed to some farther worke or action But here a doubt seemes to arise whether this Science be to be esteemed Physicall or Mathematicall Wee answer that in a Science two things are to bee considered first the matter or obiect whereabout it is conuersant secondly the manner of handling and explication For the former no doubt can bee made but that the obiect in Geographie is for the most part Physicall consisting of the parts whereof the Spheare is composed but for the manner of Explication it is not pure but mixt as in the former part Mathematicall in the second rather Historicall whence the whole Science may be alike tearmed Mathematical Historicall not in respect of the Subiect which we haue said to be Physicall but in the manner of Explication For the obiect of Geographie as we haue intimated is the whole Globe of the Earth where we are to obserue that the Earth may bee considered 3 manner of wayes First as it is an Element out of which mixt Bodies are in part compounded In which sense it appertaines to Naturall Philosophie whose office is to treat of all naturall bodies their principles and proprieties Secondly as it is supposed to be the center of heauenly motions and so it is vndertaken by Astronomers Thirdly according to its Sphaericall superficies as it is proposed to bee measured or described in which manner it is the subiect of Geographie so far forth as the parts of it haue a diuerse situation as well in regard one of another as in respect of the Heauens Which restriction although agreeing well to some part of it will hardly square with all the rest because many things herein are handled besides the Earths naturall site or position as hereafter shall be taught For which cause wee haue rather defined the subiect of Geographie to bee the Earth so far as it is to bee measured and described as wanting one word to expresse the whole manner of consideration 2 Geographie consists of 2 parts the Sphericall and Topicall The Sphericall part is that which teacheth the naturall constitution of the Terrestriall Spheare The common and receiued diuision of this Science amongst Geographers is into the Generall or vniuersall part and the speciall Which diuision I dare not vtterly reiect being strengthened with the authority of ancient and approued Authors Yet seems it more aptly to be applyed to the Historicall part then to the whole Science as we shall after make apparant In the mean time the diuision of it into Sphericall Topicall parts seemes to be preferred in reason Forasmuch as the Terrestriall Globe which we suppose to be the subiect of the Science is proposed to vs vnder a twofold consideration first in regard of the Mathematicall lineaments and circles whereof the Spheare is imagined to consist out of which wee collect the figure quantity site and due proportion of the Earth and its parts Secondly of the places Historically noted and designed out vnto vs by certaine names markes and characters The former receiueth greatest light from Astronomie whence some haue called it the Astronomicall part The later from Philosophie and Historicall obseruation being as we haue said a mixt Science taking part of diuers faculties 3 The Terrestriall Spheare is a globous or round Body comprehended within the superficies of the Earth and Wateâ— Some haue nicely distinguished betwixt a Spheare an Orbe that a Spheare is a round massie body contained in one surface which is conuexe or outward as a Bowle The other concaue or hollow in manner of an Egge-shell emptyed But this distinction seemes too curious as sauouring to much of Scholasticall subtility because the name of Orbe and Spheare are many times promiscuously vsed without difference amongst good Writers This Spheare which wee make the subiect of our Science wee call Terrestriall not because it consists meerely of Earth the contrary of which wee shall hereafter shew but because the Earth is the chiefest in the composition whence by a tropicall kind of speech the whole Globe may bee called Terrestriall 4 The handling of the Terrestriall Spheare is is either Primary or Secundary The Primary consists in such affections as primarily agree to the Earth The Geographicall Affection may be considered two wayes either simply and absolutely in themselues or eomparatiuely as they are conferred and compared the one with the other As for example the circles of the Spheare such as are the Parallels and Meridians may be considered either absolutely in themselues or comparatiuely as they concurre to the longitude latitude distance or such like accidents which arise out of the comparison of one Circle with another 5 The Terrestriall Spheare primarily considered is either Naturall or Artificiall The Naturall is the true Globe in it selfe without image or representation 6 Herein againe are to be considered two things First the Principles and constitution of the Spheare Secondly the Accidents and proprieties The principles whereof the Spheare is composed are two viz Matter and Forme 7 The Matter is the substance whereof the Spheare is made viz Earth and Water My
grant a naturall motion and so consequently yeeld to our assertion A third reason may here bee drawne from the condensation of the Aire It is a receiued opinion amongst most Philosophers that the thinne and subtile parts of the Aire will naturally mount vpward but the thicker and condensated parts pitch and settle themselues downeward Which obseruation if it bee true will yeeld vs this conclusion That the Aire is by nature heauy and therefore moueth downeward toward the center of the Sphericall Globe of the Earth Which I will demonstrate out of these Principles 1 That that body which by addition of parts or condensation is made more heauy or ponderous must needs haue some weight in it selfe This may easily appeare because the mixture of lightnesse with heauinesse will not intend and encrease the ponderosity but slacke and diminish it For the chiefest thing which remits or diminisheth any quality is the mixture of his contrary as wee see the quality of cold to be abated and weakened if it entertaine any mixture of heat 2 The thickning or condensation of any body is made by addition and coaction of more parts into the same space or compasse As if the Aire or any such like body were thickned it would confine it selfe to a more narrow roome then before and so consequenly the narrow roome would containe more parts then before Out of which wee conclude that forasmuch as many parts pressed together in the same space make the whole masse more ponderous these parts so pressed together must needes haue some waight in themselues Which may further be illustrated because the intention of the quality commonly followes the condensation of the subiect Which may easily appeare in red-hot-iron which burnes and scorcheth more than flame or coales because euery part hath more degrees or heat Now where more parts are closely pressed together the heat must needs bee more feruent I haue dwelt longer on this subiect because I would not seeme to broach a new opinion without sufficient reason To conclude all and come as neere the receiued opinion as I can I will say that the Aire may bee considered two wayes first absolutely in it selfe secondly in comparison of heauier bodies to wit the Earth and Water In the first sense I grant no absolute lightnesse in the Aire because out of his naturall inclination it tends as neere as it can to the center as all other lower bodies But if we consider it comparatiuely in respect of other heauier bodies we may call it light that is lesse heauy or ponderous So that by lightnesse we vnderstand no absolute lightnesse but a priuation The summe of all wee haue hitherto proued is this That all terrene bodies as Earth Water Aire and other mixt bodies which concurre to the composition of the Earthly Spheare as neere as they can settle and conforme themselues to the center of the Earth which site or position of them to the center is their true and naturall place wherein they seeke their preseruation 2 Of two heauy Bodies striuing for the same place that alwaies preuaileth which is heauiest 3 Hence it comes to passe that the Earth enioyes the lowest place the next the Water and the last the Aire The increment or increase of any effect must necessarily arise from the greater vigour or efficacy of the efficient cause as both Reason and Philosophie well teach Now as wee haue shewed all heauy bodyes naturally do descend downeward out of a naturall inclination they haue to attaine the center but where there is a greater weight or constipation of ponderous parts in the same masse there must needs proceede a greater inclination Supposing then the Earth Water and Aire being three waighty bodies to incline and dispose themselues to their vttermost force to inclose and engirt the center of the Terrestriall Spheare it must needes bee that the Earth beeing the most compact and ponderous must obtaine the preheminence next to which succeedes the Water then the Aire being of all other the least ponderous Yet wee deny not but the Water and Aire being setled in this wise are in their naturall places which to vnderstand wee must repeate what we said before that Nature hath a twofold intention the one primary the other secondary Indeed if we consider Natures primary or speciall inclination in the bodies themselues we shall finde them as wee said immediatly directed to the center as neere as might bee but the secondary intent of Nature was that the bodies should so settle and conforme themselues as that each of them should obtaine a place according to his degree of massinesse and waight Out of this may bee answered a certaine obiection which some haue produced to proue the Aire to bee absolutely light in his owne nature Experience teacheth vs say these men that a bladder blowne vp with winde or an empty barrell being by force kept vnder water the force and obstacle omitted will suddenly ascend to the top and that a man ready to sinke in the Water will not so easily sinke downe while hee can hold his breath all which effects they ascribe to no other cause than to inclination of the Aire to moue vpwards from the center But indeed this motion howbeit agreeable to the vniuersall nature and consistency of the Spheare is notwithstanding in respect of the Aire it selfe vnnaturall and violent because this ascent of it is not caused by the forme of the Aire but the interposition of a heauier body striuing for the same place and so reuerberating it backe from the place whereunto it tended For here is to bee imagined that the bladder or empty barrell drowned in the water claimes and inioyes for the time that place or distance which otherwise so much water should occupie to wit so many inches of feete from one side to the other No maruell then that obstacles remoued the Water being most ponderous and waighty receiues his owne right and as it were shoulders out the Aire and violently driues it off to his owne habitation Whence many haue imagined that this motion is proper and naturall to the Aire when of it selfe it is meerely violent and enforced by the interiection of another body more waighty and ponderous than it selfe 7 this conformity of the Terrestriall parts two things are to bee obserued 1 The center it selfe 2 The parts which conforme themselues vnto it The Center is an imaginary point in the midst of the Terrestriall Globe to which all the parts are conformed The Fathers of the Mathematicall Sciences haue laboured to deriue all their doctrine from a point as the first and most simple principle whereon all the rest depend Not that they imagine a point to bee any positiue entity in it selfe but because it is the first bound of magnitude whence all terminated quantities take their originall The first princâ—â—le wee may call it not of naturall constitution because a thousand points collected could not be so compounded as out of it should arise the least
first a sepaparation from the place to which it is moued is more quicke expedient by a right line forasmuch as crooked and circular lines turne backe as it were into themselues againe Also the vnion and coniunction of a part with the Spheare of the Earth is most indebted to a right motion because as wee haue declared the way is shorter Secondly it may bee alleaged that Nature is an vniforme and necessary Agent restrained to one only bound or end and therefore can neither strengthen weaken remit or suspend the action but workes alwayes by the same meanes the same effects whence it is that she chuseth a right line being but one betwixt two points whereas crooked lines may bee drawne infinite and the motion directed by crooked lines would proue various and opposite to the prescript of Nature Moreouer should wee imagine that nature at any time wrought by a crooked or circular line it might be demanded from what Agent this obliquity should arise not from Nature it selfe because as wee said shee worketh alwayes to the vtmost of her strength hauing no power to remit or suspend her actioâ—s But a crooked motion ariseth from the remission or slacking of the Agents force and turning it away from the intended end which only findes place in Free and voluntary Agents Neither comes this Deflexion from the medium or Aire because it can haue no such power to resist Thirdly if the motion were not performed in a right line it could haue no opposite or contrary because as Aristotle teacheth To a circular or crooked motion no other motion can bee opposite or contrary in respect of the whole circle but only in regard of the Diameter which is alwayes a right line By this it is plaine that a waighty point considered in it selfe abstractly cannot but be carried to the center in a right line which right line really and Physically points out vnto vs a Radius or Beame drawne from the center to the circumference to shew that the God of Nature in composing the earthly globe both obserued and taught vs the vse of Geometrie 2 A point mouing toward the Center will moue swifter in the end then in the beginning This hath been plainely obserued by experience that a stone let fall from a towre or high place will in motion grow swifter and swifter till it approach the ground or place whereon it falls The reason may bee giuen from the Aire which resist so much the lesse by how much the body descendeth lower toward the Earth or center because when it is higher the distance being greater the parts of the Aire will make more Resistance The reason rendred by Aristotle of this Resistance is because in the beginning of the motion the stone or heauy body findes the Aire quiet and fixed but being once set on motion the higher parts of the Aire successiuely moue those which are vnder being driuen by the violence of the stone so falling and prepare as it were the way for his comming This reason may in some sort content an ingenious wit till a better bee found out 10 So much for the motion of a heauy point or center it remaines that we treate next of the motions and conformity of Magnitudes to the center of the Earth wherein we consider not only the Center or middle point but the whole masse of the magnitude whose motion and conformity shall bee expressed in this Theoreme 1 The motion of a magnitude toward the center is not meerely naturall but mixt with a violent motion This may easily bee demonstrated because no point of any magnitude is moued to the Center naturally but the middle point or center of the magnitude For although the Center bee moued in a perpendicular line which makes right angles with the Horizon yet the extreme parts are moued in lines parallell which cannot possibly make right angles with the Horizon or meet in the Center which may bee showne in this Figure Let there bee a Circle as ABL This done wee will imagine a certaine magnitude hanging in the Aire and tending to the Center C which is signified by the line PEN It is certaine that the Center of the magnitude E will moue and conforme it selfe downeward toward the center of the Earth by the line EC which motion will bee naturall as that which is deriued to a center from a circumference by the direct Radius which is the Rule of all naturall motions But the other parts without the center of this magnitude cannot moue but in so many lines which shall bee parallell the one to the other as for example the point N must needs moue in the line NG and the point P in the line PF which being of equall distance will neuer concurre in the Center and therefore cannot bee esteemed naturall rayes of the circle whence wee may collect that the motion of these parts is not naturall but violent for if any should imagine the motion of these parts to be naturall then should the point N moue to the center of the Earth by the line NC and the point P. by the line PC and so by how much the more any waighty body should approach the Center of the Earth by so much it should bee diminished and curtailed in his quantity so that in the Center it selfe all the parts should concurre in an Indiuisible point which is absurd contradicts all reason 11 Hitherto haue we spoken of the conformity of all Earthly and waighty bodies to the Terrene center as they are taken Absolutely It now remaines that we speake of these bodies as they are taken comparatiuely being compared one with the other This discourse properly belongs to an art which is called Staticke and Mathematicall whose office is to demonstrate the affections of Heauinesse and Lightnesse of all Bodies out of their causes The chiefe sensible Instrument whereon these properties are demonstrated and shewne is the Bilanz or Ballance But these specialties wee leaue to such as haue purposely written of this subiect amongst which the most ancient and chiefe is Archimedes whose heauenly wit ouertooke all such as went before him and out-went all such as followed Enough it will seeme in this Treatise to insert a proposition or two Staticall to shew the Conformity of two magnitudes and their proper Center mouing downeward toward the Globe of the Earth and it's Center 1 The lines wherein the centers of two heauy bodies are moued downeward being continued will meet in the Center of the Earth A heauy point or Center as wee haue demonstrated heretofore in this Chapter is moued toward the Center of the world in a right line which is imagined to bee a Ray of the whole Spheare deriued from the circumference to the Center therfore it is impossible they should bee parallell or Equidistant but concurrent lines But because the whole distance betwixt vs and the Center is very great it must needs happen that in a small space the concurse of
Philosophy and on the Loadstone erected a large Trophie to commend him to posterity This famous Doctor being as pregnanâ— in witty apprehension as diligent in curious search of naturall causes after many experiments and long inquiâ—y found the causes of most magneticall motions and proprieties hid in the magneticall temper and constitution of the Earth and that the Earth it selfe was a meere Magneticall body challenging all those proprieties and more then haue expressed themselues in the Load-stone Which opinion of his was no sooner broached then it was embraced and well-commed by many prime wits aswell English as Forraine In so much that iâ— hath of late taken large root and gotten much ground of our vulgar Philosophie Not that in the maine scope and drift of it it contradicts or crosses all Peripateticall principles or the most part of such grounds as haue hitherto borne the stampe aswell of Antiquity as of Authority But that it hath brought to light matters of no small moment which neuer found any ground or footsteps in our ordinary Philosophie This new Philosophie I dare not commend as euery-where perfect and absolute being but of late yeeres inuented and not yet brought to mature perfection yet would it sauour of little ingenuity or iudgement in any man peruersely to deny all such Magneticall affections in the Earth as are grounded on plaine experiments and obseruation sith no Philosophie was euery way so exact but required experience dayly to correct it I intend not here an absolute discourse of Magneticall Bobies and Motions but leaue it to their search whose experimentall industrie is more suteable to such a subiect Onely I will shew some generall grounds appertaining to the constitution of the Terrestriall Globe which I hold necessary for a Geographer Wherefore ere I curiously distinguish these Magneticall proprieties of the Earth into other seuerall kindes I will set downe this Theoreme as a ground or foundation of that which followes 1 The Terrestriall Spheare is of a Magneticall nature and disposition A Magneticall Body by some is defined to bee that which seated in the Aire doth place it selfe in one place naturall not alterable This situation is supposed to agree to all the Starres especially to the great Globes of Saturne Iupiter Mars and the Sunne as also to such as giue their attendance on them lately detected by the Trunk-spectacle to wit those two Starres which moue about Saturne the foure which moue about Iupiter the two which circle about the Sunne as Venus and Mercurie and lastly the Moone which encompasseth the Spheare of the Earth But to let passe those other Globes as farther off and therefore lesse subiect to our search our discourse shall only touch the Earth whereon wee liue which wee shall proue to partake of a certaine Magneticall vertue or inclination which to shew more openly we must vnderstand that all Magneticall Globes haue some parts of their bodies which bee also Magneticall which being diuorced from their proper Spheare meeting no obstacle will settle themselues to the naturall situation of their peculiar Orbes Which wee may plainly perceiue in the Spheare of the Earth wherein wee shall find two Magneticall minerals whereof the one is the Load-stone attracting iron or steele the other the Iron or steele it selfe either ofthese two artificially hanged in the Aire or placed in a little boat on the water all incombrances being remoued will conforme settle their parts and Poles correspondent to the poles and parts of the Terrestriall Spheare as North and South This hath been found in all parts of the Earth by such as haue trauelled round about her as Drake and Candish whose Compasses were alwayes directed Magnetically in all places which they passed which we cannot ascribe to any other cause then the disponent faculty of the Earth's Magneticall Spheare as shall appeare hereafter by demonstration Moreouer it hath been obserued by such as saile Northerly and Southerly that the Magneticall Inclinatory needle in euery eleuation of the Pole is conformed and disposed to the Axell of the Earth according to certaine angles answerable to the latitude of the Region as wee shall shew hereafter This diuersity of conformity must necessarily arise either from the Magneticall instrument in it selfe absolutely considered or els from the Harmony and correspondency it hath with the Terrene Globe It cannot be the first because it should bee the same in all places and Regions of the Earth which is contrary to experience and our supposition Then must wee needes deriue it from the Magneticall disponent vertue of the whole Globe of the Earth from which vertue the whole Earth may bee called Magneticall Nay if we truely consider these Magneticall affections primarily agree to the Earth as the mother of all Magneticall bodies but afterward secondarily are deriued into the parts because as Gilbert relates it the cause of magneticall motions and affections is the magneticall forme of a Sphericall Globe which forme first agrees to the whole Globe of the Earth and so is deriued to all his homogeneall parts These parts are called Homogeneall not in regard of their Matter and quantity but in respect of their Magneticall nature and communion which in euery part is conspicuous If any man should wonder why the Earth should bee called Magneticall in regard of this minerall which seemes one of the least and scarcest substances whereof it consisteth we may many wayes answer First that although the surface of the Earth seemes for the most part composed of other materials more conuenient for the vse of liuing Creatures which dwell therein yet may infinite rocky mines of Magnets be couched lower toward the center which strengthen and consolidate the Earthly Globe Secondly wee must not imagine the Magneticall substance of the Earth to bee all one kinde of stone but various for somewhere it is hard solide as the true magnet it selfe and the iron which is nothing els but a mettall decocted out of the Load-stone for iron Oâ—â—e differs little or nothing at all from the Load-stone it selfe somewhere againe this substance is more thinne and fuid being lesse concocted as some kinde of clay and certaine vapours arising out of the Earth which bee magneticall which being brought to a harder and more massie substance will haue the same affections and motions with the Loadstone it selfe This assertion of the Earth's magneticall nature wee shall confirme more euidently hereafter where we shall proue both the Poles the Meridian Parallels and other circles to bee not bare Imaginary lines as some haue thought but to bee Really grounded in the magneticall nature of the Earth and are to be shewed in any round Loadstone wrought and placed conueniently with instruments thereunto applied 2 The Magneticall affection of the Earth is twofold either Radicall or Deriued The Radicall disposition we call that which is the first root and ground of all other magneticall motions 3 The Radicall vertue or inclination is againe twofold either Motiue or Disponent
directiue power more remarkable then in magneticall bodies especially in their Direction and Variation motions treated of hereafter in place conuenient to which for a further confirmation of the Theoreme wee referre the Reader 9 The Radicall facultie of the magneticall body being somewhat spoken of aswell in their motiue as disponent vertues Wee are in the next place to speake of the deriued motions which arise out of these faculties 6 These motions magneticall are either partiall or totall The partiall wee call that by which the parts of the Earth are magnetically moued and conformed as well one to the other as to the whole terrestriall globe 7 The magneticall partiall motions are Coition Direction Variation and Declination Magneticall Coition is that motion by which magneticall bodies are ioyned and apply themselues one to the other For the knowledge of this magneticall motion we need goe no farther then the Iron and Steele which wee shall obserue to moue unto the Load-stone and cleaue vnto it if so be it bee placed within the Spheare of his vertue This motion is commonly called Attraction but improperly as is obserued by D. Gilbert 1 Because Attraction seemes to suppose an externall force or violence by which one thing is carryed and moued vnto another but the Coition is meerely naturall as proceeding from the internall forme of both the bodies 2 Attraction supposeth the force of mouing to bee onely in the one party and the other to bee meerely passiue and not actiuely concurring to this motion whereas in the magneticall coition both parts are mutually inclined by nature to meet and ioyne themselues one to the other Not that the force of motion in both parts is alwayes equall because one magneticall body is greater and stronger then the other and then the one part seemes to stand still and draw the other vnto it although there bee in this part so resting an inclination to the other which mutuall inclination of coniunction in magnets we may easily see in two magnets of equall quantity and vertue which being set at a conuenient distance will so moue that they will meet in the mid-way Some haue gone about to parallel this Attractiue force of the Load-stone with the Attractiue force of Ieat or Amber which wee see by a naturall vertue to draw vnto it selfe little strawes and other such like matter But hee that truely vnderstands the nature of a magneticall body shall finde a great disparity First because the Ieat or Amber which are comprised vnder the name of Electricall bodies drawes vnto it by reason of his Matter whereas otherwise the cause of the Magneticall Coition is to bee sought in the forme as being too subtile a thing to spring from a materiall substance Secondly Electricall bodies draw and attract not without rubbing and stirring vp of the matter first and presently faile if any vapour or thicke body should be interposed But in a magneticall motion wee find no such matter because it requires no such preparation or rubbing of the stone nor is hindred by interposition of solid bodies as wee proue in this place Thirdly the Load-stone moues and prouokes to motion nothing els but other magneticall bodies but the Electricall will draw any little thing as straw haire dust and such like Fourthly the Magnet will lift a great waight according to his vertue and quantity but Ieat the smallest and lightest things Lastly the Electricall bodies as Gilbert well confirmes by experiments draw other bodies vnto them by reason of a moist effluence of vapours which hath a quality of ioyning bodies together as wee see by the example of two stickes in water at a certaine distance which will commonly moue till they meet together But the magneticall coition cannot bee other then an act of the magneticall forme Of the cause of it many Philosophers haue freely spent their vncertaine coniectures rather out of a feare to bee esteemed ignorant then of confidence to be accounted learned Most run vpon the forme of the mixt body which growes from the composition of the foure Elements but this opinion is very feeble and cannot goe without crouches for sith all mixt formes grow out of the temperament and disposition they adde nothing to the thing compounded but diuersly modificate what was before in the simple Elements it cannot bee imagined how such an affection as this should bee onely found in the magnet and no other mixt body Indeed we ascribe this affection to the forme as the immediate cause but by this forme we vnderstand not the forme of the mixture resulting out of the mixture and temperature of the foure qualities but the magneticall forme of all globous bodies such as are the Sunne Moone Starres and this Terrestriall Spheare whereon we liue whose natures receiued the stampe in the first creation for the preseruation of this integrity Hee that shall seeke for the originall of all formes of this kinde in the mixture and constitution of the foure Elements shall labour much and finde little and neither at last be able to content himselfe or instruct others except wee suppose a man sufficiently taught when hee heares ordinary matters expressed in exoticke and artificiall tearmes For my owne part I content my selfe with a rule of Biel the Schooleman That when an immediate effect proceeds from an immediate cause wee ought not to search farther why such a cause should produce such an effect Euey man being demanded why the fire is hot is ready to flye to the forme of fire and alleage this as the cause but should hee inquire further why the forme of fire should bee the cause of heat hee might perhaps puzzell a whole Academie of Philosophers and neuer proue himselfe the wiser For the further illustration of this motion these Theoremes will seeme necessary 1 The Magnet communicates his vertue to iron or steele if it be touched with it Experience teacheth that any iron-instrument touched with the Load-stone receiues instantly the same vertue Attractiue But the manner how this vertue should bee communicated on so sleight a touch hath been controuerted The common Philosophers haue imagined that certaine little parts of the Loadstone are separated from it in the touch which cleauing to the iron or steele cause this Attraction But that this vertue cannot be communicated by any corporall processe or any such little parts cleauing to the iron is not so easie to imagine for first it seemes impossible that with a bare touch these parts should bee separated from the magnet or at least should bee so fast linked to the iron Secondly these parts being so little and insensible cannot haue so much vigour as wee see an Iron will haue at the touch of the Load-stone Thirdly the Loadstone can worke vpon the iron notwithstanding any body interposed which is an euident signe that the iron it selfe is of a magneticall temper Wherefore to shew a reason of this effect we say That Iron is a mettall excocted out of the Load-stone which albeit it
that it inclines no more on the one side then on the other but lies euen as wee see in the surface of the water when it rests quiet without motion for howsoeuer the water so resting as we haue formerly demonstrated is alwayes sphericall yet in a small distance in the sensible Horizon it may to sense be represented by a plaine 25 So much for the Inuention The Distinction of the Horizon is into three sorts for either it is a right Horizon or oblique or parallell 26 A right Horizon is that which with the Equator makes Right Angles This distinction growes naturally out of the Respect of the Horizon to the Equatour For sith the Equatour is one and the selfe-same immoueable circle and the Horizon is mutable and changed according to his diuerse verticall points they cannot alwayes keepe the same situation in regard one of the other This they haue reduced into three heads for either it is Right or Oblique or Parallell The Right is so called from the right Angles which the Horizon makes with the Equator wherein the two poles are alwayes couched in the Horizon and the Equator passing directly ouer their heads as is plaine to be seene in this figure here affixed such an Horizon haue these Inhabitants which dwell directly vnder the Equinoctiall line in the very middest of the Torrid Zone such an Horizon agrees to a great part of Africke to a part of Peru in America Also to most of the Molucco Ilands the Ilands of Taprobana and S. Thomas but no part of Europe is subiect to such a Right Horizon The cause of this variation of Horizons is the naturall roundnesse of the Earth For the earth being supposed to bee sphericall as we haue before demonstrated it must of necessity follow that the site of the poles should be changed according to the diuersity of the places Also because wheresoeuer we are placed on the Earth as wee haue shewed all impediments of the sight as mountaines and vallies put apart we can behold the Hemispheare of the Heauens which middle part being set downe is diuided from the part vnseene by the Horizon it must needs bee that either both the poles must be in the Horizon and so make a Right Spheare or at least one must bee aboue and seene and the other hid from the sight and so much as one is eleuated aboue the Horizon must the other bee couched vnder it For otherwise wee should see more or lesse then a precise moity or halfe of the Heauens sith the poles differ one from the other the halfe of the whole Heauens to wit by the Diameter of the world 27 An oblique Horizon is that which with the Equator makes oblique Angles Those Inhabitants are said to haue an oblique Horizon whose site and position declines somewhat from the Equator either to the North or South towards either pole yet so that the pole bee not eleuated so high as 90 Degrees for then it becomes a Parallell Horizon as wee shall shew in the next The representation of such an oblique Spheare may bee seene in this Diagram wherein the Horizon cuts the Equatour at oblique Angles whence it is called oblique Clauius seemes to adde another reason of this appellation to wit because in such an Horizon one pole is alwayes eleuated aboue and the other hid but this reason seemes too generall as that which agrees not onely to an Oblique but also to a Parallell Spheare From this Horizon by Iohannes de Sucrobosco the Spheare is called Artificiall because as Clauius coniectures it is variable and doth naturally diuide the Globe For whereas the Horizon of the Right Spheare passeth by either Pole it seemes by it selfe as it were Naturally and Directly to diuide the Spheare and this diuision is no way variable as that it should bee more or lesse Right but contrariwise in the oblique Spheare sith one Pole is placed aboue and the other beneath it seemes to be placed out of his naturall site and position Moreouer this Oblique Horizon is variable according to the diuersity of habitations so that it may be to some more to others lesse Oblique for so much the more Oblique must it be by how much the neerer it is placed to the Poles The Inhabitants of an Oblique Spheare are such as seated betwixt the Equator and either of the Tropicks of Cancer and Capricorne or such as dwell betwixt either Tropicke and the Polar-circle 28 A Parallell Horizon is that which lies Parallell to the Equator making no angles at all with it Such a kinde of Horizon those Inhabitants are said to haue which are included betwixt the Poles of the world and the Polar circles whose Horizon cuts not the Equatour at any Angles at all either Right or Oblique but lies Parallell vnto it as we see in this Figure here set downe Some haue reduced this kinde of Spheare to an Oblique Horizon in regard that in this site our Pole is eleuated aboue the Horizon and the other depressed vnder in which opinion Clauius seemes to second Iohannes de Sacrobosco on whom hee comments But this is ridiculous because the Spheare is called Right or Oblique as wee haue taught from the Angles which the Horizon makes with the Equator wherefore that Horizon which makes no Angles at all cannot bee called either Right or Oblique but is necessarily distinguished from either On this distinction of Horizons is grounded the diuision of the Inhabitants of the Earth according to three kinds of Spheares of whose accidents and proprieties wee shall more fully treat hereafter in the dictinction of the parts and Inhabitants of the Terrestriall Spheare because such proprieties cannot so well be taught without the knowledge of the Artificiall Spheare whose Nature and Fabricke wee shall labour God willing in our next Chapter to vnfold CHAP. VII Of the Artificiall Representation of the Terrestriall Spheare 1 HAuing hitherto treated of the Terrestriall Spheare as it is Naturall or reall wee are in the next place to speake of the Artificiall Globe The Artificiall Globe is an expression or imitation of the Spheare of the Earth 2 The Artificiall imitation of the Earth is either Common or Magneticall The common is againe twofold either in the Globe or in the Geographicall Mappe or Table 3 The Geographicall Globe is a round solid Body adorned with Lineaments pictures seruing for the vse of Geographers Who was the first Inuentour of this Artificiall Globe it is not euident some thinke with Pliny that it was found out by Atlas and carried into Greece by Hercules Others haue ascribed it to Anaximander Milesius some to Musaeus as Diogenes Laërtius others to other Authors amongst whom Architas Tarentinus is not forgotten as one that was esteemed the rarest Mathematician of his time But all these were out-stripped by Archimedes the Syracusan Mathematician who is said to haue composed a Spheare of transparent glasse representing vnto the life the whole frame of the Heauens wherein the Sunne
holy Scripture and it is not vnlikely â—hat many of those 〈◊〉 people fetcht their first originall from them The second cause may bee drawne from the Industrie and labour of the inhabitants in tillage and manuring of the ground wherein the Soâ—â—herne inhabitant hath beene more deficiâ—nt Foâ— it is certaine out of the holy Scripture that Noahs Arke wherâ—in was thâ— Seminary of mankinde and almost all other liuâ—â—g 〈◊〉 rested in â—he Northerne part of the world whence both man and beasts beganne to be propagated toward the Southâ—punc no farther then necessity enforced the Regions inhabited gâ—â—wing daily more and more populous and as iâ— were groaning to bee deliuered oâ— some of her children Hence may bee inferred â—wo consecâ—aries First that the Northerne Hemispheare was 〈◊〉 sooner and is now therefore â—ore populous then the Southerne Secondly that the chiefest and principall men which were best seated rathâ—r chose to keepe their ancient habitation sending such abroad who could either bee best spared or had the smallest possessions at home Yet notwithstanding it cannot be imagined but they retained with them a sufficient company and more then went away Out of which it must needs be granted that the Northerne halfe of the Earth being best inhabited should be best manured and cultured from whence the ground must in time proue more fruitfull and commodious for habitation for as a fruitfull Countrey for want of the due manuring and tillage doth degenerate and waxe barren so diuerse barren and sterill Countreyes haue by the industrie of the Inhabitants beene brought to fertilitie and made capable of many good commodities necessary for mans life If I were curious to draw arguments from the nature of the Heauens I could alleage the Greatnesse and Multitude of Starres of the greater magnitude in our Northerne Hemispheare wherein the Southerne is deficient as also the longer soiourning of the Sun in our Northerne Hemispheare but these as vncertaine causes I passe ouer Other reasons may perchance bee found out by those who are inquisitiue into the secrets of nature to whom I leaue the more exact search of these matters 4 Either Hemispheare consisting of 90 Degrees may be diuided into three parts each of them containing 30 Degrees 5 Of these parts 30 we allot for Heat 30 for Cold and 30 for Temperature whereof the former lyeth towards the Equatour the second towards the Pole the third betwixt both The ancient Cosmographers as wee haue shewed in our former Treatise diuided the whole Globe of the Earth into fiue Zones which they supposed had also proportionally diuided the Temper and disposition of the Earth In such sort that according to the Degrees of Latitude the Heat and Cold should in rease or diminish Which rule of theirs had beene very certaine were there no other causes concurrent in the disposition of the Earth and Ayre but onely the Heauens But sithence that many other concurrent causes as we haue shewed mixe themselues with these celestiall operations and the experiment of Nauigatours haue found out a disproportion in the quality in respect of the Distance some later writers haue sought out a new pertition more consonant to naturall experience The whole Latitude of the Hemispheare consisting of 90 Degrees from the Equatour to the Pole they haue diuided into three parts allowing 30 Degrees toward the Equatour to Heat 30 Degrees towards the Pole to Cold and the other 30 Degrees lying betwixt both to Temperature These 30 Degrees for Imagination sake they haue subdiuided againe each of them into two parts contayning 15 Degrees a peece more particularly to designe out the speciall disposition of each Region lying either Northward or Southward from the Equatour which is the bound betwixt both Hemispheares In the first section of 30 Degrees lying Northward from the Equatour wee comprehend in Africke Numidia Nigritarum Regio Lybia Guinia Nubia Egypt Ethiopia superior In Asia Arabia India Insulae Philippinae In America Noua Hispania Hispaniola Cuba with other parts of America Mexicana In the other extreame section from 60 Degrees of Latitude to the Pole wee comprehend in Europe Groenland Island Friesland Norwey Suethland for the most part Noua Zembla In Asia a great part of Scythia Orientalis In America Anian Quivira with diuerse other parts of the North of America Mexicana In the middle betwixt both betwixt 30 and 60 Degrees of Latitude wee comprehend in Africa Barbarie in Europe all the kingdomes except those North Prouinces before named and almost all Asia except some places toward the South as Arabia India and the Philippinae Insulae formerly placed in the first Section In like manner may we diuide the Southerne Hemispheare into three Sections In the first from the Equatour 30 Degrees we place in Africke Congo Monomotapa Madagascar In the Southerne Tract Beach and Noua Guinia with many Ilands thereunto adioyning as many of the Philippinae Insulae with Insulae Solomonis In America Peru Tisnada Brasilia with the most part of that Region which they call America Peruana In the other extreame Section from 60 Degrees to the Antarctike Pole is couched the most part of that great land scarce yet discouered called Terra Australis Incognita In the middle Region betwixt both from 30 to 60 Degrees shall wee finde placed in America the Region of the Pantagones in the Southerne Continent Maletur Iauaminor with many others In discouering the qualities of these seuerall Sections or partitions of the earth our chiefest discourse must be addressed to the Northerne Hemispheare as that is more discouered and knowne amongst old and new writers by which according to the former Proposition one may parallell the other concerning which wee will inferre these Propositions 1 In the first Section of the Hemispheare the first 15 Degrees from the Equatour are found somewhat Temperate the other 15 about the Tropicks exceeding Hot. That the Region lying vnder the Equatour is Temperately hot contrary to the opinion almost of all the Ancients hath beene in part proued heretofore as well by reason as experiment for that all places by how much the neerer they approach the Equatour by so much more should bee hotter as some imagine diuerse instances will contradict It is reported by Aluarez that the Abyssine Embassadour arriuing at Lisbone in Portugall was there almost choaked with extreame heat Also Pâ—rguer the Germane relates that hee hath felt the weather more hot about Dantzicke and the Balticke Sea then at Tholouse in a â—eruent Summer The causes which wee haue before touched are chiefly two The first is that the Sun is higher in this orbe in respect of those vnder the Equatour and moueth more swiftly from them spending on them onely twelue houres whence so great an impression of heat cannot bee made as in other places for heat being a materiall quality must necessarily require some Latitude of time to bee imprest into the ayre or any other subiect From the Diminution of heat in the Region must the ayre needs receaue into
and Compasse durst not aduenture into the Ocean so farre out of sight of land But to giue the opposite part all reasonable aduantage admit the Straites diuiding Asia and America were very narrow and within kenne was it likely that from hence thâ—y could by shipps transport so many kndes of creatures Could we beleeue any man to be so mad as to carry ouer with him Lions Beares Tigers Foxes and other innumerable sorts of rauenous and vnprofitable beasts as pernicious to mankind as other creatures seruing for his vse If any were found so foolish or malicious yet were it very vnlikely hee should transporte so many kinds This argument seemes no more to concerne America then most Ilands of the World wherein we find diuers creatures not only seruing for the vse of man but many vnprofitable hatefull to the Inhabitants The meanes of this transportation is very difficult to finde St Augustine with some other Diuines haue bin driuen to a supernaturall cause as if Almighty God should performe this matter by the ministry of Angels which answer we dare not vtterly reiect being supported by the authority of so great a Pillar of the church yet I cannot so easily imagine that God who vsed naturall meanes for the preseruation of all liuing creatures in the Arke should haue recourse to a supernaturall power in the propagation of these creatures on the face of the Earth wherefore to me the reason would seeme better answered out of our ground which we shall proue hereafter That Ilands were not from the first Creation but afterward broken from the maine Continent by the violence of the Water Hence it might come to passe that such beasts as were in the parts of the Earth so broken off haue since there continued by continuall propagation vntill this day I meane of ravenous and hurtfull beasts because of the others lesse doubt can be made but that they might be convayed from one Country into another by shipping to serue the necessity of mankind Here we see that no argument as yet hath bin vrged so strong against the North-passage but may with reasonable probability be answered It remaines in the second place that we descend somewhat to particulars to inquire whether this be to be effected either towards the North-east or the North-west The North-east passage hath heretofore bin attempted by many of our English Nauigatours but with vnhappy successe yet were not these voyages altogether fruitlesse forasmuch as by this meanes a way was found out to Russia whence began the first trade betweene ours and the Russian Merchants But that litle hope can hence arise sundry reasons may be alleaged the chiefe whereof are these 1 The dangerous rending of the Scythick Cape set by Ortelius vnder 80 degrees Northward together with the perillous sailing in those Northerne Seas alwayes pestred with Ice and Snow seconded by diuerse Bayes or shelues mists fogges long and darksome nights most aduerse to any happy Nauigation 2 The obseruation of the Water which is more shallow towards the East which giues small hope of a through passage because all Seas are fed with waters and for the most part are obserued to be more shallow towards the shore then in the middle But where in sailing forward any Sea is found to decrease in depth it is a likely argument that it is rather a Creeke Bay or Riuer then a Straite Notwithstanding these reasons some haue heretofore gone about to proue a passage by the North-east to Cathay of which opinion was Antony Ienkinson whose reasons be well answered by Sr Humphrey Gilbert which I briefly touch adding some things of mine own as I find occasion The first reason was drawne from a Relation of Tartarian who reported that in hunting the Morse he sailed very far towards the South-east wherein he found no end which might giue a likely coniecture that it was a passage throughout But to this we may easily answere that the Tartarians are a barbarous Nation altogether ignorant of Nauigation which neither know the vse of the Charte Compasse or Celestiall Obseruations therefore in a wide Sea know not how to distinguish the North-east from the South-east Besides the curious search of this long passage must depend on better Discoueries then a poore Fisher-man who seldome dares aduenture himselfe out of sight of land besides the Fisher-man iudging by sight could not see about a kenne at sea which will proue nothing in regard of so long a distance The second Reason vrged by Mr Ienkinson was this that there was an Vnicorne's horne found vpon the coasts of Tartaria which could not come saith he by any other meanes then with the tide in some streight in the North-east in the frozen Sea there being no Vnicorne in all Asia sauing in Iâ—dia and Cataia To this reason I may answer with Sr Humphrey Gilbert many waies 1 We may well doubt whether Tartarians knowe a true Vnicornes horne or no 2 It is credible that it could bee driuen so farre by the Tide being of such a Nature that it cannot swimme 3 The Tides running to and fro would haue driuen it as farre backe with the Ebbe as it brought it forward with the Floud 4 the Horne which was cast on this coast might be the Horne of an Asinus Indicuâ— which hath but one Horne like an Vnicorne in his fore-head whereof there is great plenty in all the North parts as in Lappia Norvegia Finmarke as Zeigler testifies in his History of Scandia 5 Lastly there is a fish which hath a Horne in his â—ore-head câ—lled the Sea Vnicorne whereof Martin Frobisher foâ—nd one on the coast of Newfound-land and gaue it to Queene Elizabeth which was said to be put into her wardrope But whether it be the same which is at this day to be seene at Winsor Castle I cannot tell The third and strongest reason which was vrged for the North-east passage was this That there was a continuall current through the Frozen Sea of such swiftnesse that if any thing were throwne into the water it would presently be caried out of sight To this we may easily answer that this strong current is not maintained by any Tide coÌ„ming from another Sea but by diuerse great Riuers falling into this streight In like sort we find a strong current from Maeotis Palus by Pontus Euxinus Sinus Bosphorus and along all the coast of Greci as Contarenus and diuerse other affirme out of their own experience and yet the Sea lyeth not open to any other Sea but is maintained by Tanais and diuerse other riuers so in this North-east part may this current of water be maintained by the Riuers Duâ—â—a Ob and many others which continually fall into it Hitherto haue we treated of other passages either effected or attempted to Cathay and the East Indies The last and most desired and sought in our time is that by the North West This way hath bin often attempted as by Cabot Dauis Frobisher Hudson Sr Thomas Button and
but also themselues practised such commerce as well for the benefit of their Common-wealth as the increase of their particular estate Two memorable examples we haue in Henry the third King of England and Laurence de Medices Duke of Florence whereof the former gaue many and large priuiledges to all the Hance Townes in his Kingdomes which were in Number about 27 The other himselfe for his owne priuate commodity exercised the Trade of Merchandize yet was this man most ingenious and a great louer of learned Men. CHAP. IX Of Pedography Riuers Lakes and Fountaines in the Earth 1 WE haue formerly treated of Hydrographie or the description of the Water now are we by Gods assistance to proceede on to Pedographie which is a description of the Firme Earth or Dry-Land 2 The Land is a space contained in the superficies of Earth distinguished from the Water The Earth in this place is not taken as in the former part of Geographie for the whole Terrestriall Spheare composed of Earth and Water Neither yet as it is vsually taken in Naturall Philosophy for an Absolute Elementary body whose causes and affections are to bee searched out but Topographically for a place or habitable space on the dry-land This dry-land distinguished from the Water by its Firmenesse and Constancy being noâ— subiect as the Water to motion and inconstancy was therefore if we belieue the Poet called Vestâ— according to that verse Stat viterra suâ vi stando Vesta vocatur Neither wants this fable of Vesta a sufficient morall First because Vesta was faigned to bee a keeper and protectour of their houses which may very well agree to the Earth which not only sustaines and beares vp all buildings and houses but also affords all commodities and fruits wherewith housholds are maintained Secondly Vesta was fained to be the Goddesse to whom the first fruits were offered in sacrifice which may well square with the nature of the Earth from which all fruits are originally deriued and therefore as it were of due ought all first fruits to bee consecrated to her altar Two other Parallels betwixt the Goddesse Vesta are added by Natalis Comes First because Plutarch sheweth in his Symposiacks that the Tables of the Ancients dedicated to Vesta were made round in forme and fashion of the Earth Secondly because the seat of Vesta was imagined to bee in the liquid Aire immoueable and not subiect to motion which well agrees with the common conceiued opinion of the Earth But these two rather expresse the nature of the whole Terrestriall Spheare then of the land diuided from the Waters This description of the dry-land separated from the Waters we haue termed Pedographieâ— because the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commonly deriued from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a foote signifies as much as a firme place whereon men may haue sure footing to which is consonant the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which seemes most probably deriued from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies as much as Terere to weare out or waste because the Earth is dayly troden and worne with our feet The proprieties of the Earth appertaining to a Cosmographer are many and various wherefore to auoid confusion wee haue diuided them into these heads 3 The Adiuncts of a Place in the Land are either Naturall or Ciuill The Naturall are such as are in bred in the Earth 4 The Naturall may bee againe diuided into Perpetuall or Casuall Perpetuall are such as alwayes or most ordinarily continue the same 5 The Perpetuall proprieties are againe twofold either Absolute or Comparatiue The Absolute I call such as agree to the Land without any respect to the Sea 6 Of the former sort are such as belong to the Figurature of the Soile wherin three things are most remarkeable 1 Riuers Fountaines and Lakes 2 Mountaines Valleyes and plaines 3 Woods and Champian Countreyes 7 A Riuer is a perpetuall course of water from a certaine head or fountaine running from an higher to a lower place on the earth Riuers are by some Geographers more curiously distinguished into 2 sorts whereof the first are setled or stayed Riuers which slide away with a more equall and vniforme course The later are called Torrents or stickle waters which are carried with a far greater violence In a Riuer three things are chiefly remarkeable First the Fountaine or Spring secondly Whirle-pooles Thirdly the Mouth of it The spring is the place where at first the water sensibly breakes out of the Earth As Nilus in Africke is thought to haue his first head at the mountaines of the Moone A Whirlepoole is a place in a Riuer where the water falling into a Deep trench is whirled teurned round The Mouth is the place where any Riuer finds a passage our either into the sea or into another greater Riuer which in latine is tearmed ostium or a gate Whence they call Septem ostia Nili which are seuen mouths by which it fals into the Mediterranean This gaue the name to many Citties and Townes in England as Plimmouth Darâ—mouth Portsmouth Axmouth with many others Now for as much as all water is by nature heauy and therefore couets the lowest place The course of all Riuers must needes bee from a higher to a lower place whence we may guesse the hight of lands For it is necessary that for euery mile wherein the water glides forward on the earth there be made an allowance of 2 foote at least in the decliuity of the ground For although water will slide away at any inequality yet could not the water bee wholesome and retaine any reasonable swiftnesse of motion without this allowance Hence we may probably find out the huge hight of the Alpes about all the places in Europe because out of them spring foure great Riuers which runne foure wayes whereof the two greatest are the Danow which receiues into it 60 Nauigable riuers and so disburthens it selfe into the Euxine Sea far remote and the Rhene Of Lakes and Riuers many memorable matters may be spoken all which we will reduce to these heads 1 Their Generation and first originall 2 Their Appearance 3 Their Place in the earth 4 Their Vertues and effects all which we will comprehend in these Theoremes following 1 All Riuers haue their first originall from the sea the mother of Riuers The originall of fountaines and Riuers on the earth is a matter of great difficulty and for ought I know not yet found out of our greatest Philosophers yet being willing to goe as farre as I can I will glaunce at probabilities and first set downe other mens opinions Some haue beene of opinion that in the bowels of the earth are hid certaine vast concauities and cauernes which receiuing into them a great quantity of raine-Water haue giuen originall to Lakes and Fountaines Hence they giue the reason why these fountaines are perpetuall Because the raine-water receiued into these cauernes being extraordinary great is sufficient to nourish such springs of water vntill the
next winter whence comes a new supply of more raine These Riuers say they in the summer decrease and sometime are dry because of the defect of wâ—ter when the place is not great enough to receiue sufficient water for the whole yeere This opinion seemeth grounded on these reasons First because wee find by experience that Riuers and fountâ—ines are greater and larger in Summer then in Winter Secondly because where there is lesse Raine fewer or no Riuers are seene As in the Desarts of Ethiopia and Africke few or no Riuers are found But in Germany France Brittany and Italy many Riuers shew themselues because they abound in the moisture of the Aire and much fall of Raine Thirdly amongst vs wee see by experience in a hot and dry Summer they are much decreased from their ordinary greatnesse or altogether dryed vp which is a great probability that their originall is from raine This opinion if it bee onely vnderstood of some Riuers may be probable because some currents out of doubt take their originall from great showers or snowes as at the foot of the Alpes and other such places where the snow daily melts and feeds them but if it be generally vnderstood of all Riuers it is manifestly false as may appeare by these reasons First because the Earth no where drinkes vp the raine farther then ten foot deep in the soile for the higher superficies of the earth is either dry and so easily drinkes vp and consumes the Water within that space or else being already moist it receiues it not at all but expells it by Riuers and channells Secondly some mountaines not couered with earth but consisting of hard rocke notwithstanding send forth great store of springs and fountaines which water could not bee receiued in through a hard rocky substance Thirdly because in very dry places certaine pits being digged downe into the ground 2 hundred or three hundred foot deep will discouer many great streames of Water which could not be from the receite of Raine Fourthly it cannot be imagined that so much raine could in a winter fall into one place besides that which the drouth of the earth consumes to nourish so mighty and great Riuers in the Earth as are Riuers running in a perpetuall course Fiftly all Riuers almost take their originall from some mountaines or other as Danubius from the Alpes and Nilus from the mountaines of the Moone in Africke Which places being extraordinary high are more vnapt to receiue water then lower places of the earth To the reasons that they alleadge for their opinions it is not hard to answer That riuers should be greater in winter thâ— in the summer the cause may be better giuen Because more moisture of the Aire falls into the brinke from externall Râ—ine or snow in winter then in summer and the ground being moister is able to drinke lesse then at other times which is also the reason why in hotter and dry Countreyes there is not such plenty of Riuers for we deny not but fountaines may sometimes be increased and sometimes diminished by addition of raine-water but that any such vast conâ—auity should be vnder ground as the receptacle of so much raine and should nourish so many and so great currents The second opinion is of those who thinke that the originall of all riuers and fountaines is from the Sea Which conceit hath beene strongly fortified by many Fathers of the Church and graue Diuines of later time which opinion is chiefly grounded vpon these reasons First because it seemes a most incredible matter that so much vaporous matter should be engendred vnder the earth to feed such a perpetuall course of water Secondly if all Riuers should not be deriued from the sea no reason could bee giuen why so many riuers dayly emptying themselues into the sea the sea should not encrease but continue in the same quantity Thirdly to this purpose they vrge the place of Eccles. 1. All riuers runne into the sea and yet the sea is not full To the place whence they came they returne that they may flow againe But this opinion seemes to bee shaken with a great difficulty For it is a hard matter to conceiue how the water of the sea being by nature heauy lower then the superficies of the earth as we haue demonstrated should ascend into high mountaines out of which we find springs of water oftentimes to arise for either it must ascend Naturally or by Violence not naturally for the foresaid cause because it is a heauy body If violently they must assigne some externall Agent which enforceth it to this violence This difficulty diuerse Authors haue laboured diuerse waies to salue Some amongst whom the chiefe was Theoderet haue fled to a supernaturall cause in Gods providence as though the water in it's own nature heauy should be notwithstanding enforced to the topps of the mountaines But this opinion seemes very improbable because although we cannot deny Gods miraculous and extraordinary working in some things yet all men haue supposed this to be confin'd within the bounds of nature And very strange it were to imagine that almighty God in the first institution of nature should impose a perpetuall violence vpon nature Others as Basill haue thought that the sea-water was driuen vpwards towards the tops of mountaines by reason of certaine spâ—rits enclosed in it Mare as he saith fluitans permeans per cuniculos fistularet angustos â—ox vbi obliquis aut certe recta in sublime surrectis excursibus se occupatum deprehenderit ab agitante compulsum spiritu superficie terrâ— vi disrupta erumpit atque for as emicat The same opinion almost in euery respect is ascribed to Plato in Phedone and Pliny 2 booke .65 chap. Quo inquit spiritu actu terrâ— pondere expressa siphonum modo eâ—â—cat tantâ—que a periculo decidendi abest vt in summa quoque et â—â—tissima exiliat Qua ratione manifestum est quare tot fâ—uâ—inum quotidiâ—nâ— accessu maria non crescant But this exposition will hardly satisfy him who desires to search farther then obscurity of words For first by admitting spirits as mouers of the waters they seeme to fall into a Platonick opinion before examined of vs concerning the heat of the sea-water Secondly I would demaund whether such spirits in the water to which they ascribe this motion be Naturall Agents or Supernaturall or Violent They cannot be naturall Agents For asmuch as they are supposed to driue and enforce the water against his owne nature For by nature as all men know it is apt to descend whereas here it is supposed to ascend by reason of such spirits They cannot bee violent agents because they bee perpetuall whereas no violent thing can be perpetuall Thomas Aquinas being desirous to shew how much fountaines could ascend out of the sea-water varies in opinion from the former and imagines that the fountaines and Riuer-water is drawne vpwards through the force of Celestiall bodies for the common good
Geographer to obserue in those matters shall generally be comprised in this Theoreme 1 Woods in these dayes are not so frequent nor so great as in ancient times We cannot imagine otherwise then that the Earth soone vpon the flood bearing in her wombe the seeds of all vegetals being inwardly moistned and outwardly comforted with Heat should presently abound with plants of all sorts in so much as in a short time each thing propagating it selfe by communication of his own seeds the whole Earth was ouergrown as one forrest but afterwards as man began to spread and multiply on the face of the Earth these Woods and Thickets began to suffer chastisement vnder the hand of laborious husbandry For first to open a passage from one place vnto another and that some parcels of ground should as pastures bee diuided from Woody acres it was necessary that this great plenty of trees should suffer a decrease yet little had this beene noted in so vast a store had not the inuention of building of houses by little and little turned great forrests into Cities which for the most part owed not only their first originall but also their daily reparation to Trees and Timber but aboue all the greatest deuourer of Woods and Forrests is Fire an element fed and nourished almost of no other matter For to let passe the ordinary vse of fire in euery house and family which in so infinite a multitude of people in so many yeeres since the Flood must require an extraordinary proportion of wood and fuell how many Arts haue beene since inuented depending onely vpon this Element we will goe no farther then the Art of Liquefaction fining of gold and other mettals found out in the bowels of the Earth wherein the couetousnesse of men hath been as vnsatiâ—ble as the fire To this which wee haue said may probably be opposed two things first the power and inclination of euery Creature to multiply and propagate it selfe Secondly the industry of mankind in seconding that inclination Whence it may bee coniectured that great woods should by durance increase to a greater quantity for the former no man will deny but that plants and trees left to themselues will commonly propagate their kind neuerthelesse it cannot preuaile so much as the other which procure the decrease first because the Earth being dryer now then soone vpon the Flood cannot so much further the growth of vegetals as then it did Secondly because as wee haue said this growth in a populous Countrey cannot bee so great as the diminution since few or no houses can want so necessary an Element as fire To the second wee answer that mans industry hath done somewhat in plantation of groues and such like but how little is this in comparison of the huge and vast forrests in time by man wasted and consumed We shall read of Germany that in the time of Caesar it seemed a wilde Countrey hauing many great woods and forrests but few Cities but now the case being altered we shall find the Cities both in number and greatnes increased and the Woods diminished Two instances may suffice the one of the Forrest of Ardenna in Lutzemburg accompted in Caesars time 500 miles ouer now scarce 50. The other of Sylua Hyrcinia which heretofore if we beleeue Histories reached so far as a man could trauaile in 60 dayes but now is made the onely limit or bound diuiding Bohemia from the rest of Germany The like may bee obserued almost of euery other Countrey reduced to ciuility 2 Places moderatly situated towards the North or South Pole abound more in Woods then neere the Equatour This situation wee vnderstand to comprehend almost all the temperat Zone reaching either way so farre as 60 degrees or there about The demonstration of this Theoreme depends of these two foments of all plants Heat and Moisture both which concurre not only to the abundance and fertility but also to the greatnesse of all plants for it is most certaine that wheresoeuer these two vitall succours are wanting or deficient there must be a great scarcity of trees fruits herbage and such like This is the cause why the Regions far North neere about the Pole beyond 60 degrees haue not onely scarcity of trees but haue them such as are of a farre smaller quantity then other Regions lying more temperate For the internall and naturall heat is almost extinguished with the extremity of cold and the moisture as it were dried vp by the frosty disposition of the Region To this cause may wee ascribe that which Geographers haue deliuered concerning Island that for want of Timber they couer their houses with fish-bones digging out houses in the sides of Rockes and mountaines Moreouer that the meere defect of moisture may cause a scarcity of growth may bee proued by many places 1 because temperate Regions which are Mountainous and lying higher produce trees of small length Bodin testifies as a thing very remarkeable that hee hath obserued oakes in France not exceeding 3 or 4 feet But this is no great wonder with vs in England sith in the dry and barren plaines about Salisbury there are many examples not much different All which we can ascribe to no other cause then the want of moisture On the other side as great or greater a defect of heat moisture is found neere the Equatour by reason of the externall heat of the Sunne which in all plants and vegetalls not onely euaporates the moisture and by consequence causeth drowth but by the extraction of Internall heat leaueth a greater cold behind correspondent to that humour in a man which we call Melancholy and choler-adust But this extremity of heat causing this defect of internall heat moisture wee place not directly vnder the Equinoctiall because we haue shewed it to be more temperate but rather vnder the Tropicks which by experience are found scorched with great heat How subiect these places vnder the Tropickes are to this sterility we need goe no farther then Libia and Numidia to confirme Places by the report of trauailers indigent not onely of Woods and Trees but almost of all vitall succours Whereas the Woods Forrests dispersed almost in euery region of Europe and the more temperate parts of Asia are celebrated of all writers Yet whereas wee haue defined the chiefest places for the growth of Woods to be towards the North so farre as 60 degrees or there-abouts wee cannot warrant this as an absolute generall obseruation because some places lying very low and subiect to much moisture though situat more Southerly may enioy this proportion as we haue formerly shewed of trees neere the Riuer Hiarotis recorded by Strabo to haue their noone shadowes of 5 furlongs as also of certaine trees in America neere Riuo Negro wherein as Peter Martyr writes a King dwelt with all his family But these places howsoeuer situat towards the South are as Geographers deliuer vnto vs most times of the yeere ouerwhelmed with Water consisting all of marish
Peninsula's the most famous are Africa Scandia Taurica Chersonesus Peloponnesus and America Peruana That little parcell of land which ioynes this Peninsula with the maine land we call an Istmus which is a narrow necke of land betwixt two seas ioyning two Continents such as are Istmus Corinthiacus and Istmus Cimbricus more famous are those two narrow lands whereof the one lyeth betwixt Peruana and Mexico in America the other diuiding Africke from Asia A Promontorie is a great mountaine stretching it selfe far into the sea whose extremity is called a Cape or Head of which the most remarkeable are the Cape of good hope in Africke 2. The Cape of S. Vincent in Portugall 3. The Cape of Comary in Asia 4. The Cape de la Victoria in America Our obseruation concerning this distinction shall bee comprised in this Theoreme 1 Peninsula's by the violence of the sea fretting through the Istmus haue oftentimes beene turned into Ilands and contrariwise sometimes Peninsula's by diminution of the sea made of Ilands This proposition is not hard to proue if any credit ought to bee gâ—uen to ancient writers for it is commonly related that Sicily was heretofore ioyned to Italy Cyprus to Syria Euboea with Boeotia Besbicum with Bythinia all which at this day are Ilands separated and diuided from the continent The like hath beene coniectured of our Brittany which some imagined heretofore to haue beene ioyned with the continent of France about Douer and Calais as may seeme probably to be gathered out of the correspondency of the Cliffs whereof we haue spoken in this chapter before the agreement of the soyle the smalnesse of the distance and many more arguments remembred by vs else-where Also it hath beene obserued on the other side that the sea in some places leauing his ancient bounds hath ioyned some Ilands to the land making Peninsulas of Ilands In this sort if wee belieue antiquity was Antissa ioyned to Lesbos Zephirium to Halicarnassus Ethusa to Mindus Promiscon to Miletum Narthucusa to the Promontory of Parthenius In these antiquities it behooues euery man to iudge without partiality according to reason not ascribing too much to fabulous narrations wherein those ages did abound neither yet shewing himselfe too incredulous For as much as we cannot charge these Authors with any manifest absurdity The speciall and particular arguments by which wee should establish our assertion wee must according to the rules of method reserue to the speciall part where we shall treat ofspeciall Countreyes CHAP. XII 1 OF the perpetuall Accidents of the land we haue spoken somewhat it remaines in this place wee treat of the Casuall 2 The casuall I call such as happen not ordinarily at all times such as are Inundations and Earth-quakes 3 An Inundation is an ouerwhelming of the land by Water Howsoeuer it bee certaine out of holy Scriptures that God hath set the sea his certaine bounds and limits which it cannot passe yet the same God sometimes to shew his speciall iudgement on some place or age hath extraordinarily permitted the sea sometimes to breake his appointed limits and inuade the Iurisdiction of the land This wee call a Deluge or Inundation The inundations which euer haue been obserued on the Earth are of two sorts either Vniuersall or particular An vniuersall is that whereby the whole face of the Earth is couered with water whereof we haue onely two examples The first was in the first creation of the world when as wee read in the Scriptures the whole face of the Earth was round inueloped with Water which couered the tops of the highest mountaines till such time as God by a supernaturall hand made a separation of the Waters from the dry land But this is improperly called an Inundation because the same properly taken implies as much as an ouer-flowing of that which was dry land before The second as we read in Genesis happened in the time of Noah when God for the sinne of man drowned the whole world breaking open the cataracts of Heauen and loosing the springs of the deepe Particular inundations are such as are not ouer the whole Earth but in some particular places or regions Such a deluge according to Genebrardus happened in the time of Enos wherein a third part of the Earth was drowned The like iâ— spoken of Ogygeâ— King of Athens that in his time happened a very great Inundation which drowned all the confines and coasts of Attica and Achaia euen to the Aegean sea In which time it was thought that Buras and Helice Cities of Achaia were swallowed vp whereof Ouid in his Metamorphosis speakes thus Si quaeras Helicen Buran Achaidos vrbes Inuenies sub aquis Buras and Helice on Achaiâ—n ground Are sought in vaine but vnder seas are found As famous was the Inundation of Thessaly in Deucalions time mentioned not onely by profane writers and Poets but also by S. Augustin Ierom and Eusebius which would haue it to happen in the time of Cranaus who next after Cecrops gouerned Athens This inundation was exceeding great extending it selfe not onely ouer all Thessaly and the regions adioyning westward but ouerwhelmed the greatest part of Italy The same or other happening neere the same time oppressed Aegypt if Eusebius may obtaine credit Hence some would haue the people of Italy to haue been called Vmbrij as Pliny and Solinus report quia ab imbribus diluuij superfuissent But this Etymologie seemes too farre fetcht There are also two other notable Inundations meÌ„tioned by ancient writers which fell out in Aegypt from the Riuer of Nilus whereof the first couered all the neither Aegypt which was subiect to Prometheus and hence as Natalis Comes obserues was the fable drawne of the vulture lighting on Prometheus liuer afterwards slaine by Hercules For as Diodorus Siculus obserues the Riuer Nilus for the swiftnes of his course was in ancient time called an Eagle This Riuer afterwards did Hercules by his great â—kill and iudgement streiten and bound reducing it into narrow channels whence some Greeke Poets turning Hercules labours into fables faigned that Hercules slew the Eagle which sed on Prometheus brest meaning that hee deliuered Prometheus out of that sorrow and losse which hee and his people sustained by that Inundation The second of these Egyptian flouds happened about Pharus in Egypt where Alexander the great built Alexandria To these may bee added many more of lesser moment as well in ancient times as in our dayes As that of Belgia in some parts mentioned before on another occasion and not many yeeres since in some parts of Somerset-shire with vs in Britanny 1 No vniuersall Inundation of the Earth can be Naturall The other may depend on some Naturall causes Of the causes of Inundations many disputes haue beene amongst Naturall Philosophers some haue trusted so farre to Nature that they haue ascribed not only particular Inundations but that vniuersall Deluge in the time of Noah to second causes of this opinion was Henricus Mecliensis a Schollar of
mixture from the truest and ancientest Hebrew discipline It is manifest that in the Heathenish superstitions themselues many footsteppes haue bin discouered which will appeare by diuers Instances These arguments I confesse seeme very strong but yet not of sufficient strength to enforce credulity without other warrant To say peremptorily with Mr. Bodin that by the consent of ancient writers the Chaldeans are acknowledged the most ancient people is more then I dare to venter Neither is this opinion so strongly fortified with arguments but Reason may steppe in to haue a doubtfull assault Their first argument drawne from the testimony of holy Scriptures in th â—â— of Genesis seemes to stand on our side altogether against them For whereas it is said that they came from the east into the plaine of Shinaar it is manifest that the east was first peopled or else how should this people come from the east into these plaines of Shinaar to erect the tower of Babel Secondly whereas they vrge Arts Ciuility Magnificence of the Chaldeans wee shall find it rather to agree to the people which dwell farther east as is witnessed by the former instances And if any obiect that at this day is found the contrary for as much as we find the Indian to be a barbarous blind and ignorant Nation in respect of the Asiatickes and Europaeans we answere two wayes 1 First that we find not by experience the East-Indians to bee so altogether deuoide of ciuility but that wee may obserue not only amongst them the footsteppes but also the practise of many ingenuous Arts sage gouernment policy and magnificence as amongst the Chinois and the large territory of the great Mogull 2. It is not hard to imagine that in so large a tract of time the best setled common wealthes should be brought to nought arts ciuility magnificence be forgotten and the rarest inuentions bee cast into obliuion especially by those two enemies of ciuility warres and luxury both which hauing the raignes in their own hands are quickly able to abolish all wholesome discipline both in Lawes and Religion 3. Their argument drawne from the footesteppes of Languages in my shallow conceit proues nothing else but that all Lawes Arts and Learning was deriued to the Graecians from the Chaldaeans or the Nations neare adioyning which formerly receiued it from them But how farre Learning might propagate it selfe the other way towards the East is not a matter so cleare and out of question The preseruation of the Language for ought I â—ee might grow from the continuance of the Religion more firmely rooted and for a long time continued in Abrahams posterity whose abode was settled there about whereas the other farre diuorced aswell from their first spring as the monumentall seales of their religion quickly turned Religion into Pagan Idolatry Many reasons besides the disprouing of this former opinion may bee alleaged to proue the Easterne part of the world to haue bin first peopled amongst which I will only cull out this one grounded on the text of holy Scripture It is warranted out of the text 1 That when the waters begâ—n to decrease vpon the face of the earth and the Arke began to rest vpon the mountaine Araâ—at Noah sent out a doue to make tryall who returned with an oliue-branch in her mouth 2 That neare the place he issued out of the Arke with all his family he planted a vineyard and was drunke with the iuyce of the Grape not knowing the strength thereof out of which by all probable coniecture must needes bee collected that the Regions neare the place where the Arke first rested by the benefit of Nature afforded both Vines and Oliues for we cannot imagine the silly Doue at the time of the flood empty gorged to haue flowne very farre ouer the face of the waters to obtaine this Oliue branch nor Noah after the flood to haue gone very farre to seeke out a conuenient place for his Vineyard whence it is most likely that the Arke rested in such a place whose neare adjoining Regions are inriched with such commodities But this cannot bee verified of Armenia wherein for ought my reading informes me are found neither Vines nor Oliues whereas some places Eastward whereon the Arke according to this other opinion was supposed to rest afford both in great plenty To vmpite betwixt these two opinions I leaue to my frendly Readers because it is not in our power to command but obey Reason CHAP. XIV 1_OF the originall of Inhabitants of the Earth we haue spoken It remaines wee now treat of their naturall Disposition There is nothing more subiect to admiration then the diuersity of naturall Dispositions in Nations a matter euident to the eye of obseruation and needing no proofe or demonstration for who obserues not in all Nations certaine naturall or nationall vertues or vices which neither time nor Lawes could euer change or correct For not to 〈◊〉 farther off then our neighbouring Nations Confines what Writer in this kind almost were he not very partiall hath not taxed pride and ambition in the Spaniard leuity or rather as Bodin would haue it temerity in the Frenâ—h dangerous dissimulation in the Italian Drunkennesse in the Dutch Falshood in the Irish and gluttony in the English And howsoeuer many meanes haue bin put in practise either by the seuerity of lawes to curb such enormities or the subtilty of discourse to shroud these vices vnder the name of vertues yet these markes are found to stick as close as the spots vnto the Leopard as neither altering their pristine hue or yeelding to time or statutes And if it happened at any time that by extraordinary violence some litle alteration were wrought yet some few yeares would find it returne againe vnto his owne nâ—ture and disposition This variety of dispositions being very many and dâ—pending on sundry causes to helpe memory we will reduce into certaine heads out of which in the generall we may giue a iudgment leauing the rest to our speciall Tract The name of naturall disposition in this place we take in the largest sense so farre forth as it comprehends vnder it the Complexion Manners Actions Languages Lawes Religion and Gouernment All which so farre forth as they depend from the places we will shew Neither intend we to handle nicely all these specialities forasmuch as the Manners Customes Lawes and for a great part the externall rites of Religion depend on the naturall constitution of the Inhabitants so that little can bee spoken of the naturall constitution but of such actions effects and markes as shew themselues in their ordinary customes manners Wherefore we shall be constrained to treat of them together the one being a great furtherance to the explanation of the other 2 The naturall disposition of the Inhabitants of the Earth may suffer change and diuersity either in respect of the site or in respect of the quality of the soile or in regard of the Inhabitants themselues 3 The site is the respect
complexion of heat and moisture The middle Region betwixt both extreames being compounded of both must needes by mixâ—ure and participation inioy a middle quality Besides this eâ—poâ—iâ—ion of the causes of this temper wee shall obserue many speciall markes and Instances which will discouer this variety of disposition First it is plaine that heat and moisture are the two qualities of fecundity Whence it must consequently follow those Regions which are most populous to bee chiefly endowed with this quality and disposition Now where shall wee of this Hemispheare find any Countrey to whom Nature owes a greater incâ—ease of mankinde but in the North amongst the Goâ—hes the Sâ—yâ—hians the Scandians and Germans by whose abundant fertility vast desarts haue beene cultured and inhabited stately Cities haue bin founded Colonies haue bin transported and deriued almost into all Europe Hence haue Methodius P. Diacoâ—â—â— compared the armies of the North to swarmeâ— of Beeâ— and the North is termed by Olaus Magnus the store-house of mankind to wit from which so many strong Nations aâ— the Gothes the Gepidae the Hunnes the Cymbrians the Lumbards â—he Alanâ— the Bâ—rgundians the Normans the Picts the Herâ—â—â— the Sâ—eâ—ianâ— the Slaui the Swiâ—zers and the Russians are not ashamed to deriue their Ancestry But here may bee obiected that the Southerne people are much more addicted to Veneriâ— then the Northerne which seemes an argument of greater Heat But to this I answer that this insatiate appeâ—ite of Venery in the Southerâ—e people proceeds not from heat bâ—t from Choler Adust and Melancholy which humours carry in them a Salt and sharpe quality according to Physicians which stirres vp their appetite to Venery which we may plainely obseruâ— by experience for no men are more moued by this itching appetite of carnall Copulation then Melanchâ—ly men But howsoeuer this affection is most predominant in such men yet it is hardly seconded by pâ—rformance which makes Geographers to ascribe more promptnesse of generation to the Noâ—therne men although sensuall coâ—â—â—piscence raigne more in the Southerne men which indifferent proportion was without doubt granted to either by the prouidence of Almighty God that they who were endowed with a greater sufficiency should lesse affect sensuall delights then the rest which want that proportion of heaâ— and moisture And those of the other sort should haue their Appetites more raised vp to wantonnesse without the which their off-spring would soone fayle A second argument to proue our assertion is the Tall and large staturâ— of the Northerâ—e man which argues both heat and moisture whereas the Southerne man is small and dwarfish in stature composed of weake and feeble Nerues That the people situate towards the Pole in a moderate distance suâ—passe in greatnesse can be showne not only in this our Hemisphâ—are in the Germaâ—s Scythians Belgians â—nd others but also in the other by the Pantagones whose siâ—uation Southward answeres somewhat neerely to the hight of Germany That moisture is a great cause of growth appeares as well by Trees and other vegetalls which growing in low and marish grounds increase to a most incredible greatnesse as of those â—orementioned on the side of Riuo Negro in Peru and neere the Lake Hiarotis in India as by Beasts For first we find the moistest to bee of greatest stature which is the reason why the great Whales and fishes in the sea grow to such a vast quantity Secondly such Beasts as haue hot and moist bodies cannot so well prosper and liue in those Southerne counâ—reyes as the horse which by nature being hot and moist liueth but faâ—ntly in Aethiopia yet is of good strength in Scythia Whereas the Asse being by nature hot and dry is of great accompt and seruice in Africke in Europe little respected in Scythia cannot liue Neither is moisture sufficient for the growth except it bee stirred vp by heat wherefore we may conclude hence that the Northerne man hath both Out of the contrary effects wee may likewise collect that the Southerne man wants this quality These reasons indifferently proue these qualities to wit of heat and moisture to bee in the Northerne man and the contrary in the Southerne Diuerse other arguments are vrged some to proue the one quality some the other apart A great argument of heat in the Northerne man may bee his extraordinary drinking A vicâ— which could neuer bee reformed or corrected by times or statutes This drowth of theirs stirring vp this desire of drinking can proceed from no other cause then their heat Whereas the Southerne man is seldome taxed of this vice not because hee is more religiously temperat then the Northerne but rather for the naturall temper of his body which can neither require or beare so much as the Northerne In so much as Bodin seemes to make a doubt whether the immoderat drinking of the Germans is to bee esteemed a greater fâ—ult then the niggardly sparing humour of the Italian sith both arise rather out of nature then education Another argument of heat in the Northerne man is the extraordinary strength in respect of the Southerne man which is an apparant demonstration of heat Wee find that the bloud of the Scythian is full of small strings such as are in the gore of Bulls and Bores and betokeneth strength Whereas the bloud of the African is thinne such as is in a Hart or Hare No lesse are those reasons which especially proue the Northerne man to bee endowed with much moisture Thirdly wee may much better argue from the Physiognomicall accident of the body wee shall find the inhabitants vnder the Tropickes to bee exceeding blacke vnder the Pole it selfe beyond 60 degrees somewhat browne but from thence about 60 their colour is reddish from thence to 45 degrees whitish about the 30 they beginne to wax yellow and then some what enclining to greene all which proceeds out of the variety of heat and cold For the Blacknesse of the Africans about the Tropickes wee can ascribe to no other câ—rtaine â—ause then externall heat and internall cold his necessary concomitant neere to which approacheth the yellow and greene colour of the people not farre of Whereof the formâ—r discouers Choller and Adustion the other meâ—anâ—holy And how soeuer the brownnesse of the people dwelling very neere thâ— Pole may come by reason of externall cold which by excesse rather dries vp their moisture then strengthens the internall heat Yet the Red colour of the Inhabitants about 60 degrees is a firme argument of heat and the white â—ue of the middle people an apparant marke of a middle tempeâ— No lesse may bee collected from the eyes and haires of these three Nations The eyes of the Scythians are generally tending to a gray colour The remote haue them of a blew-whitish shining colour as the Cymbrians and Danes according to Plutarch The Britannes â—ermans and Normans come neere vnto this colour but haue them not alâ—ogether so gray and shining but more obscure But the Southerne man hath â—he colour
as a giant to runne his course 6 His going forth is from the end of the Heauens and his circuite vnto the ends of it and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof Out of which words the Heauens should seeme to challenge the motion which wee haue giuen vnto the Earth To this we answer two wayes First that although this may oppugne Copernicus his opinion that the Sunne standeth still in the middest as the center of the World yet may it well stand with our Assertion who allow the Sunne his seuerall motion in the Eclipticke whether those words of the Psalme bee to bee vnderstood of the Sunnes Diurnall or Periodicke Motion is not so soone decided the Scripture not specifying expressely either 2 we may answer with the Copernicâns That the Holy Ghost in these or the like places speakes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being willing to descend to the weakest of mens capacity and not to trouble mens conceits with such matters as to vulgar iudgements might seeme vnlikely or improbable The like Analogie of speech may wee finde in the first of Genesis where the Moone is called one of the greater lights in regard of her appearance being notwithstanding one of the least These may suffice to shew the opinion of the earths circular motion to bee probable I promised no more I hope I haue performed no lesse I neuer held it an article of my faith to defend the one or oppugne the other and therefore leaue euery man to his owne free iudgement to embrace or reiect what he please CHAP. V. Of the Site Stability and Proportion of the Earth 1 OF Terrestriall affections which agree in respect of the Earth it selfe wee haue hitherto spoken We are now to treate of such as agree to it in respect of the Heauens These are chiefly three 1 The Site 2 The Stability 3 The Proportion 2 The Site is the locall position of the Earth in respect of the Celestiall Bodyes It might seeme a hard and almost impossible taske for any man to reconcile that which hath beene spoken in the former Chapter concerning the Earths circular Reuolution with the grounds of common Geographers which hold the Terrestriall Globe to bee setled and fixed in the Center of the world The reason is because such as hold the circular motion of the Earth whereof the chiefe is Copernicus would haue the Sun to stand still as the fixt Center of the Vniuerse and the Earth to moue round about him betwixt Mars and Venus which seemes cleane opposite to the former opinion I must confesse that Copernicus his opinion entirely taken and vnderstood standeth altogether opposite to these our grounds yet may that motion of the Earth which we haue established in the former Chapter for ought I yet know bee well reconciled with their opinion which hold the Earth to bee the Center of the world For the circular Reuolution wee gaue to the Terrestriall Globe was not a motion of the Center of it from one place to another as that of the Starres which moue round about the Earth but rather a turning of it selfe in its owne place vpon her owne Poles and Axell-tree in such sort as the wheele of a mill or such a like engin fixt in one place is turned vpon his owne Axell So that the motion wee there vnderstood was only the Diurnall motion of 24 houres making the Day and Night The other two motions mentioned by Copernicus may be found out in the Heauens and left to Astronomers The reasons why I entirely embrace not Copernicus his opinion are chiefely two First because it seemes too harsh and dissonant in nature to make one and the selfe-same body subiect to so many motions especially such as by common Philosophers is denied all motion Secondly because the other motions granted to the Earth must needs suppose it to bee placed out of the Center of the world the contrary of which we shall in this Chapter God willing sufficiently demonstrate The motion therefore most called in question and most likely to bee found in the Earth rather then in the Heauen is the Diurnall Reuolution performed in 24 houres from the West to East which as we haue proued being giuen to the Heauens would be farre swifter then nature can well suffer wherefore with more probability may this motion bee taken from the heauens and giuen vnto the Earth The other without any absurdity at all may be granted in the Heauens Sith no repugnancy is found in nature but that euery heauenly body may be furnished with some motion and therefore Copernicus might haue granted the Sun and fixed Starres their seuerall motions as well as the rest which would haue seemed farre more probable then to haue endowed the Earth with a Triplicity of motion These things being thus opened I will set downe their Theoremes 1 The Terrestriall Globe is the Center of the whole world To vnderstand aright this proposition wee must consider that a Center may be taken two manner of wayes either Geometrically or Optically In Geometry it is taken for an imaginary point conceiued in a magnitude deuoyde of all quantity yet bounding and termining all Magnitudes Optically it is vsually taken for a small and insensible Magnitude because to the fight it may seeme no other then a Point In which last sense we may call the Earth the Center For although the Earthly Spheare is endowed with a great and massie substance yet as we shall hereafter demonstrate in respect of the Firmament this greatnesse would vanish into nothing For if a man standing in the Firmament should behold it it would seeme no other then as a small point This being declared wee will produce these reasons to proue the Earth to be the Center of the Vniuerse The Center I say not of all heauenly motions for some Starres are moued vpon their own Center but of the whole heauenly machine being collectiuely taken as one Body The first argument is of Aristotle taken from the grauity or naturall inclination of all heauy bodies to the Center The Earth saith he being a heauy massie body must needs seeke the lowest place which is farthest off from the Heauens But this can be no other then the Center or middest point of the whole world Which argument by others is more subtily vrged in this manner Suppose the whole masse of the Earth were cut and diuided into many parts equall the one to the other of the same waight and figure which parts so diuided were placed in diuers places vnder the concaue Superficies of the Moone that they might be freely left to themselues to moue according to their naturall inclinations It is most certaine that all their parts being of the same nature waight quantity and figure would descend with the same motion in the same equall time to the same place which could in no wise happen except they should concurre in the Center of the world But this reason for ought I vnderstand is only probable and