The division of water p. 289. 3. VVhat a Lake is The strange vertues of some Lakes 290 291 292. 4. VVhat a Fountain is The wonderfull properties of some Fountains p. 293 to 295. 5. Of Physical Wells p. 296. Of Baths p. 297. 7. Of Rivers and their rare properties ib. 298. 8. Of the chief Straits of the Sea p. 299 230. CHAP. VII Of the Circulation of the Ocean 1. That the disburdening of the Eastern Rivers into the Ocean is not the cause of its Circulation neither are the Sunne or Moon the principal causes of this motion p. 301 302. 2. The periodical course of the Ocean The causes of the high and low waters of the Ocean p. 303 304 305. 3. How it is possible that the Ocean should move so swiftly as in 12 hours and somewhat more to slow about the terrestrial Globe p 306 307 308. 4. A further explanation of the causes of the intumescence and detumescence of the Ocean The causes of the anticipation of the floud of the Ocean 309 to 312. 5. That the Suns intense heat in the torrid Zone is a potent adjuvant cause of the Oceans circulation and likewise the minima's descening from the Moon and the Polar Regions p. 313 to 316. CHAP. VIII Of the course of the Sea towards the Polar Coasts 1. What the Libration of the Ocean is That the Tides are not occasioned by Libration The Navil of the World Whence the Seas move towards the North Polar Why the Ebb is stronger in the Narrow Seas than the Floud and why the Floud is stronger than the Ebb in the Ocean Why the Irish Seas are so rough p. 316 317 318. 2. VVhy the Baltick Sea is not subjected to Tides The rise of the East Sea or Sinus Codanus p. 319. 3. The cause of the bore in the River of Seyne p. 320. 4. The causes of the courses of the Mediterranean The rise of this Sea ib. 321. CHAP. IX Of Inundations 1. Of the rise of the great Gulphs of the Ocean The causes of Inundations That the Deluge mentioned in Genesis was not universal The explanation of the Text. p 422 323. 2. The manner of the Deluge That it was not occasioned through the overfilling of the Ocean p. 324. 3. That there hapned very great Deluges since when and where p. 325. 4. The effects of the first deluge ib. 5. Inland Inundations p. 327. CHAP. X. Of the causes of the before-formentioned properties of Lakes 1. Whence the Lake Asphaltites is so strong for sustaining of weighty bodies and why it breeds no Fish The cause of qualities contrary to these in other Lakes The cause of the effects of the Lake Lerna p. 328. 2. Whence the vertues of the Lake Eaug of Thrace Gerasa the Lake among the Troglodites Clitorius Laumond Vadimon and Benaco are derived ib. 3. Whence the properties of the Lake Larius Pilats Pool and the Lake of Laubach emanate p. 329. CHAP. XI Of the rise of Fountains Rivers and Hills 1. That Fountains are not supplied by rain p. 330. 2. Aristotles opinion touching the rise of Fountains examined p. 331. 3. The Authors assertion concerning the rise of Fountains The rise of many principal Fountains of the world ib 332. 4. Why Holland is not mountanous p. 333. 5. That the first deluge was not the cause of Hills ib. 334 6. Whence that great quantity of water contained within the bowels of the Earth is derived p. 335. 7. Whence it is that most shores are mountanous Why the Island Ferro is not irrigated with any Rivers Why the Earth is depressed under the torrid Zone and elevated towards the Polars The cause of the multitude of Hills in some Countries and scarcity in others ib. 336. 8. How it is possible for the Sea to penetrate into the bowels of the Earth p. 337. CHAP XII Of the causes of the effects produced by Fountains 1. Whence some Fountains are deleterious The cause of the effect of the Fountain Lethe of Cea Lincystis Arania The causes of foecundation and of rendring barren of other Fountains The causes of the properties of the Fountains of the Sun of the Eleusinian waters of the Fountains of Illyrium Epirus Cyreniaca Arcadia the Holy Cross Sibaris Lycos of the unctious Fountain of Rome and Jacobs Fountain p. 338 339. 2. The causes of the effects of Ipsum and Barnet Wells p. 340. 3. Whence the vertues of the Spaw waters are derived ib. 4. Of the formal causes of Baths 341. CHAP. XIII Of the various Tastes Smells Congelation and Choice of Water 1. Various tastes of several Lakes Fountain and River waters p. 342. 2. The divers sents of waters p. 343. 3. The causes of the said Tastes That the saltness of the Sea is not generated by the broyling heat of the Sun The Authors opinion ib. 4. The causes of the sents of wates p. 345. 5. What Ice is the cause of it and manner of its generation Why some Countries are less exposed to frosts than others that are nearer to the Line ib. 346. 6. The differences of frosts Why a frost doth usually begin and end with the change of the Moon p. 347. 7. The original or rise of frosty minims Why fresh waters are aptest to be frozen How it is possible for the Sea to be frozen p. 348. 8. What waters are the best and the worst the reasons of their excellency and badaess p 349 350. CHAP. XIV Of the commerce of the Ayr with the other Elements 1. How the Air moves downwards VVhat motions the Elements would exercise supposing they enjoyed their Center VVhy the Air doth not easily toss the terraqueous Globe out of its place How the Air is capable of two contrary motions 351 352. 2. That the Air moves continually from East through the South to West and thence back again to the East through the North. p. 353. 3. An Objection against the airs circular motion answered p. 354. 4. The Poles of the Air. ib. 5. The proportion of Air to Fire its distinction into three profundities p. 355 CHAP. XV. Of the production of Clouds 1. VVhat a Cloud is how generated its difference How a Rainbow is produced Whether there appeared any Rainbows before the Floud 356 2. The generation of Rain p. 357. 3. How Snow and Hail are engendred p. 358. 4. The manner of generation of winds ib. to 362. 5 The difference of winds Of Monzones Provincial winds general winds c. Of the kinds of storms and their causes What a mist and a dew are p. 362 to 370. CHAP. XVI Of Earthquakes together with their effects and some strange instances of them 1. VVhat an Earthquake is The manner of its generation The concomitants thereof p. 370. 2. The kinds and differences of Earthquakes ib. 371 372. 3. The proof of the generation of Earthquakes p. 373. 4. Their Effects upon the air p. 374. CHAP. XVII Of fiery Meteors in the Air. 1. Of the generation of a Fools fire a Licking fire Helens fire Pollux
and Castor a Flying Drake a burning Candle a perpendicular fire a skipping Goat flying sparks and a burning flame p. 375 376. 2. Of the generation of Thunder Fulguration and Fulmination and of their effects Of a thunder stone p. 377 378. 3. Of Comets Of their production p. 379 380 381. CHAP. XVIII Of the term Antiperistasis and a Vacuum 1. Whether there be such a thing as an Antiperistasis p. 382. 2. Whether a Vacuum be impossible and why p. 383. 3. Experiments inferring a Vacuum answered p. 384 385. 4. Whether a Vacuum can be effected by an Angelical or by the Divine Power p. 386. 5 Whether Local Motion be possible in a Vacuum A threefold sense of the doubt proposed In what sense Local Motion is possible in a Vacuum in what not ib. 387. CHAP. XIX Of Physical Motion 1. What a Physical Motion is The kinds of it The definition of Alteration Local Motion and quantitative motions The subdivision of Local Motion p. 388 389. 2. That all alterative and quantitative motions are direct p. 390. 3. That all externall motions are violent ib. 4. That all weighty mixt bodies being removed from their Element are disposed to be detruded downwards from without but do not move from any internal inclination or appetite they have to their universal Center p. 391 392. 5. The causes of swiftness and slowness of external Local Motion 393 6. That light bodies are disposed to be moved upwards ib. 7. That airy bodies being seated in the fiery Region are disposed to be moved downwards p. 394. CHAP. XX. Of Attraction Expulsion Projection Disruption Undulation and Recurrent Motion 1. How Air is attracted by a water-spout or Siphon p. 395. 2. The manner of another kind of Attraction by a sucking Leather 396. 3. How two slat Marble stones clapt close together draw one another up ib. 4. How a Wine-Coopers Pipe attracts Wine out of a Cask ib. 5. How sucking with ones mouth attracts water p. 397. 6. How a Sucker attracts the water ib. 7. The manner of Attraction by Filtration p. 398. 8. The manner of Electrical Attraction ib. 9. How fire and fiery bodies are said to attract p. 399. 400. 10. What Projection is and the manner of it p. 401. 11. What Disruption Undulation and Recurrent motion are ib 402. CHAP. XXI Of Fire being an Introduction to a New Astronomy 1. The Fires division into three Regions p. 402. 2. The qualification of the inferiour Region What the Sun is What his torrid Rayes are and how generated ib. 3. How the other Planets are generated ib. 4. How the fixed Stars were generated p. 404. 5. A further explanation of the Stars their Ventilation That there are many Stars within the Planetary Region that are invisible Of the appearance of new Stars or Comets Of the Galaxia or Milk-way p. 405. 6. That the fiery Regions are much attenuated p. 406. CHAP. XXII Of the Motion of the Element of Fire 1. VVhere the Poles of the Heavens are p. 408. 2. The Opinions of Ptolomy and Tycho rejected p. 409. 3. That the Planets move freely and loosely and why the fixed Stars are moved so uniformly ib. 4. The Suns retrograde motion unfolded and the cause of it ib. 5. How the Ecliptick AEquator and the Zodiack were first found out p. 410 6. The manner of the fiery Heavens their ventilation p. 411. 7. Whence it is that the Sun moves swifter through the Austrinal Medeity and slower through the Boreal How the Sun happens to measure a larger fiery Tract at some seasons in the same time than at others p. 412. 8. VVhence the difference of the Suns greatest declination in the time of Hipparchus Ptolomy and of this our age happens p. 414. 9. An undoubted and exact way of Calculating the natural end of the World The manner of the Worlds dissolution The same proved also by the holy Scriptures The prevention of a Calumny ib. 415 416. CHAP. XXIII Of the Magnitude and distance of the Sun and Moon and the motion of the other Planets 1. That the Magnitude of the Sun hath not been probably much less certainly stated by any The Arguments vulgarly proffered for the proof of the Suns Magnitude rejected p. 417 418. 2. That the Sun might be capable enough of illuminating the World were he much lesser than the terraqueous Globe than I suppose him to be p 419. 3. That the shadow of the Earth is to some extent Cylindrical ib. 4. That the Sun existing in the AEquator doth at once illuminate the whole Hemisphere of the Earth ib. 5. Concerning the diminution or increase of the shadow of the Earth within the Polars together with the cause of the Prolongation and Abbreviation of the dayes That the Sun is much bigger than he appears to be p 420. 6. What the spots of the Sun and Moon are and their causes ib. 7. That the Arguments proposed by Astronomers for rendring the Moon lesser than the Earth and proving the distance of the Sun are invalid p. 421. 8. That the Moon is by far lesser than the Earth ib. 9. Several Phaenomena's of the Moon demonstrated p. 422. 10. Concerning the motion of Venus and Mercury p 423. 11. Of the motion of the fixed Stars and their Scintillation p. 424. CHAP. I. Problems relating to the Earth 1. Why two weighty bodies are not moved downwards in parallel Lines p. 426. 2. Why a great Stone is more difficultly moved on the top of a high hill than below p. 427. 3. Why a pair of Scales is easier moved empty than ballanced ib. 4. Whence it is that a man may carry a greater weight upon a Wheelbarrow than upon his back ib. 5. Why a weighty body is easier thrust forward with a Pole than immediately by ones arms besides 5. other Probl. more p. 428 429 430 6. Why a stick thrust into a hole if bended is apt to be broke near the hole What the cause of the relaxation of a bowed stick is p. 431. 7. Whether Gold doth attract Mercury ib. 8. Why the herb of the Sun vulgarly called Chrysanthemum Peruvianum obverteth its leaves and flowers to the Sun wheresoever he be p. 432. Why the Laurel is seldom or never struoken by Lightning b. CHAP. II. Containing Problems relating to Water 1. Why is red hot Iron rendered harder by being quencht in cold water p. 432. 2. Whence is it there fals a kind of small Rain every day at noon under the AEquinoctial Region p. 433. 3. How Glass is made ib 4. Whence it is that so great a Mole as a Ship yeelds to be turned by so small a thing as her Rudder p. 434. 5. What the cause of a Ships swimming upon the water is p 335. 6. Whether all hard waterish bodies are freed from fire ib. CHAP. III. Comprizing Problems touching the Air. 1. Whether Air â—e weighty p 436. 2. Whether a Bladder blown up with wind â—e heavier than when empty ib. 3. Why water contained in a beer glass being
1. That the disburdening of the Eastern Rivers into the Ocean is not the cause of its Circulation neither are the Sun or Moon the principal causes of this motion 2. The periodical course of the Ocean The causes of the high and low waters of the Ocean 3. How it is possible that the Ocean should move so swiftly as in 24 hours and somewhat more to flow about the terrestrial Globe 4. A further Explanation of the causes of the intumescence and detumescence of the Ocean The causes of the anticipation of the floud of the Ocean 5. That the Suns intense heat in the torrid Zone is a potent adjuvant cause of the Oceans Circulation and likewise the minima's descending from the Moon and the Polar Regions I. HAving in one of the Chapt. of the precedent Book posed a demonstrative and evident ground of the universal course of the great Ocean and the straitness of that Chapt. not permitting the finishing of the fabrick intended by us upon it Therefore this present plain shall serve for to compleat the delineation thereof but encountring with some rocky stones thereon it is requisite they should be rowled aside before the said Atlantick waves may procure a necessary assent of the true cause of their dayly circular floating The conceit of some Philosophers hath induced them to state the copious irreption of many large and deep Rivers into the Eoan Sea for the principal cause of its circulation the which tumefying its body do thereby press it westward This solution seems void of all reason the evacuation of the presupposed Rivers having no proportion to the replenishing of so extended a body as the Ocean scarce of a Lake or an inland Sea as we have observed of the lake Haneygaban and the Euxian Sea Besides many great Rivers disburdening themselves into the Occiduan Sea might upon the same ground return the course of the Ocean Eastward But imagine it was so why should not the said tumefaction rather incline the sea westward than further eastward Others rejecting the former opinion have in their fansie groven the ground whereon the sea beats deeper and deeper towards the west and so the ground being situated higher in the East shelving down gradually to the west the sea doth through its natural gravity rowl it self to the deeper lower Plane but then the eastern waters being arrived to the west how shall they return to the east again for to continue the said motion Wherefore this opinion may take its place among the Castles in the air Shall we then ascribe the cause of this motion to the rarefaction of the sea through the beams of the Sun which as it is successively rarefied doth swell and press its preceding parts forward As touching the Moon she cannot come into consideration here as being rather noted for condensation than rarefaction First I deny that the Sun doth any whit rarifie the Eastern Ocean because according to their Tenent the rarefaction of the sea happens through the commotion of the subsidencies and terrestrial exhalations contained within the bowels of the sea and scattered through its substance whereby it becomes tumefied which I grant in case the Sun casts its beams obliquely into the depth of the Ocean but I prove the contrary supposing the Sun doth cast its beams directly into the Eastern waters In AEgypt it seldom rains because the Sun casting its beams directly into the waters doth through the same degree of heat through which it might raise vapours dissolve them again likewise in the East Ocean the Sun subtilizing the waters doth doubtless through its heat commove exhalations and subsidencies but the waters being through the same heat attenuated are rendred uncapable of sustaining those terrestrial bodies wherefore they sinking deeper to the ground rather cause a detumescence of the sea I have alwaies observed that waters swell more through the cold than heat and that inundations happen for the most part after a frost besides it is obvious that Rivers are much tumefied when they are frozen and that by reason of the foresaid tumefaction inundations happen more frequently in the winter than at any other time of the year Des-Cartes imagineth the compression of the Moon together with the Earths motion about her own Axis to be the cause of the waters circular motion pressing it from East to West and the variation of this pressure to depend upon the various removal of the Moon from the Center of the Earth effecting the anticipation and various celerity of the waters motion So that where the Earth is obverted to the face of the Moon there the waters must be at their lowest being pressed towards the next quarter of the Surface where they are at their highest whence they are carried about through the Earths proper motion c. 1. I deny his supposition of the Earths motion as being fabulous which we have confuted elsewhere He might as well assert that there be as many Neptunes under water moving it circularly as Aristotle stated intelligencies to drive the Heavens for even this he might excuse by saying it was but an Assumption to prove a Phaenomenon of the water 2. What needs he to affirm a tumour of the water for since he assumes the Earth to move circularly we cannot but grant that the water must also move with it as constituting one Globe together 5. Why doth he in vain reassume in the 55 Sect. that out-worn Doctr. of Aristotle touching the Moons driving of the water which argues him to be very unconstant with himself 4. His stating the air to be so complicable and soft a body renders it very unfit for compressing and driving so vast and weighty a body as the Ocean 5. Can any one rationally or probably conceive that the Sun much less the Moon being so remore and whose forcible effects are so little felt by sublunary bodies should be capable of driving so deep so large and so heavy a body as the Ocean which is as powerful to resist through its extream gravity as all the Celestial bodies are potent to move through their extream lightness What because the Ocean and the Moon move one way therefore the one must either follow or move the other What can a passion so durable and constant and so equal depend upon a violent cause Since then such phansies are ridiculous and not to be proposed by any Philosopher let us now proceed in the unfolding of so difficult and admirable a matter as the course of the Ocean which we have formerly demonstrated to flow about the earth once in 12 hours and somewhat more II. Moreover besides this single motion making a sharper inspection into the drift of the Ocean it will appear to us to absolve a compounded periodical course in a perfixt time namely in 15 daies which space may be called a marinal or nautical month The meaning hereof is imagining a part of the Ocean to flow circularly from a certain point or more plainly a Bowle to rowl circularly
to my apprehension all that Country must necessarily be subjected to such deluges since it swims upon the water Touching Inland Inundations as that which befell Friesland in the year 1218 where near 100000 persons were buried in the water and that of Holland and Zealand in the Reign of Charles the fifth Emperour of Germany in the year 1531. and several times since as that of the last year when a great part of the Country all about Gorcum was seized upon by Inland waters Their causes are to be attributed to torrents streaming down out of the melted snow as also to the swelling of the Inland waters through receiving a great quantity of frosty minima's pouring down from the North in a cold Winter The River of Nile proves yearly extravagant in AEgypt for two months and ten daies because being situated very low it is obliged to receive the superfluity of water falling from above out of severall great Rivers and Lakes as the Lakes Zembre Saslan Nuba and the Rivers Cabella Tagazi Ancona Coror and many others besides the water which it draweth from the hills and other grounds These Rivers and Lakes do constantly swell every year by reason of the great rains that fall there at certain times of the year Besides the heat of the Sun exercising its power very vigorously near the latter end of May doth very much subtilize and rarefie those waters whereby they are rendred more fluid penetrating and copious and lastly the Sun conversing in the northern declination doth impell the Ocean stronger against the Northern shores whereby the waters are also much increased Hence it is that the waters of the Nile are so subtill that they deceive the air in carrying of them up in vapours viz. because they are so subtilly strained No wonder then if they prove so healthy The same causes are appliâ—ble to the excessive increase of the Rivers Ganges Padus Arrius Danow Tiber and Athesis CHAP. X. Of the causes of the before-mentioned properties of Lakes 1. Whence the Lake Asphaltites is so strong for sustaining of weighty bodies and why it breeds no Fish The cause of qualities contrary to these in other Lakes The cause of the effects of the Lake Lerna 2. Whence the vertues of the Lake Eaug of Thrace Gerasa the Lake among the Troglodites Clitorius Laumond Vadimon and Benaco are derived 3. Whence the properties of the Lake Larius Pilats Pool and the Lake of Laubach emanate I. VVHat the cause of those effects of the Lake Asphaltites should be the name seems to contain viz. The water glued together by an incrassated air and condensed fire constituting the body of a certain Bitumen called Asphaltos whence the said Lake doth also derive its name It is uncapable of breeding fish because through its sulphureous thickness it suffocates all vitall flames On the contrary the Lakes Avernum although deep 360 fathom and that of AEthiopia are so much subtilized through the passing of rarefied air that they are uncapable of sustaining the least weight Touching their pernicious quality to fowl it must be attributed to the venomous spirits permixt with that rarefied air infecting the whole Element of air as far as it covers them The Lake Lorna and the other in Portugal cause their effects through the permixture of a quantity of crude nitrous bodies which prove very depressing That Lake of AEthiopia is unctious through the admixture of incrassated air II. The Lake Eaug in Ireland acquires a sideropoetick vertue under water from the imbibition of crude Aluminous juyces by means of their indurating and constrictive vertue changing wood sticking in the mud into an Iron-like substance that part which is under water into a stone-like substance because of the diminution of the said Aluminous Juyces which through their weight are more copious in the mud the part of the wood that sticks out of the water remains wood as being beyond the reach of the said heavy juyces The Lakes of Thrace and Gerasa prove pernicious through admixture of crude arsenical exhalations The Lake among the Troglodites being Mercurial is infestuous to the brain The Lake Clitorius through its nitrosity disturbs the stomach and attracts a great quantity of moisture to it and infecting it with an offensive quality causes a loathing of all Liquors The sudden tempests befalling the Lake Laumond and Vadimon are caused through winds breaking out of the earth through the water Lakes resist induration by frost through igneous expirations pervading them The Lake Benacus shews its fury when its internal winds are excited by external ones causing a Concussion and a Rage in the water like unto an aguish body which is disposed to a shaking fit by every sharp wind raising the sharp winds within III. The River Abda passeth freely through the Lake Larius without any commotion of its body because the waters of the Lake through their extream crassitude are depressed downwards and so are constituted atop in a rigid posture whereas the River is impelled forwards and very little downwards But were it to flow through a shallow water whose quantity doth not bear any proportion to receive the pressure of the air downwards against the earth they would soon communicate in streams 2. The waters of a Lake differ much in crassitude and density from those of a River and therefore do exclude its streams The Lake Haneygaban doth not visibly disburden it self of those waters but thrusting Caverns underneath into the earth raises all those hills through the intumescence of the said waters that are near to her out of which some Rivers do take their rice Pilats Pool is stirred into a vehement fermentation by flinging any pressing body into it because thereby those heterogeneous mineral juyces viz. Vitriolat and Sulphureous substances are raised mixt together and brought to a fermentation and working Through this fermentation the water swells and exceeds its borders but the water being clarified the commotion ceaseth Neither needs any one wonder that so small a matter should be the cause of so great an exestuation since one part of the water doth stir up the other and so successively the whole pool comes to be stirred Pools owe their rice to great rains or torrents which sometime do slow visibly over the meadows or through Rivers causing inundations Sometimes through Caverns of the Earth as that near Laubach CHAP. XI Of the rice of Fountains Rivers and Hills 1. That Fountains are not supplied by rain 2. Aristotles opinion touching the rice of Fountains examined 3. The Authors assertion concerning the rice of Fountains The rice of many principal Fountains of the world 4. Why Holland is not mountainous 5. That the first deluge was not the cause of Hills 6. Whence that great quantity of water contained within the bowels of the Earth is derived 7. Whence it is that most shores are Mountainous Why the Island Ferro is not irrigated with any Rivers Why the earth is depressed under the torrid Zone and elevated towards the polars The
constructing the obscurities of the late quoted Book of Divine Predictions some imagining a plenary abolition of the Elements others their conversion into a hell for the damned some thence deducting Christs Personal Reign before the consummation of the World others judging quite contrary what strange phanatick deductions and constructions do some Spirits suggest to themselves expecting every moment a subversion of the world and alas God hath ordained the World to run out its natural course which doubtless He will in no wise contradict and how long that is like to last may be infallibly proposed from what I have here stated where we cannot but note that all those depravate conceptions do derive from mens ignorance in Philosophy and Nature Gods great work But me thinks I see some ready to condemn me for stating assertions touching things of the Divine Purpose and such as God hath reserved within himself and therefore none ought to dive into those secret Counsels I answer That we are to make a search into all things as far as our parts will bear us out in and we are commanded so to do because we may the more admire God in all his Attributes 2. God hath given a man power of searching into all intelligible things and therefore ought to make the greatest use of it he can 3. It is impossible for man so much as to make an attempt to search into Gods Secrets because God hath limited him with a finite power So that there is little fear that any should search into any such mysteries But this by the way CHAP. XXIII Of the Magnitude and distance of the Sun and Moon and the motion of the other Planets 1. That the Magnitude of the Sun hath not been probably much loss certainly stated by any The Arguments vulgarly proffered for the proof of the Suns Magnitude rejected 2. That the Sun might be capable enough of illuminating the World were he much lesser than the terraqueous Globe than I suppose him to be 3. That the shadow of the Earth is to some extent Cylindrical 4. That the Sun existing in the AEquator doth at once illuminate the whole Hemisphere of the Earth 5. Concerning the diminution or increase of the shadow of the Earth within the Polars together with the cause of the Prolongation and Abbreviation of the daies That the Sun is much bigger than he appears to be 6. What the spots of the Sun and Moon are and their causes 7. That the Arguments proposed by Astronomers for rendring the Moon lesser than the Earth and proving the distance of the Sun are invalid 8. That the Moon is by far lesser than the Earth 9. Several Phaenomena's of the Moon demonstrated 10. Concerning the motion of Venus and Mercury 11. Of the motion of the fixed Stars and their Scintillation 1. THe body of the Sun is by far exceeded in mole and bigness by the weighty Globe but before I insist upon the proof of this I will repeat the Arguments produced by those who assert the Sun to be many times bigger than the said Globe In the first place I must take notice of the great variance which there is between those great Coryphaeans in Astronomy touching the Magnitude of Stars many of them differing from each other in their compute 10 12 or more Diameters of the Earth which is accounted but a slight disagreeance Now if these Grandees are disagreeing from one another in so many thousand Leagues in defining the Magnitude of a Star what shall we judge of their most certain as they pretend demonstrations 2. Let us examine their Instruments whereby they aspire to fathom the body of a Star such are an Astrolabe Semicircle Quadrant c. These being divided according to the proportion of 360 degr contained in a Celestial Orb are well enough fitted to explain the number of such degrees but then the difficulty remains the same still viz. What proportion a degree of Longitude in the Heavens bears to any certain known Longitude of the Earth Neither are they wanting in this asserting a degree of Longitude of the Solar Orb to be equal to 15 German Leagues because the Sun doth remove the shadow of 15 Leagues from the Earth through the progress of each degree But suppose this were granted it followeth that a degree of Longitude of the Solar Orb is equal to a degree of Longitude of the Firmament because the Firmament doth likewise make 15 Leagues by its gradual progress or how could it absolve its diurnal circuit in 24 hours but this is false So neither doth the Sun's removal of the shadow from the Earth infer the said proportion because the Sun according to their Supposition far exceeding the earth in bigness cannot describe a true and equal Longitude of its progress upon the Earth but only his light being terminated by the Earth is alone denoted to vary its termination so many Leagues by moving one degree 3. If Astronomers do vary so much from one another in assigning the Earths Longitude whereunto we are so near we have greater reason to suspect their conclusions of the Stars their mensuration which are so remote from us to be void of all foundation Aristotle pronounced the Circumference of the Terrestrial Globe to contain 50000 miles assigning 1388 9 miles to every degree Hipparchus allowed 34625 miles responding in 96 â—â— 7â— miles to every degree Eratosthenes stated 31500 miles allowing 87½ miles to a degree Ptolomy granted 22500. Alphraganus 204000. Fernelius 24514. Others who have sailed about it state 190010 miles for the Circumference of the Earth Judge what a vast difference there is between them 4. Another Argument proposed by them is because the Suns absence or opposition to us effects a conical shadow or darkness Ergo the Sun must be greater than the Earth But how can the shadow be conical since it drowns the Moon whose Diameter according to their own confession contains a 39th part of the Diameter of the earth which extends to a greater largeness than a Conical Figure should do 2. Were the shadow of the Earth Cylindrical then they would confess the Sun to be of an equal bigness with the earth but that they say it is not ergo I deny the Minor and prove the contrary The Sun existing in either of the equinoctial points makes day and night equal the whole earth over ergo the shadow of the earth must be columnal because the obverted surface of the earth doth clip or stop the light from the other opposite surface to the extent of half the globe Wherefore the terraqueous shadow of the one side of the earth being equal to the light of the other side must needs be columnal And although this columnal shadow is not extended further than above half way to the Region of the fierie element where it begineth to be contracted and gradually diminisht yet that hinders not but that the said shadow may be columnal to some certain extent If now the said shadow were conical
uncertain but the City of God doth quite detest such kind of doubting like madnesse having a most certain knowledge of them things which it comprehendeth in it's mind and reason II. The object about which Faith is conversant is double 1. God and the Law 2. God's infinite mercy and transcendent goodnesse This duplicity is necessary because first we must know our present state Secondly how to get out of that state into a better Our present state is made known unto us through knowing God and the Law The way whereby to change this state for a better is through an assurance in God's mercy and goodnesse A natural man after having made enquiry what he is and finding that he is a man a Rational living creature above all other creatures in the world and of a most excellent and admirable essence cannot but straight way admire and search from who or whence he had this noble being Certainly although if he hath never heard of God or attained to the knowledge of him yet his reason will direct him to observe daily experience which sheweth him that every man descends from his parents and they from their progenitours or that man is continuated by propagation By the same rule of experience he is also instructed that all things in the world are finite and have a beginning and ending If so then there must be one first cause from which all Beings derive their Essence This cause is an universal cause by reason that all things have received their being from it If all things are derived from this universal cause then certainly the race of man had its beginning also thence Some of the ruder sort may object that all things are by nature In answer to this I demand what they mean by nature they will reply an universal cause which acteth most uniformly and unchangeably Secondly I demand through what principle all things are continued They say through the same nature Nature say they acteth most wisely and most providently and hath so acted from all eternity This is so farre from an objection against us that it is an argument for us For by these very words they expresse God who is nature Natura naturans and the sole universal cause acting most uniformly unchangeably secundum volunt atem ordinatam most wisely providently from all eternity and continuating all things from the beginning untill the ending Let an Atheist therefore answer never so perversly concerning the first cause of all beings yet nolens volens he doth plainly confesse that there is a God although under another name of Nature III. Man knowing that God hath created him he cannot but wonder for what end For God thinks he acteth nothing in vain He is sure it is not for to eat drink and live for were it so God needed not to have conferred a reasoning or understanding faculty upon him because he could have eaten drunk and lived without an understanding The end therefore for which he was created must be that to what his understanding makes him capable His understanding is capable of knowing God and his Laws of praising serving obeying God and living according to his Commandments As for his Commandments he will find them written in his heart IV. 1. He may easily gather That there is but one true God because he is Almighty and can work all things If then there were more Gods than one it supposeth that they are not almighties but must work sociably one with the other or if they are almighties that as many as are more than one are in vain for one is Almighty and can do all things if he can do all things then there is nothing remaining for the others to do who must then be in vain But to imagine otherwise is absurd Ergo There is but one true God and all the others are false gods 2. God is a Spirit and therefore will only be worshipped in Spirit This was not unknown to the Heathens Si Deus est animus nobis ut carmina dicunt Hic tibi praecipue sit pura mento colendus If God a Spirit be as most of Poets say In purity of mind we must unto him pray What a vain thing is it for man to worship an Image as if God could not perceive or know our worship without that Image or as if we could not know God without an Image If we can truly make an Image of God then God is no Spirit but an old man as the Papists picture him 3. A Lord's servant seldom speaks of him without naming of him his Lordship or his Honour or tho Right Honourable and so doth reverence and homage his very name and no doubt but a Lord would conceive himself much provoked should his servant take his name in vain much more ought man who is the meanest servant of the Lord of Lords name his name with all reverence and humility for God is most highly provoked in hearing of his name taken in vain 4. There is an ordinary manner of serving God which ought to continue at all times in doing all things to his glory God doth permit man to do that which tends to his conservation neverthelesse at those times we ought to praise God for giving us strength and means whereby we are preserved There is also an extraordinary manner of serving God when we for bear from all temporal and corporeal actions and abide wholly in spiritual exercises for a day a week or a moneth Assuredly this is acceptable to God and therefore we ought to repeat it often These are the duties which a man may gather are to be performed to God But this is not all there are other duties remaining respecting to ones self and others Among others some are particularly related to us as our parents some in a common and general relation only as our neighbours 5. The Duty which we owe to our parents nature teacheth us as to honour love and obey them 6. The Duty to our selves and others is to do what we can to preservate our selves and our neighbours not to injure or kill our selves or others To do to others as we would have other do to us We must shun all envy anger and hatred 7. A man is not to defile himself or another Modesty unchast thoughts carnal desires wanton gestures are by the light of nature adjudged evil and sinfull 8. We ought to render to every one what is his We are not to wrong our neighbours in his goods houses cattel or corn c. We must detest cheating defrauding or crafty over-reaching of our neighbours whether by lies false measures else weights or moneys and usury c. 9. A false oath is unjust and injurious the like are slanderings lies and backbitings the harbouring of bad thoughts of others without a manifest cause 10. We are not so much as to have the least desire to what is not our own if it be to the wrong of another unlesse we desire withall to give full satisfaction and contentment
per minima that mistion is caused through Minima's 3. A reaction of each of the elements whereby the light Elements receive the weighty ones and the continuous the contiguous ones These three conditions are implied in my Definition by union in minima's for union cannot happen without a mutual contact A mutual contact is attained unto through the first qualities of the Elements whereby they move one to the other and so there passeth a mutual embrace or reaction between them II. Here the Peripateticks setting aside the reality of the thing begin again to move a notional question whether mixtion and the generation of a mixt body differ from one another Doubtless there is no real difference between them for where the Elements are mixed there the generation of a mixt body is accomplishr and where there is a generation of a mixt body there is also a mistion of the Elements Wherefore it is a sound Definition that mistion is the generation of a mixt body out of the Elements Zabarel I remember makes an intentional difference between them in attributing mistion to the Elements alone because mistion hath a particular respect to the Elements as they are apprehended through this mixture to be the termini a quo but the generation of a mixt body hath more a respect to the terminus ad quem This is simple for since that mistion is by them counted a motion it must then equally have respect to the terminus a quo and the terminus ad quem because there is no natural motion but it moves a quo and ad quem and besides do they not define Generation to be a mutation from non esse to esse Wherefore according to their own words generation doth equally regard the terminus a quo and ad quem ergo there is no distinctio rationis between them But they reply that mixtion is not the mixture of a mixt body but of the Elements and generation is not the generation of the Elements but of a mixt body How sinisterly This is not the question but the doubt is whether by mixture a mixt body is not as much implyed as the Elements Yes for a mixture is the union of the Elements By union understand a perduction of the Elements into an unity that is one body and is not this the terminus ad quem III. Aristotle defineth mistion to be an union of alterated miscibles to wit bodies Here the word alterated is cast as a Bone among his Disciples which each of them falleth a gnawing in interpreting it and a knorring at it in raising altercations and cavils about it Alteration say they is a mutual action and passion of the Elements through their contrary qualities through which they obtund hebetate refract immutate one another and what not And not understanding the nature of obtusion refraction or immutation but erroneously conceiving the forms of the Elements to be diminished by reason they think that the heat of the Elements is expelled refracted and diminished by cold and so of the other Elements they fall a quarrelling whether the forms of the Elements remain whole or entire in their mixtures If any body now should ask them what they mean by form they would reply that it was the first principle of motion in a body and if you ask them further what that principle of motion is they will tell you it is hidden If it is hidden I wonder how they come to know it ergo they tell you what a thing is which they do not know But to the question I affirm that the elements remain actually and entire in their substantial forms in mixt bodies I prove it the substantial form of a thing is inseparable from its matter supposing the thing to remain that which it was for if a property is inseparable much more is the form Besides the form giveth a thing to be that which it is But the elements remain elements in a mixt body because their qualities are sensible not in gradu remisso in a remiss degree but in an intense degree Who ever doubted but that earth in Gold or Lead is as weighty and more then it is in its own Region for being laid upon the earth it makes a Dent into it ergo it is heavier Questionless focal fire is hotter then fire in its own Region Oyl is moyster then ayr or water ergo according to their own Principles these qualities which they call first qualities and are forced to acknowledge to be forms are inherent in the forementioned bodies in an intense degree As for the Refraction Intention Remission or Immutation of the Elements which they take their refuge unto in declaring the reasons of Mixtion as to a Sanctuary are meer Notions there being in reality no such intension or remission of the Elements unless through access or recess of new parts IV. But let us make a deeper search into this Nicety so much disputed upon by all Ancient and Modern Philosophers and that which makes me the more willing to examine this scruple is because it hath hitherto been one of my main Principles That an Element being violently detained is intended and corroborated in its strength and power This is the deepest and furthest doubt that can be moved it being concerning the most remote power and first cause of action in the Elements I have already taken away the difficulty touching Incrassation and Attenuation and shewed that the Matter of a thick Element was not really attenuated in its own substance or increased in matter because it possessed a larger place although seemingly it was wherefore I did assume the use of those words but in an improper acception In that place the question was about the increase of matter now it is concerning the increase or intention and remission of Forms or Qualities strengths and vertues of the Elements The same I said in relation to Condensation and Incrassation I must apply to Intention and Remission that properly they are to be taken for a real increment or decrement of qualities in themselves without the detraction or addition of new parts containing the same vertue as if the same heat in the third degree should be supposed capable of being intended to the fourth degree without the additament of new heat This is impossible because of the same reasons which were given against the possibility of a proper and real Condensation and Incrassation 2. A quality may be said to be intended or remitted but improperly and per Accidens as when a force or quality is accidentally intended as by a more convenient position and yet the quality or force is neither more or less but the same it was As for example Take hold of a Hammer about the middle and strike with it with all your strength and take hold again of the same Hammer about the end and strike although but with the same force yet the last impulse shall be stronger then the first Here you see is an accidental intension of force hapened through
frequently happens near to the Moons quarters whose middle is marked by the Moons Full and New Aspect being when it flows with the greatest force causing the highest high waters and the lowest low waters and tends towards its ending when it remits from its height and intends in lowness This augmentation and diminution may be resembled to the fermentation of Wine or Beer swelling gradually untill its height and thence decreasing again Touching the beginning and ending of the Seas single diurnal circuit if we consider it simpliciter it hath none because it is ever in motion as never being eased by a total rest but if agreeing to state the beginning where the Ocean is slowest in its course and thence tending to a swifter motion then the Proposition is resolveable And according to this Supposition the beginning and ending must be moveable differing every single course near 11 degrees This by the way Returning to explain the cause of the gradual augmentation of water and intention of force I am to remember you of the great proportion of the Oceans peregrin Elements consisting of most Earth then Air and lastly fire of whose close coherence with the waters their saltness is an undoubted argument These salin particles violently detaining the waters from recovering the center must necessarily add force to the gravity of the waters and consequently in intending their force they must also augment them in quantity because the more force the waters use the more in quantity they bear along with them The detention of the said salin particles being at their beginning of no great strength or in no great quantity do therefore cause no great intention of the Oceans force but every single period piercing gradually by rarefaction upon the waters must necessarily also augment their tumefaction gradually higher and higher every day untill at last being arrived to their height of penetration which ordinarily happens in 15 circuits the Ocean is likewise elevated unto its height Some of these salin particles being penetrated through the body of the waters are gradually depressed to the ground through their own disposition and the weight of the Ocean others being attrited and confused through their passive motion against the water and the decess of their heaviest particles do more and more gradually desist from their violent detention every circuit returning to the bottom and so the Ocean doth also gradually every day incline nearer and nearer to its natural force and detumescence of its water untill it is returned to its own proper course at which season its force and intumescence are equally at their lowest During this space those subsiding particles begin again to be expanded rarefied and attenuated because of the grinding of the water against them and through the expansion of the aerial and igneous parts adunited to them do bear up again The others elevated atop beginning to concentrate through the conquiescence of the Sea are ready to be compressed downwards both which gradually striving a reciprocal meeting do in the foregoing manner gradually reunite the force and augmentation of the Water V. Here we cannot but admit the Suns intense hear every day beating down the torrid Zone to be a great instrumental and adjuvant cause to the stirring of the aforesaid salin particles But this continuing in one measure equality and station in respect to the torrid Zone all the year long cannot in any wise be thought the principal cause of a motion varying twice every day Likewise the Moon being beset with a great quantity of dampish and heavy particles doth every day spread down some of those particles whereby the Ocean is also gradually filled more more every day And like as these said particles are most apt to rain down the nearer the Moon doth appropinquate to the Ecliptick because the air enjoyeth a greater subtility there from the rarefaction of the Sun hence it is that the Moon frees her self most of these heavy concomitants near her Conjunction and at her apposition So they are most apt to ascend the further the Moon is declined from the Ecliptick as happens in her quarters when for that reason the waters are also at their lowest That these two Lights are accidental causes of the intention of the Oceans force and daily augmentation of its waters is plain enough and their mutual concurrence to the effecting of the same effect we have confirmed beyond all doubting whereby the absurdity of the Moons compression proposed by Des-Cartes and so disagreeing with his own position of the nature of the air is likewise set before you The Moon near her Conjunction makes very high waters because conversing with the hot rayes of the Sun sends down a great number of the foresaid bodies and not because she is impregnated with the light of the Sun whereby she should be grown more potent to excite vapours and exhalations This is ridiculous for we find other bodies to be swelled near that time not only through exhalations raised out of themselves but particularly through particles demitted by the conveyance of the air into their pores The like happens although in a weaker manner when the Moon is in her full Aspect because of her nearer approximation to the Ecliptick But much more in a Lunar Eclipse because she is then found directly in the Ecliptick And most of all yea twice higher than ordinary at the Full Moon of March and September because the Sun being then in the AEquinoxial and most directly over the torrid Zone under which the greatest body of the Ocean floats and the Moon in the same way near the Ecliptick must needs joyntly cause a vast decidence of the forenamed bodies intending and augmenting the waters Or to declare the matter plainer to you The continuation of the Seas Motion forward is not only depending upon the pulsion of succeeding parts bending by refraction naturally forward but also by a kind of attraction or suction of preceding parts thus Suppose the Earth to be excavated into certain great cavities like to great pipes whereof of those that are formed from the East towards the West by the South the furthermost are alwaies deeper and longer than those which are nearest to the East Likewise conceive such Cavities framed in the same proportion to one another from West back again to the East by the North Now I say that the deepest and furthermost cavity must alwaies attract the water out of the shallower and lesser in the same manner as the longer pipe of a sucker a Siphon as some do call it must attract all the moisture of the shorter because the parts of water being continuous and consequently cleaving to one another the lesser part must follow and yield to the greater the which through its crastitude being pressed forwards must also draw the lesser part after Since then the water is no sooner arrived into one cavity but is thence drawn into another hence it is that this tumefaction of waters is not sensible to us in the Ocean
meet with both upon the Coasts of Guiny Congo and Coramandel General winds are those that blow one way throughout the greater part of the year Thus off the Cape of Good Hope a Southerly wind is general and thence Westward towards Brasil between 28 and 8 deg South Lat. a South Southeast and Southeast wind is general To these you may add the fiery winds which the Spaniards call Bochornos derived from Boca de Horno i. e. the hot steam of an Oven Common winds are distinguished into Cardinal and collateral winds The former are such as blow from the principal corners of the world viz. East blowing from the rising of the AEquinoctial West blowing from the going down of the AEquator North erupting from the arctick Pole and South deriving from the Meridies The latter are such as erupt from those parts of the Horizon that are interposed between the four principal corners their number is 32 viz. Next to East towards the South you have East and by South East Southeast Southeast and by East Southeast Southeast and by South South Southeast South and by East Between South and West are inserted South by West South Southwest Southwest and by South Southwest Southwest and by West West Southwest West and by South From West to North are accounted West and by North West Northwest Northwest and by West Northwest Northwest and by North North Northwest North and by West Between North and East do blow North and by East North Northeast Northeast and by North Northeast Northeast and by East East Northeast East and by North. Among these collaterals the Northeast Northwest Southeast and Southwest are termed principal collateral winds From their temperature winds are distinguisht into cold and dry as the Northern and Western winds above all the North Northeast in the Winter or in warm and moist winds viz. The Southern and Easterly winds and beyond the others the South Southeast in the Summer A west Southwest wind is for the most part moist damp rainy cloudy and sometimes tempestuous North Northwest winds are stormy cold bringing oft Snow and Hail along with them A South wind is unwholsome putrid pestilential rainy hot in the Summer raising thunder and lightning and makes a thick cloudy sky The South Southwest wind in the Summer is temperate and warm moist and sometimes a concomitant to thunder The South Southeast wind is moist and warm Touching the wholsomness of winds those that are of a warm and dry temperature are the wholsomest and the pleasantest because they attenuate clarifie and rarefie the air disposing it to the ventilation and quickning of our vital and animal spirits Next to these cold and dry winds are the wholsomest because they purge and serenate the air descend from a pure and clear corner void of all putrid and pestilential vapours Next those that are simply cool or warm come into plea. All moist winds are feaverish putrid and sometimes pestilential causing catarrhes and rheumes stirring all the excrementitious humours in the body Very cold winds are better than the next foregoing yet do oft cause a constipation of the pores and of the belly But let us take in the opinion of Hippocrates upon winds lib. 3. Apho. 17. Now what concerns the dayly winds the North Northeast ones do render bodies solid and firm and fit for motion and well coloured They sharpen the hearing but yet they dry the guts moreover they bite the eyes And if any one hath been troubled before with a pain in his breast they make it sharper But the Southern ones do quite dissolve bodies and render them moister besides they occasion dulness of hearing and heaviness of the head and darkish meagrims moreover they cause a difficulty of motion both to the eyes and to the whole body and do moisten the guts VVinds do also vary much in wholsomness according to the Climates or places which they pass through For if they are infected with putrid vapours and exhalations arising from dead carkaffes after a field battel stinking caves corrupted pooles c. their remperament is soon changed although blowing from the East or North. VVinds blow equally or unequally continuately or interrupted high stormy or a moderate gale or a small brife Some winds rise in the day and are laid again or decrease at night as the North winds Others are laid in the day and rise in the night as the South winds The North winds raign on the Land the South at Sea Now concerning their causes Trade winds are generated out of eruptions of incrassated air bursting through even and continuated clouds situated in the middle or at least the upper part of the inferiour region of the air for only there clouds are diducted in continuation out of whose various spouts the winds are continuated for six months viz. Out of the North North Northeast or Northeast side of the clouds of the South Hemisphere blowing to the North North Northwest or Northwest whilst the Sun is passing through the North from Aries to Libra and out of the South South Southwest or Southwest side of the clouds of the North Hemisphere blowing to the South South Southeast or Southeast whillt the Sun is measuring that tract from Libra to Aries through the South The cause of the copious elevation of vapours uniting into clouds in the South Hemisphere during the Suns peragration through the North must be imputed to the Suns oblique rayes raising a vast measure of vapours out of the Oriental and Occidental Ocean which excited are beyond the sphere of the Suns direct rayes whereby they might otherwise be dissolved 2. Or because they are most apt to be gathered and concreased in a Region that is privatively cold through the continuation of the air forcing the vapours more potently together So likewise the Sun conversing in the Northern declination of the Ecliptick occasions ventous clouds in the South Hemisphere through the same efficiency Next we shall tell you why the Sun existing in the North declination of the Ecliptick the winds burst out from the South 1. Namely because that side of the clouds which is obverted to the Sun is discontinuated by the Suns rarefaction or fiery minims demitted from him 2. Because the air is strongest in its compression from the Polar side as being less discontinuated by the fiery minims and inforced by the cold minims from the pole wards Likewise for the same reason the winds burst out from the North when the Sun is seated in the opposite Hemisphere This is observable in those Monzons that near the AEquinoxes they blow but little or not at all because the Sun through its burning rayes which he spreads when he is perpendiculan over the middle of the torrid Zone doth so much rarifie the air that it is rendred unfit for the concretion of clouds But the further the Sun declines the more high strong those winds grow and are at their strongest when the Sun is near his remotest declination because through his greater