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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Thee Hast thou been honour'd by my sacred Breath 'Mongst rude Arcadians thus to beg a Death What greater glory can thy ashes haue Then in my flowry groues to dig thy graue Although the least among my learned sonnes Thy fortunes told thee that I lou'd thee once And so doe still although my haplesse Baies Taught thy despaire to spinne out carelesse dayes And to compose thy discontented Head To slumber softly on the Muses Bed Be rul'd by me my poore yet loued Son Trust not their smiles whose wrongs haue thee vndone Thy faire Hopes grounded on thy place of birth Will fly in Atomes or consume in Earth Before within that Hemispheare of thine Thy Deuons Sunne on thee shall euer shine Then trust vnto my bounty turne thy sight From thy darke Confines to my golden light All thy endowments owed to my wombe Returne them back and there erect thy tombe If no Mecenas crowne thee with his Rayes Teach thy content to sleepe out quiet dayes Let Contemplation with transpiercing eyes Mount thee a pitch beyond the starry skyes And there present thee that eternall glasse Wherein the greatnesse of this wondrous masse Shrinkes to an Aâ—ome where my Astrolube Shall shew thee starres beyond thy painted Globe Where thou aloft as from a mountaine steepe Shalt see the greatest men like Antes to creepe Thy dayes shall minister thee choicest Theames Which night shall render in delicious dreames And thy seuere Philosophy the whiles In amourous kinde shall courte thee with her smiles Or if thy nature with constraint descends Below her owne delight to practick endes Rise with my morning Phaebus slight the West Till furrowed Age inuite thee to rest And then perchance thy Earth which seldome gaue Thee Aire to breath will lend thy Corps a graue Soone the last trumpet will be heard to sound And of thy load Ease the Deâ—oâ—ian ground Meane time if any gentle swaine come by To view the marble where thy ashes ly He may vpon that stone in fewer yeeres Engraue an â—â—iâ—â—ph with fretâ—ing teares Then make mens frozen hearts with all his cries Drink in a drop from his distilling eyes Yet will I promise thy neglected bones A firmer monument then speachles stones And when I pinâ— with age and wits with rust Seraphick Angells shall dreserue thy dust And all good men acknowledge shall with me Thou lou'st thy Countrey when she hateth thee This strange reproofe of an indulgent mother I could not entertaine without passion In so much as without feare or wit I aduentured in this sort to answer her in her owne language Ad Matrem Academiam 〈…〉 haue my former yeeres So much 〈…〉 on thy hate or these my teares Thus to diuorce me from my place of birth To be a stranger to my natiue Earth Wilt thou expose him on thy common stage To striue and struggle in an Iron age Whose low ambition neuer learn'd of thee The curious Artes of thriuing policy Thy golden tongue from which my yonger dayes Suckt the sweet musick of thy learned layes Was better taught thy office then my fate To make me thine yet most vnfortunate Why was I fostred in thy learned schooles To study with for the reward of fooles That while I sate to heâ—re the Muses sing The Winter suddenly ore-took my Spring Haue I so played the truant with my howres Or with base riot stained thy sacred Bowres Or as a Viper did I euer striue To gnaw a passage through thy wombe to thriue To pluck me thus from Deuons brest to try What thou canst doe when as thy dugges are dry When my short thread of life is almost spunne Thou biddst me rise vp with thy morning Sun And like a Heliotrope adore the East When my care-hastened Age arriues at West Could I encounter as I once did hope The God of learning in the Horoscope My Phâ—buâ— would auspicious lookes incline On my hard fate and discontents to shine Now lodged in a luckles house reiects My former suites and frownes with sad aspects Had I been borne when that eternall hand Wrapt the infant world in her first swadling band Before Philosophy was taught the way To rock the cradle in which Nature lay My Learning had been Husbandry My Birth Had ow'd no toll but to the virgine Earth Noâ— haâ— I courted for these thiâ—â—y yeeres Thy seuen proud minions with officious teares To liue had been my industry no tongue Had taxt thy honours guilty of my wrong Had I been shepheard on our Westerne plaines I might haue sung amongst those happy swaines Some shepheardesse hearing my melody Might haue been charmed kind as charity And taught me those sad minutes to repriue Which I haue lost in studying how to thriue Had I aduetur'd on the brinish fome And sworne my selfe a stranger to my home Till time the Haruest reapt my youth did owe And Ages winter had spent all her snow Vpon my haires what worser could I haue Then loose thy frownes to find a wished graue The Scythian hewne from Caucasus would aske â—efore my slaughter why a needles taske Of Trauaile I should vndertâ—ke to see Their Countreyes bounds and my sad misery But hearing my harsh bondage vnder thee Would thine vnkindnesse hate and piâ—ty me To see thy Child far seuer'd from thy wombe The Canniball would make himselfe my tombe And till his owne were spent preserue my dust In his deere vrne which thou hast sleightly lost Canst thou neglected see his Age to freeze Whose youth thou dandl'st on indulgent knees The fowle aspersions on my Deuon throwne Thou mightst in right acknowledge for thine owne Only this difference to men wanting worth They sell preferments and thou sends them forth Canst thou be brib'd to honour with a kisse Thy guilded folly which deserues the hisse If thy foâ—'d wants and flattery conspire To sell thy Scarlet to a worthles Squire Or grace with miniuere some proselite Who nere knew artes or reade the Stagirite Yet should thy hand be frugall to preserue That stock for want of which thy sonnes may starue Haue I seru'd out three prentiships yet find Thy trade inferiour to the humblest mind And that outstript by vnthrifts which were sent Free with indentures ere their yeeres were spent Then cease yee sisters of the Thespian springs Thalia burne thy books and breake thy strings And mother make thy selfe a second Tombe For all thy ofspring and so shut thy wombe Accuse not my iust anger but the cause Nature may vrge but fury scornes her lawes I fawn'd too long on Iustice Sith that failes Storme Indignation and blow vp my sailes Ingenious choller arm'd with Scorpions stings Which whipp'st on Pesants and commandest Kings And giu'st each milky soule a penne to write Though all the world turned a parasite O Temper my braines thy bitternesse infuse Descend and dictate to my angry Muse. O pardon mother something checkes my spleene And from thy face takes off my angry teene Reuolted Nature by the same degrees Goes and returnes begges
continue black Yet so as they by little and little declining from their former hue will in time become white as the rest of the European Inhabitants For otherwise it must needs follow that Scythia should at this day breed many Blackmores and Ethiopia many white because no question can bee made but that all nations almost of the world since the beginning haue suffered mixture Wee reade that the Gothes being a warlike people of the North long after their first inuasion of Spaine France Italy and other Territories of Europe retained their owne disposition and nature altogether disagreeing with the nations amongst whom they liued gouerning as is the manner of Northerne Potentates rather by Strength then Policy better able to winne then establish an Empire But in processe of time it came to passe that putting off their harsh temper they grew into one nation with the natiue Inhabitants as in France and Italy or at least as in Spaine establishing a gouernment of their owne by little and little declined from their rudenesse to ciuility turning their armes to Arts their strength to stratagemmes hauing of late yeeres by witty pollicy established a greater empire then euer their Ancestours could atcheiue by multitudes of men and strength of armes And it is worth obseruation that as these haue suffered a change of Lawes customes gouernment which they owe more to the nature of the Climate then to Education so in their very language For the language of the Gothes heretofore differed little from the language of the ancient Germans which as most Northerne languages was very rough consisting of many hard and harsh aspirations with vnpleasant collision of many consonants together But at this day is changed into a very elegant tongue pleasant to the eare consisting of many vowels and the softest aspirations Finally such haue beene the alterations of this people that being heretofore farre North and branded with all the markes of Northerne rudenesse they are now esteemed in the Catalogue of Southerne Inhabitants Not in regard as much of place as nature The like may wee obserue of the Turkes and Tartars who spreading their empire from the North towards the South a long time retained their rude barbarous nature which they haue not at this day altogether cast off yet so much hath time and place gained vpon their temper that they are much mollified and farre more tractable to humanity addicting themselues euery day more and more to the study of artes and ciuility in so much that as one obserues had they not preserued their strict discipline in training vp their youth to armes they had long since lost much of their large empire and haue yeelded to the Polonian and Muscouite This change may we find not onely in mankinde but also in beasts and plants which being transported into other regions though a long time retaining their natiue perfection will notwithstanding in time by little and little degenerate As I haue heard by relation of some of our Virginian colony in America who finde a great alteration in our Corne and Cattle translated thither This might also bee obserued in the Danes Saxons and Angles comming into Britanny who partly by the Climate partly by mixture with them by little and little deposed their disposition and became more ciuill The like may be spoken of the Saxon-colonies sent by Charles the great into Belgia who since that time becomming more ciâ—ill haue proued lesse warlike loosing as much by the one as they obâ—ained by the other This point I will no further prosâ—cute because I hold it sufficiently demonstrated out of that I haue spoken of the variety of naturall dispositions according to the heauenly situation and the soile For sith all nations came at first from one originall we must needs ascribe this mutation to the places which they inhabite 2 The mixture of Colonies begets in the same nation a greater disparity and variety of the Inhabitants amongst themselues This proposition is by naturall consequence deduced from the former Because all Colonies transplanted retaining some-what of their former nature the Mixture must produce variety First because the number of people of any region by this is supposed to consist of more kindes of dispositions Secondly because the promiscuous mixture of these kindes being vnequally tempered must according to their seuerall combinations produce people as vnlike one to the other as to the former Hence a reason may bee giuen why the Inhabitants of the extreame regions either North or South are found to bee amongst themselues as well in temper as in externall face and habite more like one to the other whereas the middle partake of more variety For the Cimbrians Danes and other Scythians are for the most part of a whitish hue with flaxen and yellow haire on the other side the Ethiopians for the most part are blacke-haired and curled The French Germans and the English admit of all variety hauing some white-haired some black some yellow some tawny some smooth and some curled-pates This diuersity the Stoicks would ascribe to the phantasie or image conceiued in the minds of men Whence they would giue a cause why beasts commonly bring forth yong more like one the other then men because say they wanting a reasonable soule they are not stirred vp as men with sundry cogitations but onely with sense So the Scit hian and Northerne man being by nature more simple and affecting those pleasures which are agreeable to nature and lesse distracted by variety of thoughts is found to beget children more like their parents then those of the middle climate This cause wee should admit probable enough but for a reason vrged by Bodin and others that in Aethiopia where the people of all other is more Acute and more violent in lust they are most like one to the other For euen all are found to be small of stature curle-pated black-skinned flat-nosed smooth-skinned great-lip't white-toothed black-eyed Wherefore this infinite diuersity in the middle region we cannot well ascribe to any other reason then the manifold intermixtion and combination of both the extreames Whence it comes to passe that by how much more we wander from the middle region so much the more shall wee finde the people amongst themselues In so much as Tacitus spake of the Germans that amongst themselues they were very like in respect of other nations This mixture in the middle region out of the extreames may easily be shewed out of diuerse Colonies which from the extreames haue beene translated into the middle region as the better place of habitation For hither came the great and extraordinary armies of the Scythians Gothes Turkes and Tartars None besides the Vandalls passed into Africke from whence they were in short time expulsed The Arabians and Punicaeans called by the ancient Saracens leading their Colonies into Europe and Asia setled themselues in the middle region None came into Scythia for when they had inuaded Spaine Italy and France they were in France altogether
time or incertainty of tradition neglected and obliterated they fell backe into such wayes as their owne depraued nature dictated or the diuell malitiously suggested 2 By Discipline nations become moâ—e wise and politicke in the preseruations of states yet lesse stout and couragious As Discipline hath been the chiefe cause of the establishment of all states so hath it on the other side been occasion to soften and weaken the courage of many nations For it hath beene many times seene that such people who haue beene commended for wit haue yeelded to such who are of a ruder disposition as at this day the Greeks and Macedons to the Turkes the ancient Gaules to the French the Egyptians to the Persians the Chaldeans to the Saracens Hence some giue a reason why the French did inuade and runne ouer Italy without controle vnder Charles the 5 because the Italian Princes at that time were giuen to study and learning and it is obserued that the ancient courage of the Turke is much abated since the time that they grew more ciuill and more strictly imbraced discipline And this some thinke to haue giuen occasion to Alexander the great to conquer the Persian Monarchie the Persians hauing beene before reduced to ciuility and lost their hardnesse And we daily see by experience that no men are more desperate and aduenturous then those which are rude and barbarous wanting all good manners and education None more fearefull and many times more cowardlike then such as are most wise and politick an example of the former we haue in Aiax of the other in Vlisses wherevpon the wisest lâ—aders and commanders haue not been esteemed the most valiant A certaine English gentleman writing military obseruations affirmes the French nobility to bee more valorous and coragious then the English Because of the loosenesse of their discipline and the strictnesse of ours But I will neither grant him the one or the other neither can I auerre their courage to be greater or our discipline stricter If their valour bee more it must needs follow their wit is lesse out of this ground But how soeuer it be I am sure that Caesar and Tacitus giue the cause of the great stature and courage of the Germans to be their loosenesse and liberty which howbeit it bee not the sole cause it must needs bee a great helpe For wee plainely finde by experience that those countries which be most mountanous where is lesse discipline are found to produce men for the most part most warlicke Such as the Suitzers in Germany and Biscaynâ—s and Arragonians in Spainâ— Whence as some obserue such countries as are partly Mountanous partly plaine are seldome at quiet the one part willingly submitting themselues to gouernment the other affecting warre and rebellion Which hath been the cause of the troubles of Naples and in England before Henry the eight's time betwixt the Welsh and English Why discipline should in this sort mollifie and weaken the courage of men many causes may bee giuen The first and greatest is Religion then the which there is no greater curbe to the courage not meerely of it selfe but by accident Because Death being the greatest hazard of a souldier religion giues a more euident apprehension and sense of the immortality of the soule of man and sets before the eye of his vnderstanding as it were the images of Hell-paines and Caelestiall ioyes weighing in an aequall scale the danger of the one and the losse of the other Whereas ignorant people wanting all sense of religion lightly esteeme of either holding a temporall death the greatest danger Whence grew the vsuall Prouerbe amongst profane Ruffians that conscience makes cowards But this as I said is meerely accidentall For as much as nothing spurres on a true resolution more then a good conscience and a true touch of religion witnesse the holy Martyrs of the Church of all ages whose valour and constancy hath outgone all heathen presidents But because souldiers for the most part being a most dissolute kinde of people hauing either a false religion which can suggest no setled resolution or an ill conscience grounded vpon no assurance Religion must needs beget in them a more fearefull disposition Another cause may bee the seuerity of discipline which especially in the training vp of youth is mixed with a kind of slauery without which our yonger yeers are very vntractable to tast the bitter roots of knowledge This feare as it were stamped in our affections cannot but leaue behind it a continuall impression which cannot suddainly bee razed out Such as we find in vs of our masters and teachers whose friendship we rather imbrace then familiarity A third reason why discipline would weaken and mollifie a Nation may be the delight which men reape in Contemplatiue studies and morall or politicke duties whence followes a neglect of the other For people of knowledge must needs finde a greater felicity in giftes of the minde which is vsually seconded with a contempt of externall and military affaires The last cause may bee the want of vse and practise of military affaires in most common-wealths for many states well established continue a long time without warres neither molesting their neighbours nor dissenting amongst themselues except very seldome and that by a small army without troubling the whole state whence the generall practise being lesse knowne becomes more fearefull Notwithstanding all this it were brutish to imagine discipline any way vnnecessary or hurtfull either to a Captaine or Statesman For as much as it more strengthens the wit then abates the courage of a nation Neither is it properly said to breake and weaken but rather to temper and regulate our spirits For it is not valour but rather rashnesse or fiercenesse which is not managed with policy and discretion And although it hath sometimes beene attended with notable exploites as that of Alexander the great of the Gothes the ancient Gaules and many other Yet shall we obserue such conquests to bee of small continuance For what they atcheiued by strength they lost for want of policy So that it is well said by one that moderation is the mother of continuance to States and Kingdomes Thus haue we run ouer by Gods assistance the chiefe causes of diuersity of dispositions of Nations Wherein if any man will informe himselfe as hee should hee must compare one circumstance with another and make his iudgement not from a man but a nation and not censure any Nation out of one obseruation For practise in Art cannot alwayes come home to speculation So experience in this kinde will oftentimes crosse the most generall rules wee can imagine T is enough to iudge as wee finde and walke where the way is open If any man will desire more curiosity hee may spend more labour to lesse purpose Let euery man by beholding the nationall vices of other men praise Almighty God for his owne happinesse and by seeing their vertues learne to correct his owne vices So should our trauaile in this Terrestriall Globe bee our direct way to Heauen And that eternall guide should conduct vs which can neuer erre To whom be ascribed all Glory Prayse and Power for euermore Deo triuni Laus in aeternum FINIS Ptolom geogr l. 1. sec. 1. Seneca in Medeâ Act. 2. De gen cor 〈◊〉 de caelo cap. 4. L. de Sphaer Lib. 1 geog cap. 4. Lib. 2. c. 72. Lib. 1. De Mundi fabr part 3. cap. 2. Psal. 104. Fundauit Terram super bases suas ne dimoueatur in saeculum vers 5. Ptol. dict 1. cap. 5. Alph. 6. diff 6. Prop. 11. lib. 1. * Pag. 149. R. Ld. D. 1 Meteor Lib. 4. Sr Walter Rawleigh