holy Scripture and it is not vnlikely â—hat many of those 〈◊〉 people fetcht their first originall from them The second cause may bee drawne from the Industrie and labour of the inhabitants in tillage and manuring of the ground wherein the Soâ—â—herne inhabitant hath beene more deficiâ—nt Foâ— it is certaine out of the holy Scripture that Noahs Arke wherâ—in was thâ— Seminary of mankinde and almost all other liuâ—â—g 〈◊〉 rested in â—he Northerne part of the world whence both man and beasts beganne to be propagated toward the Southâ—punc no farther then necessity enforced the Regions inhabited gâ—â—wing daily more and more populous and as iâ— were groaning to bee deliuered oâ— some of her children Hence may bee inferred â—wo consecâ—aries First that the Northerne Hemispheare was 〈◊〉 sooner and is now therefore â—ore populous then the Southerne Secondly that the chiefest and principall men which were best seated rathâ—r chose to keepe their ancient habitation sending such abroad who could either bee best spared or had the smallest possessions at home Yet notwithstanding it cannot be imagined but they retained with them a sufficient company and more then went away Out of which it must needs be granted that the Northerne halfe of the Earth being best inhabited should be best manured and cultured from whence the ground must in time proue more fruitfull and commodious for habitation for as a fruitfull Countrey for want of the due manuring and tillage doth degenerate and waxe barren so diuerse barren and sterill Countreyes haue by the industrie of the Inhabitants beene brought to fertilitie and made capable of many good commodities necessary for mans life If I were curious to draw arguments from the nature of the Heauens I could alleage the Greatnesse and Multitude of Starres of the greater magnitude in our Northerne Hemispheare wherein the Southerne is deficient as also the longer soiourning of the Sun in our Northerne Hemispheare but these as vncertaine causes I passe ouer Other reasons may perchance bee found out by those who are inquisitiue into the secrets of nature to whom I leaue the more exact search of these matters 4 Either Hemispheare consisting of 90 Degrees may be diuided into three parts each of them containing 30 Degrees 5 Of these parts 30 we allot for Heat 30 for Cold and 30 for Temperature whereof the former lyeth towards the Equatour the second towards the Pole the third betwixt both The ancient Cosmographers as wee haue shewed in our former Treatise diuided the whole Globe of the Earth into fiue Zones which they supposed had also proportionally diuided the Temper and disposition of the Earth In such sort that according to the Degrees of Latitude the Heat and Cold should in rease or diminish Which rule of theirs had beene very certaine were there no other causes concurrent in the disposition of the Earth and Ayre but onely the Heauens But sithence that many other concurrent causes as we haue shewed mixe themselues with these celestiall operations and the experiment of Nauigatours haue found out a disproportion in the quality in respect of the Distance some later writers haue sought out a new pertition more consonant to naturall experience The whole Latitude of the Hemispheare consisting of 90 Degrees from the Equatour to the Pole they haue diuided into three parts allowing 30 Degrees toward the Equatour to Heat 30 Degrees towards the Pole to Cold and the other 30 Degrees lying betwixt both to Temperature These 30 Degrees for Imagination sake they haue subdiuided againe each of them into two parts contayning 15 Degrees a peece more particularly to designe out the speciall disposition of each Region lying either Northward or Southward from the Equatour which is the bound betwixt both Hemispheares In the first section of 30 Degrees lying Northward from the Equatour wee comprehend in Africke Numidia Nigritarum Regio Lybia Guinia Nubia Egypt Ethiopia superior In Asia Arabia India Insulae Philippinae In America Noua Hispania Hispaniola Cuba with other parts of America Mexicana In the other extreame section from 60 Degrees of Latitude to the Pole wee comprehend in Europe Groenland Island Friesland Norwey Suethland for the most part Noua Zembla In Asia a great part of Scythia Orientalis In America Anian Quivira with diuerse other parts of the North of America Mexicana In the middle betwixt both betwixt 30 and 60 Degrees of Latitude wee comprehend in Africa Barbarie in Europe all the kingdomes except those North Prouinces before named and almost all Asia except some places toward the South as Arabia India and the Philippinae Insulae formerly placed in the first Section In like manner may we diuide the Southerne Hemispheare into three Sections In the first from the Equatour 30 Degrees we place in Africke Congo Monomotapa Madagascar In the Southerne Tract Beach and Noua Guinia with many Ilands thereunto adioyning as many of the Philippinae Insulae with Insulae Solomonis In America Peru Tisnada Brasilia with the most part of that Region which they call America Peruana In the other extreame Section from 60 Degrees to the Antarctike Pole is couched the most part of that great land scarce yet discouered called Terra Australis Incognita In the middle Region betwixt both from 30 to 60 Degrees shall wee finde placed in America the Region of the Pantagones in the Southerne Continent Maletur Iauaminor with many others In discouering the qualities of these seuerall Sections or partitions of the earth our chiefest discourse must be addressed to the Northerne Hemispheare as that is more discouered and knowne amongst old and new writers by which according to the former Proposition one may parallell the other concerning which wee will inferre these Propositions 1 In the first Section of the Hemispheare the first 15 Degrees from the Equatour are found somewhat Temperate the other 15 about the Tropicks exceeding Hot. That the Region lying vnder the Equatour is Temperately hot contrary to the opinion almost of all the Ancients hath beene in part proued heretofore as well by reason as experiment for that all places by how much the neerer they approach the Equatour by so much more should bee hotter as some imagine diuerse instances will contradict It is reported by Aluarez that the Abyssine Embassadour arriuing at Lisbone in Portugall was there almost choaked with extreame heat Also Pâ—rguer the Germane relates that hee hath felt the weather more hot about Dantzicke and the Balticke Sea then at Tholouse in a â—eruent Summer The causes which wee haue before touched are chiefly two The first is that the Sun is higher in this orbe in respect of those vnder the Equatour and moueth more swiftly from them spending on them onely twelue houres whence so great an impression of heat cannot bee made as in other places for heat being a materiall quality must necessarily require some Latitude of time to bee imprest into the ayre or any other subiect From the Diminution of heat in the Region must the ayre needs receaue into
Greekes call Sciographie or Sâ—enographie Fourthly and lastly Geographie is distinguished from Chorographie in that the former considering chiefly the quantity measure figure site proportion of places as well in respect one of the other as of the Heauens requires necessary helps of the Sciences Mathematicall chiefly of Arithmeticke Geometrie and Astronomie without which a Geographer would shew himselfe euery-where lame impotent being not able to wade thorough the least part of his profession whereas a man altogether vnpractised in those faculties might obtaine a competent knowledge in Chorography As we find by experience some altogether ignorant in the Mathematicks who can to some content of their hearers Topographically and Historically discourse of Countries as they haue read of in books or obserued in their trauaile Notwithstanding all these differences assigned by Ptolomie I see no great reason why Chorography should not bee referred to Geography as a part to the whole forasmuch as the obiects on which hee hath grounded his distinction differ only as a generall and a speciall which being not opposite but subordinate as the Logicians vse to speake cânnot make two distinct Sciences but are reduced to one and the selfe-same at least the differences thus assigned will not be Essentiall but Accidentall Wherfore my scope in this Treatise shall bee to ioyne them both together in the same so far forth as my Art and leisure shall be able to descend to particulars which being in Chorographie almost infinite wil not all seeme alike necessary in the description of the vniuersall Globe of the Earth The name of Geographie thus distinguished wee define it to be a Science which teacheth the Measure and Description of the whole Earth It is properly tearmed a Science because it proposeth to it selfe no other end but knowledge whereas those faculties are commonly tearmed Arts which are not contented with a bare knowledge or speculation but are directed to some farther worke or action But here a doubt seemes to arise whether this Science be to be esteemed Physicall or Mathematicall Wee answer that in a Science two things are to bee considered first the matter or obiect whereabout it is conuersant secondly the manner of handling and explication For the former no doubt can bee made but that the obiect in Geographie is for the most part Physicall consisting of the parts whereof the Spheare is composed but for the manner of Explication it is not pure but mixt as in the former part Mathematicall in the second rather Historicall whence the whole Science may be alike tearmed Mathematical Historicall not in respect of the Subiect which we haue said to be Physicall but in the manner of Explication For the obiect of Geographie as we haue intimated is the whole Globe of the Earth where we are to obserue that the Earth may bee considered 3 manner of wayes First as it is an Element out of which mixt Bodies are in part compounded In which sense it appertaines to Naturall Philosophie whose office is to treat of all naturall bodies their principles and proprieties Secondly as it is supposed to be the center of heauenly motions and so it is vndertaken by Astronomers Thirdly according to its Sphaericall superficies as it is proposed to bee measured or described in which manner it is the subiect of Geographie so far forth as the parts of it haue a diuerse situation as well in regard one of another as in respect of the Heauens Which restriction although agreeing well to some part of it will hardly square with all the rest because many things herein are handled besides the Earths naturall site or position as hereafter shall be taught For which cause wee haue rather defined the subiect of Geographie to bee the Earth so far as it is to bee measured and described as wanting one word to expresse the whole manner of consideration 2 Geographie consists of 2 parts the Sphericall and Topicall The Sphericall part is that which teacheth the naturall constitution of the Terrestriall Spheare The common and receiued diuision of this Science amongst Geographers is into the Generall or vniuersall part and the speciall Which diuision I dare not vtterly reiect being strengthened with the authority of ancient and approued Authors Yet seems it more aptly to be applyed to the Historicall part then to the whole Science as we shall after make apparant In the mean time the diuision of it into Sphericall Topicall parts seemes to be preferred in reason Forasmuch as the Terrestriall Globe which we suppose to be the subiect of the Science is proposed to vs vnder a twofold consideration first in regard of the Mathematicall lineaments and circles whereof the Spheare is imagined to consist out of which wee collect the figure quantity site and due proportion of the Earth and its parts Secondly of the places Historically noted and designed out vnto vs by certaine names markes and characters The former receiueth greatest light from Astronomie whence some haue called it the Astronomicall part The later from Philosophie and Historicall obseruation being as we haue said a mixt Science taking part of diuers faculties 3 The Terrestriall Spheare is a globous or round Body comprehended within the superficies of the Earth and Wateâ— Some haue nicely distinguished betwixt a Spheare an Orbe that a Spheare is a round massie body contained in one surface which is conuexe or outward as a Bowle The other concaue or hollow in manner of an Egge-shell emptyed But this distinction seemes too curious as sauouring to much of Scholasticall subtility because the name of Orbe and Spheare are many times promiscuously vsed without difference amongst good Writers This Spheare which wee make the subiect of our Science wee call Terrestriall not because it consists meerely of Earth the contrary of which wee shall hereafter shew but because the Earth is the chiefest in the composition whence by a tropicall kind of speech the whole Globe may bee called Terrestriall 4 The handling of the Terrestriall Spheare is is either Primary or Secundary The Primary consists in such affections as primarily agree to the Earth The Geographicall Affection may be considered two wayes either simply and absolutely in themselues or eomparatiuely as they are conferred and compared the one with the other As for example the circles of the Spheare such as are the Parallels and Meridians may be considered either absolutely in themselues or comparatiuely as they concurre to the longitude latitude distance or such like accidents which arise out of the comparison of one Circle with another 5 The Terrestriall Spheare primarily considered is either Naturall or Artificiall The Naturall is the true Globe in it selfe without image or representation 6 Herein againe are to be considered two things First the Principles and constitution of the Spheare Secondly the Accidents and proprieties The principles whereof the Spheare is composed are two viz Matter and Forme 7 The Matter is the substance whereof the Spheare is made viz Earth and Water My
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
grant a naturall motion and so consequently yeeld to our assertion A third reason may here bee drawne from the condensation of the Aire It is a receiued opinion amongst most Philosophers that the thinne and subtile parts of the Aire will naturally mount vpward but the thicker and condensated parts pitch and settle themselues downeward Which obseruation if it bee true will yeeld vs this conclusion That the Aire is by nature heauy and therefore moueth downeward toward the center of the Sphericall Globe of the Earth Which I will demonstrate out of these Principles 1 That that body which by addition of parts or condensation is made more heauy or ponderous must needs haue some weight in it selfe This may easily appeare because the mixture of lightnesse with heauinesse will not intend and encrease the ponderosity but slacke and diminish it For the chiefest thing which remits or diminisheth any quality is the mixture of his contrary as wee see the quality of cold to be abated and weakened if it entertaine any mixture of heat 2 The thickning or condensation of any body is made by addition and coaction of more parts into the same space or compasse As if the Aire or any such like body were thickned it would confine it selfe to a more narrow roome then before and so consequenly the narrow roome would containe more parts then before Out of which wee conclude that forasmuch as many parts pressed together in the same space make the whole masse more ponderous these parts so pressed together must needes haue some waight in themselues Which may further be illustrated because the intention of the quality commonly followes the condensation of the subiect Which may easily appeare in red-hot-iron which burnes and scorcheth more than flame or coales because euery part hath more degrees or heat Now where more parts are closely pressed together the heat must needs bee more feruent I haue dwelt longer on this subiect because I would not seeme to broach a new opinion without sufficient reason To conclude all and come as neere the receiued opinion as I can I will say that the Aire may bee considered two wayes first absolutely in it selfe secondly in comparison of heauier bodies to wit the Earth and Water In the first sense I grant no absolute lightnesse in the Aire because out of his naturall inclination it tends as neere as it can to the center as all other lower bodies But if we consider it comparatiuely in respect of other heauier bodies we may call it light that is lesse heauy or ponderous So that by lightnesse we vnderstand no absolute lightnesse but a priuation The summe of all wee haue hitherto proued is this That all terrene bodies as Earth Water Aire and other mixt bodies which concurre to the composition of the Earthly Spheare as neere as they can settle and conforme themselues to the center of the Earth which site or position of them to the center is their true and naturall place wherein they seeke their preseruation 2 Of two heauy Bodies striuing for the same place that alwaies preuaileth which is heauiest 3 Hence it comes to passe that the Earth enioyes the lowest place the next the Water and the last the Aire The increment or increase of any effect must necessarily arise from the greater vigour or efficacy of the efficient cause as both Reason and Philosophie well teach Now as wee haue shewed all heauy bodyes naturally do descend downeward out of a naturall inclination they haue to attaine the center but where there is a greater weight or constipation of ponderous parts in the same masse there must needs proceede a greater inclination Supposing then the Earth Water and Aire being three waighty bodies to incline and dispose themselues to their vttermost force to inclose and engirt the center of the Terrestriall Spheare it must needes bee that the Earth beeing the most compact and ponderous must obtaine the preheminence next to which succeedes the Water then the Aire being of all other the least ponderous Yet wee deny not but the Water and Aire being setled in this wise are in their naturall places which to vnderstand wee must repeate what we said before that Nature hath a twofold intention the one primary the other secondary Indeed if we consider Natures primary or speciall inclination in the bodies themselues we shall finde them as wee said immediatly directed to the center as neere as might bee but the secondary intent of Nature was that the bodies should so settle and conforme themselues as that each of them should obtaine a place according to his degree of massinesse and waight Out of this may bee answered a certaine obiection which some haue produced to proue the Aire to bee absolutely light in his owne nature Experience teacheth vs say these men that a bladder blowne vp with winde or an empty barrell being by force kept vnder water the force and obstacle omitted will suddenly ascend to the top and that a man ready to sinke in the Water will not so easily sinke downe while hee can hold his breath all which effects they ascribe to no other cause than to inclination of the Aire to moue vpwards from the center But indeed this motion howbeit agreeable to the vniuersall nature and consistency of the Spheare is notwithstanding in respect of the Aire it selfe vnnaturall and violent because this ascent of it is not caused by the forme of the Aire but the interposition of a heauier body striuing for the same place and so reuerberating it backe from the place whereunto it tended For here is to bee imagined that the bladder or empty barrell drowned in the water claimes and inioyes for the time that place or distance which otherwise so much water should occupie to wit so many inches of feete from one side to the other No maruell then that obstacles remoued the Water being most ponderous and waighty receiues his owne right and as it were shoulders out the Aire and violently driues it off to his owne habitation Whence many haue imagined that this motion is proper and naturall to the Aire when of it selfe it is meerely violent and enforced by the interiection of another body more waighty and ponderous than it selfe 7 this conformity of the Terrestriall parts two things are to bee obserued 1 The center it selfe 2 The parts which conforme themselues vnto it The Center is an imaginary point in the midst of the Terrestriall Globe to which all the parts are conformed The Fathers of the Mathematicall Sciences haue laboured to deriue all their doctrine from a point as the first and most simple principle whereon all the rest depend Not that they imagine a point to bee any positiue entity in it selfe but because it is the first bound of magnitude whence all terminated quantities take their originall The first princâ—â—le wee may call it not of naturall constitution because a thousand points collected could not be so compounded as out of it should arise the least
magnitude for as the Philosopher hath taught vs continuate and diuisible things cannot bee made out of such things as are meerely discontinuate and indiuisible but because it is the first Mathematicall principle or beginning of termination and figuration This point although it haue euery-where an vse in Geometrie yet no-where more remarkeable then when it becomes the center of a circle which center wee ought not to imagine a meere Geometricall conceit but such as findes ground in the Naturall constitution of the Terrestriall Spheare For seeing all terrene bodies are carried in a right line as by a Radius to one point from euery part of the circumference we may obserue a center as it were designed and pointed out by Nature it selfe in the Globe Some haue here distinguished betwixt a point Physicall and a point Mathematicall as allotting the former Latitude and sensible existence but making the other meerely Indiuisible But if the matter bee rightly vnderstood they are not two points but all one distinguished only by a diuers name of conceit or consideration For wee consider first a point as it is existent in a sensible particular body and so we call it Physicall Secondly wee abstract it from this or that body sensible but alwayes conceit it withall to bee in some body and in this sort wee terme it Mathematicall for the Mathematician abstracts not a Quantity or Quantitatiue signe from all subiects for so being an accident hee should conceiue it abstracted from its owne nature but from this or that sensible body as wood or stone Such a point ought we to imagine the center of the Earth to be not participating of any latitude or magnitude albeit existent in some magnitude I am not ignorant that some Writers haue taken a Physicall point for a small and insensible magnitude in which sense the Globe of the Earth is called the center of all heauenly motions But this sense is very improper and besides in this example is to bee vnderstood a point Opticall as such as carries no sensible or proportionable quantity in regard of the sight Taking then the center of the Earth to bee a point fixt in the middest of the Earthly Spheare as we haue described wee will further describe the nature of it in two Theoremes 1 The center of the Earth is not an Attractiue but a meere Respectiue point An Attractiue point I terme that which hath in it a vertue or power to draw and attract the Terrestriall parts or bodies in such sort as the Loadstone hath a power to draw iron or steele But a Respectiue point is that which the Bodies in their motions doe respect and conforme themselues vnto as the bound or center to which their course is directed Which may bee illustrated by the directiue operations of the Load-stone which wee shall hereafter handle by which the Magneticall Indix or needle pointeth directly Northward not that in the North is fixed any Attractiue vertue or operation whicâ— might cause that effect but because the Magneticall Instrument is directed towards such a point or center That the Center of the earth hath no Attractiue force may bee proued 1 Because it cannot in any probability bee thought that an Imaginary point hauing only a priuatiue Being and subsistence should challenge to it selfe any such operation For all positiue effects proceed out of positiue causes neither can it be imagined that this Attraction should grow out of a meere priuation Secondly should this be granted that the motion of Earthly parts should be from the Attractiue vertue of the Center it would follow necessarily that this motion should not bee Naturall but violent as proceeding from an externall cause which all ancient and moderne Philosophers deny 2 The same point is the center of Magnitude and waight in the Terrestriall Spheare That the same point in the Terrene Globe should make the center both of Magnitude and Waight may seeme very plaine 1 Because we are not to multiply things and Entities in our conceit without any necessary consequence drawne from Nature or Reason enforcing vs thereunto But what reason could euer perswade any man that the Earth had two Centers the one of Waight the other of Magnitude but only a bare Imagination without proofe or demonstration Secondly if this were granted that the Center of magnitude were remoued some distance from the other then consequently would one part of the Earth ouer-poize the other in ponderosity and so the whole Spheare would either be shaken out of its place or dissolue it selfe into its first principles Both of which being by experience contradicted our assertion will stand sure and vndoubted In the meane space we deny not but that some little difference may be admitted in regard of the vnequall parts of the Earth but this must needs be so small and insensible as cannot bee cacullated or cause any alteration 8 The Terrene parts conforming themselues to this center may bee considered two wayes either Absolutely or Comparatiuely Absolutely as euery part is considered in it selfe 9 A terrestriall part considered in it selfe vndergoes the respect either of a Point of Magnitude as a point when any signe or point in it selfe is considered in regard of his conformity to the center A Point albeit existing still in some magnitude as we haue shewed may notwithstanding bee abstracted from this or that body as seruing for the center of any body whose naturall inclination and conformity to the vniuersall center of the Earth we may in the first place handle as the Rule by which the motion and inclination of the whole magnitude ought to bee squared 1 Euery point or center of waighty body is moued toward the center of the Terrestriall Spheare by a right line A Right line is the measure and rule almost of all Naturall actions which albeit it be familiar in almost euery operation yet most of all in the motion of the Earthly bodies tending to the center of the Earth Why Nature in this kind should chiefly affect a Right line sundry reasons may bee alleaged 1 From the End which Nature doth propose it selfe which is to produce the worke which shee intends the readiest and shortest way as Aristotle testifies of her in the 5 of his Metaphisickes Now it is manifest that a Right line drawne betwixt the same points is alwayes shortest as Euclide shewes in his Elements where hee demonstrates that two sides of any triangle being counted together are longer then the third The better to vnderstand the working of Nature wee shall obserue in the motion of a heauy part to the center a double scope or end first that the said part of a terrestriall body should bee moued or separated from the place to which it is by violence transposed Secondly that this body should bee restored home and vnited to the Sphericall substance of the Earth in which it must chiefly seeke its preseruation That these two ends are best and soonest compassed by a right line is most manifest For
the Persians was there obserued an Ecclipse at the fifth houre of the night which selfe-same Ecclipse was seene in Carthage at the second which to any man appeares plainly in this figure here inserted In like manner an Ecclipse of the Sunne at Campania which was obserued betwixt 8 and 9. was as Pliny reports seene in Armenia betwixt 10 and 11 of the clocke Whence may be gathered that this difference of appearance arose from the roundnesse of the Earth interposing it selfe betwixt these two places Another reason to proue the Spericall figure of the Earth is drawne from the Ecclipse of the Moone wherein the obscured point is described by a Sphericall figure which must needs argue that the body which causeth the shadow is also round For as the Optickes teach vs the shadow is wont to follow and imitate the opacous body whence it proceedes and all men confesse that the Ecclipse of the Moone is made by the interposition of the Spheare of the Earth betwixt the Sun Moone intercepting the beames of the Sun which should illustrate lighten the Moone The third reason may be taken from the absurdities which would follow should we admit any other figure besides For granting it to be plaine as some of the Platonists haue imagined it would necessarily follow in reason 1 That the Eleuation of the Pole would bee the same in all the parts of the Earth 2 That there Would bee the same face and appearance of the Heauens in all places 3 That the Sunne and Moone with other starres would in all places arise alike at the same houres 4 That all Ecclipses would appeare to all places at the same houres 5 That the same quantity of dayes nights would bee at all places 6 That the shadowes would bee euery where alike and one Region would not bee hotter or colder then another all which would plainly stand opposite to reason and experience As many or more would proue the absurdities of those that ascribe to the Earth any other figure then Sphericall Which I willingly passe ouer as not willing to fight with shadowes and faigne an opposition where I scarce finde an aduersary These reasons are sufficient to proue that the whole masse of the Earth is Sphericall Diuers other popular arguments may be drawne from the finall cause to countenance this Assertion For no other figure can bee assigned to the Earth which can more vphold the order of Nature or speake the wisdome of the Omnipotent Creator 1 Because such a Figure would best beseeme the Earth the seate and dwelling-place of all liuing Creatures which is most capable because otherwise the God of Nature would seeme to doe something in vaine and without cause Forasmuch as the same capacity might bee confined within stricter bounds Now it is apparant to all Mathematicians that amongst all those figures which they call Isoperâ—â—etrall a Circle is the most capable and amongst the rest those which approâ—ch neerest vnto a circle And as wee esteeme of a circle described in a plaine surfâ—ce so must we iudge in solides of a Spheare Which profitable Geometry of Nature wee shall finde instilled into most liuing Creatures who by a certaine Naturall Instinct without the vse of Reason make their Nests and resting-places of a Sphericall Figure as most conuenient and of greatest capacity as experience shewes vs in the Nests of Birds and Bee-Hiues wherein the cells are fashioned round Sphericall 2 We shall find the holy Scriptures consonant to this opinion in diuers places but that it might seeme impiety to vse those sacred helpes in a matter out of controuersie and needing no such Demonstration 2 The rugged and vnequall parts of the Earth hinder not the Sphericall roundnesse of it It is thought by ignorant people that the Earth is not round because of the rugged and vneuen parts of the superficies of it For some-where it swells with great and high mountaines rocks and hills Other-where it seemes indented and as it were trenched into valleyes concauities all which seeme to detract from a true Sphericall superficies because in such a one euery line drawne from the Center to it should bee equall one to the other Indeed that the Globe of the Earth is not Absolutely and Geometrically round as an Artificiall Spheare is confessed by Eratosthenes cited by Strabo in his 1 booke of Geographie whence Pliny in his â— booke cap. 21. saith that the Earth Water make one Globe not so absolutely round as the Heauens but much different 〈◊〉 also Strabo confirmes This proposition depending on these 3 reasons which follow will shew that this Inequality how great soeuer it seeme to the sight is altogether insensible and bearing no proportion with the huge vastnesse of the whole Earth The first is taken from the perpendicular hight of the greatest and highest mountaine which is seldome or neuer found to exceed 10 miles although few Mathematicians will grant so much whereas the whole Diameter of the Earth containes no lesse thâ—n 7200 English miles so that these hils compared to the thicknes of the Earth are but â—s 10 to 7200 which indeed hath no sensible proportion The second is taken from the Ecclipse of the Moone which being caused by the shadow of the interposed Earth is described by a Sphericall figure without any vnequall or rugged parts which no doubt would appeare if these parts challenge any due proportion or sensible quantity in respect of the whole Earth Thirdly some haue illustrated this by a round bowle or ball whose externall surface although vnequall and indented here there with scotches other-where swelling with knobs will notwithstanding being interposed betwixt the Sun-beame and a wall or such place giue a round or Sphericall shadow in the same wall or plaine in regard of the little quantity of these small parts in respect of the whole Body In like sort must wee imagine the mountaines and vnequall parts in the face of the Earth to bee no otherwise then as so many warts or pimples in the face of man which cannot alter his duâ— proportion or symmetry of the parts 3 The Water concurring with the Earth in the Globe is also Sphericall It is a proposition agreed on by Archimedes and almost all the ancient Mathematicians of any note that the superficies of the Water or any other liquor standing and subsisting quietly of it seâ—fe is Sphericall whose center will bee the same with the center of the whole Earth which we are here to handle because it appertaines to the making vp of the Terrestriall Globe although wee shall haue occasion hereafter to speake specially concerning the Water in Hydrographie in the second part of this Treatise The reasons to confirme this assertion beside those that in generall proue the Sphericity of the Terrene globe are diuers 1 It is obserue that Passengers in a Ship lanching out into the deepe from some Hauen will first perceiue the Towers Buildings Castles Promontories and Trees standing
on the land in their perfect figure and greatnesse sayling farther off they will obserue them on the lower part little little diminished vntill such time as the tops only of the houses and trees will bee visible In like sort they which tarry on the Land will first espye the top and masâ— of a Ship approaching which sight will bee perfected more and more as the Ship drawes toward the land and at last all parts of it will shew themselues which accident can bee cast vpon no other cause then the Sphericall roundnesse and swelling of the water which if the distance be great interposeth it selfe betweene the station on the Land and the Ship wherein Passengers are conueyed which experiment is expressed in this Diagramme here annexed Certaine Platonicks of which the chiefest is Patricius a late Writer would ascribe this experiment to the impediment of the sight caused partly by the distance wich cannot perfectly represent the obiect partly by the interposed vapours arising in the Sea partly by the quiuering light which is spread by the refraction of the Sun-beames in the water I deny not but these causes may somewhat hinder and cause that the true and perfect species of a body cannot alwayes visit the sight Yet will it bee euident that this is not all but that the Sphericall roundnesse of the water will proue a greater impediment where the distance is any thing greater But for one of Patricius his shifts concerning vapour arising out of the Sea to which Clauius seemes also to consent in his Commentary vpon Iohannes de Sacrobosco it makes more for our assertion then his For that which is seene in a thicke medium according to the doctrine of the Opticks seemes greater in quantity and by consequence neerer and so higher then would otherwise appeare as wee see by experience that the Sunne sometimes is seene of vs before it ascend aboue the Horizon because of a refraction of it's beames in a thicke matter Wherefore it were rather to be imagined that a tower seene at Sea or a ship from the land through these thicke and grosse vapours should appeare higher and seeme neerer then if it met not with such vapours Secondly what is vrged concerning the trembling light caused by a refraction of the Sun-beames in the water is of no force For although such a light might cause an impediment or hinderance to the sight yet would not this decrement or hinderance bee by degrees and in such proportion as we find it to be correspondent to wit to the distance interposed And much wonder it is that Patricius as my learned Friend Mr R. Hues obserues being as it seemes very well read in the stories of Spanish nauigations should not bee conuinced out of the Navigation of Magellane who taking his iourney toward the Southwest parts passed by the Magellane straights now called by his name and so returned by the Cape of Good Hope into Spaine to which wee way adde the voiages of Drake Candish and many others The second reason is vrged by Aristotle in his 2d booke de coelo and hath its ground in Archimedes lib. 1. de Aqua-vectis which is formed in this sort The nature of the water is to affect and flow to the lower place whence it must necessarily bee inferred that it must bee round for otherwise it should not alwayes obtaine the lower place The reason of the consequence shall bee expressed in this figure for if we ascribe to the water a plaine superficies let it for example bee ADB and from the center of the earth C let there be described a circle to wit EGF then let there be drawne CD a perpendicular line to AB and let AC and BC be ioyned together Now because the right line CD is lesse then CA or CB as will appeare euidently by sense it will be plaine that the point D will be in a lower place then the point A or B because D is neerer to the Center for as much as DC is but a part of a beame of the circle whereas AC and CB euidently exceed that quantity or proportion Another reason there is commonly drawne from the roundnes of drops cast on the sand as also from water in pots whose superficies seemes to swell aboue the brimmes but this reason as we shall proue in place conuenient is rather against this assertion then for it because indeed wee affirme the water to be round but so as it claimes the same Center with the Center of the Terrene Globe and therefore cannot be sensible in so little a portion as a drop or pot of water This proposition being sufficiently proued by these two reasons it is needfull in the second place that wee answer certaine obiections cast in by the said Patricius against our assertion Euery surface of the water quoth Patricius is either only plaine or only round or both plaine and round or neither plaine nor round First that it is not both plaine and round seemes very euident for so it should admit of contrariety Neither can one part be plaine and another round because the water is an vniforme and homogeneall body not consisting of such vnequall parts that it should neither bee plaine nor round seemes more impossible because fâ—w or none haue dreamt of any other figure Lastly that it is not round only hee labours to confirme by sundry reasons and experiments First he testifies of himselfe that sayling in the Sea he plainely â—aw in the morning before Sun-rising the Mountaines of Corsica which afterward assoone as the Sunne was risen vanished out of his sight Whence he concludes that this proceeds not from the roundnesse of the Earth but from some other cause But this argumeÌ„t to iudicious men will seeme very weake 1 Because it depends altogether on the authority and credit of Patricius whose assertion I take to bee no better then another mans deniall 2ly were this argument euery where sound yet would it proue no other thing but that this effect were not to be imputed to the Sphericall swelling of the Earth Whence cannot bee drawne any generall conclusion that the Earth or Water is not Sphericall Wee deny not in the meane time that other causes sometimes concurre which may hinder or take away the sight of obiects from those who saile on the Sea The second experiment Patricius describes in this manner At a certaine Towne called Comaâ—lum saith hee there is a very great poole through which poole or lake some 3 yeares agoe it was my chance to bee carried in a boat The bottome of the water almost all the way in all the iourney appeared to bee lesse then 2 foot in depth from the top The way increasing at first the lower parts and foundations of houses then the tops and princely pinnacles began to vanish from our sight at last hauing scarce passed 6000 paces a Tower 72 foot high began to appeare as it were cut off by the middle and from the middle part vpward appeared visible
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
receiued errour as we haue mentioned that there is a certaine Rocke or Pole of Load-stone some degrees distant from the true Pole of the world which the Magneticall needle in it's variation should respect This Pole they haue imagined to be in the same Meridian with that which passeth by the Azores whence they haue laboured to shew the reason why the Compasse should not vary in that place which they explaine by this Figure Let there be a circle describing the Spheare E AF the Horizon EF the Articke Pole A the Antarticke â— The Pole or Rocke of Loadstone placed out of the Pole of the Earth B. Let there bee placed a magneticall directory needle in H it will according to their assertion tend to the point B by the magneticall Meridian H B which because it concurres with the true Meridian B A or H A there will be no variation at all but a true direction to the North Pole of the Earth But let this magneticall needle be placed in the point D it is certaine according to this opinion that it will tend to the Pole of the Loadstone B by the magneticall Meridian D B. Wherefore it will not point out the Pole of the Earth A but rather the point C because these two Meridians come not into one and the selfe-same Hence they haue laboured with more hope then successe â—o find out the longitude of any part of the Earth without any obseruation of the Heauens which I confesse might easily be effected if this coniecture might stand with true obseruation But how farre this conceit swarues from the experience of Nauigatours one or two instances will serue to demonstrate For if the variation had any such certaine poles as they imagine then would the Arch of variation bee increased or diminished proportionally according to the distance of the places As for example If in the compasse of an hundred miles the Compasse were varied one degree then in the next hundred miles it would vary another degree which would make two degrees But this hath often been proued otherwise by diuerse experiments of Nauigations mentioned by Gilbert and F. Wright I will only produce one or two If a ship saile from the Sorlinges to New-found-land they haue obserued that when they come so farre as to finde the Compasse to point directly North without any variation at all then passing onward there will bee a variation toward the North-East but obscure and little then afterward will the Arch of this variation increase with like space in a greater proportion vntill they approach neere the â—ontinent where they shall find a very great variation Yet before they come a shoare this variation will decrease againe From which one instance if there were no other we might conclude That the Arch of variation is not alwaies proportionable to the distance which granted quite ouerthrowes that conceit of the Poles of variation Beside this if there were two such magneticall Poles there can be but one common Meridian passing by them and the Poles of the Earthly Globe But by many obseruations collected and obserued by Ed. Wright and others there should be many magneticall Meridians passing by the Poles of the world as in the Meridian about Trinidado and Barmudas the Meridian about the Westermost of the Azores lastly the Meridian running amongst the East Indian Ilands a little beyond Iaua Maior the magneticall and true Meridian must needs agree in one Now for as much as all these magneticall Meridians passe by the Poles of the earth there can no cause be assigned why the magneticall Poles should bee said to bee in one rather then another and if in any then in all Whence it must needes follow that as many magneticall Meridians as you haue to passe by the true Poles of the world so many paire of magneticall Poles must you haue which will be opposite to all reason and experience 1 The point of Variation as of Direction is only Respectiue not Attractiue It was supposed by the Ancients that the Direction and Variation of the Loadstone was caused by an Attractiue point which drew and enforced the lilly of the Compasse that way which errour tooke place from another common-receiued opinion that all the other motions of the magnet were reduced to the Attractiue operation but the errour was corrected by one Robert Norman an English-man who found this point to bee Respectiue and no way Attractiue Whose reason or demonstration is not disapproued by Dr Gilbert although in other matters hee sharply taxeth him His experiment is thus Let there be a round vessell as we haue described ful of water in the midle of this water-place an iron-wier in a conuenient round corke or boat that it may swimme vpon the water euen poyzed let this iron-wire be first touched with the load-stone that it may more strongly shew the point of variation let this point of variation be D let this iron-wire rest vpon the water in the corke for a certaine time It is certainly true that this iron-wire in the cork will not moue it selfe to the margent or brinke of the vessell D which certainly it would doe if the point D were an attractiue point 3 The variation of euery place is constant and not variable This hath beene ratified by the experience of Nauigatours which in the selfe-same Regions haue neuer missed the true variation which they haue assigned them before If any difference bee assigned in variation to the same Region wee may impute it to their errour which obserued it arising either from want of skill or conuenient instruments Neither can this euer be changed except some great deluge or dissolution happen of a great part of land as Plato records of his Atlanticke Ilands 4 The variation is greater in places neere the poles of the Earth This proportion is not to be taken vniuersally but commonly for the most part yet would it haue truth in all places if all other things were correspondent It is obserued that the variation is greater on the coasts of Norway and the Low-countries then at Morocco or Guinea For at Guinea the magneticall needle inclines to the East a third part of one Rumbe of the Compasse In the Ilands of Cape-Verde halfe in the coasts of Morocco two third parts In England at the mouth of Thames according to the obseruation of D. Gilbert and Ed. Wright though some deny it one whole Rumbe in London the chiefe city of it eleuen degrees and more which we also find or thereabout in Oxford The reason is because the magneticall motiue vertue is stronger in the greater latitude increasing towards the pole and the large Regions of land lying toward the Pole preuaile more then those which are situate farther off 12 Thus much for the Variation The Declination is a magneticall motion whereby the magneticall needle conuerts it selfe vnder the Horizontall plaine toward the Axis of the Earth What wee haue hitherto spoken of Direction and Variation magneticall was such as might be
The parts whereof this Terrestriall Spheare consists may bee considered two wayes either as they are vnited in the whole by a Magneticall forme or disioyned and taken by themselues In the former the parts of the Earth are supposed to moue in the same motion by which the whole Spheare of the Earth is moued because the whole and all the parts taken together are the same and subiect to the same circular reuolution Notwithstanding this any part seuerall and disioyned from the whole hath a right motion downeward toward the Center by which it returnes to its true naturall vnion This inclination of the parts agrees not with the whole Earth neither vnto any part vnited and conglobated to the whole but onely to a part separated from his place so that the whole may notwithstanding in his place inioy a circular motion Now to come more neerely home vnto their Arguments drawne from the Homogeneity of the Earth wee answer as before that there is a twofold Homogeneity The one of the matter and quantity the other of the Magneticall forme and Nature of the former wee may conclude out of the right motion of all the parts the disposition of the whole so wee vnderstand it in a good sense first that euery part is here to bee vnderstood not in but out of his proper place Secondly that by the whole wee ought not to vnderstand the whole Globe with all his parts conformed in one Sphericall frame but all the parts indefinitely taken for if wee should vnderstand of the whole Globe their Argument will in no way hold true If according to the later wee might well grant them their Conclusion yet can it not oppugne our Assertion Because it will follow out of the Naturall inclination of euery part that all the parts seuerally taken haue such a disposition of returning to the Earth being separated there from Yet will not this by any necessary inference bee proued to agree to the whole Globe of the Earth but rather will it follow contrarywise that the whole Spheare of the Earth is moued circularly and therefore euery part with and in it is moued with the whole in the same motion A third argument which is thought greater then all the other is drawne from two experiments The first is that a stone or Bullet let fall from a higher place to the ground will perpendicularly descend to the point of the Earth right vnder Secondly that two Bullets imagined to bee of equall weight and matter being discharged from equall pieces of ordinance with the like quantity of powder the one towards the East the other towards the West will reach an equall distance in the Earth both which would seeme impossible if wee grant this supposition of the Earths circular reuolution For in the former case the Earth sliding away swiftly during the fall of the stone would change the point marked out for another And in the second for the like cause the Bullet shot towards the East being preuented by the swiftnesse of the Earth's motion carrying along with it the Ordinance out of which it proceeded should returne backe ouer the shooters-head and contrarywise that Bullet shot towards the West besides his owne motion by the motion of the Earth the other way should bee carryed so much farther as the Earth is remoued from the place where it was first discharged Both which experiments seeme to crosse this circumgyration of the Terrestriall Globe which our magneticall Cosmographers labour to confirme But with them to giue an answer to these and the like experiments wee must distinguish the parts of the Earth into three sorts some are hard and solide parts adioyned to the Globe as stones mineralls what else in the bowels of the Earth is vnited to it or at least necessarily adherent to the outward face of it Some other parts there are of a thinne and fluid substance as the Aire and other vapours in it deriued from the Earth A third sort there are of such parts as being in themselues solide are notwithstanding by some violence separated from the solide globe as stones cast into the Aire Arrowes Bullets and such like discharged from the hand or Engine For the two former wee may easily imagine them carried with the same circular motion which we assigne vnto the whole being no other then the parts of it depending from the whole masse For the third sort whereof consists the difficulty wee cannot imagine them so moued round as if they were wholly separated from the Communion of the Earthly Spheare for howsoeuer there seemes a separation according to matter and quantity yet retaine they the same magneticall inclination to the whole masse as if they were vnited to it and therefore such solide parts are moued with the same vniforme and naturall motion wherewith the Earth it selfe is turned so that in solide bodyes so separated from the superficies of the Earth of an Arrow or Bullets shot wee must imagine a twofold motion The one Naturall vniforme whereby they are moued as homogeneall parts according to the reuolution of the whole Spheare The other violent by force impressed from the Agent The right motion proceeding from the strength of the shooter cannot crosse or hinder the Naturall because the one being right and the other circular admit no such proportion as that one should hinder or further the other Neither can these motions well be tearmed contrary or opposite which are in diuers kindes To explaine this matter farther we will adde this Diagramme Lâ—t the whole orbe of the earth bee imagined to bee LQM whose center is A the thicknesse of the Aire ascending from the Earth O Q. Now as the orbe of this fluid substance of the aire asceÌ„ding vniformely is moued round with the Globe of the earth so must wee imagine the part of it marked out by the right line OQ to bee carried round with an vnalterable Reuolution Wherefore if any heauy body should bee placed in the Line OQ as for example P it will fall downe toward the center by the shortest way in the same line OQ which motion downewards towards the center can neither bee hindered by the circular motion of the Earth nor yet Mixt or compounded with it It cannot bee hindred because as wee haue shewed a Right motion and a circular being not in the same kind cannot properly bee reputed contrary Neither for the same cause can they bee mixt or compounded Wherefore this motion will be no other then one simple and Right motion neuer varying from the Line OQ which being once vnderstood it is no hard thing to imagine a Bullet or stone forced by equall strength from Q towards L and from Q. towards the point M to obserue alwayes a like distance notwithstanding the Earth's cirâ—ular Reuolution Hauing hitherto shewed this Sphericall motion of the Earth to bee possible and no way to contradict Nature wee are in the next place to shew it to bee no way opposite to the sense of
not backt with any necessary demonstration For it proues not thing else but the Earth to bee the Center of all earthie and heauy bodies and not to bee absolutely placed in the exact middle of the world Another reason not much vnlike the former is drawne by some from a finall cause and the naturall harmony of the parts of the world one with the other The Earth say they is of all other bodyes the most vile and sordid Therefore it is agreeable to nature that it should be placed in the middle equally distant from each part of the Heauens that one part might not seeme to complaine of this vnpleasing vicinity more then another But this reason takes as granted to matters as yet not decided First that the Earth amongst all other bodyes is most vile and sordid depending on the ground of Peripateticks that the heauenly bodies suffer no corruption a thing sooner spoken then proued Secondly that pure and impure bodies the most excellent and most vile in nature are alwayes most distant as in nature so in place which is a peremptory assertion without ground A third reason more probable then the former is drawne from the apparences of Starres aboue the Horizon It is manifest that the Starres aboue the Horizon appeare alwayes to bee of one and the selfe-same magnitude and quantity whether in the verticall point or in the East or the West or any other place whence we may collect that they differ equally in distance from the Earth and by consequence the Earth is seated in the middle of the world for if it were otherwise that the Starres in some place should bee neerer in other farther ofâ— they would some-where seeme greater otherwhere lesser according to the grounds of the Opticks This reason howsoeuer popular seemes to admit a two-fold exception First because it implies that a man standing on the superficies of the Earth is equally distant from all places and parts of the Heauens whereas the heauens in the Horizon are farther distant by reason of a whole semidiameter of the earth interposed Secondly all Starres arising in the East or setting in the West ordinarily seeme greater then in the Verticall point by reason of vapours ascending and interposed Whence wee cannot well gather the Earth to bee seated in the middest from the like apparence of the Starres when experience teacheth the coÌ„trary that they seeme not alwayes of the like magnitude Concerning the first we answer that the Semidiameter of the earth interposed betwixt the Superficies and Center is in it selfe greater But this as wee shall proue in respect of the Heauens is so little that the sense cannot gather any difference in obseruation of the Starres but that they should alwayes appeare of the like magnitude Concerning the second wee must needs acknowledge that vapours ascending about the Horizon by an Opticall Refraction make the Starres seeme greater then other wise they would doe But the reason may bee vnderstood in this sort that whether a â—an be placed in the same Horizon where the Sunne is when hee riseth or vnder that Horizon where the Sunne is now vnder his Meridian or vnder that horizon where hee is setting hee will appeare to bee of one and the selfe-same greatnesse without any sensible difference Whereas therefore they speake of the appearance of Starres they would haue them taken as abstracted from all impediments of sight or interposed vapours and so the reason may obtaine her force The fourth reason why the earth should bee seated in the midst alleaged by Ptolomie and others is this wheresoeuer any man stands on the Surface of the Earth six signes of the Zodiacke will shew themselues and the other six signes will lye hid and by consequence halfe the heauens will appeare the other halfe will bee vnder which is an euident reason that the Earth is in the midst for otherwise it could not so happen The former is confirmed by Ptolomie Alphraganus and the best Astronomers the consequence may bee inferred out of naturall reason This argument will sufficiently hold vpon this supposition mentioned before and to bee proued hereafter That the Earth hauing no sensible magnitude in respect of the Firmament no sensible difference can shew it selfe betwixt the Sensible and the Rationall Horizon Besides these reasons which make the matter more then probable others are produced by Ptolomie demonstratiue â—ot admitting any euident or probable exception or euasion The first is this If the Earth bee placed out of the Center of the world it must haue of necessity one of these three Sites or positions Either it must be in the plaine of the Equinoctiall or at least it must bee placed not onely without the plaine of the Equinoctiall but without the Axell-tree That is to expresse it plainer It must either bee placed beside the Axell-tree yet equally distant from both the Poles or else it must bee on the Axell-tree and so consequently neerer to one Pole then the other or thirdly it must needs be beside the Axell-tree yet neerer to one Pole then another If the first position were admitted these absurdities would of necessity follow First that in a right Spheare there would happen no Equinoctiall but onely in that Horizon which passeth by the Center of the world for example sake â—et there be imagined a Spheare BDCE whose Center is A let the Equator bee DE the Axel-tree of the world BC and let the Earth bee in F the right Horizon HG not passing by the Center of the world A which shall bee parallell to the Axis BC since the Equator cuts the Horizon in right angles It is most manifest that not only the equatour but other parallells of the same will bee vnequally diuided of the Horizon for as much as it passeth not by the Center or the Poles of the world wherefore it must needs follow that the dayes must continually be vnequall to the nights which contradicts all experience because in a right Spheare the dayes are alwayes found to bee equall to the nights Secondly out of this position it would follow that no man in a right Spheare should behold the halfe or hemispheare of the heauens but either a greater or lesser part as may be demonstrated out of the same Diagramme whereas sense can testifie that six signes of the Zodiacke are alwayes conspicuous aboue our Horizon and the other six alwayes hid only excepting that Horâ—zon which passeth by the Center of the Earth wherein the Mediety of Heauen is conspicuous Thirdly the same Starres in a cleere aire should not alwaies seeme of the same magnitude for if the earth be placed in the Equinoctiall plaine and beside the Axis of the world toward the Zenith or Meridian the Starres which are in the Meridian will appeare greater then in the East or West because they are neerer But if it bee placed neere the Nadir or midnight point they will appeare greater in the East or West then in the Meridian if it should bee placed towards
the Magnet is not so exact as the Astronomicall for as much as few or no places are found wherein the Magneticall Needle admits not a Variation from the true points of North and South Neuerthelesse this way is very necessary to bee knowne for as much as the Sunne and Starres are not alwayes to bee seene at least in such place and manner as may fauour exactnesse of obseruation Hence may bee demonstrated in particulars what wee obserued before in generall in our Magneticall Treatise that the Circles of the Globe are not meere Imaginary Fictions or bare Respects growing out of the Application of Celestiall bodies as some haue thought them but grounded on the Magneticall Disposition of the Terrestriall Globe 8 Beside the Astronomicall and Magneticall Inuention of the Meridian there is another way more popular but lesse exact which is without any obseruation of the Heauens or the Magnets operation Of the Inuention of the Meridian circle the true and exact knowledge as wee haue shewed is endebted to heauenly obseruation or Magneticall experiment Neuerthelesse Nature is not so barren but she hath pointed out to an industrious obseruation some markes and foote-steps in other inferiour bodies for the finding out of this profitable circle Which wayes howsoeuer of lesse Account then the other and therefore of lesse vse are notwithstanding pleasant to vnderstand because nothing delights more an ingenious minde then the contemplation of Gods working in and by his creatures which men vsually terme Nature To make a particular search into all Planets Stones Mettals and other such Bodies were to goe too far out of my way without a Guide I will giue one only Instance of Trees whereof I will insert this Probleme 1 By the Incision of a Tree to find out the Meridian To performe this Probleme let there bee chosen out some Tree in an open free field farre from walles or other obstacles in such a place as it hath beene on either side freely enlightned and heated by the Sunne-beames let the Trunke of this Tree bee very right and sound let this Trunke bee cut off by the middest in such sort that the section be Parallell to the Horizon and the vnder-part of the Trunke bee left to stand in his former Naturall situation Now the Section on the top of it being well plained will as in a plaine discouer diuers circles which are Excentricke and not drawne from the same Center but on the one side neerer together on the other further off That part then which shewes the circles thicker and neerer together points out the North The other wherein the circles are wider and further off the one from the other designes out the South-point betwixt both which if a right line bee drawne it will bee the Meridian for that place Which experiment Blanâ—anus as hee writes tryed in a Plume-Tree but giues no reason for it The cause I take to be no other then the extension and diffusion of the sappe or moisture by the heate of the Sunne which is more on the South-side then the North-side for as much as the Sunne in our clime respects vs on the South neuer on the North. Hence is it that the circles which are nothing else but the excrescences of the moisture being more rarified on the South-side and therefore requiring a greater place are found to bee greater 9 Hauing shewed the Inuention wee are in the next place to treat of the Distinction of these Meridian circles A Meridian therefore is termed either First or Common The distinction of Meridians into First and Common hath no foot-steps in Nature but is a meere arbitrary Imposition of antient Cosmographers For no reason besides Conueniency can be shewne why one Meridian should be called First rather then another yet cannot this Distinction bee wanting to a Geographer for as much as some setled bound must be set from which to begin our accompt of Longitudes 10 The first Meridian is that from which wee begin to number the Longitude of the Earth from West to the East In respect of which all the rest may bee called common or lesse notable The ancient Cosmographers amongst whom Ptolomy was the chiefe haue set the first Meridian in the Fortunate Ilands from whence they began their accompt passing Eastward through Europe and Africa and so through Asia to the vttermost parts of India vntill they returned againe to the first Meridian passing through the Fortunate Ilands Some haue doubted whether these Ilands called by Ptolomy the Fortunate Ilands be the same with the Canaries because as our Countrey-man Mr Hues hath obserued the Latitude giuen by Ptolomy to the Fortunate Ilands agrees not exactly to the Canaries but rather to the Ilands of Cape-Verde Notwithstanding this obseruation I rather sticke to the common opinion thinking it no vnlike matter that Ptolomy dwelling far Eastward and trusting to other mens obseruations should erre in this as well as other matters The reason why the first Meridian should bee placed here rather then elsewhere is thought by some to bee because the Ancients supposed two Magneticall Poles in the Earth which should bee the cause of the Variation of the Compasse Now because in the Canary Ilands was found no Variation at all they thought it to bee the place where the Magneticall and the true Meridian should concurre as wherein were both the Poles of the World and of the Load-stone which made them to make it the first Meridian But this reason I take to bee vnlikely because as I finde it obserued by latter Writers in the Canary Ilands themselues there is found a Variation of the Compasse although very little the reason whereof wee haue shewed to bee because it is the middest betwixt two great Continents to wit the one of Europe and Africa the other of America Whose magneticall temper being almost equall will not suffer the magneticall Needle to moue more one way then another Moreouer I am certainely perswaded as far as I can gather that this placing of the First Meridian was appointed here before any certainty was knowne of the Variation of the Compasse The more probable coniecture therefore is that Ptolomy here placed the First Meridian because it was the vttermost verge of land toward the West then discouered neuer dreaming of a Westerne world afterward detected and brought to light by Christopher Calumbus and Americus Vesputius Some of the latter Geographers striuing to bee more exact haue placed the First Meridian in their Mappes out of the Canaries in the Ilands of the Azores called S. Michaels Iland So that the first Meridian of Ptolomy differs from the place of these latter Cosmographers about 9 degrees which is diligently to bee noted of such as beginne the Science because this variety not perceiued will breed great errour and confusion yet is not the first of Ptolomy out of vse but retained of many good Geographers Euery other Meridian in respect of this may be called Common or lesse notable because this is most remarkable
experimentally according to Miles Furlongs or such like measures How many Authors of great name and estimation haue differed amongst themselues euery man may enforme himselfe out of this Table here inserted These differences wee finde diuersly related but of all others which Authors haue set forth  Authors Furlongs Miles  Strabo and Hipparchus 252000 31500  Eratosthenes 250000 31250 The circuit of the whole earth containes according to Possidonius the ancieÌ„t Arabians 240000 30000 Ptolomie 180000 22500  The later Arabians 204000 25500  Italians and Germans 172800 21600 I preferre the iudgements of Mr Robert Hues For as much as it is not grounded on common tradition but industriously by himselfe deriued out of the Ancients by diligent search and examination as by one whose iudgement being armed as well with skill in the language as the knowledge of antiquity scornes to be iniured by translation What should bee the cause of these differences is a matter which hath staggered curious searchers into Antiquities more then the former Euery opinion being supported with the names and authorities of such renowned Authors might challenge a pitch aboue the measure of my Decision only I may not bee thought ouer presumptuous to coniecture where I cannot define especially hauing so good a guide as my forenamed Author to tread out the way before mee Wherefore supposing as a ground these Authors so much differing about the measure of the earth to haue beene in some sort led by reason The differences must needs arise out of one of these causes either the errour or negligence of the obseruers in trusting too much to others relations without any farther search or else the defect in the Mathematicall grounds out of which they deriued their demonstration or the diuersity of measures vsed in this worke or finally from the misapplication of these measures to the distances whence may arise some errour out of the experimentall measuring of places in the earth In the first place it may perhaps be doubted whether Aristotle defining the measure of the Earth to bee 400000 furlongs were not deceaued by relations for as much as hee auoucheth it from the Mathematicians of his times whose authority and credit for ought wee know deserues as well to bee forgotten as their names But this answer might seeme too sharp in the other for as much as wee find them registred for Masters in their science and such as could not easily bee cosened by others impostures Neither can wee imagine the second to bee any cause of their errour for the same reason because the wayes these Mathematicians vsed in finding out the circuit of the earth are by writers of good credit commended to posterity as warrantably grounded on certaine demonstrations being no other then what wee haue shewed before which admit of no Parallogisme In the third place wee ought to examin whether the diuersity of opinion concerning this matter proceeded from diuersity of the measures which were vsed in this worke Nonnius and Pâ—â—ceruâ— would needs perswade that the Furlongs whereby they measured the earth were not the same Maurolycus and Xilander talke of diuerse kindes of paces Maurolycus labours to reconcile both but without effect First whereas they would haue diuerse kâ—nde of paces it cannot be denied but in the meane time we cannot learne that the Grecians euer measured their Furlongs by Paces but either by Feet or Faddomes A Faddome which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the measure of the extension of the hands together with the breast betwixt containing six feet which is a kinde of measuring well knowne vnto our Mariners in sounding the depth of the Sea This measure notwithstanding is by many translated a Pace by what reason let any man iudge Xilander in translating Strabo renders it an Ell Secondly for a Furlong it containes according to Herodoiuâ— an ancient Grecian writer 600 Feet which is also testified by Suidas being much later A Furlong containes 100 Faddomes euery Faddome foure Cubits A Cubit according to Heron a Foot and halfe or 24 Digits Now for the variety of Furlongs it is true that Censorinus makes three kindes For either it is called the Italian consisting of 625 Feet which is of most regard in measuring the Earth or the Olympian of 600 Feet or the Pythian containing 1000 Feet But to let passe this latter we shall finde by serious consideration that the Italian and Olympian Furlongs differ only in name and are indeed the same For the Italian containing 625 Roman Feet according to Pliny in his second booke is â—quall to the Olympian hauing 600 Grecian Feet For a Foot with the Grecians exceeds the Roman Foot by a twenty fourth part as much as is the difference betwixt 600 and 625. Hence wee see how little certainty can bee expected of such as goe about to reconcile these opinions out of the various vse and acception of the measures The most probable assertion then is that the errour was grounded on this that the distances of places mentioned by the foresaid Authors were not by themselues exactly measured but taken vp vpon trust on the relation of trauellers wherein they might easily bee mistaken For instance wee will take Eratosthenes and Possidonius as of greatest credit who are notwithstanding taxed for many errours in their experimentall obseruations whereas it is cleere that Ptolomy grounded his opinion on the distances of the places exactly measured as is witnessed by his designation of the Latitude of the earth so farre as it was discouered and knowne Eratosthenes for mistaking in the measure of distances is much taxed by Hyparchus as we find in Strabo For betwixt Alexandria and Carthage hee reckons aboue 13 thousand furlongs whereas by a more diligent enquiry there are found to bee but 9 thousand Likewise Possidoniuâ— is knowne to bee mistaken in that hee made the Distance betwixt Rhodes and Alexandria to bee 5000 Furlongs whereas out of the relation of Marriners some haue made it 4000 some 5000 as it is witnessed by Eratosthenes in Strabo who notwithstanding sayes that hee found by Instruments that it was not aboue 3750 and Strabo wouâ—d haue it somewhat lesse as 2640. Maurolycus going about to defend Possidonius against Ptolomy brings nothing but friuoâ—ous reasons vnworthy so good an author Out of all which hath beene spoken our former Corollary will bee manifest that the diuersity of opinions concerning the circumference of the Earth arose from the experimentall mistake in the distances of places where they trusted to other mens relations rather then their owne knowledge 6 The Diameter is a right line passing by the Center of the Earth from one side to the other and measuring the thicknesse of it the inuention of which depends on these Rules 1 As 22 is to 7 so is the circumference of a circle to the Diameter wherefore the circumference of the Earth multiplied by 7 and diuided by 22 will produce the Diameter The exact proportion betwixt the Circumferences of a
92 3 It is probable that the sea is carried some-where from East to West and some-where from North to South contrariwise 98 4 Of the violent motion of the sea caused by windes 101 5 To some certaine places at certaine times belong certaine winds 102 6 The violence of the winds makes the sea sometimes in some places transcend his ordinary bounds 103 CHAP. VII Of the Depth Situation and Termination of the sea 1 The ordinary depth of the sea is commonly answerable to the ordinary height of the maine land aboue the water and the Whirlepooles extraordinary depths answer to the height of the mountaines aboue the ordinary height of the Earth 104 2 The superficies of the sea is some-where higher then the superficies of the Earth some-where lower 109 3 The sea in respect of the Earth is higher in one place then another 111 4 The Water is so diuided from the dry-land that the quantity of water is greater in the Southerne Hemispheare of land in the Northerne 115 5 The whole Globe of the Earth is enuironed round with sea betwixt East and West 116 6 It is probable that the Earth is enuirnoed round with water from North to South Of the North-west passage 117 CHAP. VIII OfSea Trafficke and Merchandice 1 Nauigation first taught by Almighty God was afterwards seconded by the industrie of famous men in all ages 132 2 Nauigation is very necessary as well for the increase of knowledge as riches 135 CHAP. IX Of Pedography Riuers Lakes and Fountaines in the Earth 1 All Riuers haue their originall from the sea the mother of riuers 142 2 All Riuers and Fountaines were not from the beginning 155 3 Many riuers are for a great space of land swallowed vp of the Earth whereof some after a certaine distance rise againe 156 4 Riuers for the most part rise out of great mountaines and at last by diuerse or one Inlet are disburthened into the sea 157 5 Diuerse Fountaines are endowed with diuerse admirable vertues and operations 159 6 Places neere great Riuers and Lakes are most commodious for Habitation 162 7 Of Lakes and their causes 162 8 It is probable that some Lakes haue some secret intercourse with the sea vnder ground 163 CHAP. X. Of Mountaines Vallyes plaine-Regions woody and champion Countreyes 1 Mountaines Vallyes and Plaines were created in the beginning and few made by the violence of the Deluge 165 2 The perpendicular height of the highest mountaines seldome exceeds 10 furlongs 169 3 The ordinary height of the land aboue the sea in diuerse places is more then the hight of the highest mountaines aboue the ordinary face of the Earth 171 4 Mountaines Countreyes are commonly colder then plaine 172 5 Mountaines since the beginning of the world haue still decreased in their quantity and so will vnto the end 174 6 Of Woods and their nature 178 7 Woods are not so frequent or great as in ancient times 179 8 Places moderately situate towards the North or South-pole abound more in woods then neere the Equatour 180 CHAP. XI Of Ilands and Continents 1 It is probable that Ilands were not from the first beginning but were afterwards made by violence of the water 184 2 Peninsula's by violence of the sea fretting through the Istmus haue oftentimes turned into Ilands and contrariwise Peninsalas by diminution of the sea made of Ilands 189 CHAP. XII Of Inundations and Earth-quakes 1 No vniuersall Inundation of the Earth can be naturall the other may depend from naturall causes 193 2 Particular alterations haue happened to the bonds of Countries by particular Inundations 195 3 Certaine Regions by reason of great Riuers are subiect to certaine anniuersary Inundations 197 4 Regions extreame cold or extreame hot are not so subiect to Earth-quakes as places of a middle temper 201 5 Hollow and spongie places are more subiect to Earthquakes then solide and compacted Soiles 202 6 Ilands are more often troubled with earth-quakes then the continent 203 CHAP. XIII Of the Originall of Inhabitants 1 All Nations had their first originall from one stocke whence afterwards they became diuided 206 2 The first inhabitants of the Earth were planted in Paradise and thence translated to the places adioyning 208 3 The first plantation of Inhabitants immediately after the Deluge beganne in the East 213 CHAP. XIV Of the disposition of Inhabitants in respect of the site 1 The people of the Northerne Hemispheare as well in Riches and Magnificence as valour science and ciuill gouernment far surpasse the people of the south Hemispheare 221 2 The extreame Inhabitants toward the pole are in complexion hot and moist Those towards the Equatour cold and drye those of the middle partaking of a middle temper 226 3 The extreame Inhabitants towards the poles are naturally enclined to Mechanicall works and martiall endeuours the extreame towards the Equatour to workes of Religion and Contemplation The middle to lawes and ciuility 232 4 The people of the extreame Regions towards the poles in Martiall prowesse haue commonly proued stronger then those neerer the Equatour but the middle people more prouident then either in the establishment and preseruation of commonwealths 236 5 The extreame Regions in Manners Actions and Customes are cleane opposite the one to the other The middle partake a mixture of both 239 6 The people of the Easterne Hemispheare in science Religion Ciuility and Magnificence and almost in euery thing els are farre superiour to the Inhabitants of the Westerne 250 7 The Westerne people haue beene obserued to be more happy and able in Martiall discipline the Easterne in witty contemplation and contemplatiue sciences 252 8 The Easterne part of the Westerne Hemispheare was peopled before the Westerne 255 CHAP. XV. Of the Diuersity of dispositions in regard of the Soile 1 Mountaine-people are for the most part more stout warlike and generous then those of plaine Countries yet lesse tractable to gouernment 256 2 Windy Regions produce men of wild and instable dispositions But quiet Regions more constant and curteous 273 CHAP. XVI Of the dispositions of Inhabitants according to their originall and education 1 Colonies translated from one Region into another farre remote retaine a long time their first disposition though by little little they decline and suffer alteration 278 2 The mixture of Colonies begets the same Nation a greater disparity and variety of the Nations amongst themselues 278 3 Education hath a great force in the alteration of Naturall dispositions yet so as by accident remitted they soone returne to their proper Temper  4 By Discipline Nations become more Wise and Politicke in the preseruation of states yet lesse stout and couragious 283 The Analysis of the second Booke Generall which of a place generally taken without any speciall diuision handles the Adiuncts and proprieties these agree to a place in respect of the Earth it selfe which are Internall or Externall Common or Magneticall whereof Chapter 2. Heauens which are Generall or Speciall Chapt. 3.
the other at the endes the former was thought not habitable by reason of the extremity of heat because the Sunne-beames there fall perpendicularly and so make a greater reflection The other for extremity of cold by reason of the obliquity of the Sunne-beames causing little or no reflection whence a second cause seemes to be drawne from the extreame drought of those places which seemes most opposite to mans temper requiring a reasonable degree of moisture But notwithstanding these reasons of the ancients it must needes bee confessed as an vndoubted truth confirmed by experience of many Nâ—uigatours that those Regions by them imagined vnfit for habitation are not onely habitable but in many places very populous Neither want there many reasons found out by latter writers to mitigate the rigour of this opinion some whereof wee haue already touched in our former treatise First whereas they vrge the places vnder the Equinoctiall to bee vnhabitable by reason of intemperate heat wee may easily answer that the dayes and nights are then alwayes equall containing not aboue 12 houres so that the space of either being shorter the cold of the night may well asswage the extreame heat of the day Another reason is ordinarily taken from the extraordinarily high mountaines commonly placed vnder the Equinoctiall which approaching neerer the middle Region of the aire must of necessity partake some what more of cold which dayly experience can witnesse in that their top â— are couered with snow euen in the depth of Summer Thirdly the neerenesse of the maine Ocean to a great part of this Region is a great cause of this cold temper because water is found to bee by nature cold Fourthly the set and certaine windes by nature ordained to blow in the hottest times of the yeere may adde much to temperature Fiftly the extraordinary Raines and showers which those places suffer which are vnder the Line especially when the Sunne is verticall are a great cause of the asswaging of the heat of the Sunne Lastly the custome of the Inhabitants being from their cradles inured to no other quality or disposition of the ayre will take away much from our admiration On the other side no small reasons may bee shewed why the Regions lying neere or vnder the Pole should not bee so extreamely cold but that they may admit of habitation First because the Sunne being for six moneths together aboue their Horizon must needs impresse into the Ayre more heat then otherwise it would doe Besides the thicknesse incorporated as it were with heat must needs receaue into it more degrees of it then a thinner and more refined ayre because the intention of the quality most commonly supposeth the condensation or thickning of the subiect wherein it is But no greater reason can bee shewed in this point then the custome of the Northerne inhabitants exposed from their infancy to no other temperament If wee should aske a reason why wee vnmaske our faces against the encounter of the greatest cold being a soft and tender part not daring to vncouer our other parts what reason can a man inuent but custome If any should aske why barbarous people liuing in farre colder climates then this of ours goe altogether naked whereas the cold is mother of many diseases amongst vs who goe alwayes clothed onely vse and custome can yeeld an answer These reasons make it probable enough that no place of the whole world is by nature made not habitable Now that it is not only inhabitable by nature but also for the most part truly inhabited will appeare as easily if wee trust the testimony of Nauigatours which haue discouered few or no Regions wanting some â—nhabitants But that this proposition may bee more distinctly vnderstood wee must know that the whole world is diuided into Sea and Land for the Sea we may call it habitable in that large sense before mentioned to wit that on it euery where men in ships may breath and liue which is plaine out of experience of Nauigatours who haue sailed round about the Earth from East to West and haue entred farre towards the North and South where at least some times of the yeere or other they might finde the way passable For the land which is here principally vnderstood wee must note that it may bee considered two wayes either for euery little quillet or parcell of land contaned in the superficies of the Earth or else for a certaine Region of some indifferent greatnesse In the former sense it were too much to affirme euery part of the Earth to bee habitable for as much as many places as the toppes of the Alpes or the sands of Africa properly admit of no habitation yet in an improper and large sense they may be called habitable because on them a man may liue and breath for a certaine space of time But if by the parts of the land wee vnderstand some reasonable greatnesse no great doubt can bee made but that it is either already inhabited by mankinde or can at least admit of habitation as that which not only for a time affords a man life and breath but also some conuenient meanes of sustenance for no countrey hath euer beene found so indigent and barren of all vitall aides which is neither capeable of liuing creatures in the land fit for mans nourishment or that cannot draw Fishes from the Sea or if this should faile cannot afford Fruits or Herbage from the ground or in case all the rest were deficient cannot haue passage by Water to other Countries whence to relieue their necessities And no question but nature hath stored euery Countrey with some commodity or other which by trafficke may draw riches from other Regions as by instances may more particularly appeare hereafter when wee shall speake of particular Regions and their seuerall accidents 2 All places of the Earth haue suffered manifold alteration and change as well in Name as Nature I need not spend time to demonstrate this Assertion for that euery place of the Earth hath beene subiect to much mutation in the processe of time as well in Nature of the Soyle as of the Inhabitants a few obuious instances in each Countrey will easily certifie yet will it not seeme amisse I hope to shew the progresse manner and causes of this alteration which would giue no small satisfaction To discourse of all changes according to all times were a matter infinite Wee may referre all to two heads to wit the change of Names and the change of Nature Concerning the former that most Countreyes haue changed their first and originall names is most euident to such as consult the Maps and writings of our common Geographers for few or none will discouer vnto vs any Region by that name by which it was knowne in former times in so much as great controuersie and dispute hath growne about diuerse countreyes mentioned by ancient writers whereof the name should take its first originall but of this change we shall speake hereafter But if we
consider the naturall changes of Countries sithence the first creation wee shall finde them to haue suffered as well in the naturall accidents and disposition of the soile as the temper of the Inhabitants concerning the former wee may note a twofold alteration whereof the one is a progresse from Imperfection to Perfection the other contrariwise from Perfection to Imperfection The first groweth out of the generall Industrie of mankinde which is wont to worke euery thing as neere as it can to his best ends and vse for his owne good and propagation of his kinde which wee may best finde in the first originall of the world the first ground-worke of ciuill society for man being once expelled out of Paradise for his owne transgression had left him notwithstanding for his lot the whole world besides which no question hee found as in the cradle of Nature a poore infant as yet altogether vnfashioned and vnshaped for humane habitation For who can imagine the earth at that time to bee any otherwise then as a vast Wildernesse all ouergrowne with briers and bushes growing of their owne accord out of the Earth Moreouer what Fennes Bogges Marishes and other such incombrances could there bee wanting to those places which neuer yet felt the chastising hand of husbandrie All these incommodities as mankind began to multiplie and propagate it selfe on the face of the Earth were by little and little remoued and the Earth reduced into a better forme for humane dwelling because euery man choosing out his owne possession began presently to till and manure the soyle with all heedfull industrie For if our first Parents being placed in Paradise it selfe the most pleasant and fertile portion of the whole world were neuerthelesse enioyned to dresse and manure the Garden for their better vse and profit what shall wee imagine of the other parts of the Earth which no doubt a thousand degrees come short of this perfection especially knowing this curse to bee laid on man by our Creatour That he should eat his bread in the sweat of his browes as though the earth were bound to open her treasures onely to mans paines and labour And howsoeuer the diligence of mankinde hath gone very farre in adorning and fashioning the vpper face of the earth yet hath it not waded so farre but that many places in our times are left altogether rude and vncultered groaning vnder vast Wildernesses and vnprofitable desarts For times past wee might haue for instance gone no farther then Britanie and Germanie both which Countryes we shall finde in these dayes to differ as much from the dayes of Caesar as Caesar iudged them to differ from the Roman Territory which no doubt hee preferred before all parts of Europe Notwithstanding this generall inclination of mankinde to perfect their dwelling places for their better ease and comfort wee shall finde many wayes whereby the parts of the Earth haue degenerated and proued more vnfit for humane habitation then in former times The first which is the greatest and cause of all the rest is that Curse which our Almighty Creatour cast on the whole earth for Adams sake which afterward seemes renued and increased in the generall deluge wherein all mankinde suffered for their sinnes a plague of waters For as the estate of mankind immediatly before the Flood was farre better then that afterwards so was the estate of Paradice farre better then that So as wee may note from the beginning of the world a generall defect and weakenesse of the Creatures still more and more declining from their originall perfection granted in the first creation So that many great Philosophers haue coniectured not without ground that the world from the first creation hath suffered the change of ages sensibly and this wherein wee liue to bee the last and decrepite age wherein Nature lyeth languishing as ready to breath out her last But this opinion seemes to bee controled by reason for as much as wee finde not a proportionall decrement and defect of naturall vigour in things as well in man as other creatures For if wee compare the estate of a man before the Flood with the age of Dauid long after wee shall finde a great disparity in the proportionall decrement of the Yeeres and Ages of men for as much as many before the Flood attained to 800 and some as Methusalem to 900 yeeres But in Dauid time the dayes of mans life as he himselfe testifieth are threescore and ten and admit wee vnderstand this speech of Dauid to bee meant only of his chiefest strength and liuelyhood wee shall yet finde a great diuersity because man is vnderstood to bee in his greatest strength and vigour in his middle age so that the whole age of man by this account surmounts not 140 yeeres To which proportion of defect or decrement our times can no way agree because many men in our dayes come neere the same age as wee see by experience which may bee confirmed by diuerse instances whereof wee will produce only two the one of a certaine Indian presented to Soliman the Turke being of the age of 200 yeeres the other of the Countresse of Desmond in Ireland which Sr Walter Rauleigh mentions to this purpose who was married in Edward the fourth's time yet was aliue very lately But to this doubt I might answer that this extraordinary difference betwixt the ages of men betweene the Patriarches and Dauids time compared with men ages betwixt Dauids and our dayes came from two especiall causes First by the vniuersall Deluge which caused a generall defect and decay of nature in the whole earth the like whereof hath not since beene found Secondly it was as it seemes much impaired by the Intemperance and luxurious diet of those times which added much to this generall weaknesse of nature for as much as the children can haue little or no naturall perfection in themselues more then is deriued vnto them by their parents For nothing can giue that to others which it neuer had it selfe whence it must needs come to passe that the posterity deriued from luxurious and distempered bodyes should proue as weake and impotent generally if not more then their Parents Now why the people soone vpon the Flood should finde their distemperature more noxious and preiudiciall to long life then the men of our age a good reason may bee giuen because the Earth long after the Flood had not fully receaued that naturall heat and spirit which it lost in the Deluge So that all things arising out of it as Plants Hearbs Fruits and liuing creatures feeding thereon proued for a while more vnwholsome and vnnaturall then in some yeeres after when it had somewhat reuiued it selfe by the heat of the Sunne and the Starre and by little and little returned to his owne nature The other cause of deficiencie is more speciall as not happening to all but to diuerse parts of the Earth and that more at one time then another as the neglect of due manuring many places
the foure first qualities of Heate Cold Drouth and Moisture whereon depends a great part of the disposition not only of the soyle but also of mans body for as much as the one ordinarily borrowes his fruitfulnesse or barrennesse of these first qualities and the other hath his vitall Organes which are the ministers of the Soule much affected with them in so much as some Philosophers haue vndertaken to define all the differences of mens wits and intellectuall faculties out of the Temperament of the braine according to these foure accidents And what Physitian will not acknowledge all these Qualities and their mixture to challenge an extraordinary preheminence in the disposition and constitution of mans body whose mixture is the first ground of health or sicknesse The second meanes whereby the Heauens may cause a diuersity of temper in diuerse places is from the speciall Influences of some particular Starres and constellations incident to particular places for it were blockish to imagine that so many various Starres of diuerse colours and magnitudes should bee set in the Firmament to no other vse then to giue light to the world and distinguish the times sith the ordinary Physitian can easily discouer the Moones influence by the increase of humours in mans body and the experience of Astrologers will warrant much more by their obseruation as assigning to each particular aspect of the Heauens a particular and speciall influence and operation Now it is euident that all aspects of the Heauens cannot point out and designe all places alike for as much as the beames wherein it is conueyed are somewhere perpendicularly other where obliquely darted and that more or lesse according to the place whence it commeth to passe that neither all places can enioy the same Temperament nor the same measure and proportion Yet wee say not that the heauenly bodyes haue any power to impose a Necessitie vpon the wills and dispositions of men but onely an inclination For the Starres worke not Immediatly on the intellectuall part or minde of man but Mediatly so farre forth as it depends on the Temperament and materiall organes of the body But of this wee shall especially speake hereafter Where God willing shall bee opened the manner of this celestiall operation By this wee may vnderstand how farre the Heauens haue power to cause a diuersity in Places and Nations The second reason may bee the Imbred Quality Figure and Site of the Places themselues For that there is another cause of diuersity besides the situation of places in respect of the Heauens may easily bee proued out of experience for wee finde that places situate vnder the same Latitude partake of a diuerse and opposite Temper and disposition as the middle of Spayne about Toledo which is very hot and the Southermost bound of Virginia which is found to bee Temperate betwixt both All which notwithstanding are vnder the selfe-same Latitude or very neere without any sensible degree of difference also we sometimes finde places more Southward toward the Equatour to partake more of cold then such as are more Notherne as the Toppes of the Alps being perpetually couered with Snow are without question colder then England although they lye neerer to the equinoctiall Likewise Aluares reporteth that hee saw Ice vpon the water in the Abyssines Countrey in the month of Iuly which notwithstanding is neere or vnder the Line And Martin Frobisher relates that he found the ayre about Friezland more cold stormy about 61 degrees then in other places neere 70 degrees Wherefore we must needs ascribe some effect and operation to the soyle it selfe first in respect of the Superficies which is diuersly varied with Woods Riuers Marishes Rockes Mountaines Valleyes Plaines whence a double variety ariseth first of the foure first Qualities which is caused by the Sunne-beames being diuersly proiected according to the conformity of the place Secondly of Meteors and Exhalations drawne vp from the Earth into the Aire both which concurring must needs cause a great variety in mans disposition according to that prouerbe Athenis tenâ—e coelum Thebis crassum or that bitter taunt of the Poet on Boeotians Boeotum in crasso iurares aëre natum For ordinary experience will often shew that a thinne and sharp ayre vsually produceth the best witts as contrariwise grosse and thicke vapours drawne from muddie and marish grounds thicken and stupifie the spirits and produce men commonly of blockish and hoggish dispositions and natures vnapt for learning and vnfit for ciuill conuersation Secondly there must needs be granted to speciall Countreyes certaine Specificall qualities which produce a certaine Sympathie or Antipathie in respect of some things or others whence it commeth to passe that some plants and hearbs which of their owne accord spring out of the Earth in some Countreyes are found to pine wither in others some Beasts and Serpents are in some places seldome knowne to breed or liue wherewith notwithstanding other Regions swarme in abundance as for example Ireland wherein no Serpent or venomous worme hath beene knowne to liue whereby Africa and many other Countreyes finde no small molestation Neither is this variety onely shewne in the diuersity of the kindes but also in the variation of things in the same kinde whereof we might produce infinite examples For who knowes not which is a Physition that many simples apt for medicine growing in our land come farre short in vertue of those which are gathered in other countreyes I need amongst many ordinary instances giue no other then in our Rubarb and Tobacco whereof the former growing in our Countrey except in case of extremity is of no vse with our Physitians the other as much scorned of our ordinary Tobacconists yet both generally deriued from the true mother the Indies in great vse and request But of this last Instances are most common and yet for their ignorance of the true cause most admirable The causes of the former might in some sort bee found out either in the Heauens or in the Elementary nâ—ture of the Earth But some speciall proprieties haue discouered themselues which cannot be imagined to owe their cause to either but to some third originall which the Physicians in their Simples more properly tearme virtus specifica If any man should demand why countreyes farther from the course of the Sunne should be found hotter then some which are neerer Why the Rhenish wine Grape transported from Germany into Spaine should yeeld vs the Sherry Sacke Euery ordinary Phylosopher which hath trauelled little beyond Aristotles Materia Prima will bee ready to hammer out a cause as ascribing the former to the Heigth or Depression of the soyle the latter to the excesse of heat in Spaine aboue that of Germany But should wee farther demand 1 why Ireland with some other Regions indure no venemous thing 2 Why Wheat in S. Thomas Iland should shut vp all into the Blade and neuer beare graine 3 Why in the same Iland no fruit which hath any stone in
Trauellers report or some small obseruation of heauenly bodies or sounding the bottome of the Sea settle our opinion and make a plaine distinction 2 The Declination of any place being knowne the Latitude may also bee found out although not without some errour The ground of this Assertion we haue formerly handled in the Treatise of the Magneticall Affections of the Earth where wee haue shewed that the Declination of the Magneticall needle is alwayes answerable in some proportion to the Latitude of the place whence it must needs follow that the declination any where being found out together with the proportion the Latititude must needs be knowne In this point I referre my Reader to D. Ridleye's late Treatise of Magneticall bodies and Motions wherein hee by the helpe of M. Briges hath calculated a certaine briefe table for this purpose But that this manner of Inuention of the Latitude of a place must needs admit of some errour cannot well be denied for as much as Gilbert Ridley and others which haue written of this subiect haue acknowledged this motion of Declination to bee in many places irregular and not answerable in due proportion to the Degrees of Latitude which diuerse friends of mine well experienced in magneticall experiments haue to their great wonder confessed 12 This much for the Internall Adiuncts The Externall I call such as are not imprest into the Earth but externally adjacent or adioyning vnto it Here ought wee to consider the Aire adioyning to any place with his Qualities and Proprieties 13 The Ayrie properties of a place consist in such matters wherewith the Ayre according to diuerse places is diuersly affected and disposed In the Ayre we ought to note a twofold temper and quality the one Inbred and Essentiall the other Externall and Accidentall â—he former whether it bee heat ioyned with moisture as Aristotle aâ—â—irmes or cold ioyned with moisture as some others I leaue it to the Naturall Philosopher to dispute The latter being that to which our purpose is chiefly ingaged and that no farther then may appertaine to the Topicall description of a speciall Countrey These accidents being so various and many we are inforced to reduce them to a few generall heads which we will couch in this our Theoreme 1 The disposition of the Ayre adjacent to a place depends chiefely on the Temperament of the Soyle Those things wherewith the Aëriâ—ll Region is affected are of two sorts to wit either the Temperament consisting in the mixture of the foure first Qualities or else the bodies themselues as Meteors drawne vp into the Aire whereof these accidentall dispositions arise That both these chiefly depend from the Tempâ—rament of the Earthly Soyle of a certaine place many reasons will demonstrate first that Meteors whatsoeuer they are take their originall from the Earth is plaine 1 Out of the name which signifies things lifted vp to shew that a Meteor is lifted and drawne out of the Earth 2 Out of the materiall composition which can no where else take this composition For either wee should deriue it from the Heauens or from the Ayre it selfe or from the Fire From the Heauens it cannot take originall because it is corruptible and therefore of no heauenly substance according to Peripateticke Philosophie Not from it selfe because the aire being supposed a simple and vncompounded body cannot admit of such mixture Not from the Fire first because all Meteors partake not of fierie nature Secondly because fire cannot well subsist but of some matter whereon it may worke and conserue it selfe which can bee no other then that which is of a glutinous substance which wee no where finde but in the earthly Globe consisting of Earth and Water out of whose store-houses the matter of all such pendulous substances in the aire is deriued These Meteors may bee deriued from the Earth into the Aire two manner of wayes First Directly and immediatly by an immediate ascent or rising of exhalations from some one particular place into the Ayrie space right ouer it Secondly Obliquely to wit when Vapours or other such exhalations are by some violence or other carried from one place into another as winde which being ingendred in one place continually bloweth into another Againe the former may happen two wayes for either this rising of Exhalations out of the Earth is Ordinary or Extraordinary Ordinary I call that whereby the thinne parts of the water or Earth are continually spread and diffused through the whole Region of the Ayre for wee cannot imagine otherwise then that at all times and places the Terrestriall Globe composed of Earth and Water continually sends and euaporates out some thinne or rarified parts wherewith the earth is affected Whether this Rarefaction or Euaporation of the water bee the true substance of the Aire it selfe as some haue probably coniectured or else sâ—me other body different from it I will not here dispute This much will necessarily follow that it proceeds originally from the Earth right vnder it This vapour being ingendred from the water or moister parts of the Earth is much varied and temper'd according to the place from which it ariseth For the matter of the Earth being various and diuerse in disposition as well in regard of various veines of minerall substances whereof it consists as of the first and second qualities thereof arising must of necessity cause the Aire about each Region to bee of the same quality Whence a probable reason may bee shewne why of two places although both like in respect of the Heauens and other circumstances one should bee hot the other cold one healthie another contagious the one of a sharpe and thinne aire the other of a foggy dull temper For no question but the minerall matter whereof the soile of the Earth consists being not euery where Solid and hard but euery where intermedled with a vaporous and fluide substance must needs challenge a great interest in the temperament of the Ayre aâ— that which is the first mother if not of the Aire it selfe yet at least of the accidentall dispositions thereof The Extraordinary euaporations I call such as arise out of the Earth by some extraordinary concurse of the Sunne with some other Starres These are many times subiect to sense which happen not at all times and places such as are clowdes windes and such like which arise not naturally by their owne accord by a perpetuall emanation but are by some greater strength of the Sunne or Starres ratifying the parts of the earth or water drawne vp to the Aire about it Now for the Meteors Indirectly and obliquely belonging to any place amongst many other instances we may bring the winde which bloweth from one Region to another which according to ordinary experience partaketh of a twofold quality the one deriued from the place whence it is ingendred the other from the Region through which it passeth Which may appeare by our foure Cardinall windes as they are with vs in England Belgia and higher Germany For first
wherein euery Body seekes it's owne safety the other Generall wherein all Bodies concurre to the preseruation of the whole The former proceeds from the speciall Forme and Nature of euery Body which is performed by the vnion of all his parts to it selfe this vnion is greatest of all in a Sphericall figure wherein all the extreme parts are equally distant from the Center admitting no Equality of dimension The Generall depends from the Resultancy and Harmony of all the parts whereby is caused an vnion of all the parts with the whole to whose preseruation they are secondarily directed whence ariseth a double figurature of the water the one of a Spheare excentricall with the Earth the other also of a Spheare but concentricke with the Earth whereof this Conicall figure is compounded Why this figure should be more sensible in a small drop or quantity then in the Ocean may bee declared from the same ground well vnderstood because the conuexity of the lesser Spheare excentricke with the Earth is more and the greater is lesse for by how much the lesser is the Spheare the greater will be the conuexity and by how much greater the Spheare the lesser will the bee conuexity or crookednesse Wherefore this crookednesse being in a small measure of water very sensible in a maine Ocean will by sense be hardly distinguished from a right line 8 Of the Figure of the Water wee haue spoken Wee must now speake of the Quality which is two-fold Saltnesse and Thicknesse 1 The Water of the Sea is salt not by Nature but by Accident That the Sea is of a saltish Quality no man hath euer doubted at least in most parts But whether this saltish Quality essentially agrees to the center of the Sea as therein created or else Accidentally brought in I finde no small difference among Philosophers Those which defend the saltishnesse to bee Accidentall are diuided into diuers sorts for some of the old Philosophers imagined that the Earth chased and Heat with the Sunne continually sweats out water whence is made the Sea and therefore should haue a saltish taste because all sweat is of this Quality But this opinion I take to bee no other then a pleasant Allegory of the old Greeke writers who wrote their Philosophy in verse and therefore vsed such allusions as wee shall perhaps find in many other matters poëtically deuised of them yet refuted of Aristotle in good earnest others haue more probably coniectur'd that this saltishnesse was first deriued from the Earth through whose parts the Water being strained is apt to receiue this Quality being primarily in the Earth it selfe as wee see water being wrung through ashes to grow salt but this opinion seemeth of no great soundnesse because the first Riuers and Lakes being drawne out of the Earth altogether and in regard of their small quantity more apt to yeeld and receiue this tincture are notwithstanding deuoide of all such Quality Besides this wee rather find the contrary by experiment That Sea-Water strained through clay will turne fresh as likewise powdred flesh being layed to soake â—n salt water will soone turne sweet The former is verified by Baptista Porta of the other euery kitchin-maide on the Sea-side will informe vs. The third opinion is of Aristotle who referres the saltish quality of the Sea-water to the Sunne as the chiefe cause drawing and lifting vp out of the Sea store of exhalations which afterwards mixt with vapours fall downe againe by drops for the Sunne drawes vp the thinner and fresher parts of the water leauing the thicker and lower water to suffer adustion of the Sunne-beames and so consequently to become salt so that the matter of this saltishnesse in the Sea is by an exhalation the Sunne drawing vp to the middle Region of the Aire the fresher parts where thickned they descend in raine leauing the residue of the Sea salt The forme is the straining and concoction which is made by the Sun for the saltishnes is said to arise out of the commixtion of Terrestriall drynesse concurring with moisture ioin'd with adustion of Heat so that two things are chiefly concurring to the Generation of saltishnesse to wit Drouth and Adustion This seemes to bee prooued by instance of Fresh-waters in the kitchin which turne salt being much boyled because the thinner and sweeter vapours of it are drawne vp and dissipated leauing that behind which is thicker and saltish The same would some haue in the Sea seethed as it were and burnt with the Heate which we experimentally find in hot water on the fire But this is excepted against by some because wee find by experience that many salt wells and fountaines arise in diuers places of the Earth which are ingendred in the bowels of the Earth farre remote and separate from this extreame heate and adustion of the Sunne-beames But to this wee may easily answer that such salt springs are either by some violence enforced from the sea by certaine secret cauernes and hollow places of the Earth or else that they receiue their tincture of saltnesse from some salt minerals of the Earth through which they passe Wherefore this opinion of Aristotle I see not yet sufficiently refuted The other opinion concerning this quality of such which would haue it essentiall to the sea water and inbred in the first creation is grounded on two small causes First they say that the sea is salt for the preseruation of the Fishes who would otherwise rot because experience shewes that Fish will soone putrifie without salt but this is thwarted by three reasons First because if fish were in this sort salted in the sea Water the cooke might saue himselfe a labour in salting them againe in his kitchin Also Fishes caught in the sea are oftentimes preserued longer and sweeter lesse needing salt then those which are found in fresh Ponds and Riuers Secondly if this reason should hold currant why should not the Fishes also rot and putâ—ify in fresh Water Thirdly why should fishes couet the fresh Water as wee see by experience in many fishes if in it they should suffer putrefaction which is a great enemy to nature Aboue all what need wee feare this putrefaction of fishes while they are endowed with a liuing soule which is a greater preseruatiue then all the salt in the world or why should wee not doubt the same calamity in all liuing creatures in the land which are as subiect to rottenesse in the Aire as the other on the land The second cause say they Why the sea should bee created salt is Because the sea it selfe should not putrify for as much as wee find by experience that salt is the only thing to resist Putrefaction But here wee may demaund why these Authors should feare Putrefaction in the vast body of the sea rather then in other Waters and Riuers which are neither salt nor come neere the greatnesse of the Ocean whereas Aristotle affirmes in the fift chapter of the 4 booke of his Meteors that if
the Sea were dâ—uided into many parts it would more easily dissolue and putrify The grounds of this opinion being ouerthrowne there want not reasons to contradict First sayes one if the Sea were not created salt then was there some time wherein it was fresh To this I answer two wayes First that it might bee created fresh yet being apt from the heat of the Sunne to receiue saltnesse it might almost at the first receiue it Secondly if I should grant that it was a long time before it embraced this quality I know neither History to confute mee or reason to conuince mee Secondly it is vrged from the Nature of liuing creatures in the Sea that they cannot well liue in fresh waters and therefore it seemes originally salt and not by Accident But this is of no great force First because experience shewes that many kind of fishes liue in both and many rather couet and desire the fresh Water then the Sea Secondly it is not improbable that as the Sea by little and little and by degrees turned from freshnesse to saltnesse the temper and disposition of the fishes was in like manner changed and altered Whence it may come to passe that fishes since bred and nourished in fresh Waters cannot so well endure the salt Moreouer who knowes whether all these seuerall kinds of fishes now found in the Sea were from the beginning since wee see by experience that sundry kinds of liuing creatures dayly arise out of putrefaction on the land which may with like probability or more bee admitted in the Sea There are yet behind other reasons of one Patricius a Platonist who would oppose Aristotle in good earnest Aristotle saith hee speaking of the saltnesse of the Sea Water shewed not the cause For I would aske why that parcell of water from whence the thinner parts are extracted should remaine salt was it so from the beginning or afterwards imprest was it Inbred or Accidentall If hee would haue it an inbred quality from the beginning hee vainly goes about to seeke out the cause If the saltnesse bee aduentitious the cause is to bee giuen but the cause giuen by him is not true for as much as it rather takes away the saltnesse But to these obiections of Patricius spunne out in many words wee may answer two wayes either that the saltnesse is meerely aduentitious bred by an exhalation drawne vp by the Sunne and so distilling downe againe or else because this answere seemes not wholely to satisfy For as much as rainy Water is seldome salt and if it were could hardly flow in so great quantity to feed the saltnesse of the Sea I will answer secondly that the saltnesse is radically or originally in the matter of the Water yet so as it cannot bee drawne out and sensibly bee perceiued in the mixture of many sweet humours ioyned with it without a separation first made by the heat of the Sunne of the thinner parts from the thicker So that the Sunne is a disponent though not a productiue cause of this saltnesse in the Sea 2 Seas absolutely salt are neuer frozen This may seeme a Paradoxe to some men in regard that amongst our Geographers wee haue so often mention made of Mare Congelatum taking it's name from the Ice wherewith it is shut vp from passage as also for that in the voyages of Frobisher Dauis Hudson and other later Nauigatours which haue beene imployed in the search of the Northwest passage wee find such strange relations not onely of Seas closed vp with Ice and hindring their passage towards the North but also of Rocks and Ilands of Ice of an incredible greatnesse The truth of these Relations I no way disapproue but rather out of these testimonies approue our former assertion that Seas which are wholly Salt are neuer found to freeze For first whereas it is called Mare Congelatum it may beare the nâ—me well enough from the multitude of Ice floating on the water or collected into a Rocke or Iland This Ice as it will easily appeare is not produced out of the substance of the Salt water of the maine Ocean but rather carryed into the Sea by great riuers of fresh water running into the Ocean For the riuers are not alwayes frozen but sometimes by a remission of the cold are thawed and the peeces broken a sunder and floating into the Sea in it oft times meet in great heapes which may bee proued 1 In that these great râ—cks of Ice melting with the heate of the Sunne haue dissolued into fountaines of fresh water gushing downe in great abundance wherewith sometimes in case of necessity they haue fraughted their shippes as wee haue testified by the fore-named Nauigatours 2 Because some part of the maine Sea situate perhaps more Northerne and in a colder Climate suffers not this accident whereas places neere the shore farther South are almost alwayes frozen The reason whereof is because the Sea neere the shore is commonly mixed with fresh waters conueyed in either by great Riuers or infinite secret passages vnder ground which wee see not The reason why that salt waters exclude this propriety incident or the fresh I take to bee the Hot-spirits hid in the salt humor which are more feruent and operatiue then those of the fresh water 9 So much for the saltnesse The next is the Thicknesse whereof we will set downe this short Theoreme 1 The Water of the Sea is thicker then other Water This Proposition hath it's light from the former because thicknesse of Water is a companion of the saltnesse as depending from the same cause to wit the exhalation and extraction of the thinner parts of the Water There are many small causes giuen by Patricius of this thicknesse of the Sea-Water Fâ—â—st because the parts of it should more strongly hold together and not couer and ouerflow the firme land But this seemes to bee grounded on an errour that the Water should be aboue the Land and that it should containe it selfe within it's owne bounds and limits which opinion we haue elsewhere reiected The second cause of the thicknesse of the Sea is that it might bee more apt to beare and carry ships and other great weights for the vse of man Thirdly the Water being thicke may more easily bee conuerted into salt out of which many saltish minerals in the Earth are ingendred Other causes are giuen by this Author but lesse forceable which we will omit as referring them to the Philosopher whose proper taske it is to seek them out CHAP. VI. Of the Motions of the Sea 1 THe Motion of the Sea whereof we are in this Chapter to treate is either Naturall or Violent The Naturall I call that which is partly incident to the Naturall Disposition of the Sea 2 This againe is two-fold either Generall or Speciall Generall is that which agrees generally to all or at least to most parts of the Sea such as is the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea Wee must here obserue that the Water
hath a two-fold Motion The first is common to all heauy Bodyes as well as the Earth in which is an inclination to come as neere as they can to the Center of the Earth whereof wee haue spoken in our former booke The second is that which more properly agrees to the Sea which is againe twofold either the Naturall or the Violent The Naturall howsoeuer requiâ—ing perhaps the concurrence of some externall cause is notwithstanding so called for as much as it chiefly seemes to proceede from the Disposition of the Sea-water The Violent is caused meerely by the violence of the winds mouing the Ocean The Naturall motion we haue againe diuided into generall or speciall because the Affluxe and Refluxe of the Sea whereof we are to treat is generall throughout the whole Ocean some petty creekes perchance excepted whereas the Currents which is the second kinde of motion are more speciall as agreeing not to all or most parts as it seemes but to some one or other speciall place as we shall shew 1 The Sea twice euery day ebbes and flowes The flowing and ebbing of the Sea howsoeuer it cannot be precisely obserued in all Seas yet because few places of the maine Ocean are exempted from it deserues the first chiefest consideration That such a motion there is experience shewes but the searching out of the cause is for ought I can obserue one of the greatest difficulties in all Naturall Philosophie in so much as Aristotle one of the acutest Philosophers is reported to haue stood amazed at the flowing and ebbing of Euripus and despairing of finding out the cause at length enforced to cast himselfe into the Riuer which had before confounded him Wherefore it may seeme sufficient for mee to trace their steps who haue waded far into the search of this cause hauing very little hope to goe further The first opinion was of the Stoickes who supposed the whole World to bee a great liuing creature composed of diuerse Elements which inioyes both breath and life This liuing creature they imagine to haue his nostrils placed in the maine Ocean where by drawing in and sending foorth breath the ebbing and flowing of the Sea is caused but this seemeth rather to bee a Poeticall fiction or Allegory then any conceit of a Philosopher Apollonius Tianaeus was of an opinion that certaine Spirits eithervnder or aboue the Water breathed into it this motion Timaeus taught the cause of this moisture to be the riuer breaking into the Ocean by the great mountaines Plato thought that it was made by the swallowing vp of the Sea into a gulfe or hole which being againe cast out was the cause of that motion in the Sea Seleuous the Mathematician which affirmed that the Earth was carried round with a perpetuall motion thought that the Moone was turned round with a motion contrary to the motion of the Eâ—rth and from this to proceed that motion of ebbing and flowing of the Sea whereof wee now treat What Aristotles opinion was concerning this matter is an vncertaine coniecture forasmuch as litle or nothing can bee gathered touching this point in controuersie out of any booke which is certainly knowne to be Aristotles for the tract of the propriety of Elements where the cause of this motion is ascribed to the Moone is iudged to be none of Aristotles but of some later Authour Yet Plutarch imposeth on Aristotle this opinion that this motion of the Sea should come from the Sun because by it are raised vp many windy exhalations which should cause the Sea to swell blowing into the great Atlantick Ocean But thisopinion is charged by Paâ—ricius of a threefold errour 1. That it should proceed from the Sun 2 From the wind 3 That it is only in the Atlantick Sea He saw saith Patricius that in the Atlantick which he could not in the Aegean Sea at home and neere Athens For 1 No wind blowes so regularly that for one six houres it should blow forward the other six houres backward for the wind oftentimes blowes many daies the same way without ceasing yet is their not one only flowing or one ebbing in the Sea 2. The Sunne stirres vp sometimes windes and sometimes stirres them not vp But of a perpetuall effect which is daily why would this Philosopher giue a cause meerely violent and not quotidian which notwithstanding would haue nothing violent to be perpetuall If the Sea bee somewhere moued naturally by other motions as the Euripus which is said to be his death wherefore will he deny this motion to be Naturall seeking out an externall cause of this effect But all this while our Platonick Philosopher seems to fight with shadowes for what iudicious man can imagine so iudicious and wise a Philosopher as Aristotle should so grossely ouershoot himselâ— to father this opinion I should much rather beleiue that no such opinion is to be found in Aristotle at least that it is indirectly related which I the rather beleiue because one Caesalpinus a late Writer aswell opposite to Aristotle as the other hath related Aristotles opinion otherwise to wit that the ebbing and flowing of the Sea is deriued from a double cause whereof the one is the multitude of Riuers bringing in a great force of waters into it whence it comes to passe that it flowes only towards one paâ—t which is the lower as it happens to the Mediterranean For the Egaean and Ponticke Sea with Maeotis flow into the Tyrrhene and not on the opposite side The other cause hee makes to bee the libration of the whole Sea for it is often turn'd from one side to the other which in so great a vastnes seemes but little but in straights narrow places much more So that Aristotle saith Caesalpinus would haue that to agree to the Sea which vsually happens to a paire of ballance which hauing receiued the beginning once of their motion are inclined sometimes this way sometimes that way by reason of the equality of the weight for if the weight of one should ouercome thewhole would incline thatway and would not riâ—e vpon the other side But against this opinion imposed on Aristotle Caesalpinus not without good reason excepts that the Superficies of the Water being Equidistant from the Center as is supposed by Geographers no reason may bee giuen why it should incline more to one side then another hauing once obtained his true place sith according to Aristotles owne grounds no violence câ—n be perpetâ—all To which I may adde another answer that no satisfactory reason can be alleadged why it should alwayes obserue so true and iust periods of time in its motion sith all Riuers are sometimes encreased and other times diminished according to the season of the yeere and variety of the weather wherefore the said Authour which impugnes this opinion hath framed another conceit grounded on the circular motion of the Earth which he explaineth in this sort It agrees â—o reason saith he that the Water should not altogether follow the motion
of the Earth but should in part bee driuen backe and in part flow besides for since it is of a moist nature while the Earth is carried from the Aire about it the Water iâ— somewhat left behind as wee may see in a small vessell which is moâ—e laâ—ge then deep for if it be moued forward the Water will leape back to the opposite part will oftentimes poize it selfe hither thither seeking an aequilibration when therefore the Earth is a litle caried forward the water as it were left behind being out of his Aequilibrium or aquall poize it will runne to the other part but beyond the true poize forthe violence of the motion oppressed into it in the beginning from thence for the same cause it will tend againe to the opposite part doing this oftentimes seeking an equall weight wherein it may rest so that if the Earth should at any times rest from her naturall motion the Water would also leaue off the Libration to and fro But because the circumvolution of the Earth is imagined to be perpetuall the libration of the sea is also per petuall so farre forth then that this motion is of the continent or Earth it is onely accidentall in the Water neither besides his proper nature neither according to nature But so farre forth as the Water is in some sort moued in the Earth it may be said to be according to nature for it alwaies seekes the lower place because it cannot aequally follow the motion of the Earth Hence they giue the reason why this motion is not perceiued in Lakes and Riuers as well as in the maine Ocean for sith the motion of the Earth is not very sensible it cannot be perceiued but in a great masse of waters The reasons to confirme this opinion besides the refutation of other opinions are chiefly these two If the Water by it selfe should be mou'd without the motion of the Earth it must needs be moued either according to or against his nature But neither of them can be graunted First if according to Nature there would not be one only motion of one body according to nature but many which is denyed by Arâ—stotle If besides or against Nature some violent motion would bee perpetuall which also seemes absurd wherefore it must needs follow that the sea should moue accidentally For sith the Water is conteined outwardly of the Aire internally of the Earth And that part of the Aire which toucheth the Water is of Aristotle called Stagnans or standing still not flowing as that which is aboue the Earth but is onely troubled variously with windes This libration or motion of the Water cannot bee caused by the wind or Aire wherefore it must proceed from the motion of the Earth The second reason may be drawne from the quantity of tides in diuers places of the Earth for it is â—ound by experience that the Water swels higher greater in the maine Ocean then in other lesser Seas For it is obserued that about great Brittaine it mounts sometimes aboue 80 cubits also it oftner ebbes and flowes in lesser currents because the spaces of this libration are shorter and straâ—ghter or because besides the motion of ebbing and flowing which the Mediterranean seas partake from the Ocean at Hercules Pillars they haue a proper libration in their owne channels whence it comes to passe that in some narrow seas as in the Euripus besides Euboia the sea seauen times a day ebbs and flowes whereof there can no sufficient reason be giuen from the motion of the Moone or other cause whereto other Philosophers ascribe this effect This opinion of Caesalpinus seemes to carry great likelyhood of reason and congruity with experience yet because it is grounded on the circular motion of the Earth which seemes a paradox to most men I dare not warrant it otherwise then probable neither can it well stand with the grounds of our Magneticall Philosophers because they affirme the whole spheare of the Earth and Water together with the Aire to moue round with one Vniforme revolution in such sort as one should not moue to the opposite part or stay behind the other as they would haue it here to doe There is yet another opinion more commonly defended in the schooles of naturall Philosopherâ— that this motion of the sea is to bee ascribed to the Moone as the principall cause others againe as they admit the Moone to haue her operation in this effect ioyne other causes to it and indeed this seemes more probable for there want not arguments in Patricius and other later writers to shew that the Moone cannot be the sole cause of this motion First because this motion is not obserued in all seas Lakes and Riuers wheâ—eupon neuerthelesse the Moone hath the like dominion But experience shewes the contrary for besides fresh Riuers it is manifest by obseruation of trauailers that this ebbing and flowing is not to be found in the Hircâ—â— Mantian and Dead sea also in Maotis Palus in the Pontick Propontiâ—ke Ligurian and Narbon streytes neither in the Tyrrhene sea Moreouer it is not obserued in a great part of the Red sea Neither can the Narrownesse of the channell excuse it because these seas are great and also for the most part within the Tropicke of Cancer and therefore exposed sometimes to the perpendicular beames of the Moone Secondly If the Moone should by her owne â—orce excite and moue these waterâ— then would it moue those seas which it doth moue Altogether and not only in parts The contrary whereof we may find First in the Red Sea which in the beginning and end Ebbes and flowes but in the middle not at all moreouer the Mediterranean sea ebbes flowes as one sea on all the coasts of Africa wherein it is in a sort diuided and yet those seas with which it is ioyned as the Tyrrhene Ligurian and Gallican Seas feele not any such motion Thirdly it is obiected that if the Moone were the only cause of this Flâ—x and Reflux of the sea then those seas which are said in whole to moue should aequally flow in hight but this is contradicted by experience because some flow higher and some lower As for example The Adriatick sea in the inmost creeke neere Venice swels neere foure foote in hight but the rest of it not aboue two â—oote which increase is likewise obserued in the Aegean Cretian Ionian and Cyprian Seas also the Syrian and Aegyptian euen to Portus Ferinae But from mons pulcher to the Herculean streytes it increaseth aboue two foot in length But without these straights the same Ocean by the coasts of Portugall and Biscay and France the Sea riseth vsually to 15 foot in hight and neere the coasts of Belgia and Brittaine 18 foot At the confines of Bristoll to 60 and thence to the borders of S. Michael to 60 But at the coasts of Aethiopia neere the Atlantick shores it riseth not higher then in the Adriatick Sea But neere the Ilands
of the superficies of the Water compared to the superficies the Earth vncouered which should be higher in place of which shall be this Theoreme 1 The superficies of the Sea is some-where higher then the superficies of the Earth some-where lower There hath beene a great dispute among Phylosophers concerning the poâ—ition of the Sea in respect of the Land whether it bee higher or lower some haue beene of an opinion that the Water is higher which opinion was defended by Tully in his Booke De Natura Deorum where hee saith that the Sea being placed aboue the Earth yet couering the place of the Earth is congregated and collected neither redounding nor flowing abroad which afterwards seemes to be seconded by diuers learned Diuines who reducing most things to the supernaturall and first cause diuers times neglected and ouer-slipt the second Hence Saint Basil in his 4 Homily on the Hexameron lest the water saith hee should ouerflow and sâ—red it selfe out of the place it hath occupied it is commanded to gather it selfe together otherwise what should hinder the Red Sea to ouerâ—flow all Egypt being lower then it â—elfe vnlesse it were manicled with the Creatours power as it were with setters to which also afterwards seeme to subscribe Aquinâ—â— Dionisius and Catharinus with diuers other Diuines who held that the first discouery of the Earth and the gathering together of the Waters in the first Creation was made not by any mutation in the Earth but by a violent accuâ—ulation of the Waters being as it were restrained and bridled supernaturally that they could not transcend certain limits and bounds To confirme this opinion some reasons are alleaged by moderne Philosophers first because it is the ordeâ— of all the Elements amongst themselues that the Earth as the heauiest should take the lower place and the water should ascend aboue Secondly because Marriners comming from the maine Ocean to the Land seeme to see the land farre lower then the Water Thirdly they alleage thaâ— place of Iâ—b wheâ—e God himselfâ— professeth that he hath bounded the Waterâ— in these words Hitherto shalâ— thou come and no farther here shall thy proud waues be stayed But this opinion seemeth very improbable that God in the first institution of Nature should impose a perpâ—tuall violence vpon Nature sith wâ—â—ee the Creator in other maâ—ters to vse Nature as his ordinary â—eruant and to administer the Regiment of things by â—econd causes Neither were the authority of these Diuines so great in thâ—se Cosmoâ—râ—phicall conceipts to ouersway these of the same profession who could more exactly iudge of these matters Neither are these reasons of so greaâ— validity as to enforce assent For first whereas St Basill seemes to wonder why the Red Sea should not ouerâ—lowe all Aegypt if it were not supernâ—turally bounded he takes that as granted which is the question in controversie that the Water is higher for which he can produce no other reason thâ—n the Testimony of the sense but this is very weak forasmuch as in such matters the sense is oftentimes deceiued as stands well with the grounds of the perspectiues for as weare there taught two Parallels will in the end seeme to concurre so far as the sight can iudge Now the Spheare of the Heauens and the Sphericall segment of the Waters being parallell the one to the other will necessarily seeme to concurre to the end whence it must needs come to passe that that part of the Sea must seeme â—o lift it selfe higher â—nd contrarywise the Heâ—uens will seeme somewhat lower then indeed they are and this I take to be the true cause why the Sea being seene a great way off may appeare raised aboue the land whereon we stand Another reason may bee giuen from the perpetuall Refraction of the vsuall Lines comming from the Sea to our sight For the Aire neere the Sea being alwayes intermixed with thicke watrish vapours rising vp the Seâ— must of necessity be presented in a thicker Medium by a refracted sight whence coÌ„sequently it must seeme greater higher then indeed it is for as the Opticks teach all things seeme greater higher in a thicker Medium To the other three Reasons brought to coÌ„firme this assertion it is no hard thing to answer To the first which would out of the order of the Elements inforce that the Water is higher â—hen the Earth I answer as before that if we intirely consider these Elements amongâ—t themselues we must giue the hight to the Water for as much as the greatest part of the Eâ—rth lies â—rowned for that aboue beaâ—es no sensible proportion in respect of the parts of the Earth vncouered But here we compare not the 2 Elements intirely betwixt themselues but the superficies of the Water with the parts of the Earth vncouered habitable which superficies of the earth notwithstanding this reason may bee higher then the Water Secondly where they produce the testimony of the sight for my own part I can warrant no such experience hauing neuer launced far into the deep yet if any such experiment be auouched it may easily bee answered out of opticall Principles that comming out of the maine Ocean towards the land by reason of the sphericall conueâ—ity of the water interposed betweene our sight and the lower part of the land those land parcels must needs seeme lesse as hauing some parts shadowed from our fight whence it must consequently appeare lower as couched almost vnder water From the 3d reason grounded on Scripture whereon our diuines seeme most to depend nothing else is concluded but that Almighty God hath set certaine bounds limits which the Waters should not passe These bounds limits I take not to be supernatural as if the water restrained by such a power should containe it selfe within its own circuit But naturall as clifâ—s â—ils within which the waters seems intrenced This opinion therefore being disliked others haue laboured to defend an opposite position that the water is lower then the Earth altogether which opinion beares more constancy with the doctrine of Arist. most of our modern Philosophers The reason wheron this assertion is grounded be chiefly these 1 If the sea were higher then the Earth what should hinder the water of it froÌ„ flowing â—broad ouerwhelming the Earth sith all men will confesse that the water is by nature disposed to moue downwards to the lower place If they haue recourse to supernatural â—ouÌ„ds besides that we haue spoken coÌ„cerning the interpretatioÌ„â— of such places of Scripture as seeme to fauour this opinioÌ„ we â—nswere as before that it is very improbable that God in the first creation should impose such a perpetuall violence secondly we read that in the vniuersalâ— deluge wherein all the world was drowned God brake open the springs of the deep opened the Cataracts of heauen to powre down raine continually many daies together vpon the Earth Of which there had beene no necessity at all had the sea beene heaâ—ed vp in such
sort as they imagine For the only withdrawing of that hand and letting goe of that bridle which gaue the water that restraint would haue beene â—ufficient to haue ouerwhelmed the whole Earth The second reason is taken from Ilands in the sea which are nothing else but parts of the land raised vp aboue the water Thirdly we find by experience that a ship carried with the like wind is driuen so swiftly from the port into the open sea as from the sea into the port which could not be done if the sea were higher then the land for it must needs be that a ship if it were to be carried to a higher place should be moued slower then if it came from an higher to a lower Fourthly all Riuers runne into the sea from the inner parts of the land which is a most euident signe that the land is higher then the sea for it is agreeable to the nature of the water to flow alwaies to the lower place whence we gather that the sea shore to which the Water is brought froÌ„ the land must needs be lower otherwise the water in ruÌ„ning thither should not descend but ascend This opinion I hold farr more probable as being backt by reason and the Authority of our best Philosophers yet not altogether exactly true as we shall shew hereafter But Bartholomew KeckermaÌ„ in a late German writer holding these 2 former opposite opinioÌ„s as it were in one equall Ballance labours a reconciliation In a diuerse respect saith he it is true that the sea is higher and that it is lower then the Earth It is higher in respect of the shores and borders to which it so comes that sensibly it swells to a Globe or a circumference and so at length in the middle raiseth vp it selfe and obtaines a greater hight then in those parts where in the middle of the sea it declines towards the shore Of which parts the hight sufferâ— such a decrease that by how much neerer the shore they shall approach by so much the lower they are in respect of the shore in somuch that touching the shore it selfe it is much lower then the Earth For this opinion our Author pretends a demonstration which hee grounds on the 4 chapter of Aristotle de Caelo in his second booke where hee puts downe these two positions which he calls Hypotheses or suppositions First that the Water no lesse concurrs to the making of a Globe or circle then the Earth for it so descends naturally that it doth sensibly gather it selfe together and makes a swelling as wee see in small dropps cast on the ground Secondly the Water makes a circle which hath the same center with the center of the Earth Out of these grounds would our Keckerman conclude the water in some places to bee higher in other places to bee lower then the Earth And hence proceeds he to giue an answer to their reasons who haue affirmed the Earth to bee higher then the sea What to thinke of the proposition or conclusion we will shew hereafter but in the meane space I hold this conclusion not rightly inferred out of these premises For first whereas he sayth that the water by nature is apt to gaher it selfe round into an orbe or spheare I would demaund whether such a roud body hath the same center with the world or a diuerse center he cannot say that it hath a diuerse center from the center of the Earth First because as we haue demonstrated in our first part the Earth and the Water haue but one center and that the Water is concentricall with the Earth Secondly from the second proposition or ground of his out of Aristotle if he meanes such a sphaericity as hath the same center with the center of the Earth I answer first that he contradicts himselfe because he giues an instance in small dropps cast on the ground whose quantity being so small and conuexity sensible can in no mans iudgment be concentrick to the Earth Secondly out of this ground that the Spheare of the water is concentrick to the Earth hee confutes himselfe for according to the principles of Geometry in a Spheare or circle all the lines drawne from the center to the circumference must be equall Then must all places in the circumference or superficies of a sphericall body be of equall hight from the center and by consequence the sea being such a Sphericall body cannot haue that inequality which Keckerman imagines it to haue wherefore some other demonstation must be sought for this conclusion I will goe no further then that I haue spoken in the former chapter concerning the figure of the Water Where I haue probably shewed it to be conicall and out of this may be easily gathered how it may be higher then the land in some places as of the middle of greater seas where the head of the Cone is lifted higher in other lower as in the narrow streits where the increase of the eminencie is also lesse The grounds and principles of which we haue laied before 1 The sea in respect of the Earth is higher in one place then another Besides the naturall conformity of the Water to a conicall figure as we haue fore-shewed whence one part of the superficies must be graunted to be higher then another wee must needs in the sea acknowledge other accidentall causes which produce an inequality in the parts of the sea The chiefest whereoâ— are the Equality of inclination in all parts of the water to motion And the inequality of the channells and shores whence it commeth to passe that the Water of the sea being euery whereof it selfe equally inclined to motion is notwithstanding vnequally receiued into channels so that in some place hauing as it were a large dominion to inuade as in the maine Ocean it falls lower and euener In some other places as streites or narrow seas the water hauing a large entrance from the Ocean but litle or no passage through it must needes swell higher and so one place by accident becomes higher or lower then another Which farther to confirme diuerse instances may be alleaged out of moderne and ancient obseruations For diuerse histories giue testimony that sundry Kings of Aegipt by cutting the Isthmus or narrow neck of land lying betwixt the red sea the Mediterranean laboured to make Africk an Iland open passage from one sea to the other but afterwards they were perswaded to desisâ— from their enterprise Some say because they saw the red sea to bee higher then many parts of Aegipt and hereupon feared a generall inundation of all Aegipt if the pâ—ssage were broken open Others haue deliuered that they feared that if the passage from one vnto another were broke open and the red sea hauing a vent that way the red sea would become so shallow that men might wade ouer it and so insteed of making Africk an Iland it would haue been more ioyned to the Continent then before Both opinions consent in this that the waters
but also themselues practised such commerce as well for the benefit of their Common-wealth as the increase of their particular estate Two memorable examples we haue in Henry the third King of England and Laurence de Medices Duke of Florence whereof the former gaue many and large priuiledges to all the Hance Townes in his Kingdomes which were in Number about 27 The other himselfe for his owne priuate commodity exercised the Trade of Merchandize yet was this man most ingenious and a great louer of learned Men. CHAP. IX Of Pedography Riuers Lakes and Fountaines in the Earth 1 WE haue formerly treated of Hydrographie or the description of the Water now are we by Gods assistance to proceede on to Pedographie which is a description of the Firme Earth or Dry-Land 2 The Land is a space contained in the superficies of Earth distinguished from the Water The Earth in this place is not taken as in the former part of Geographie for the whole Terrestriall Spheare composed of Earth and Water Neither yet as it is vsually taken in Naturall Philosophy for an Absolute Elementary body whose causes and affections are to bee searched out but Topographically for a place or habitable space on the dry-land This dry-land distinguished from the Water by its Firmenesse and Constancy being noâ— subiect as the Water to motion and inconstancy was therefore if we belieue the Poet called Vestâ— according to that verse Stat viterra suâ vi stando Vesta vocatur Neither wants this fable of Vesta a sufficient morall First because Vesta was faigned to bee a keeper and protectour of their houses which may very well agree to the Earth which not only sustaines and beares vp all buildings and houses but also affords all commodities and fruits wherewith housholds are maintained Secondly Vesta was fained to be the Goddesse to whom the first fruits were offered in sacrifice which may well square with the nature of the Earth from which all fruits are originally deriued and therefore as it were of due ought all first fruits to bee consecrated to her altar Two other Parallels betwixt the Goddesse Vesta are added by Natalis Comes First because Plutarch sheweth in his Symposiacks that the Tables of the Ancients dedicated to Vesta were made round in forme and fashion of the Earth Secondly because the seat of Vesta was imagined to bee in the liquid Aire immoueable and not subiect to motion which well agrees with the common conceiued opinion of the Earth But these two rather expresse the nature of the whole Terrestriall Spheare then of the land diuided from the Waters This description of the dry-land separated from the Waters we haue termed Pedographieâ— because the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commonly deriued from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a foote signifies as much as a firme place whereon men may haue sure footing to which is consonant the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which seemes most probably deriued from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies as much as Terere to weare out or waste because the Earth is dayly troden and worne with our feet The proprieties of the Earth appertaining to a Cosmographer are many and various wherefore to auoid confusion wee haue diuided them into these heads 3 The Adiuncts of a Place in the Land are either Naturall or Ciuill The Naturall are such as are in bred in the Earth 4 The Naturall may bee againe diuided into Perpetuall or Casuall Perpetuall are such as alwayes or most ordinarily continue the same 5 The Perpetuall proprieties are againe twofold either Absolute or Comparatiue The Absolute I call such as agree to the Land without any respect to the Sea 6 Of the former sort are such as belong to the Figurature of the Soile wherin three things are most remarkeable 1 Riuers Fountaines and Lakes 2 Mountaines Valleyes and plaines 3 Woods and Champian Countreyes 7 A Riuer is a perpetuall course of water from a certaine head or fountaine running from an higher to a lower place on the earth Riuers are by some Geographers more curiously distinguished into 2 sorts whereof the first are setled or stayed Riuers which slide away with a more equall and vniforme course The later are called Torrents or stickle waters which are carried with a far greater violence In a Riuer three things are chiefly remarkeable First the Fountaine or Spring secondly Whirle-pooles Thirdly the Mouth of it The spring is the place where at first the water sensibly breakes out of the Earth As Nilus in Africke is thought to haue his first head at the mountaines of the Moone A Whirlepoole is a place in a Riuer where the water falling into a Deep trench is whirled teurned round The Mouth is the place where any Riuer finds a passage our either into the sea or into another greater Riuer which in latine is tearmed ostium or a gate Whence they call Septem ostia Nili which are seuen mouths by which it fals into the Mediterranean This gaue the name to many Citties and Townes in England as Plimmouth Darâ—mouth Portsmouth Axmouth with many others Now for as much as all water is by nature heauy and therefore couets the lowest place The course of all Riuers must needes bee from a higher to a lower place whence we may guesse the hight of lands For it is necessary that for euery mile wherein the water glides forward on the earth there be made an allowance of 2 foote at least in the decliuity of the ground For although water will slide away at any inequality yet could not the water bee wholesome and retaine any reasonable swiftnesse of motion without this allowance Hence we may probably find out the huge hight of the Alpes about all the places in Europe because out of them spring foure great Riuers which runne foure wayes whereof the two greatest are the Danow which receiues into it 60 Nauigable riuers and so disburthens it selfe into the Euxine Sea far remote and the Rhene Of Lakes and Riuers many memorable matters may be spoken all which we will reduce to these heads 1 Their Generation and first originall 2 Their Appearance 3 Their Place in the earth 4 Their Vertues and effects all which we will comprehend in these Theoremes following 1 All Riuers haue their first originall from the sea the mother of Riuers The originall of fountaines and Riuers on the earth is a matter of great difficulty and for ought I know not yet found out of our greatest Philosophers yet being willing to goe as farre as I can I will glaunce at probabilities and first set downe other mens opinions Some haue beene of opinion that in the bowels of the earth are hid certaine vast concauities and cauernes which receiuing into them a great quantity of raine-Water haue giuen originall to Lakes and Fountaines Hence they giue the reason why these fountaines are perpetuall Because the raine-water receiued into these cauernes being extraordinary great is sufficient to nourish such springs of water vntill the
next winter whence comes a new supply of more raine These Riuers say they in the summer decrease and sometime are dry because of the defect of wâ—ter when the place is not great enough to receiue sufficient water for the whole yeere This opinion seemeth grounded on these reasons First because wee find by experience that Riuers and fountâ—ines are greater and larger in Summer then in Winter Secondly because where there is lesse Raine fewer or no Riuers are seene As in the Desarts of Ethiopia and Africke few or no Riuers are found But in Germany France Brittany and Italy many Riuers shew themselues because they abound in the moisture of the Aire and much fall of Raine Thirdly amongst vs wee see by experience in a hot and dry Summer they are much decreased from their ordinary greatnesse or altogether dryed vp which is a great probability that their originall is from raine This opinion if it bee onely vnderstood of some Riuers may be probable because some currents out of doubt take their originall from great showers or snowes as at the foot of the Alpes and other such places where the snow daily melts and feeds them but if it be generally vnderstood of all Riuers it is manifestly false as may appeare by these reasons First because the Earth no where drinkes vp the raine farther then ten foot deep in the soile for the higher superficies of the earth is either dry and so easily drinkes vp and consumes the Water within that space or else being already moist it receiues it not at all but expells it by Riuers and channells Secondly some mountaines not couered with earth but consisting of hard rocke notwithstanding send forth great store of springs and fountaines which water could not bee receiued in through a hard rocky substance Thirdly because in very dry places certaine pits being digged downe into the ground 2 hundred or three hundred foot deep will discouer many great streames of Water which could not be from the receite of Raine Fourthly it cannot be imagined that so much raine could in a winter fall into one place besides that which the drouth of the earth consumes to nourish so mighty and great Riuers in the Earth as are Riuers running in a perpetuall course Fiftly all Riuers almost take their originall from some mountaines or other as Danubius from the Alpes and Nilus from the mountaines of the Moone in Africke Which places being extraordinary high are more vnapt to receiue water then lower places of the earth To the reasons that they alleadge for their opinions it is not hard to answer That riuers should be greater in winter thâ— in the summer the cause may be better giuen Because more moisture of the Aire falls into the brinke from externall Râ—ine or snow in winter then in summer and the ground being moister is able to drinke lesse then at other times which is also the reason why in hotter and dry Countreyes there is not such plenty of Riuers for we deny not but fountaines may sometimes be increased and sometimes diminished by addition of raine-water but that any such vast conâ—auity should be vnder ground as the receptacle of so much raine and should nourish so many and so great currents The second opinion is of those who thinke that the originall of all riuers and fountaines is from the Sea Which conceit hath beene strongly fortified by many Fathers of the Church and graue Diuines of later time which opinion is chiefly grounded vpon these reasons First because it seemes a most incredible matter that so much vaporous matter should be engendred vnder the earth to feed such a perpetuall course of water Secondly if all Riuers should not be deriued from the sea no reason could bee giuen why so many riuers dayly emptying themselues into the sea the sea should not encrease but continue in the same quantity Thirdly to this purpose they vrge the place of Eccles. 1. All riuers runne into the sea and yet the sea is not full To the place whence they came they returne that they may flow againe But this opinion seemes to bee shaken with a great difficulty For it is a hard matter to conceiue how the water of the sea being by nature heauy lower then the superficies of the earth as we haue demonstrated should ascend into high mountaines out of which we find springs of water oftentimes to arise for either it must ascend Naturally or by Violence not naturally for the foresaid cause because it is a heauy body If violently they must assigne some externall Agent which enforceth it to this violence This difficulty diuerse Authors haue laboured diuerse waies to salue Some amongst whom the chiefe was Theoderet haue fled to a supernaturall cause in Gods providence as though the water in it's own nature heauy should be notwithstanding enforced to the topps of the mountaines But this opinion seemes very improbable because although we cannot deny Gods miraculous and extraordinary working in some things yet all men haue supposed this to be confin'd within the bounds of nature And very strange it were to imagine that almighty God in the first institution of nature should impose a perpetuall violence vpon nature Others as Basill haue thought that the sea-water was driuen vpwards towards the tops of mountaines by reason of certaine spâ—rits enclosed in it Mare as he saith fluitans permeans per cuniculos fistularet angustos â—ox vbi obliquis aut certe recta in sublime surrectis excursibus se occupatum deprehenderit ab agitante compulsum spiritu superficie terrâ— vi disrupta erumpit atque for as emicat The same opinion almost in euery respect is ascribed to Plato in Phedone and Pliny 2 booke .65 chap. Quo inquit spiritu actu terrâ— pondere expressa siphonum modo eâ—â—cat tantâ—que a periculo decidendi abest vt in summa quoque et â—â—tissima exiliat Qua ratione manifestum est quare tot fâ—uâ—inum quotidiâ—nâ— accessu maria non crescant But this exposition will hardly satisfy him who desires to search farther then obscurity of words For first by admitting spirits as mouers of the waters they seeme to fall into a Platonick opinion before examined of vs concerning the heat of the sea-water Secondly I would demaund whether such spirits in the water to which they ascribe this motion be Naturall Agents or Supernaturall or Violent They cannot be naturall Agents For asmuch as they are supposed to driue and enforce the water against his owne nature For by nature as all men know it is apt to descend whereas here it is supposed to ascend by reason of such spirits They cannot bee violent agents because they bee perpetuall whereas no violent thing can be perpetuall Thomas Aquinas being desirous to shew how much fountaines could ascend out of the sea-water varies in opinion from the former and imagines that the fountaines and Riuer-water is drawne vpwards through the force of Celestiall bodies for the common good
to wit that it might water aswell the mettalls in the bowells of the earth as giue moisture and nourishment to Plants and liuing creatures dwelling thereon And this motion saith he although it be against the particular nature of the water is not altogether violent because elementary bodyes are bound by a certaine law to obey and subiect themselues to the heauenly so that motions impressed by them are not enforced on them by violence For albeit in some sort it thwart the phisicall disposition yet haue all creatures an obâ—dientiall aptnesse as they terme it to submit themselues to the superiour But this opinion of Thomas Aquinas in my conceit seemes lesse sound then the former For first Thomas had no need at all of these shifts holding some of his other grounds For in another place comparing the hight of the sâ—a and land one with the other he firmely maintaines that the sea is aboue the land and that it is bounded and restrayned from ouerflowing the dry land by the immediate power of the Creator If this be graunted what need there any ascent or drawing vp of the water by any externall power of the heauenly bodyes sith the remitting of this restraint of waterâ— in some places were sufficient to cause such springs and riuers in the earth Secondly his opinion cannot stand without manifest contradiction of himselfe for how can the water being of his owne nature heauy be drawne vpward without violence and thwarting of nature And whereas he alleadges for himselfe an obedientiall aptnesse in the elementary bodies to obey the superiour he shall find very little helpe to maintaine his part For this obedientiall inclination must be either according to the nature of the water or opposite vnto it or at least the one must be sudordinate vnto the other That it is according to the nature of the water he himselfe disclaimes and experience refutes because it naturally descends not ascends if it be opposite as indeed it must needes be he contradicts himselfe If the Physicall and obedientiall inclination be subordinate the one to the other I vrge that subordinate causes can produce no other then subordinate effects for asmuch as the causes and the effects are measured and proportioned the one by the other But wee plainly see that the motions of ascent or descent are diametrally opposed and contrary the one to the other so that they cannot otherwise proceed then from opposite and contrary causes Secondly this obedientiall aptnesse is commonly vnderstood of a creature in respect of his Creator in whose hand it is as to create all things of nothing so to reduce all things againe into nothing But this although it be aboue nature yet no way contradicts nature and easier it is to be imagined that the Creator should annihilate any Creature then letting it remaine in his own Nature giue it a motion against nature Moreouer 〈◊〉 we duly coÌ„sider nature in her course we shall find that the lower elementall Bodies onely concurre to the conseruation of the whole and of one another by following their own priuate inclination for the whole is nothing else then an orderly concent and harmony of all the parts from whose mutuall cooperation it receiues his perfection so that where any part failes in his owne office the whole must needs sustain dammage Thirdly it will hardly be resolued by any of this opinion by what meanes or instruments the heauenly or superiour Bodies can haue such an operatiue power ouer the water as to lift it vpward from his owne Center for neither can this thing be performed by motion hight or any InflueÌ„ce which are the three meanes of operation of celestiall Bodies on elementary I will not stand to proue every particular in this matter But onely would haue my aduersary to answere and giue an instance and speciality Another opinion there is of Aristotle followed by all Peripaâ—eticks who in his first booke of Meteors and 13 Chapter goes about to proue and maintaine that all Springs and Wells in the land are produced and generated in the bowells of the Earth by any vapours resolued into water which opinion he labours â—o strengthen in this manner It is certain saith he that the Earth hath within it much aire because Nature will no-where admit a vacuity But the Earth hath not onely many open but a great many secret holes and conâ—auities which cannot otherwise be filled then with aire Moreouer a great part of the Earth and other vapours therein contained and stirred vp by the force of the Starres are conuerted into Aire and that aswell the Aire included in the bowells of the Earth as vapours there also bred are perpetually conuerted into water This reason may seeme to perswade because it followes of necessity that the coldnesse of the Earth expelling their heat they should harden condensate be disposed at last to the generation of water whence also the cause 〈◊〉 giuen of the generation of water in the middle Region of the Aire although it be not alwaies thence bred aswell for other causes as for that the Aire by the heat of the Sunne is sometimes too hot and the vapours are too much attenuated and ratified so that the matter of Raine cannot be alwaies supplyed This would Aristotle haue to bee the originall of all Springs and Fountaines So that the water should first distill as it were drop by drop out of this vapourous matter and this moist matter so collected and drawne together should afterwardâ— breake forth out of the ground and so cause such fountaines Some reasons are also produced to proue this assertion for say the Authors of this opinion If the Springs and Riuerâ— should proceed from any other cause then they should take their beginning from Raine-water which is before refuted or from the Sea by certain secreâ— passages which opinion seemes too weake to endure examination First this seemes an argument that the Sea-water is commonly Salt but the water of Springs and Riuers is for the most sweet and fresh and therefore such Springs are not deriued from the Sea Secondly because we neuer find the Sea to be emptied which must needes be if it should giue beginnings to all such currents of water in the Earth Thirdly we haue already shewed that the superficies of the Earth is higher then the Water so that it cannot be conceiued how riuers should be deriued from the Sea To this opinion howsoeuer seeming probable and supported with the name and authority of so great a Philosopher I dare not wholly assent forasmuch as it thwarts the Testimony of holy Scripture and cannot otherwise stand with reason because it cannot well be imagined how so many vapours and so continually should be ingendred in the bowels of the earth to nourish so many and so great currents as we see springing out of the Earth for a very great quantity or portion of Aire being condensated and made Water will become but as a little drop The Aire according
to Aristotles grounds being by a Tenne-fold proportion thinner then the Water Moreouer the Aire in these places seated in the superficies of the Earth and higher then other places and by consequent neerer the Sun should rather be rarified and thickned because heat is the greatest cause of rarefaction as we shall shew hereafter for the reasons alleaged for these opinions they are drawne only from the weaknes of their assertion which hold that Fountaines are deriued either from Raine water or from the Sea both which wee haue examined briefly and whereof wee shall speake hereafter The Schoole of Conimbra not vtterly reiecting all the former opinions haue vndertakeÌ„ to forgoe an opinion as it were partaking of all pretending to say something more when indeed they produce nothing besides the former Their assertion they haue set downe in eight propositions which I will faithfully set downe and then censure The first is that in subterranean places vnder the superficies of the earth is hid a great quantity of water distinguished into Riuers Ponds and Lakes This they proue from the daily experiment of such as diggs diuerse wells and deâ—pe trenches in the Earth Who many times vnder the Earth find not only many riuers and ponds but many times happen vpon so great abundance of Water that they can neither find the bottome or bounds thereof To this they add an experiment of Philip and Macedon recorded by Asclepiadorâ—â— who caused many men expert in digging of mettalls to be let downe into an old and forsaken mine to search out the veines of mettalls to see whether the couetousnesse of antiquity had left any thing to posterity These men vsing great lights are said to haue found nothing there but great and vast riuers and great receptacles of waters This they also labour to confirme by many and suddaine eruptions and breaking out of waters out of the earth whereof we shall haue occasion to speake more hereafter This first position howsoeuer in it selfe true enough seemes litle to the purpose but we will proceed to the second which is this That when God in the third day of the Creation seperated the waters into one place and hid it in the cauerns and secret receptacles of the earth at the same time dispersed into diuerse parts of the earth a great quantity of water by diuerse occult passages and channels whence comes that great masse of waters vnder the earth which is before mentioned This they seeme to perswade by reason for say they as the wise Architect of all for mans sake and the rest of liuing creatures for the vse of man hath discouered the dry land by restrayning all the waters into one place so it was most necessary that he should inwardly water the earth by which stones mettalls mineralls other such things in the bowells of the Earth should in time grow and increase Also that some water should from hence breake vp out of the Earth for diuerse causes hereafter specified Finally as Philo-Iudaeus affirmes for the continuation of the parts of the earth which otherwise might by drouth be seperated and diuided The third proposition grounded on the two former is this That many riuers and fountaines in diuerse places by Gods decree arise out of the earth by quantities of waters hid in the cauernes of the earth which they proue by reasons drawne from the vtility of such fountaines and riuers springing out of the earth Fourthly they defend that all fountaines and currents were not so made and appointed in the first Creation because Histories experience teach vs that many haue broken out of the ground afterwards whereof we shall haue occasion to speake hereafter Fiâ—tly they affirme that if the opinion of Aristotle be vnderstood of all fountaines and flouds it cannot be approued for asmuch as it seemes sufficiently declared in the third opinion how such riuers might be generated without such vapours as also because many arguments and places of holy Scriptures seeme to proue the contrary As also the foure Riuers of Paradice created in the beginning of the world cannot bee guessed to draw their originall from such vapours as Aristotle imagines to which accord many ancient Fathers vpon these places recited in that opinion whereas all riuers are thought to fetch their originall from the sea Sixtly for the credit of their master Aristotle they are constrained to auerre that although his opinion cannot be verified of all riuers and fountaines of the earth yet if it be restrayned to some such perpetuall currents it may haue probability For asmuch aswe are to beleeue that many such large cauerns and holes are hid vnder the earth in which no small quantity of vapours may be ingeÌ„dred This probability is greater in those riuers which are lesser in quantity then the greater for the reasons before shewed Seuenthly they affirme that it is absolutely to be beleeued that not only great riuers and currents are deriued from subterranean waters which haue originall from the sea but also lesse fountaines and springs for the most part challenge the same beginning whence they labour to proue by this reason that in very few places of the earth there is found so perpetuall and apt disposition of vapours vnder the ground as to nourish so many and so great currents of water Eightly say they it cannot be denied but that Waters aswell proceeding from raine as that which is generated of vapours in the cauerns of the earth sometimes may flow into fountaines and riuers What concernes Torrents bred of raine they haue recourse to the reasons of the first opinion for others they make it also probable because we see by experience that Vapours and Aire compassed about with earth are by reason of the cold enuironing it turned into water This is indeed the opinion of those subtill Iesuits of Conimbra wherein although they giue a flourish as if they would defend their master Aristotle on whom they comment yet meane they nothing lesse but indeed warily sticke to the other of the Diuines and ancient Fathers of the Church touching the deriuation of all 〈◊〉 from the sea Which opinion howsoeuer in it selfe most probable they know not how to manage and defend against opposition For whereas they suppose that in the first sepâ—â—tion of the sea from the dry-land a great quantity of water was dispersed into diuerse hollow places cauerns of the earth from whence Riuers are deriued and made they haue not in any probable manner expressed how this water should perpetually flow and feed so many great currents For first I would aske of these learned fathers whether the water inclosed in the bowells of the earth whence these springs are fed be higher or lower then the fountaines arising out of them If it be higher whether the Riuers are continually nourished on the old store or a new supply be daily made That so great riuers should bee maintained so many thousand yeares out of the old prouision is most improbable because the
it seemes the same leuell This may for ought wee know be the originall of all Lakes and this also may bee a way or meanes whereby they empty and disburthen themselues being ouercharged with too much Water CHAP. X. Of Mountaines Valleyes Plaine Regions Woods and Champian Countryes 1 THe second variation in the figurature of the Earth is expressed in Mountaines Valleyes and Plaine Countreyes A Mountaine is a quantity of Earth heaped aboue the ordinary height of the land A Valley is the depth of the Earth between two Mountaines A plain is a space of Earth where there is found no notable rising or falling of the ground The distinction of the Earth according to it's externall figurature into Mountaines Valleyes and Plaines is very naturall because euery space or parcell of land in respect of the places neere or about it must either rise higher or fall lower or at least must beare an equality where the former is admitted there must needs be Mountaines swelling higher then the ordinary leuell of the Earth where the second is found the ground is indented with Valleyes and concauities where the third is to be seene there must be Plaines Here is to be noted that howsoeuer Plaines absolutely considered haue a sphericall surface for the most part especially if the Plaines be large because they concurre as circular segments to make vp the Spheare of the Earth yet they may be called Plaines because they so appeare to our sense which in so short a distance cannot perceiue the Sphericall figurature of the Earth Some Gramarians here curiously distinguish betweene mons or a Mountaine and Collis or a Hillock which is a little hill also betwixt Vallis which they would haue to be a low parcell of ground betwixt two mountaines and Conuallis which is a lower space only bounded on one part by a mountaine which Varro would haue to bee deriued from Cauata vallis but these Grammatical scruples are of small vse to such as spend themselues on greater matters because the ordinary vsual manner of speech euen amongst the vulgar will shut out all mistakes in this kind what deserues the study of â— Topographer concerning this shall be expressed in these Theoremes 1 Mountaines Valleyes and Plaines were created in the Earth from the beginning and few made by the violence of the Deluge It hath bin the opinion of some aswell Diuines as Philosophers that the violence of the Deluge hath extraordinarily altered defaced the Earth being the chiefe cause of Mountaines Valleyes therein but this opinion is contradicted by many reasons first out of the Text it selfe of Genesis where it is said that the water of the flood ouer-flowed by 15 Cubits the highest Mountaines to which may be added the Testimony of Damascenus who reports that in the time of the Deluge many resorted to a high mountaine of Armenia called Baris where they saued themselues which last clause although it expresly contradicts the holy Scriptures which speake but of Eight Persons that were saued yet it is a sufficient testimony to proue that such Mountaines were before the Flood and therefore not made by it Secondly had there followed so great an alteration of the Earth to cause mountaines as some imagine then should not the same places after the flood retain their names bounds and descriptions which they did before the flood the contrary whereof we find in that Moses writing of Paradice other places about 850 yeares after the flood was most exact in setting down the Names Limits and whole description of them as though they had remained to be seene in his dayes Thirdly had the violence of the waters beene so great as to raise vp mountaines in the Earth it would without doubt haue bin forceable enough to haue turned Riuers and haue changed them from one place to another cast downe and demolished the greatest Cities and buildings throwne downe and ouer-whelmed all plants and vegetalls on the Earth and as it were haue buried from all succeeding time the memories of the former ages so that little or nothing should appeare but this may bee proued otherwiâ—e by sundry Instances First that the Riuers haue still remained the same may appeare out of the place alleaged of Genesis where Moses speaking of the site of Paradice sets downe all the riuers of it exactly especially Tigris Euphrates out of the which we may easily gather in what longitude and latitude it stood had any thing bin altered in the course of the riuers it is likely Moses would haue specified it in this Historie that after ages looking for these places might not mistake or suspect the truth of his Relations Secondly that it hath not extinguished all Buildings and ancient monuments of the fathers before the flood may probably be coniectured by the testimony of Iosephus a writer of good credit who affirmeth that he saw one of the pillars erected by Seth the second from Adam which pillars were set vp aboue 1426 yeares before the flood accompting Seth to bee a hundred yeares old at the erection of them and Iosephus himselfe to haue liued some 40 or 50 yeares after Christ Now although we are not bound to credit all thar he relates yet may we trust him concerning such matters as happened in his time and that this pillar was set vp by Seth was neuer yet called in question but warranted by antiquity the like is recorded by Berosus of the Citty of Enoch that it was not demolished by the flood but remained many yeares after the ruines whereof as Annius in his commentary reports were to be seene in his time who liued in the time of Ferdinand and Isabella of Castile It is also reported by Pomponius Mela that the Citty of Ioppa was built before the flood of which Cepha was King whose name with his brother Phineus together with the grounds and principles of their religion were found grauen vpon Altars of stone All which are sufficient to proue the violence of the Waters not to haue bin so great to demolish all mountaines and monuments Moreouer it may be plainly proued out of the text that the Waters suffered the plants and trees of the Earth to grow and remaine as they did before because it is said that when Noah the second time sent out the Doue she returned with an oliue branch in her mouth which no doubt she had plucked from the trees after the trees were vncouered for otherwise she might the first time haue found it floating on the Waters a manifest proof that the trees were not torne vp by the roots or turned topsy turuy but remained fixed in the Earth as they did before Fourthly had the water suffered this extreame violent motion as whereby it might make many mountaines I aske whence this motion should come it could not bee from the naturall motion of the water which is to moue downward for what descent of waters can bee in a Sphericall round body where no part is higher or lower That
there was any wind to driue and enrage the Waters is very vnlikely because it is said that God caused a wind to passe vpon the Earth and the Waters ceased so that there was no wind till the Waters sanke Lastly wee may argue from a finall cause that this inequality in the superficies of the Earth was before the flood because it is certaine that all things were in as good or better estate then now with vs and that the Earth was adorned with all varieties of creatures as well for profit as delectation Now it is found by experience that all commodities agree not to all places but some are found in the mountaines at all sorts of mettalls mineralls Plants Vegetalls for the most part prosper best in the vallies and plaines Also that the mountaines serue for a shelter to guard the vallies from the rigor of cold and wind both for the better conueniencie of mans life and encrease of fruits for the vse of man Whence we may conclude that it is farre more probable that the great Mountaines were so created in the beginning and not made by the flood yet can wee not deny but that some small Hillockes might be made by the flood and afterward by the industrie of man which haue raised great fortresses and bulworks which afterward decaied were made great heaps of Earth as we see many in this land but this is of small note not worthy consideration in comparison of the great mountaines of the Earth whereof we especially treat 2 The perpendicular height of the highest mountaines seldome exceeds 10 furlong This proposition depends on the authority of Eratosthenes a famous Mathematician who being employed by his King found out by Dioptrick Instruments the height of the highest mountaines not to exceed the quantity aboue specified Cleomedes extends this a little farther and would haue some mountaines to attaine the height of 15 furlongs of which height he would haue an high rock in Bactriana called by Strabo 11 libro Sisimitrae Petra But yet if we credit Pliny on Dicaearchâ—â— who measured the Mountain Pelion accoÌ„pted the highest he found it not to exceed 1250 paces which make 10 furlongs and Solinus relates the mountaines of Thessaly to be higher then else-where are to bee found But this opinion howsoeuer supported by the authority of the ancient and famous Mathematicians hath been called in question as well by moderne as ancient writers Many matters are miraculously or rather fabulously spoken of the Mountaine Athos in Macedonia of Cassius in Syria and another of the same name in Arabia of the mountaine Caucasus and others which Histories notwithstanding are related by no meaner Authors then Aristotle Mela Pliny and Solinus yet it is not hard to imagine that these Authors might bee deceiued in those times either trusting to other mens relations or wanting Mathematicall instruments to search these matters Of the Mountaine Athos it is much wondred at that it should cast a shadow from Macedonia into the market-place of Myrhina a towne of the Iland Lemnos distant from Athos 86 miles But this as our learned Countriman Mr Hues well obserues can bee no great argument of such a miraculous height because the mountaine Athos situate East from Lemnos as may be gathered from Ptolomies Table may without any great wonder cast a very long shadow the Sunne either rising or setting Other matters are related of this mountaine Athos more strange then the former to wit that it should in hight transcend the Region of the raine and wind which they would striue to confirme out of an old tradition that the ashes heaped together on certaine Altars built on the top thereof were nener blowne away but remained in the same manner as they were left to which may be added out of Strabo that they who inhabit the top of this mountaine can see the Sunne 3 houres before those who inhabit neere the sea The like is reported by Aristotle of the Mountaine Caucasus that for the extreame height the top of it enioyes the Sun-beames a third part of the night Litle lesse is spoken by Pliny and Solinus of the mountaine Cassius in Syria and by Pomponius Mela of the mountaine Cassius in Arabia But how fabulous and incredulous these things are Petrus Nonius and other Mathematicians haue sufficiently demonstrated out of the grounds of Geometry more absurd by farre seemes that which Eustathius reports of Hercules pillars celebrated by Dionysius Perieges for their admirable height whereas they are found not to exceed 100 ells making one furlong a height according to Strabo not exceeding the Aegyptian Pyramides and comming short of certaine Indian trees neare the Riuer Hyarotes whose Meridian shadowes reach 5 furlongs These errours in the ancient might seeme veniall had they not bin seconded by latter writers Of the Mountaine Tenariffe in the Canaries Scaliger is bold to report out of other mens relations that it riseth in height aboue 15 leagues which make 60 miles but Petricius more bold then he would haue it 70 miles Litle lesse is spoken of Pico amongst the Azoris Inâ—ulâ— and the Mountaine Andi in Peru But to confute these relatioÌ„s we will vse this argument It is reported by the Spanish writers which haue spoken of this place that the topps of these Mountaines scarce any one or two moneths in the yeare are free from snow Now that snow should bee ingendred aboue 60 or 70 miles aboue the ordinary plaine of the Winter or Earth is against the iudgmeÌ„t of our best Astronomers because as they haue obserued out of Eratosthenes measure the highest vapors seldome reach so farre as 48 miles in height euery way from the Earth This argument may as well serue to confute these ancient opinions before mentioned had they not been so fabulous as scarce to deserue any solide confutation 3 The ordinary height of the Land aboue the Sea in diuerse places is more then the hight of the highest Mountaines aboue the ordinary face of the Earth We haue probably shewed out of former grounds that as the ordinary height of the Earth is answerable to the ordinary depth of the Sea so the hilles and mountaines in proportion answere to the whirle-pooles and extraordinary Gulphes of the Sea but it is to be imagined that the depth of the Sea in the maine Ocean is farre more below the superficies of the Earth then those other whirle-pooles and Holes extend themselues below that depth But to proue this by a more sensible argument we will compare the one with the other so farre forth as Mathematicians by experience haue guessed for it is found by Mathematick Instruments as wee haue proued in the precedent Theoreme that the highest Mountaines seldome or neuer mount vpward aboue ten furlongs which is an English mile and a quarter but the hight of the Land in some places where appeare no such hills is obserued to be much more to proue which assertion we can haue no fitter argument then the fresh Springs
of Riuers for it is manifest that all Riuers are higher at the Spring or fountaine then at the place where they disburtheÌ„ themselues into the sea Now although water is apt to slide away at any Inequality yet it is most probable that in greater riuers especially where the waters fall oftentimes with violence as at the Cataracts of Nile much inequality must bee granted in the Declivity of the ground supposing yet the water for euery mile to gaine two foot in the Declivity of the ground we shal find the hight very neere to equalize the hight of the highest mountaines although 2 foot in a mile is farre lesse then can be imagined in so great a Riuer The Riuer which I take for an example shall be Nilus which we shall obserue to runne about 50 Degrees from South to North which resolued into miles will make 3000 accompting for euery mile 2 foot we shall haue 6000 foot which will be neare these 10 furlongs being a mile and 5 parts then allowing for these mighty Cataracts where the water falls with so great a violence we must reckon a number of feet far greater then this measure for euery mile must the hight of land aboue the sea be much more then of the mountaines 4 Mountainous Regions are commonly colder then other plaine countries This proposition is not absolutely to bee vnderstood without a limitation for some plaine Countries neere the Articke Pole may be colder then some hilly Regions neere the Aequatour in regard of other concurrent causes but here we speake as the Logicians vse caeteris paribus comparing two places either together like or not much different or at least in our vnderstanding abstracting them from the mixture of all other considerations that this Theoreme is worthy credite diuerse reasons stand in readines to iustifie the first may bee drawne from the cause of heat in Inferiour Bodies which is the reflexion of the Sunne beames Now that this reflexion is of more strength and validity in plaine then in hilly and mountanous Countries is euident first because as the Optickes teach the rayes are more ioyned and combined in a plaine then in a conuex superficies for howsoeuer the whole Earth be of it selfe Sphericall yet the conuexity being not sensible by reason of the vastnes of the Circle whereby the conuexity is made lesse it may optically be called a plaine superficies Secondly it is taught in the Optickes that a reflexion is of more validity in an equall then in an vneuen and ragged superficies such as is found in Mountaines and vneuen places A second reason why mountanous Regions should exceed others in cold may be the vicinity of them to the middle Region of the Aire for of all the Regions if we beleiue Aristotle the middle is the coldest as being more seperate from the Sunne the fountaine of heat and the higher Region farther off from the reflexion of the Sunne-beames then the lower Now sith the parts of the Earth are affected with the quality of the Aire it must needs stand with reason that the more it shall approach to the middle Region the more it must partake of its quality Thirdly that this is consonant to obseruation reasons are vrged by experience of all Trauailers who report the topps of Mountaines euen in the midst of Summer to be couered ouer with snow although situaâ—e vnder or neare the Aequinoctiall Circle Of this nature are the Alpes in Italy the Mountaines of the Moone in Africke Andâ— in Peru and Tenariffe in the Canaries That snow should be an effect of cold I need nor labour to confirme A fourth reason may bee drawne from other effects of cold or heat for it is daily proued by experience that such diseases as chiefly follow heat especially the Pestilence in Aegypt and such plaine Countries are wonderfull prevalent whereas hilly and rockic Countries by the benefit of Nature stand in little feare of such Inconueniences Lastly no greater argument can be drawne then from the disposition of such men as inhabite such hilly Regions who haue all the Symptomes of externall cold and internall heat Insomuch as â—odin seemes to make a Harmony and â—oâ—cent betwixt the Northerne man and the Mountanist 〈…〉 Southerne man such as inhabite plaine countries ascribing to the former externall cold and internall heate to the latter externall heate and internall cold How farre this comparison will hold we shall haue more occasion to discusse here after when we come to the consideration of the Inhabitants â— Mountaines since the beginning of the world haue still decreased in their quantity and so will continually decrease vntill the end This obseruation Blaucanus I know not how truly ascribes to his owne Inuention but to what Author soeuer we owe it we must needs acknowledge a pleasant speculation grounded on good reason This Theoreme to demonstrate the better we will first lay these grounds oftentimes before-mentioned First as appeares by testimony of holy Scripture the figure of the Earth was in the beginning more perfectly Sphericall ouer-whelmed euery-where with Waters 2ly That a seperation was made by translocation of the parts of the Earth in such manner as some places admitting of concauities became the receptacle of the waters other places wheron these parts of the Earth were heaped together were made mountanous 3. Hence will follow that the Earth thus swelling vp in high mountaines is out of his naturall site and position therefore according to the law of nature will endeuour by litle and litle to returne to her former state and condition Now that the Earth hath sensibly suffered such a change since the beginning it is easie to shew out of experiments the causes we shall find to be the water aswell of the Rain as Riuers which we shall demonstrate by these Reasons 1 We see Riuers by litle and litle continually to fret and eat out the feet of mountaines wheÌ„ce the parts thus fretted through by coÌ„tinuall falling downe weare out the mountaines and fill vp the lower places in the valleyes making the one to encrease as the other to decrease the whole Earth to approach nearer to a Sphericall figure then before which seemes to be warranted by a place in Iob 14 where he saith to God The mountaine falling commeth to â—ought the rocke is remoued out of his place The waters weare the stones thou washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth From these Riuers in the valleyes continually eating through the parts of the Earth as the feete of mountaines are caused those slow but great Ruines called Labinae a lambendo by which sometimes whole Townes and Villages haue bin cast into the next great Riuer 2 To proue that Raine water challengeth a part in this diminution of mountains we may shew by the like experieÌ„ce we see plainly that Raine-water daily washes downe from the Toppes of mountaines some parts of the Earth whence it comes to passe that the highest mountaines
are harder and more rocky then others as being more able to resist this violence of the water Hence also it happens that old buildings being erected in the sides of mountaines haue their foundations after a time vncouered and are much subiect to Ruines an instance whereof may bee giuen out of the Romane Capitoll whose foundation according to the relation of George Agricola appeares now plainly aboue the ground which without question was heretofore deepe rooted in the Earth In Plaines and valleyes we find all things to happen contrary wise to wit that all places in regard of their superficies are raised much higher then they were in times past The reason whereof may easily be giuen out of the great quantity of the Earth carried by the washing of the Raine from the Topps of mountaines into the valleyes whence we may perceiue old houses heretofore fairely built to be now almost buried vnder ground and their windowes heretofore set at a reasonable hight now growne euen with the pauement so some write of the Triumphall Arch of Septimius at the foot of the Capitoll Mountaine in Rome now almost couered with Earth insomuch as they are inforced to descend down into it by as many staires as formerly they were vsed to asceÌ„d In like sort we see in old Monasteries Religious houses their lower roomes windowes doores very far couched vnder grouÌ„d of which great incoÌ„uenience we cannot suspect the Architects iudgment but rather our fore-mentioned cause from this burying of parts of some houses vnder ground it may be gathered that the farther they are vnder ground so much ancienter they are as we may obserue heere with vs in Oxford that our most ancient Colledges haue the windowes of their lower roomes some-where altogether choaked vp with Earth without or at least halfe way in somuch as the flore within is found to bee farre inferiour in height to the street without This is also confirmed by Architects who in digging vp old foundations before they came to firme ground whereon to erect a building are enforced first to remoue away the Rubbish or as they terme it the Made-ground wherein oftentimes they find Wood Iron-Instruments old coine with diuers other Trash of this Nature An instance we haue in some of the lower places in Somersetshire where some vpon occasion digging the Earth somewhat deep haue found great Okes turned topsy turvy with their Roots vpwards To coniecture with some that this was caused by Noah's Floud seemes to be very improbable 1 because as we haue formerly shewed in this Chapter the Water in the Deluge could not haue so violent a motion to procure such an alteration in the parts of the Earth 2 It cannot so well be imagined how such Trees should remaine so long a time without putrefaction wherefore we cannot well cast it on any other cause then the addition of the earthly parts brought by raine from the mountaines into the valleyes and so by some Land-flood which partakes much of slimy and earthly matter dispersed abroad vpon the land about Now on the contrary part wee find in few places of mountaines such made-ground which hath before beene moued This will also appeare out of the industry of our Low-countreyman who by baying vp the Riuers into certaine Artificiall Channels the ground about hath been much raised where on the contrary side the forcing of the water into higher places oftentimes is found to fret through the Earth and make it lower What we haue spoken of the effects of Riuers and Raine in diminishing the greatnes of the mountaines and exalting of the vallyes we may in some sort find in the sea For the bottome of the Sea being lower then the Earth and many great Riuers continually running from the Earth into it it is manifest that there is carried in their current a great quantity of earth in so much as by the heaping of sand and earthly rubbish the mouthes of great Riuers are in time choaked vp and commodious hauens spoyled and remoued farther into the land of which alternall transmutation of the Sea and Land wâ— shall speake hereafter for present instance need to goe no farther then diuerse Townes in Deuon which according to the Relation of ancient men haue heretofore been faire hauens able to receiue great ships to which notwithstanding at this time a small boat cannot arriue except in a full Tide The like whereof is reported by Aristotle 1 of a place in Egypt called Delta made by the heaping vp of sand and slime brought by Nilus from the Ethiopian mountaine 2 of Ammania Regio which in times past being Sea through the slime conuayed in the Riuers became afterwards as a standing poole which in processe of time waxed dry and ioyned it selfe to the Continent 3 Of Maeotis Palus that the dry land enuironing it round is so much encreased that ships of that burthen cannot arriue which could in times past within 60 yeeres before which is also in some sort testified by Polybius 4 The like is related of Bosphorus Thracius and many other places recorded by Pliny of which we shall speake hereafter From these obseruations Blancanus would inferre these consectaries 1 That the Earth was not from the beginning endowed with mountaines 2 That it should not so continue vntill the end of the world â—nd vnlesse the Fire whereof the Scripture speakes should preuent it the whole Earth should in the end be ouer-whelmed with waters as in the beginning and so be made void of habitation but on such coniectures I dare not too boldly venture being speculations built on no sufficient grounds All which can hence warrantably be collected is expressed in our former Theoreme 2 Of the Figurature of Countreyes in Mountaines Valleyes and Plaines we haue spoken It is requisite here wee speake somewhat of Woods and Champian Countreyes 3 A Wood is a Region or space of Land beset with trees A Champian Region is a space of Land either altogether voide or scarce furnished with trees Some Criticks here curiously distinguish in Latine betwixt Sylua Lucus and Nemus by Sylua vnderstanding a space beset with trees ordained to bee cut downe but Lucus was a place where trees were not ordained to bee cut downe but reserued sacred For in such groues they did anciently vse to offer sacrifice as may appeare by diuerse places out of the Old Testament where the Heathenish manner of worshipping was forbidden and sometimes reproued in the Kings of Iuda and Israel That which the Latines call Nemus is a Groue or Wood ordained onely for pleasure and recreation but the discussing of these businesses rather belong to a Grammarian then a Geographer who takes little notice but of those matters which most principally and remarkeably belong to any Region wherefore omitting other curiosities wee haue distinguished onely betweene a Woody and a Champian Countrey whereof as wee haue defined one is beset with a multitude of trees the other with few or none What concernes a
Peninsula's the most famous are Africa Scandia Taurica Chersonesus Peloponnesus and America Peruana That little parcell of land which ioynes this Peninsula with the maine land we call an Istmus which is a narrow necke of land betwixt two seas ioyning two Continents such as are Istmus Corinthiacus and Istmus Cimbricus more famous are those two narrow lands whereof the one lyeth betwixt Peruana and Mexico in America the other diuiding Africke from Asia A Promontorie is a great mountaine stretching it selfe far into the sea whose extremity is called a Cape or Head of which the most remarkeable are the Cape of good hope in Africke 2. The Cape of S. Vincent in Portugall 3. The Cape of Comary in Asia 4. The Cape de la Victoria in America Our obseruation concerning this distinction shall bee comprised in this Theoreme 1 Peninsula's by the violence of the sea fretting through the Istmus haue oftentimes beene turned into Ilands and contrariwise sometimes Peninsula's by diminution of the sea made of Ilands This proposition is not hard to proue if any credit ought to bee gâ—uen to ancient writers for it is commonly related that Sicily was heretofore ioyned to Italy Cyprus to Syria Euboea with Boeotia Besbicum with Bythinia all which at this day are Ilands separated and diuided from the continent The like hath beene coniectured of our Brittany which some imagined heretofore to haue beene ioyned with the continent of France about Douer and Calais as may seeme probably to be gathered out of the correspondency of the Cliffs whereof we haue spoken in this chapter before the agreement of the soyle the smalnesse of the distance and many more arguments remembred by vs else-where Also it hath beene obserued on the other side that the sea in some places leauing his ancient bounds hath ioyned some Ilands to the land making Peninsulas of Ilands In this sort if wee belieue antiquity was Antissa ioyned to Lesbos Zephirium to Halicarnassus Ethusa to Mindus Promiscon to Miletum Narthucusa to the Promontory of Parthenius In these antiquities it behooues euery man to iudge without partiality according to reason not ascribing too much to fabulous narrations wherein those ages did abound neither yet shewing himselfe too incredulous For as much as we cannot charge these Authors with any manifest absurdity The speciall and particular arguments by which wee should establish our assertion wee must according to the rules of method reserue to the speciall part where we shall treat ofspeciall Countreyes CHAP. XII 1 OF the perpetuall Accidents of the land we haue spoken somewhat it remaines in this place wee treat of the Casuall 2 The casuall I call such as happen not ordinarily at all times such as are Inundations and Earth-quakes 3 An Inundation is an ouerwhelming of the land by Water Howsoeuer it bee certaine out of holy Scriptures that God hath set the sea his certaine bounds and limits which it cannot passe yet the same God sometimes to shew his speciall iudgement on some place or age hath extraordinarily permitted the sea sometimes to breake his appointed limits and inuade the Iurisdiction of the land This wee call a Deluge or Inundation The inundations which euer haue been obserued on the Earth are of two sorts either Vniuersall or particular An vniuersall is that whereby the whole face of the Earth is couered with water whereof we haue onely two examples The first was in the first creation of the world when as wee read in the Scriptures the whole face of the Earth was round inueloped with Water which couered the tops of the highest mountaines till such time as God by a supernaturall hand made a separation of the Waters from the dry land But this is improperly called an Inundation because the same properly taken implies as much as an ouer-flowing of that which was dry land before The second as we read in Genesis happened in the time of Noah when God for the sinne of man drowned the whole world breaking open the cataracts of Heauen and loosing the springs of the deepe Particular inundations are such as are not ouer the whole Earth but in some particular places or regions Such a deluge according to Genebrardus happened in the time of Enos wherein a third part of the Earth was drowned The like iâ— spoken of Ogygeâ— King of Athens that in his time happened a very great Inundation which drowned all the confines and coasts of Attica and Achaia euen to the Aegean sea In which time it was thought that Buras and Helice Cities of Achaia were swallowed vp whereof Ouid in his Metamorphosis speakes thus Si quaeras Helicen Buran Achaidos vrbes Inuenies sub aquis Buras and Helice on Achaiâ—n ground Are sought in vaine but vnder seas are found As famous was the Inundation of Thessaly in Deucalions time mentioned not onely by profane writers and Poets but also by S. Augustin Ierom and Eusebius which would haue it to happen in the time of Cranaus who next after Cecrops gouerned Athens This inundation was exceeding great extending it selfe not onely ouer all Thessaly and the regions adioyning westward but ouerwhelmed the greatest part of Italy The same or other happening neere the same time oppressed Aegypt if Eusebius may obtaine credit Hence some would haue the people of Italy to haue been called Vmbrij as Pliny and Solinus report quia ab imbribus diluuij superfuissent But this Etymologie seemes too farre fetcht There are also two other notable Inundations meÌ„tioned by ancient writers which fell out in Aegypt from the Riuer of Nilus whereof the first couered all the neither Aegypt which was subiect to Prometheus and hence as Natalis Comes obserues was the fable drawne of the vulture lighting on Prometheus liuer afterwards slaine by Hercules For as Diodorus Siculus obserues the Riuer Nilus for the swiftnes of his course was in ancient time called an Eagle This Riuer afterwards did Hercules by his great â—kill and iudgement streiten and bound reducing it into narrow channels whence some Greeke Poets turning Hercules labours into fables faigned that Hercules slew the Eagle which sed on Prometheus brest meaning that hee deliuered Prometheus out of that sorrow and losse which hee and his people sustained by that Inundation The second of these Egyptian flouds happened about Pharus in Egypt where Alexander the great built Alexandria To these may bee added many more of lesser moment as well in ancient times as in our dayes As that of Belgia in some parts mentioned before on another occasion and not many yeeres since in some parts of Somerset-shire with vs in Britanny 1 No vniuersall Inundation of the Earth can be Naturall The other may depend on some Naturall causes Of the causes of Inundations many disputes haue beene amongst Naturall Philosophers some haue trusted so farre to Nature that they haue ascribed not only particular Inundations but that vniuersall Deluge in the time of Noah to second causes of this opinion was Henricus Mecliensis a Schollar of
Helicâ— and Bura before mentioned in the Corinthian straites some haue beene of opinion that the whole Mediterranean within Hercules pillars was in time past habitable land till it gaue way to the violency of the Seas inuasion But in this I credit nothing without farther ground The like vncertainties are also related of the Atlantick Ilands greater then all Africa swallowed vp of the Ocean which Columbus was said in a sort to haue discouered in the Sea finding a great shallow fraught with weedes where he supposed this great Iland to haue stood But I rather beleeue that this Atlanticke Iland spoken of by Plato was either a Poeticall fiction as Moores Vtopia with vs or at least the Continent of America perhaps in those dayes obscurely discouered but the discouery lost againe to after ages 3 Certaine Regions by reason of great Riuers are subiect to certaine Anniuersary Inundations which commonly happen betwixt the Tropicks in the Summer without the Tropicks in the Winter The former clause is proued by experience almost in all great Riuers in the world which at some times of the yeere swell higher ouerflowing their bankes and drowning a part of the land about them But this happens not alike in all places for in Riuers included within the Tropicks as Nilus Niger in Africa and Oregliana in America with others there-about this Anniuersary Inundation is in the SuÌ„mer else-where it is commonly in the Winter For the former these causes may be assigned 1 The melting of the snow on the tops of the great mouÌ„taines in those parts which is greatest of all when the Sun is neerest or verticall vnto them which we are to accompt their Summer 2 The daily raines showres such Regions are subiect vnto These showres are much more frequent greater when the Sun is neerest their verticall point or in it The reason whereof we haue formerly shewed to bee this That the Sun daily in those parts drawes vp more vapours then he can dissipate consume Whence meeting with the cold of the middle Region of the Aire they are condensated into drops so turned into raine For the later case in riuers situat without the Tropicks coÌ„monly happens the contrary to wit that such Inundations happen rather in the winter then in the Summer whereof these reasons may bee rendred 1 Because Raine and showres whereof such ouer-flowing are ingendred in those parts are more frequent in winter then in the Summer 2 whereas neere the Equatour the snow is known to melt with the Sunne from the tops of high Mountaines in other parts it seldome or neuer melts at all as may bee thought vnder the Pole or thereabouts or else if it melt it happens as in the temperat Zones we see it doth oftner by raine then the heat of the Sunne 4 Next are we to speake of Earthquakes An Earthquake is a sensible motion and shaking of the parts of the Earth Amongst other remarkeable affections of a place which are not so ordinary an Earthquake hath no small consideration being oftentimes a meanes which God vseth to shew some great and extraordinary iudgement But not to spend more on this subiect then may seeme meete for Geography wee will shew the causes and kindes of it by which we may the sooner come to learne what Regions and places of the Earth are most subiect to this affection which is necessary of a Cosmographer to bee knowne Concerning the cauâ—es of it much dispute hath been among Philosophers some haue ridiculously affirmed that the Earth is a liuing creature and suppose with no lesse if not greater abâ—urdity that the Earth being in good temper doth rest settle quietly according to her naturall disposition From which temper if she be any way remoued as if she were sicke or pain'd in some part she shakes and shiuers The relation of this opinion is a sufficient confutation Thales Milesius would haue the Earth as a shippe to swimme on the Waters which being sometimes as a vessell by tempests turned on one side too much it takes a great quantity of water which is the cause of Earthquakes But this opinion is a poeticall fiction Little more probable is the opinion of Democritus that the Earth drinking in raine water more then her cauernes can well containe the water reuerberated backe is cause of such a motion But who can imagine that drops of raine falling into the Earth can bee reuerberated backe with such violence to cause such an extraordinary motion of the Earth Anaximenes Milesius was of opinion that the Earth her selfe was cause of her own motion for the parts of it being taken out as it were and broken fall downe sometimes into a great depth causing the vpper face of it to shake and tremble to which opinion also Seneca seemes to subscribe in the sixt booke of his naturall questions the 10 chapter To which also accords the Philosophicall Poet Lucretius in these words Terra superna tremit magnis concussa ruinis Subter vbi ingentes speluncas subruit aetas Quippe cadunt toti montes magnoque repentè Concussu laâ—è dispergunt inde Tremores Et meritò quoniam plaustris concussu tremiscunt Tecta viam propter non magno pondere tota The vpper Earth seaz'd with great ruines shakes When surrowed age her vast ribbes ouertakes For mountaines great fall downe and with the blow The Tremblings are dispersed to and fro Not without reason when a small-siz'd waine Makes houses neere the way to shake amaine This last opinion seemes to carry more shew ofprobability then the former neither can any man deny that sometimes the Earth in some parts may shake by the breaking downe of some subterranean parts whose suddain and violent motion may cause the rest being continuate to entertaine the like conuulsion But yet more generall seemes the opinion of Aristotle who would haue Earthquakes to proceed from a spirit or vapour included in the bowells of the Earth as he testifies in the 2 of his Meteors the 7 chapter For this vapour finding no way to passe out is enforced to returne backe and batred any passage out seekes euery corner and while it labours to breake open some place for going forth it makes a tumultuous motion which is the Earth-quake Now least it should seeme improbable that so great a masse of Earth should bee moued and shaken by so thinne and rarefied a body as is a fume or vapour Aristotle in the same place shewes the admirable force of Winds as well vpon the Aire as on the bodies of liuing creatures In the Aire because experience shewes that being stirred vp by a Windy vapour it sometimes is knowne to moue rockes from one place to another to plucke vp trees and shrubbs by the rootes and sometimes to throw downe the strongest and most stately buildings In mans body because by the stirring vp and agitation of the spirits which are the Instruments of vitall and animall functions sometimes one sicke man can doe that which cannot
bee performed by many stronger and abler men as it hath beene tried sometimes that a Franticke man hath broken very strong chaines wherwith he hath been bound which many other men could not doe Neither on the other side can it seeme strange that many and great exhalations vapours and spirits should be ingendred vnder the Earth For as much as the Earth is heaâ—ed many wayes Many wayes may bee specified whence such fumes should arise as first from the Sunne and Starres Secondly from the subterranean fires hid in the bowels of the Earth Thirdly in the winter-time by an Antiperistasis the heat collecting it selfe downeward to the inner parts of the Earth which was before in the outward parts of it The argument by which Aristotle would confirme this opinion is drawne as well from the time as from the places wherein Earthquakes vsually happen from the time because then most Earthquakes are obserued to bee when most exhalations are inclosed in the bowels of the Earth to wit in the Spring-time and the Autumne From the places because for the most part spongie and hollow Regions which may drinke in a greater quantity of exhalations are commonly most subiect vnto it for although many exhalations are dayly inclosed in the wombe of the Earth yet Earthquakes fall but seldome because the matter is seldome so strong and violent as to shake the Earth Wherefore some Philosophers haue expressed three principall wayes which make this Earth-quake first when a great quantity of exhalations is suddenly ingendred which for the greatnesse of it cannot be contained in so little a space for then being almost choked it seekes a way to fly forth Secondly when the Earth is condensated by cold and driues the exhalation from one place to another which flying hither and thither shakes and strikes the Earth Thirdly when the exhalation the cold compassing it round by an Antiperistasis begets heat within it and so is rarified for so being vnable any longer to confine it selfe to its former place it breakes forth and so shakes the Earth We must here note by the way that not onely exhalations are cause of the distemperature in the Earth but also subterranean fires and windes all which by some are iudged to bee of equall force in this action for the diuision of Earthquakes so farre forth as it concernes the difference of places we must vnderstand that it may be either Vniuersall or particular An Vniuersall Earth-quake is that which shakes all the whole Earth in euery part at least in the vpper face whereof I suppose no naturall cause can be giuen but the immediate and miraculous power of God such an Earth-quake happened at the time of our Sauiours Passion whereof Dydimus a graue and ancient Writer left record But that which is said to haue happened in the time of Valentinian mentioned by Orosius in his 7 booke of Histories 32 Chapter is thought by graue Authours to be no vniuersall Earth-quake howsoeuer for the large extent of it it was thought to be generall A particular Earth-quake is that which is bounded in some one or more particular places which for the causes before-alleaged cannot be so far extended because the cauernes and conuexities of the Earth where such vapours and exhalations are contained cannot bee ordinarily so great as to extend to many Kingdomes and Regions 1 Regions extreame cold or extreame hot are not so subiect to Earth-quakes as places of a Middle temper The reason is because in places extreame cold exhalations are not so soone ingendred and in so great a quantity as in other parts on the other side in places which are extreame hot the exhalations which are bred are soone consumed with excesse of heat both which may be confirmed by Instances It is obserued that in the cold Northerne parts as Olaus Magnus writes in his 10 booke and 13 Chapter Earthquakes are very seldome or neuer so it is obserued by Pliny in his 2 booke and 18 Chapter and Albertus Magnus in his 3 booke of Mâ—teours tract 2 That places which are very hot as Egypt are seldome troubled with this shaking of the Earth whereas places betwixt both which are seated in a more temperat climate find it not so strange 1 Hollow and spongie places are more subiect to Earth-quakes then solide and compacted soyles We must here vnderstand that hollow places are either such as lye open to the Aire or are hollow onely vnder and close vpward The former sort are not at all subiect to the molestation of Earth-quakes because the exhalations fly out without impediment but the latter being more apt to ingender and retaine such matter must of necessity bee more troubled This is most plainely obserued in Phrygia Italia Caria Lydia wherein such motions are more frequent To confirme this a little farther wee obserue that hilly and mountainous places suffer this violence oftner then other parts because there most commonly cauernes and concaâ—ities are more frequent then in plaine countreyes But here by the way may bee obiected that sandy and slimy countryes are many times more free from Earth-quakes then other places an instance whereof was giuen before in Aegypt wherein neuer any Earth-quake as most Authours affirme or at least but one as Seneca hath beene obserued The reason may bee giuen that sandy places without any strife suffer the exhalatioÌ„s to disperse themselues that slimy places want sufficient receptacles to entertayne them 3 Ilands are more often troubled with Earth-quakes then the Continent This haue they found to be true in many Ilands of the Mediterranean Sea and others also chiefly in Cyprus Sicylia Euboea Tyrus Angria Lippora and the Molucco Ilands betwixt the East and West-Indies The cause some would haue to bee the Antiperistasis or circumstancy of the waters which is apt to engender greater store of exhalations in the Earth But neuerthelesse that Ilands are more subiect to Earth-quakes then Continents I dare affirme no otherwise then probable because some places in the Continent seeme very much affected especially in Europe aboue other places Constantinople and Basilaea if we credite authors which haue written of this matter in Asia China and other Regions adioyning thereunto CHAP. XIII 1 THe Naturall affections of the Land haue hitherto beene declared Wee are in the next place to treate of the Ciuill Those wee terme Ciuill which concerne the Inhabitants 2 An Inhabitant is a man dwelling in a certaine place The name of an Inhabitant as we haue before noted may be taken either generally for any liuing creature residing in a certaine place in which sense Brute beasts may be called Inhabitants which signification is only metaphoricall or else for a Reasonable liuing creature whose abode is setled in any place or Region in which sense we here take it The consideration of the Inhabitants we haue reserued for this last Treatise following as well the methode of the first creation as of Moses in the narration For God proceeding in the first Creation according to the
pardon on her knees Thou art a mirrour by reflexion taught To faigne defects yet guilty art of naught Thy stewards which by thy indulgence thriue Were they as iust as thou art free to giue We all might share a portion of that store Which now thy sonnes deserue thy slaues deuoure Thy will is seldome measur'd by the Law But power whose greatnesse thy Edicts can awe Slights thy decrees O would Imperiall Ioue But once descend from his high Court aboue To see thy innocent and maiden hands By thine owne seruants basely shut in bands These Caterpillars by his three-forkt Rayes Would soone be scorch'd from ofâ— thy sacred Bayes And thou restor'd vnto that pristine-hue Which ancient times admir'd ours neuer knew All this time as in a fit of phrensy I haue spoken I scarce know what my selfe I feare mee too much to or of my Countrey and Vniuersity and too little for the present purpose Now as one suddainly awaked out of sleep no otherwise then in a dreame I remember the occasion We haue all a semel Insaniuimus and as a learned man of this Vniuersity seemes to maintaine no man hath euer had the happinesse to be exempted from this imputation And therefore I hope my Reader will pardon mee this once if in such a generall concourse and conspiracy of mad men I sometimes shew my selfe mad for company 3 Windy Regions produce men of wild and instable dispositions but quiet regions more constant and curteous The cause of this disparity is apparant because a quiet mind and apt for contemplation cannot bee in such a man as is perpetually tossed to and fro For no man can well contemplate except hee haue his mind purged and free from motion of the body and it is noted by Physiognomers that wiser men are slower in the motion of their body and mind whereas mad and franticke men are alwaies busied in body and mind Hence a reason may be giuen why Mariners and sea-men being continually tossed with the wind are obserued to be more barbarous inhumane and inconstant Another reason of this inconstancie and change may bee drawne from the change of the Aire caused by diuersity of winds For wind being an exhalation affecting the aire and deriued from the Earth must needs be diuerse in regard of the diuerse regions from whence it bloweth what cause soeuer be imagined it is most certaine that people in windy regions haue been more warlike though perhaps lesse humane As in Thracia France Circassia Lybia Portugall Persia Noruegia and Polonia But in places in the same tract where the wind hath a lesse domination we shall find them more tractable but lesse valiant as Asyria Asia minor Italy for the most part and Egypt In like manner the people of Gallia Narâ—onensis Aquitany and Prouence in France are obserued to bee the most warlike although situate in a more Southerne tract Being daily infested partly by the Vulturnus partly by the Corus which in these parts hath great power 4 Sea-borderers are generally more witty and adorned with more knowledge then Inlanders though subiect to greater vices That Artes Ciuility and many inuentions are owed to the sea as the mother of encrease seemes a matter out of question For sith all nations haue not found out all arts and inuentions it must follow necessarily that they haue been propagated by traffick and commerce with forraine nations Whence it comes to passe many times that Sea-borderers by conference with out-landish people haue gotten that knowledge and experience of things for which others haue with great cost and danger aduentured on long and tedious trauailes Which I take to bee the reason why Themistoâ—les would haue a Citie depending on the sea and not as Caelius Rhodoginus imagines that hee might transferre the power from the Nobility to the Ship-masters Thus we find sciencâ—s and learning to haue been deriued from the Chaldeans to the Egyptians from the Egyptians to the Phaenicians from them to the Grecians and Romans And in our dayes euery man can speake how much the industrie of the Venetians Spaniards Hollanders English and Portugalls haue effected in both Indies in trafficking with them deriuing together with their merchandize much of their owne knowledge and religion But as the Ilanders and sea-bordering people haue excelled the Inland nations in skill and knowledge so also in vices Which stands with reason whether we ascribe it to their naturall wit or condition of life or education For the greatest wits are commonly matched with the greatest vices as depending on such a temper of the braine whose smallest change may beget madnesse according to that prouerbe Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura insaniae Also Artes and Sciences turned to the worst vse become more dangerous then naked simplicity for there is nothing to be feared more then armed furie This might bee the cause why Plato in his booke de Republica warnes men to auoid the Sea as the mother of wickednesse Which is seconded by Strabo who deriues the of-spring of Robbery pillage and murther from the Sea By which argument the old Athenians were induced to draw the Inhabitants as much as they could from Sea-trafficke to husbandry and tillage of the Earth Whence came at first as some imagine that fable of Neptune striuing with Minerua for victory against whom she preuailed by shewing the iudges a mandrakes apple as an especiall rarity of the land CHAP. XVI Of the dispositions of Inhabitants according to their Originall and Education 1 IN the third place there may be a diuersity of Inhabitants in disposition either in respect of their Of-spring or their Education In the former we are to consider the dispositions of nations so farre forth as it depends from their first stocke and originall By the first stocke and originall of nations wee vnderstand not here either the first ofspring from the loynes of Adam or the second from Noah because these two are common to all nations of the world and therefore cannot vary the seuerall dispositions of people But the more mediate or speciall stocke whence they sprang which is found to haue no small power in the nature and temper of posterity In this of-spring two things are chiefely remarkeable first how people suffer an alteration in respect of their seuerall Transplantations Secondly in the mixture of colonies both which we will shew in these Theoremes 1 Colonies transplanted from one region into another far remote retaine a long time their first disposition though by little and litle they decline and sufâ—er alteration All mutation requires a certaine distance of time Sith no motion according to Aristotle is in an instant neither is it a small time can alter the naturall complexion of men For as much as the children for the most part deriue their nature from their parents and euery mans constitution is commonly radically grounded and not easily subiect to externall change Thus we see the Children of Blackmores being transplanted into Europe for diuerse descents to