Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	cold_a	sun_n	zone_n	121	3	13.1249	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27428	The folly and unreasonableness of atheism demonstrated from the advantage and pleasure of a religious life, the faculties of humane souls, the structure of animate bodies, & the origin and frame of the world : in eight sermons preached at the lecture founded by ... Robert BOyle, Esquire, in the first year MDCXCII / by Richard Bentley ...	Bentley, Richard, 1662-1742.	1699 (1699)	Wing B1931; ESTC R21357	132,610	286

of the four Seasons of the Year and the Variation in length of Days If we take away the Inclination it would absolutely undo these Northern Nations the Sun would never come nearer us than he doth now on the tenth of March or the twelfth of September But would we rather part with the Parallelism Let us suppose then that the Axis of the Earth keeps always the same Inclination toward the body of the Sun this indeed would cause a variety of Days and Nights and Seasons on the Earth but then every particular Country would have always the same diversity of Day and Night and the same constitution of Season without any alteration some would always have long Nights and short Days others again perpetually long Days and short Nights one Climate would be scorched and swelter'd with everlasting Dog-days while an eternal December blasted another This surely is not quite so good as the present Order of Seasons But shall the Axis rather observe no constant inclination to any thing but vary and waver at uncertain times and places This would be a happy Constitution indeed There could be no health no life nor subsistence in such an irregular System by those surprizing Nods of the Pole we might be tossed backward or forward in a moment from Ianuary to Iune nay possibly from the Ianuary of Greenland to the Iune of Abessinia It is better therefore upon all accounts that the Axis should be continued in its present posture and direction so that this also is a signal Character of Divine Wisdom and Goodness But because several have imagin'd that this skue posture of the Axis is a most unfortunate and pernicious thing that if the Poles had been erect to the Plane of the Ecliptic all mankind would have enjoyed a very Paradise upon Earth a perpetual Spring an eternal Calm and Serenity and the Longaevity of Methuselah without pains or diseases we are obliged to consider it a little further And first as to the Universal and Perpetual Spring 't is a mere Poetical Fancy and bating the equality of Days and Nights which is a thing of small value as to the other properties of a Spring it is naturally impossible being repugnant to the very form of the Globe For to those People that dwell under or near the Aequator this Spring would be a most pestilent and insupportable Summer and as for those Countries that are nearer the Poles in which number are our own and the most considerable Nations of the World a Perpetual Spring will not do their business they must have longer Days a nearer approach of the Sun and a less Obliquity of his Rayes they must have a Summer and a Harvest-time too to ripen their Grain and Fruits and Vines or else they must bid an eternal adieu to the very best of their sustenance It is plain that the Center of the Earth must move all along in the Orbis Magnus whether we suppose a Perpetual Aequinox or an oblique Position of the Axis So that the whole Globe would continue in the same Distance from the Sun and receive the same quantity of Heat from him in a Year or any assignable time in either Hypothesis Though the Axis then had been perpendicular yet take the whole Year about and the Earth would have had the same measure of Heat that it has now So that here lies the question Whether is more beneficial that the Inhabitants of the Earth should have the Yearly quantity of Heat distributed equally every day or so disposed as it is a greater share of it in Summer and in Winter a less It must needs be allowed that the Temperate Zones have no Heat to spare in Summer 't is very well if it be sufficient for the maturation of Fruits Now this being granted 't is as certain and manifest that an even distribution of the Yearly Heat would never have brought those Fruits to maturity as this is a known and familiar experiment That such a quantity of Fewel all kindled at once will cause Water to boil which being lighted gradually and successively will never be able to do it It is clear therefore that in the constitution of a Perpetual Aequinox the best part of the Globe would be desolate and useless and as to that little that could be inhabited there is no reason to expect that it would constantly enjoy that admired Calm and Serenity If the assertion were true yet some perhaps may think that such a Felicity as would make Navigation impossible is not much to be envied But it 's altogether precarious and has no necessary foundation neither upon Reason nor Experience For the Winds and Rains and other affections of the Atmosphere do not solely depend as that assertion supposeth upon the course of the Sun but partly and perhaps most frequently upon Steams and Exhalations from subterraneous Heat upon the Positions of the Moon the Situations of Seas or Mountains or Lakes or Woods and many other unknown or uncertain Causes So that though the Course of the Sun should be invariable and never swerve from the Equator yet the temperament of the Air would be mutable nevertheless according to the absence or presence or various mixture of the other Causes The ancient Philosophers for many ages together unanimously taught that the Torrid Zone was not habitable The reasons that they went upon were very specious and probable till the experience of these latter ages evinced them to be erroneous They argued from coelestial Causes only the constant Vicinity of the Sun and the directness of his Rayes never suspecting that the Body of the Earth had so great an efficiency in the changes of the Air and that then could be the coldest and rainiest season the Winter of the Year when the Sun was the nearest of all and steer'd directly over mens heads Which is warning sufficient to deterr any man from expecting such eternal Serenity and Halcyon-days from so incompetent and partial a Cause as the constant Course of the Sun in the Aequinoctial Circle What general condition and temperament of Air would follow upon that Supposition we cannot possibly define for 't is not caused by certain and regular Motions nor subject to Mathematical Calculations But if we may make a conjecture from the present Constitution we shall hardly wish for a Perpetual Aequinox to save the charges of Weather glasses for 't is very well known that the Months of March and September the two Aequinoxes of Our year are the most windy and tempestuous the most unsettled and unequable of Seasons in most Countries of the World Now if this notion of an uniform Calm and Serenity be false or precarious then even the last supposed advantage the constant Health and Longaevity of Men must be given up also as a groundless conceit for this according to the Assertors themselves doth solely as an effect of Nature depend upon the other Nay further though we should allow them their Perpetual Calm and Aequability of Heat they