Albertus Magnus who in his Commentaries vpon the great Coniunctions of Albumazar obserued that before Noahs flood chanced a coniunction of Iupiter and Saturne in the last degree of Cancer against the constellation since termed Argo's ship out of which he would needs collect that the floud of Noah might haue beene fore-showne because Cancer is a watry signe and the house of the Moone being mistrisse of the Sea and all moist bodyes according to Astrologie which opinion was afterwards confirmed by Petrus de Alliaco who affirmes in his Comment vpon Genesis that although Noah did well know this flood by diuine Reuelation yet this coniunction being so notable hee could not bee ignorant of the causes thereof for those were not only signes but also apparant causes by vertue receiued from the first cause which is God himselfe Further to confirme this assertion hee would haue Moses by the cataracts of Heauen to haue meant the the great watry coniunction of the Planets A reason wherof hee seemes to alleage because it is likely that God would shew some signe in the Heauens by which all men might be warned to forsake their wicked courses But notwithstanding this curious opinion I rather cleaue to those which thinke this Deluge to be meerely Supernaturall which I am induced to belieue for diuers causes vrged by worthy writers First because this is set downe in Holy Scripture for a chiefe token or marke of Noahs extraordinary faith dependance vpon Gods promises which had been much diminished and of small moment had it any way been grounded on the fore-sight of second causes For this was no more then might haue beene discouered to the rest of the wicked worldlings who no doubt would in some sort haue prouided for their safety had they receiued any firme perswasion of this dreadfull Deluge To which others adde a second reason that second causes of themselues without any change or alteration are not able to produce such an admirable effect as the drowning of the whole World for it is not conuenient say they that God the Author of Nature should so dispose and direct the second causes that they might of themselues bee able to inuert the order of the Vniuerse and ouer-whelme the whole Earth which hee gaue man for his habitation But this reason is thought very weake for as much as it seemeth to imply a new creation The conceit of a new Creation is pronounced by a learned Countreyman of ours both vnlearned and foolish for whereas it is written saith hee that the fountaines of the deepe were broken open it cannot otherwise be vnderstood then that the waters forsooke the very bowels of the Earth and all whatsoeuer therein was dispersed made an eruption through the face of the Earth Now if wee compare the height of the waters in this deluge aboue the highest mountaines being onely 15 cubits with the depth of the semi-diameter of the Earth to the Center we shall not find it impossible answering reason with reason that all these waters dispersed vnder the Earth should so far extend as to drowne the whole Earth for the semi-diameter of the Earth as Astronomers teach is not aboue 35 â— miles wherein the waters contained and dispersed may bee sufficient for the hight of the greatest mountaines which neuer attaine 30 miles vpright whereas this distance of 30 miles is found in the depth of the Earth 116 times Secondly the extension of the Ayre being exceeding great it might please God to condensate and thicken a great part thereof which might concurre to this Inundation We willingly assent to the worthy Authour that this Inundation might bee performed without any new creation Notwithstanding we cannot hence collect that it was Naturall But to compose the difference the better and to shew how far Nature had a hand in this admirable effect we will thus distinguish that an effect may be called Naturall two manner of wayes First in regard of the causes themselues Secondly in respect of the Direction and Application of the causes If we consider the meere secondary and instrumentall causes wee might call this effect Naturall because it was partly performed by their helpe and concurrence But if we consider the mutuall application and coniunction of these second causes together with the first cause which extraordinarily set them a worke we must needs acknowledge it to be supernaturall For other particular Inundations in particular Regions we may more safely terme them Naturall as directed and stirred vp by second causes working no otherwise then according to their owne naturall disposition Two causes concurring together are here most notable whereof the first is the great coniunction of watry Planets working on the water their proper subiect the other the weaknes of the bounds and banks restraining the water which by processe of time weare out and suffer breaches both these causes sometimes concurring together cause an Inundation which assertion wee may lawfully accept but with this caution that Almighty God working by second causes neuerthelesse directs them oftentimes to supernaturall and extraordinary ends 2 Particular alterations haue happened to Bounds of Regions by Particular Inundations Howsoeuer some inundation haue not continued long but after a small time leâ—t the Earth to her owne possession yet others haue been of such violence as they haue beene found to haue fretted away or added and so altered the bounds and limits of places which besides diuerse examples produced by vs in our former chapter Aristotle seemes to acknowledge in the 1 booke ofhis Meteors the 14 Chapter where he saith that by such Accidents sometimes the Continent and firme land is turned into the Sea and other-where the Sea hath resigned places to the Land for sith the agitation or mouing of the water depends ordinarily vpon the vertue of Heauenly bodyes if it should happen that those Starres should meet in coniunction which are most forceable and effectuall for stirring vp of Tempests and Flouds the Sea is knowne to rage beyond measure either leauing her ancient bounds or else vsurping new By this meanes as we haue shewed in the former Chapter some Ilands haue been ioyned to the Land and some Peninsula's separated from the Land and made Ilands somewhere the Sea hath beene obserued for a great space to leaue the Land naked as Verstegan coniectures of the most part of Belgia which hee sayes was in ancient time couered with water which besides many other arguments hee labours to proue out of the multitude of fish-shells and fish-bones found euery-where farre vnder ground about Holland and the coasts thereabouts which being digged vp in such abundance and from such depthes could not saith hee proceed from any other cause then the Sea which couered the whole Countrey and strewed it with fishes Lastly that the Sea might seeme as well to get as lose shee hath shewed her power in taking away and swallowing vp some Regions and Cities which before were extant Such fortune had Pyrrha and Antisâ—a about Meotis
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
was neuer granted to haue any being or existence much lesse any causality in nature Some perhaps will say that not the vacuum it selfe but the euitation and auoiding it is the cause of the motion I deny not but this may in some sort be interpreted a cause but the doubt is not answered For wee seeke not a Finall but an Efficient cause and a curious searcher into Nature will hardly rest in a meere finall cause For the finall cause so farre forth as it is a cause preceding the effect can no otherwise bee conceiued than in the intention of the Agent then must enquiry bee made againe what the Agent should bee and so will the probleme rest vncleered 1. Because one parcell of the Aire could not moue another except the same were first moued it selfe and so a new Agent must of necessity bee found out 2 The Agent and the thing moued or Patient ought to bee two separate and distinct bodies But the parts of the ayre meeting together become one continuate body No shift is there left for these Philosophers but one distinction wherein they distinguish betwixt the Vniuersall and Speciall forme The Aire as they affirme according to his Speciall forme ascâ—nds vpward from the Center of the Earth yet by the Vniuersall for the conseruation of the whole vniuerse it may sometimes suffer a contrary motion as to moue downeward toward the Center In which distinction they suppose they haue cut the throat of all contrary reasons But who so vnderstands himselfe shall finde it but as a weake reed to hurt his hand which rests on it for a second enquiry will bee made what this vniuersall forme should bee For by it they vnderstand of necessity either an Internall forme or Nature or an Externall resultancie and harmony of the parts such as wee haue described in the first Chapter of this booke If they vnderstand this latter it cannot any way bee a cause of this motion because it followes and ariseth out of this motion concurring with the rest and no way preceeds it wheras on the contrary part euery cause is to goe before his effect Secondly this vniuersall forme or nature compared with the speciall there would arise a Subordination and not a Coordination or opposition forasmuch as the speciall is subordinate to the generall or vniuersall But subordinate causes can produce no other than subordinate effâ—â—ts But here we see the effects or motions to bee quite opposite the one to the other in asmuch as the motion of Descent in the Aire which they ascribe to the vniuersall forme is cleane opposite to the motion of Ascent ascribed to the speciall nature Thirdly these Philosophers vrging the necessity of Nature to preserue the Vniuerse are much deceaued in the manner and meanes thereof True it is that all Earthly and heauy bodies are directed and disposed to the conseruation of the earthly Globe But euery such body as wee haue shewed before seekes first the safeguard and preseruation of it selfe and secondarily by the safeguard of it selfe the preseruation of the whole For how can any part when it neglects its owne safety endeauour the preseruation of the whole sith the whole is but one compounded of many parts And therefore can it not bee auoided but that the disorders and disharmony of one part should preiudice and destroy the whole frame If they turne to the other part and grant this vniuersall forme to bee Internall many reasons stand opposite For first I would demand whether this vniuersall forme bee simple or compounded It cannot bee simple because it would alwayes produce one simple and vniforme effect but experience hath tâ—ught the contrary because wee shall not alwayes find the aire to descend but sometimes to moue obliquely to the left or right hand backward and forward as when it enters into the house by a doore or windowe On the other side it cannot well be called a compound forme because all formes the more vniuersall they are the more simple they are to be accounted because the speciall includes more composition than the generall Moreouer all compounded substance arise out of simples which are to bee esteemed first in nature Secondly I would aske whether this vniuersall forme bee vna numero the selfe same indiuiduall in all the parts and bodies or diuerse according to the diuersity of the said Bodies It cannot bee one and the selfe same in all bodies because according to the opinion of Aristotle the whole vniuerse is not one continuate body composed of essentiall parts but rather a heape or masse collected and digested out of many bodies Secondly the forme being thus one indiuiduall would bee singular or speciall not vniuersall If they affirme that this forme is diuerse according to the diuersity of the bodies it cannot bee the cause of this motion or descent in the Aire For this motion as they suppose is destined and appointed to no other end than to comfort Nature in her distresse when shee stands in feare of rupture or dissolution But how can this forme being bounded within the limits of the Aeriall superficies perceaue or feele this exigence of Nature in other Bodies Whatsoeuer they can say in this is altogether vncertaine and not warranted by any sound demonstration A second reason for the naturall descent of the Aire may bee drawne from a possible supposition from which wee may enforce a true conclusion Let vs suppose a portion of Aire by some violence to bee carried aboue his proper orbe as for example to the space which by our common Philosophers is ascribed to the Element of Fire neere the concaue superficies of the Moone I would here demand whether this portion of Aire thus transposed would ascend higher or descend lower or rest still in the same place It could not ascend higher first because in this wise it should be moued farther out of his owne place whereas according to the principles of Philosophie all bodies transposed from their proper places haue an aptnesse or inclination to returne againe to their proper seats and not to roue farther off Secondly this granted the Aire should inuade the place of the fire and so the Elements should suffer a confusion which Aristotle holds absurd Thirdly there cannot be imagined in that higher orbe any point or center to which it should direct his motion and therefore there is no such motion found or it must bee very irregular If on the other side it were granted that such a portion of Aire so separated should descend I aske againe whether they hold this motion naturall or violent It cannot bee a violent motion because it is directed to his owne naturall and proper place and this motion in the Elements is alwayes accounted naturall Last of all it cannot rest still in the same place because all bodies forced out of their places all obstacles being remoued must needs returne vnto their proper place Wherefore no other starting hole is here left to our opposites but that they
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
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
but after 10000 paces it was taken out of sight I would here aske the Geographers quoth Patricius whether in so short a distance wherein the bottome for the whole space surpassed not two foot in depth the water could ascend to 72 foot Had it beene my chance to haue gone with Patricius ouer the lake I might perhaps by obseruation of this experiment haue giuen a more probable coniecture of the cause Neuerthelesse being vnacquainted aswell with the place as the truth of his obseruation I may perhaps guesse somewhat at his errour First then whereas hee auerres that passing along for the space of a 1000 paces a Tower of 72 foot high seemed cut off by the midst which at 10000 vanished out of sight I confesse that in so short a space the swelling of the water inter-posed could not be so great as to hinder the sight and bee the cause of this effect wherefore some other Accidentall cause must bee sought out For the finding out of which to come as neere as I can I would make inquiry whether this passage of the Boat was directly forward from the Tower on the Water no land inter-posed or Indirectly side-wise in such sort as the shoare might be placed betwixt their sight and the Tower mentioned The former no wayes can be imagined foras much as it not only contradicts the grounds of our receiued Philosophie but also of Patricius himselfe for giuing the Earth a plaine surface or Angular or any other forme it were impossible that in so short a distance such an effect should happen out of the figurature of the water If the passage were oblique or indirect in such wise as the shoare might any way inter-pose it selfe betwixt the Boat and the Tower it were easie to imagine how such an experiment should happen for the land by which the Boat might bee carried might haue an ascent by such Degrees as the Tower at 1000 paces might bee for the halfe of it obscured and at last bee altogether taken out of sight This reason then of Patricius seemes rather to bee ascribed to the Land then the Water The third reason of Patricius is drawne from the Homogeneity of the Water If the water saith hee haue a round superficies the parts of it would challenge the like figure because in homogeneall bodies the same reason is to bee giuen of the whole and of the parts But the parts of the water are not Sphericall as may bee proued by diuers instances 1 Because water in the mouth of a pot seemes not to haue any such Sphericall roundnesse for although at the brinke it seeme to bee restrained aboue the pot yet no such swelling appeares in the middle 2ly That riuers are kept in by their bankes which otherwise would flow abroad 3ly That riuers when by the melting of snow they swell so great as they can hardly bee contayned within their bankes doe not seeme higher in the middle then in other places 4ly If any man from one side of the riuer to the other leuels at any marke he may surely hit it which hee should not doe if there were any Sphericall swelling in the midst which might hinder the sight 5ly and lastly it seemes so vnlikely that the water should rise in the midst that it is more probable it should be more hollow in that we plainly obserue that all filth and rubbish carried from the bankes into the riuer is wont to settle and swimme in the midst Notwithstanding all these argumēts of Patricius our ground is yet vnshaken 1 Concerning small drops and water in the mouth of pots it is found to be round and Sphericall though not exactly the reason wherof wee shall declare hereafter This roundnesse I confesse serues not any way to the confirmation of this assertion because the Sphericity and roundnes which wee auerre to be in Water hath for its center the center of the whole Earth and therefore in so small an arch or section as the bredth of a pot or a drop of water cannot possibly haue any sensible appearance or existence And we must needs confesse that this experiment was very fondly vrged to this purpose by some of our Geographers and such as stands not with any demonstration Which granted sufficiently answers all the reasons last vrged by Patricius except the last For as much as he requires in the Water a sensible appearance of this roundnesse in euery riuer or little parcell of water which cannot bee admitted Touching the last thing which hee vrgeth that all the rubbish and filthy matter is from the bankes carryed into the middle whence he would inferre the middle to be hollow and lowest we can answer diuers wayes 1 That this experiment is not alwayes certaine because euery man may oftentimes see the contrary to wit that such filthy rubbish rather vseth to cleaue to the banks of the riuer then to float into the midst 2ly That if any such thing happen it is because of the torrents which run violently from the banks into the midst carrying with it such things as are light the steepnesse of the place being greater the current wider or swifter But nothing here can bee concluded to proue the water according to his naturall force to be either plaine or hollow in the midst which this Aduersary vndertooke to demonstrate CHAP. III. Of the Partiall magneticall affections in the Spheare of the Earth 1 HItherto haue we discoursed of such affections of the Terrestriall Spheare as are Elementary and knowne heretofore to ancient Philosophers It followes in the next place that we treat of Magneticall affections to wit such as follow the magneticall nature of the Earth Of the vertue and propriety of the Load-stone many haue written but few sought out the true nature The inuention of it is attributed to a certaine heards-man who hauing his shooes shod with iron and an iron-pike in his hand resting himselfe on a quarry of Load-stone could hardly remoue himselfe frō thence But this seemes rather a pleasant Poeticall inuention then a true History hauing no good Author to auouch it But to let passe the first Inuention being a matter rather indebted to chance then industrie no small difficulties haue discouered themselues in the inuention and finding out of the causes of Magneticall properties Somewhat I cōfesse hath been written of such magneticall affections as haue been most knowne such as is the vertue Attractiue by which it drawes to it selfe iron or steele as also the vertue Directiue by which a needle touched with the Magnet directs and conformes it selfe North and South The rest of Magneticall proprieties I find in ancient Writers as little knowne as their causes if any matter herein were broached it was merely coniecturall and depending on no certain demōstration neither had we any certaine or satisfactory knowledge of this thing vntill such time as it pleased God to raise vp one of our Countrymen D. Gilbert who to his euerlasting praise hath troden out a new path to
directiue power more remarkable then in magneticall bodies especially in their Direction and Variation motions treated of hereafter in place conuenient to which for a further confirmation of the Theoreme wee referre the Reader 9 The Radicall facultie of the magneticall body being somewhat spoken of aswell in their motiue as disponent vertues Wee are in the next place to speake of the deriued motions which arise out of these faculties 6 These motions magneticall are either partiall or totall The partiall wee call that by which the parts of the Earth are magnetically moued and conformed as well one to the other as to the whole terrestriall globe 7 The magneticall partiall motions are Coition Direction Variation and Declination Magneticall Coition is that motion by which magneticall bodies are ioyned and apply themselues one to the other For the knowledge of this magneticall motion we need goe no farther then the Iron and Steele which wee shall obserue to moue unto the Load-stone and cleaue vnto it if so be it bee placed within the Spheare of his vertue This motion is commonly called Attraction but improperly as is obserued by D. Gilbert 1 Because Attraction seemes to suppose an externall force or violence by which one thing is carryed and moued vnto another but the Coition is meerely naturall as proceeding from the internall forme of both the bodies 2 Attraction supposeth the force of mouing to bee onely in the one party and the other to bee meerely passiue and not actiuely concurring to this motion whereas in the magneticall coition both parts are mutually inclined by nature to meet and ioyne themselues one to the other Not that the force of motion in both parts is alwayes equall because one magneticall body is greater and stronger then the other and then the one part seemes to stand still and draw the other vnto it although there bee in this part so resting an inclination to the other which mutuall inclination of coniunction in magnets we may easily see in two magnets of equall quantity and vertue which being set at a conuenient distance will so moue that they will meet in the mid-way Some haue gone about to parallel this Attractiue force of the Load-stone with the Attractiue force of Ieat or Amber which wee see by a naturall vertue to draw vnto it selfe little strawes and other such like matter But hee that truely vnderstands the nature of a magneticall body shall finde a great disparity First because the Ieat or Amber which are comprised vnder the name of Electricall bodies drawes vnto it by reason of his Matter whereas otherwise the cause of the Magneticall Coition is to bee sought in the forme as being too subtile a thing to spring from a materiall substance Secondly Electricall bodies draw and attract not without rubbing and stirring vp of the matter first and presently faile if any vapour or thicke body should be interposed But in a magneticall motion wee find no such matter because it requires no such preparation or rubbing of the stone nor is hindred by interposition of solid bodies as wee proue in this place Thirdly the Load-stone moues and prouokes to motion nothing els but other magneticall bodies but the Electricall will draw any little thing as straw haire dust and such like Fourthly the Magnet will lift a great waight according to his vertue and quantity but Ieat the smallest and lightest things Lastly the Electricall bodies as Gilbert well confirmes by experiments draw other bodies vnto them by reason of a moist effluence of vapours which hath a quality of ioyning bodies together as wee see by the example of two stickes in water at a certaine distance which will commonly moue till they meet together But the magneticall coition cannot bee other then an act of the magneticall forme Of the cause of it many Philosophers haue freely spent their vncertaine coniectures rather out of a feare to bee esteemed ignorant then of confidence to be accounted learned Most run vpon the forme of the mixt body which growes from the composition of the foure Elements but this opinion is very feeble and cannot goe without crouches for sith all mixt formes grow out of the temperament and disposition they adde nothing to the thing compounded but diuersly modificate what was before in the simple Elements it cannot bee imagined how such an affection as this should bee onely found in the magnet and no other mixt body Indeed we ascribe this affection to the forme as the immediate cause but by this forme we vnderstand not the forme of the mixture resulting out of the mixture and temperature of the foure qualities but the magneticall forme of all globous bodies such as are the Sunne Moone Starres and this Terrestriall Spheare whereon we liue whose natures receiued the stampe in the first creation for the preseruation of this integrity Hee that shall seeke for the originall of all formes of this kinde in the mixture and constitution of the foure Elements shall labour much and finde little and neither at last be able to content himselfe or instruct others except wee suppose a man sufficiently taught when hee heares ordinary matters expressed in exoticke and artificiall tearmes For my owne part I content my selfe with a rule of Biel the Schooleman That when an immediate effect proceeds from an immediate cause wee ought not to search farther why such a cause should produce such an effect Euey man being demanded why the fire is hot is ready to flye to the forme of fire and alleage this as the cause but should hee inquire further why the forme of fire should bee the cause of heat hee might perhaps puzzell a whole Academie of Philosophers and neuer proue himselfe the wiser For the further illustration of this motion these Theoremes will seeme necessary 1 The Magnet communicates his vertue to iron or steele if it be touched with it Experience teacheth that any iron-instrument touched with the Load-stone receiues instantly the same vertue Attractiue But the manner how this vertue should bee communicated on so sleight a touch hath been controuerted The common Philosophers haue imagined that certaine little parts of the Loadstone are separated from it in the touch which cleauing to the iron or steele cause this Attraction But that this vertue cannot be communicated by any corporall processe or any such little parts cleauing to the iron is not so easie to imagine for first it seemes impossible that with a bare touch these parts should bee separated from the magnet or at least should bee so fast linked to the iron Secondly these parts being so little and insensible cannot haue so much vigour as wee see an Iron will haue at the touch of the Load-stone Thirdly the Loadstone can worke vpon the iron notwithstanding any body interposed which is an euident signe that the iron it selfe is of a magneticall temper Wherefore to shew a reason of this effect we say That Iron is a mettall excocted out of the Load-stone which albeit it
caused commonly two wayes either by contagion naturally incident to diuerse places or by hostile Inuasion and deuastation of this latter arise two maine effects The first is the want and scarcity of Inhabitants which should dresse and manure the ground to make it more fruitfull and accommodate to mans vse The second is their pouerty and captiuity whereof the one makes them vnable the second vnwilling to effect any great matter for the benefit of the Land A good instance whereof wee may finde in the land of Palestine which in times past by God himselfe was called A land flowing with milke and hony for the admirable pleasantnesse and fertility of the Soile yet at this day if wee will credit trauellers report a most barren Region deuoid almost of all good commodity fit for the vse of man in the ruines of which sometimes famous kingdome euery bleere-eyed iudgement may easily read Gods curse long since denounced Which strange alteration next vnto Gods anger wee can ascribe to no other cause then the hostile inuasion of forraine enemies which hath almost lâ—ft the land waste without the natiue Inhabitants whence it could not chuse in a short time but degenerate from the ancient fruitfulnesse The like may we finde in all those miserable Regions which groane at this day vnder the tyranny of the vsurping Turke whence a prouerbe runnes currant amongst them That where the Turkes horse hath once grazed no grasse will euer aftâ—r grow which signifies no other then the barbarous manner of the Turkes hauing once conquered a land to lay it open euer after to deuastation for being for the most part warlike men trained vp in martiall discipline they little or nothing at all regard the vse of husbandry whence in short time a Countrey must needs â—urne wild and vnfruitfull To these causes we may adde the influence of heauenly constellations which being varied according to the times produce no small effects in the changes and alterations of the earth The diuerse alteration in the disposition of the Inhabitants which was our second point we haue referâ—â—ed to another place neere the end of this tract to which is properly appertaines 3 Plâ—ces hauing long continued without habitation are seldome so healthy and fit for dwelling as those which haue beene inhabited This Proposition I haue knowne to bee warranted by the Testimonie of many experienced Nauigators in so much as I presume few men can doubt of the truth of it who hath either beene a Traualler himselfe into farre Countreyes or at least hath read other mens discoueries The onely matter therefore wee here intend is to produce certaine causes of this effect to giue satisfaction to such as make a distinction betwixt the knowledge of the effect and inquiry of the cause The first cause which I can alleage is the industrie of mankinde inhabiting any Countrey mentioned in the former Theoreme out of which ariseth a twofold effect 1 The improuing of the Soyle by remouing all such impediments as otherwise would proue noysome to mankinde for whereas all things growing of their owne accord are suffered to rot into the ground in like manner what other can wee expect but Fennes Fogges and noisome vapours altogether hurtfull to the welfare and life of man 2 The profit of mans industrie is no lesse apparent in manuring the ground and opening the vpper face of the Earth which being composed of diuerse substances sendeth forth many times certaine hot fumes and vapours which in many cold Countreyes mollify the vsuall rigour of the Aire which most offends the Inhabitants This reason is giuen by my Countrey-man Captaine Whitborne for the extreame cold which some men professe themselues to haue tried in New-found-land which neuerthelesse according to many mens description is knowne to lye farre more South then England for the natiues of the Countrey being for the most part driuen into the North part by the Europeans who vsually trade there for fish and they themselues liuing altogether on Fish from the Sea or some wild beasts on the land as Beares Deare and such like without any manuring of the ground for herbage The Soyle by them is in a manner left altogether vnmanured so that neither the soyle can bee well cleansed from noisome vapours arising from the putrefaction of herbage rotting as I said into the ground or left free to send out such wholsome fumes and vapours from its interiour parts which may warme the Ayre and preserue mankind 3 A third reason drawne from mens Industries that those Countreyes which haue inioyed Inhabitants by the continuall vse of Fires haue their Aire more purged and refined from drossie and noisome vapours which vsually arise out of a contagious soyle daily infected by putrefaction for scarce any nation hath beene knowne so barbarous and ignorant which hath not the inuention and vse of Fire neither is any infection of the aire so pestilent and opposite to humane constitution which the breath of fire will not in some sort dispell If any man obiect the distance of houses and villages wherein fire is vsed which seeme to claime a small interest in the change of the ayre hanging ouer a whole Countrey let him well consider the quicknesse of motion and fluidity of the Ayre passing as it were in a moment from one place to the other and hee may soone answer his owne obiection All those reasons hitherto mentioned an inhabited Region owes to mans industrie which wee generally touched in the precedent Theoreme The second cause which is as a consequent of habitation is the necessity of breathing of people liuing in any Region of the earth whereby may follow two effects 1 A certaine measure of heat impressed into the aire as wee see in any roome in a great throng of people by reason of their breathing together in one place 2 The assimilation of the Aire to humane bodies by a continuall respiration These alterations of the aire might perhaps to common apprehensions seeme small and insensible But hee that considers how great a quantity of aire is requisite for a mans respiration and the space and extent of motion together with the multitude of Inhabitants in a populous Countrey would hold it no strange matter that the breathing of men should breed such an alteration of the aire wee finde by experience that strong built houses being left tenantlesse will soone fall into decay not so much for want of reparation as the foggy vapours and moisture caused by want of Respiration The like whereof in some proportion may we imagine to be in a region wanting Inhabitants and depriued of this benefit of nature CHAP. II. Of the Generall Adiuncts of Places 1 IN a place Topographically taken two things are to bee considered 1. The Adiuncts 2 The Description The Adiuncts are such proprieties as agree to speciall places 2 Such Adiuncts agree to a place either in respect of the Earth it selfe or in respect of the Heauens Those which agree to a place in respect of
it will euer prosper 4 Why our Mastiffes a seruiceable kinde of creature against the molestation of Wolues and such hurtfull beasts transported into France should after a litter or two degenerate into Curres and proue altogether vnseruiceable 5 Why with vs in England some places produce Sheep of great stature but course wooll other places small Sheep but of very fine wooll which being naturally transplanted will in a generation or two so degenerate the one into the others nature that the greater sheep loose somewhat of their greatnesse yet improue their fleeces as the other increase their stature but loose much in the finenesse of their wooll 6 Why many places at the ridge of the mountaines Andi in America cannot bee passed ouer without extreame vomitting and griping euen vnto death 7 Why a Riuer in the Indies should haue such a nature to breed a great long worme in a mans leg which oftentimes proues mortall vnto the patient with infinite the like examples found in Geographers concerning the nature and accidents of Fountaines Hearbs Trees Beasts and Men themselues as wee shall shew hereafter so much varied according to the disposition of the soyle what wiser answer can an ingenious man expect then silence or admiration for to make recourse to Sympathies Antipathies and such hidden qualities with the current of our Philosophers is no other then in such sort to confesse our owne ignorance as if notwithstanding wee desired to bee accounted learned for beside the difference of the termes wherein euery Mountebanke may talke downe a iudicious Scholler I see no aduantage betwixt a Clowne which sayes he is ignorant of the cause of such an effect or of a iuggling Scholler which assignes the cause to bee a sympathie antipathie or some occult quality I speake not this to countenance supine blockishnesse or to cast a blocke in the way of curious industrie The former disposition I haue alwayes hated and the latter still wished in my selfe and admitted in others All which I can in this matter propose to a curious wit to bee sought must bee reduced to one of these two heads for either such admirable effects as we haue mentioned must arise from some Formall and Specificall vertue in the soyle or from some extraordinary Temperament made of a rare combination of the Elements and their secondary mixtures as of Hearbs Stones Mineralls and vapours arising from such and affecting the Aire of both which wee shall haue some occasion to treat in the particular Adiuncts of places yet so as I feare I shall neither giue my selfe content or my Reader any sufficient satisfaction But In magnis voluisse sat est 11 Hitherto of the common imbred Adiuncts of the Earth Topographically taken Next we will speake somewhat of the Magneticall Affections of a place These are in number two viz Variation and Declination We haue in our former Treatise of the Magneticall nature of the Earth handled diuerse other affections growing from the Magneticall Temper and disposition of the terrestriall Globe whence some man might here collect this repetition to bee altogether needlesse or at the least imperfect omitting many other of the Magneticall Affections To this I answer that it is one thing to speake of these Affections as they agree to the whole Spheare of the Earth Another thing to consider them as they are particular proprieties and markes of particular places and Regions In the former sort haue we besides the Variation and Declination handled many other affections of the Earth magnetically considered Wee here onely speake of these two as they are speciall markes and proprieties of sqeciall places which it behooues a Topographer to obserue as a matter worthy of obseruation in the description of any place The vse shall be commended vnto vs in these two Theoremes 1. The Magneticall Variation is of no vse for the first finding out of the Longitude yet may it serue to good purpose for the Recognition of a place heretofore discouered The reason of this wee haue shewne in our former booke because the variation seldome or neuer answeres proportionally to the Longitude as some of the ancients on false grounds haue surmised whence no true consequence can bee drawne from the variation of a place to the finding out of the Longitude yet may it bee of speciall vse for the new finding out of such places as haue formerly by others beene first discouered so the variation were first by them diligently and faithfully noted and obserued first because few places in the Earth can exactly and precisely agree in the selfe-same variation but in some Degree or minute will bee found to varie Secondly if any two places should bee found to accord in the same Degree of Variation yet comparing the variation with the degree of Declination wee shall commonly finde a difference for as much as places agreeing in variation may notwithstanding varie in the Declination Thirdly if two places should be equalized in both as wee cannot deny it to bee possible yet the comparing of these two Magneticall motions with other affections as well in respect of the Earth it selfe as of the Heauens will giue at least a probable distinction of which cases it is not hard out of the obseruations of our new writers and Nauigatours to giue particular instances Concerning the first we finde the variation of the compasse at Cape Verde to bee iust 7 Degrees about the Ilands neere to Cape Verde to amount only to 4 Degrees whence a Sea-man if other helpes failed may hereafter as he passeth distinguish the one from the other and if occasion serue correct this errour In the like sort might a man otherwise altogether ignorant of the place out of former obseruations in the same Iland of Cuba distinguish betwixt Cape Corientes and Cape S. Anthony In that the one hath only 3 degrees of variatiō wheras the other hath 13 for an instance of the second case we will take the coasts of Brasill 100 leagues distant from the shoare Cape Corientes beyond Cape bonae spei which agree in the same variation to wit amounting to 7 Degrees 30 minutes which notwithstanding are distinguisht by their seuerall declination for howsoeuer the magneticall motion of variation being of late inuented hath not so particularly beene traced out in all or most places yet must the declination of each place needs be different for as much as the former hath 23 degrees of South Latitude the other none at all lying iust vnder the Equinoctiall since the Latitude as wee haue formerly taught is in some measure proportionall to the Declination For the third if any two places bee found agreeing both in Variation and Declination as may bee probably guessed of Cape Rosse in S. Iohns Iland and the west end of S. Iohn de Porto Rico the Latitude being all one as of 17 degrees 44 minutes and the variation admitting perhaps insensible difference to wit of a little more then one degree yet might this helpe conioyned with former
our Easterne winde is found to bee driest of all others whereof no other cause can bee giuen then that it comes ouer a great Continent of land lying towards the East out of which many drie and earthly exhalations are drawn so the Westerne winde is obserued to be very moist because it passeth ouer the hugie Atlanticke Ocean which must needs cast forth many watrie and moist vapours which beget raine and showres from the moisture of which Westerne winde some haue sought out an answer to that Probleme why hunting hounds should not sent nor hunt so well the winde being in the West as at other times For say they it is caused by the moisture of it either in making hinderance to their legges in running or at least to their smell being very thicke and foggy In this Westerne winde we may also perceiue much cold which is caused by the quality of those watrie vapours through which it passeth which being drawne from the water are naturally cold In our South wind wee shall finde both heat and moisture whereof the former ariseth from the Sunne which in those Southerne Regions neere the Equatour is most predominant The latter from the naturall disposition of the places because before it approacheth our coasts it passes ouer the Mediterranean Sea out of which the Sunne begets abundance of watry vapours which mixt themselues with the windes Finally the North-winde is obserued to bee cold and drye It must of necessity bee cold because it is carried ouer diuerse cold and snowy places most remote from the heat of the Sunne It is drie because it passeth ouer many Ilands and dry places sending out store of dry exhalations as also because the Sunne being very remote from those Regions fewer exhalations are drawne vp which might infect it by impressions of their watrie quality These instances may serue to proue our assertion That Meteors wherewith the Aire is vsually charged and by consequence their qualitâ—es imprest into the Aire are depending from the Earth out of which they are drawne either Directly from the same Region which they affect or Obliquely from some other Region remote from it Howsoeuer wee obserue that the disposition of the Ayre depends from the Soile wee cannot altogether exclude the Heauens as shall bee taught hereafter in place conuenient CHAP. III. Of the Adiuncts of a place in respect of Heauens 1 WE haue in the former Chapter spoken of the Adiuncts of a place in respect of it Selfe We are now to proceed to such Accidents as agree to a place in respect of the Heauens 2 The Adiuncts of the Earth in respect of the Heauens are of two sorts either Generall or Speciall Generall I call such as are abstracted from any speciall quality or condition of the Earth or any place in the Earth These accidents concerne either the Situation of the Inhabitants or the Diuision of the places both which we haue handled in our Sphericall part of Geographie The Speciall are such as concerne the nature of the place in respect of the Heauens not Absolutely but Respecting some speciall qualities or properties depending on such situation which more properly belongs to this part For the vnfolding of which before we descend to particularities we will premise this one generall Theoreme 1 Places according to their diuerse situation in regard of the Heauens are diuersly affected in quality and constitution This Proposition needs no proofe as being grounded on ordinary experience for who findes not betwixt the North and the South a manifest difference of heat and cold moisture and drouth with other qualities thereon depending as well in the temper of the soyle it selfe as the naturall disposition of the inhabitants Only three points will here require an exposition First by what Meanes and instruments the Heauens may bee said to worke on the Earth Secondly how farre this operation of the Heauen on the Earth may extend and what limits it may suffer Thirdly how these operations are distinguished one from the other Concerning the first wee are taught by our ordinary Philosophers that the Heauens worke on inferiour bodies by three instruments to wit Light Motion and Influence By Light as by an instrumentall agent it ingendreth heat in the Aire and Earth not that the light being in a sort an Immateriall quality can immediatly of it selfe produce heat being materiall and elementary But by attrition and rarefaction whereby the parts of the aire being made thinner approach neerer to the nature of fire and so conceaue heat This is againe performed two wayes either by a simple or compo unded beame The simple Ray is weaker The compounded inferring a doubling of the Ray by Reflection is stronger and of more validity in the operation and by consequence so much the more copious in the production of heat by how much more the reflection is greater if wee meerely consider it in regard of the Heauens without any consideration of the quality of the Earth By motion the heauens may exercise their operation on the Earth two wayes First by attenuating and rarefying the vpper part of the Aire next adioyning turning it into Fire as some Philosophers would haue it whence the inferiour parts of the ayre communicating in this affection must needs partake some degrees of heat But this I hold to bee a conceit grounded onely vpon Aristotles authority who supposed the heauens to bee a solide compact body which will not so soone bee granted of many more moderne Mathematicians Secondly the heauenly bodyes may bee said to worke on inferiour things by motion in that by motion they are diuersly disposed and ordered to diuerse Aspects and configurations of the Starres and Planets whereby they may produce diuerse effects so that in this sense the heauens are imagined as a disponent cause which doth not so much produce the effects themselues as vary the operation Hereon is grounded all Astrologie as that which out of diuerse aspects and combinations of the Planets and Signes foresheweth diuerse euents The third Instrument by which the Heauens are said to worke is the heauenly influence which is a hidden and secret quality not subiect to sense but only knowne and found out by the effects This third agent being by some questioned would hardly bee beleeued but that a necessity in nature constraines it For many effects are found in inferiour bodies caused by the heauens which can no way bee ascribed to the Light or Motion As for example the production of Mettals in the bowels of the earth the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea whereof neither the one or the other can challenge any great interest in the Light For as much as the former is farre remote from the Sunne-beames the other ceaseth not to moue in his channell when the Sunne and Moone are both vnder the Earth Besides who can giue a reason of the excesse of heat in the Canicular or Dog-dayes if hee exclude this influence For if wee consider the Light of the Sunne wee shall finde
hath a two-fold Motion The first is common to all heauy Bodyes as well as the Earth in which is an inclination to come as neere as they can to the Center of the Earth whereof wee haue spoken in our former booke The second is that which more properly agrees to the Sea which is againe twofold either the Naturall or the Violent The Naturall howsoeuer requiâ—ing perhaps the concurrence of some externall cause is notwithstanding so called for as much as it chiefly seemes to proceede from the Disposition of the Sea-water The Violent is caused meerely by the violence of the winds mouing the Ocean The Naturall motion we haue againe diuided into generall or speciall because the Affluxe and Refluxe of the Sea whereof we are to treat is generall throughout the whole Ocean some petty creekes perchance excepted whereas the Currents which is the second kinde of motion are more speciall as agreeing not to all or most parts as it seemes but to some one or other speciall place as we shall shew 1 The Sea twice euery day ebbes and flowes The flowing and ebbing of the Sea howsoeuer it cannot be precisely obserued in all Seas yet because few places of the maine Ocean are exempted from it deserues the first chiefest consideration That such a motion there is experience shewes but the searching out of the cause is for ought I can obserue one of the greatest difficulties in all Naturall Philosophie in so much as Aristotle one of the acutest Philosophers is reported to haue stood amazed at the flowing and ebbing of Euripus and despairing of finding out the cause at length enforced to cast himselfe into the Riuer which had before confounded him Wherefore it may seeme sufficient for mee to trace their steps who haue waded far into the search of this cause hauing very little hope to goe further The first opinion was of the Stoickes who supposed the whole World to bee a great liuing creature composed of diuerse Elements which inioyes both breath and life This liuing creature they imagine to haue his nostrils placed in the maine Ocean where by drawing in and sending foorth breath the ebbing and flowing of the Sea is caused but this seemeth rather to bee a Poeticall fiction or Allegory then any conceit of a Philosopher Apollonius Tianaeus was of an opinion that certaine Spirits eithervnder or aboue the Water breathed into it this motion Timaeus taught the cause of this moisture to be the riuer breaking into the Ocean by the great mountaines Plato thought that it was made by the swallowing vp of the Sea into a gulfe or hole which being againe cast out was the cause of that motion in the Sea Seleuous the Mathematician which affirmed that the Earth was carried round with a perpetuall motion thought that the Moone was turned round with a motion contrary to the motion of the Eâ—rth and from this to proceed that motion of ebbing and flowing of the Sea whereof wee now treat What Aristotles opinion was concerning this matter is an vncertaine coniecture forasmuch as litle or nothing can bee gathered touching this point in controuersie out of any booke which is certainly knowne to be Aristotles for the tract of the propriety of Elements where the cause of this motion is ascribed to the Moone is iudged to be none of Aristotles but of some later Authour Yet Plutarch imposeth on Aristotle this opinion that this motion of the Sea should come from the Sun because by it are raised vp many windy exhalations which should cause the Sea to swell blowing into the great Atlantick Ocean But thisopinion is charged by Paâ—ricius of a threefold errour 1. That it should proceed from the Sun 2 From the wind 3 That it is only in the Atlantick Sea He saw saith Patricius that in the Atlantick which he could not in the Aegean Sea at home and neere Athens For 1 No wind blowes so regularly that for one six houres it should blow forward the other six houres backward for the wind oftentimes blowes many daies the same way without ceasing yet is their not one only flowing or one ebbing in the Sea 2. The Sunne stirres vp sometimes windes and sometimes stirres them not vp But of a perpetuall effect which is daily why would this Philosopher giue a cause meerely violent and not quotidian which notwithstanding would haue nothing violent to be perpetuall If the Sea bee somewhere moued naturally by other motions as the Euripus which is said to be his death wherefore will he deny this motion to be Naturall seeking out an externall cause of this effect But all this while our Platonick Philosopher seems to fight with shadowes for what iudicious man can imagine so iudicious and wise a Philosopher as Aristotle should so grossely ouershoot himselâ— to father this opinion I should much rather beleiue that no such opinion is to be found in Aristotle at least that it is indirectly related which I the rather beleiue because one Caesalpinus a late Writer aswell opposite to Aristotle as the other hath related Aristotles opinion otherwise to wit that the ebbing and flowing of the Sea is deriued from a double cause whereof the one is the multitude of Riuers bringing in a great force of waters into it whence it comes to passe that it flowes only towards one paâ—t which is the lower as it happens to the Mediterranean For the Egaean and Ponticke Sea with Maeotis flow into the Tyrrhene and not on the opposite side The other cause hee makes to bee the libration of the whole Sea for it is often turn'd from one side to the other which in so great a vastnes seemes but little but in straights narrow places much more So that Aristotle saith Caesalpinus would haue that to agree to the Sea which vsually happens to a paire of ballance which hauing receiued the beginning once of their motion are inclined sometimes this way sometimes that way by reason of the equality of the weight for if the weight of one should ouercome thewhole would incline thatway and would not riâ—e vpon the other side But against this opinion imposed on Aristotle Caesalpinus not without good reason excepts that the Superficies of the Water being Equidistant from the Center as is supposed by Geographers no reason may bee giuen why it should incline more to one side then another hauing once obtained his true place sith according to Aristotles owne grounds no violence câ—n be perpetâ—all To which I may adde another answer that no satisfactory reason can be alleadged why it should alwayes obserue so true and iust periods of time in its motion sith all Riuers are sometimes encreased and other times diminished according to the season of the yeere and variety of the weather wherefore the said Authour which impugnes this opinion hath framed another conceit grounded on the circular motion of the Earth which he explaineth in this sort It agrees â—o reason saith he that the Water should not altogether follow the motion
of Madera the Canaries and S. Thomas it surpasseth not the hight of Venice But in America on the hithermost coast from Florida Sinus Mexicanus the coasts of Brasile and Pariâ— more then three thousand leagues euen to the Magellane straights it increaseth almost to two Palmes bredth but farther South to Panama and all those Southerne shores the ebbing and flowing is of an excessiue hight as may appeare by the coasts of Cambaia India and Taprobana Thirdly if the Moone by a naturall vertue should moue the Waters of the Sea then would it moue the Ocean and the Mediterranean Seas in the course of windes with the same Fluxe and Refluxe in the same windes But this thwarts experience which is thus proued The Mediterranean Sea when as it flowes in the Adriaticke Ionian and Sycilian Seas the Water flowes towards the Land when the Moone is as the Marriners speake in Sirocco and in Maestro but ebbes or flowes backe from the Land when it is in Graeco atque Garbinio And contrariwise the Ocean swells when the Moone is in Graece and Garbinio but asswageth it selfe againe when it is carried in Sirocco and Maestro Fourthly if the ebbing and flowing of the Sea should follow the Moone then all places in the same distance should ebbe flow alike at like houres But the contrary is proued by an experiment of Patricius who reports that at the same houre places distant 20 degrees haue bin seen to ebbe or flow alike and the places betwixt also to vary and obserue no iust proportion Fourthly if these Surges should be stirred vp by the Moone then the same superficies of the Water the same houre should bee carried by the Moone but this iâ— contrary to the obseruations of Marriners who haue obserued that on the Norman coasts and that of Picardy to Callice the Tide happeneth the ninth houre from Midnight but ten miles from the shore not a full houre but at the twenty and sixt mile from the middle of the channell and vnder the same Meridian at 22 houres Fiftly if the ebbing and flowing should proceed from the Moone then should the Water at the same houres increase and decrease but this is opposite to obseruation for at Venice the Sea is knowne to flow sometimes for seuen sometimes for eight but ebbes in fewer houres But about the mouth of the Riuer Senega in the Atlanticke it is comming in foâ—re houres but goes not backe vnder eight so about Goâ—umniae Ostia the Tide is comming in seuen houres but goes backe in fiue Sixtly if the Waters flow by the Moone then should they bee drawne and carried by the light of the Moone because all action is by a touching and the Moone toucheth the Water by her light but it is found by experience that at midnight when the Moone is most distant in her light our seas doe no lesse ebbe and flow then when it is present so the Seas neere the Antipodes doe ebbe flow when the Moone is present with vs. 7ly if the Moone were the onely ancient cause of this motion then the same light being present the same ageÌ„â— mouing the same effect should necessarily follow But we find that it produceth two contrary one to the other because in her ascent to the Meridian it is supposed to lift vp the water but a little declining from the MeridiaÌ„ it is thought to depresse asswage the waters 8ly if this effâ—ct were ascribed to the light of the Moone then wheÌ„ the Moone shines not there should be no such motion because contrary causes produce contrary effects But wee obserue the same ebbing flowing in the coÌ„iunâ—tion or New Moon wheÌ„ she hath no light as in the full Moone when with full face she beholds the Sea for in both these times we haue highest â—ides These many more argumeÌ„ts are vrged by Patricius to shew that the Moone cannot be the cause of this motioÌ„ in the Sea of the other opinioÌ„ that this effect is ascribed to the Sun amongst others I find the chiefe patron to be Tâ—â—esius who taught that the Sea was moued in this wise because it would auoide the operation of the Sun fearing lest it should bee too much dissolued into vapours and so perish But this opinion seemeth far more weake then the former For first I would aske concerning this motion wherein it is thought to auoide the Sunnes heat whether it be voluntary or necessary It caÌ„not be Voluntary oâ— a free action because the Sea is no liuing creature to which only such a motion is incident If it be necessary then it is Naturall or Violent It cannot bee Naturall because according to Aristotle one Body can haue but one naturall motion but the Water being a simple Body hath another motion to fall downewards towards the Center wherefore it cannot also admit of this It cannot be violent first because no violent thing can be perpetuall Secondly no cause can be thoughâ— vpon Externall which should cause this violent motion and if any such cause there be found then is not this of Telesius the first and principall cause sith it is referred to a farther cause Thirdly no cause can here be shewne according to this opininion why all other waters as fresh Riuers should not likewise striue to â—ide themselues from the face of the Sun Fourthly hee should giue a reason why in the Belgicke and Armoricke shores which are far more distant from the Sun the same motion is no lesse eminent then in Taprobana which is subiect to the Torride Zone and why in the Iland of S. Thomas which is immediatly vnder the Equatour there is not a greater working of the Water then at Venice Fifthly that which Telesius brings to confirme his opinion is no lesse warrantable then the maine point in controuersie In the Summer saith he the floâ—ds are lesser because the Sun raiseth vp thinner vapourâ— which are eâ—sily dissolued But in the Winter they are lesse because the Sunne is of least force and so raiseth vp fewer vapoâ—rs to worke vpon the Sea But both these matters are proued â—alse by experience first because in the Summer wee haue as great a working of the water as at other times In the Winter also as great or greater Secondly saith the said Author in the full Moone the motion is greater because the much light arising from the Moone drawes vp many vapours 〈◊〉 the New Moone because the Aire being refrigerated the internall Heat of the sea collecting it selfe is made stronger with more vapours In the quarters of the Moone because there is not much light caâ—t from the Moone and the Heat of the sea is not so much collected by the externall cold of the Aire To all these matters wee may easily answer First how can the Moone bestow any light on our seas when shee is with the Antipodes Secondly where he saith that the internall Heat is gathered together and made stronger by externall cold 1 First I aske how the sea can send
forth these vapours if the vapours kept vnder doe raise the sea vp or if the Sea swell with these vapours in her wombe how can she let them out 2 How will he proue the Sea naturally to be hot sith it is one of the cold Elements Thirdly where he saith that the light of the Moone is but in halfe imparted to the Sea why should not the Sea proportionally in halfe be stirred vp wherfore Patricius and Casman finding neither the Sunne nor the Moone of it selfe to be a sole or sufficient cause of this motion hauing ioyned them both together in this causality and added besides other particular causes first say they there are two kind of causes concurring to that effect either Vniuersall and externall or Particular internall and next causes The Vniuersall causes are two to wit the Sunne and the Moone The Sunne saith he with the heat of his beames and light doth conserue viuificate and stirre vp to action the Internall and originall heat in all things here below This Heat being stirred vp and viuificated all things are made fit for motion and being so accommodated are stirred vp to motion as if from an Internall life they should be promoted to an Externall for as in the primâ—ry life of things the motion and action is shewn in the Essence in the secondary the action and motion outwardly in respect of other things so the first and originall heat of the Sea cherished stirred vp by the external heat of the Sun driues the Ocean and moues it to action The Moone also cherisheth preserueth viuificates nourisheth and stirres vp to motion all these earthly humours and moistures and as she dayly by houres beholds the Sun as her darling and by him is as it were big-bellied with liuely seedes so she beholdes her loue the Ocean dayes and nights and fills the Ocean with these seeds which she receiues from the Sunne But this cannot be performed without her motion without the diffusion of her light without the effusion of her influeÌ„ce seeds wherefore it cannot otherwise bee but all our humours and moistures should be made fruitfull conceiue life bring forth beare fruit and be stirred vp to life and motion by the motion of the Moone through the Aspect of the Moone with the Sun with the Earth with the Ocean wherfore all lower moistures are subiect to the power of the Moone Notwithstanding all are not aequally vnder her dominioÌ„ sith all are not of the same substance of the same Rarity or density or of the same Heat reasons all â—aged from the Caspian Sea may be ascribed to the thicknesse of the water not suffering any thing to sinke into it So that for the crassitude of it it must needs be heauier then other Water and so more vnapt for motion Thirdly it is recorded by some that in the inmost creeke of the Red sea there is a motion and so in the mouth of it by reason of the Ocean but in the middle no such matter is to be obserued which strange effect some ascribe to the Thinnesse of the Water one of the causeâ— aboue named begetting fewer and weaker Vapours and Spirits which either streightway breath out or are too weake to raise vp the Water This thinnesse is confirmed to be in that midle part of the Red sea not onely out of the authority of Iohn Barro out of the experiments of Iohn de Castro which found this Water to be cleare and liker to Christall then that of other parts but also by the cleare perspicuity of it For in almost all the sea may the bottome plainly be seene Fourthly we reade the like of the Baltick sea that it neuer ebbes or flowes which Bartholomew Kackerman that countri-man ascribeâ— 1. To the Narrownesse of the channell 2. To the depth of it 3. To the northerne situation which cause I thinke hee might well haue spared considering that more Northerne seas then that both ebbe and flowe Fiftly it is reported of Maotis Pontus and Proppotis that they flowe from the one to the other but neuer ebbe For Maotis flowes into the Pontick sea as from the Higher place into the lower and the Pontick into the Propontick Aegean for the same cause but returne not back againe But besides this cause of this declinity of the ground it standes with reason that the Water should be fresher then that in other places of the sea For first all of them receiue into them many and great Riuers of fresh Water for Maotis Palus besides other partakes of Tanais Into Pontus fall according to Arcanus report about 52 fresh Riuers whereof the chiefe are Ister Hispanis Boristhenes Tanais Phasis all great currents SecoÌ„dly the forenamed fishes which delight in fresh springs are here also found in abundance Besides this freshnesse if wee beleeue ancient writers as Pliny and others it is a sea of extraordinary depth so that for this cause some part of it was called Negrepont or the blacke-sea Which blacknesse was by some thought to arise from the depth of it wherein in many places they could sound no bottome Sixtly it is â—estified of the Tyrrhene Ligurian and Narbon seas that they suffer not this motion The cause of which is onely ascribed to the extreame depth for few or no Riuers are disburthened into it except Rhodanus We are in the next place to shew why this working of the sea is more in one place then in another The reasons whereof although many be thought on are chiefly reduced either to the excâ—sse of saltnesse in the water or the narrownesse of the channell into which from an open place the sea is to be disburthened or the shallownesse of the shore All which either concurring together or taken by themselues apart may cause the sea to swell more in one place theÌ„ another which may as the former bee proued by diuerse Instances Foure Seas are more particularly noted to flow and swell higher then other The first is that compasseth about Europe from Hercules pillars which according to diuerse shores takes diuerse names as the Portugall Cantabrian Gallican Belgicke and British Seas And in the New World or America the Southerne Sea shall be the second The third is that of Cambaia and India The fourth is that which compasseth about Taprobana for the three last the causes fore-specified seeme manifestly to concurre for Taprobana is reported by Pliny to haue a shore not aboue sixe paces deepe and the Sea to be greene and ouergrowne with weeds in so much that the tops of the weedes fret their ships and later Writers report that the Land is knowne to augment the confines by reason of the shallownesse of the Water so as wee haue shewed that some Seas neither ebbe nor flow by reason of the depth of the channell so on the other side must it follow that other Seas ebbe and flow more by reason of the shortnesse and shallownesse of the shores for of contrary câ—uses proceede ordinarily contrary effects Moreouer it
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
of his eyes much enclining to blacke Now if wee will beleeâ—â— â—ristotle in his Problemes the gray colour of the eyes is a very great argument of heat But the blackish colour â—rgues the want of heat Those which dwell in the middle Regions haue for the most part their eyes of a darke-blew which colour is appâ—râ—nt in the eyes of Goates which as Pliny writes are neuer pur-blind or dimme of sight Many speciall arguments besides those before mentioned are produced to shew â—he Northerne man to surpasse in moisture as the other in drouth The first may be taken from their voice which in the Scyâ—hian or Northerne man is tending to hoarsenes but in the Africans very sharp and shrill as in the Ethiopians Carthaginians and the most southerly Spaniards That this difference doth arise from the moisture of the one and the want of it in the other may as easily be perswaded because we obserue women which are moister then men to haue sharp shriller voices Also that too much moisture in wood or mettall makes the sound of it very hoarse and harsh as wee see in lead whereas other mettalls giue a shriller sound Another reason is drawne from their extraordinary sweating for it is obserued that Northerne men trauailing towards the Soâ—th or warring in hotter Countreyes are like to faint and perish through extraordinary sweating as Plutarch in the life of Marius records of the moist bodies of the Cimbrians Thirdly it might seeme wounderfull which Tacitus relates of the German nation that they loue sloth and yet â—ate rest because as in Children the naturall heat prouokes them to Action but the moisture procures Softnesse whence they must either fight or sleepe Hence the Italians and Spaniards make accompt if they can suffer or withstand the fâ—rst or seconâ— assaâ—lt of the French or Germans easily to vanquish them because as Mariâ—â— and Caesar obserued of the French thaâ— in the first asâ—ault they shewed themselues more then Men in the second lesse then Women A fourth reason not inferiour to the rest may be drawne from the soâ—t bodies of the Germâ—ns and Scytâ—iâ—ns not any way patient of labour hunger and thirâ—t although very sâ—rong and able to giue a suddaine encounter or venture on a warlike exploite The contrary in all shall we find in the Southerne man out of which we may weâ—l collect that he enioies a contrary tempeâ— Besides all which we haue said concerning this assertion more shall appeare hereafter by these subsequent Theoremes 2 The extreame Inhabitants towards the Poles are more naturally inclined to Mechanicall workes and Martiall endeauours the Extreame towards the Equatour to workes of Religion and Contemplation the middle to lawes and ciuility There are found three kinds of discipline which vsually inuade and occupy the mind and faculties of man The first are Mechanicall and externall operations the which are proiected in the Intellectuall part yet receiue theiâ— perfection from the hands and externall organs Such as are Artillery making of Ordinance casting of mettalls and Chymicall inuentionâ— Printing and the like Arts. The second is Contemplation separate remoued from externall operation The third as the meane betwixt both is Ciuill and Morall discipline whose act and perfection consists in the making of Lawes establishing and gouerning of States prescribing and maintaining of Diuine worship with other matters of the like nature These gifts it pleaâ—ed God so to distribute to mankinde that the former should bee most appropriate to the Northerne man the second to the Southerne the third to the inhabitants of the middle region in such wise as the one should need and not enuy the others perfection All which we shâ—ll demonstrate first out of the causes and ground Secondly out of the effects The causes wee haue shewed in the former Theoreme wherein wee haue ascribed to the Northerne man abundance of heat and moisture in respect of the other which are the chiefest aides of the imagination on which mechanicall faculties depend also their plenty of bloud and humours distempering their minds they are by this meanes lesse giuen to contemplation The Southerne men hauing cold and dry braines are of greatest vnderstanding in Contemplatiâ—e matters being as it were by reason of melancholy abstract from externall operation The middle temper of the braine and humours must needs be the mother oâ— a middle discipline which is found to be that which concernes Manners Lawes and Religion Here some haue gone about to reduce these three kinds of people to three planets answerable to these 3 dispositions Ouer â—he Southerne people they set Saturne the Northerne they commit to the gouernment of Mars the middle inhabitants to Iupiter The power of Saturne according to the Chaldeans consists in Contemplation of Iupiter in practicall action of Mars in Artificiall operation Which 3 properties may be well gathered out of the Hebrew tongue natures best interpreter for Saturne they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much to say as quiet because nothing better bâ—fits the nature of contemplation then retired quietnesse Iupiter they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much to say as Iust Which the Grecians hauing receiued from these Hebrewes they fained Iupiter to bee the God of Iustice. Mars they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth strong or puisâ—ant for which cause the Chaldeans and the Greclans would haue Mars the God of warre To Saturne they ascribe cold to Mars heat to Iupiter a temperature betwixt both To the first they impute the inuention of sciences and such as concernes Contemplation To the second practicall prudence To the third Arts and Workemanship Whereof the first depends from the Vnderstanding the second from practicall discourse the last from the operaâ—ion of the phantasie But to come neerer the matter and descend to particulars wee will first beginne with the Northerne man whom we shall find to be the father of most mechanicall Inuentions as of Gunnes Printing the art of Liquefaction Chimistrie with infinite other excellent Arts. Hence it comes to passe that the Italians and Spaniards are vsed to send ouer for Britaines and Germans as for those which are endowed with a heauenly gift in the Inuention of veiâ—es of Mettalls vnder the Earth as also for the opening and well ordering of suâ—h Mines Let any man cast his eyes on England the Neither-lands Germany he shall find the Inâ—abiâ—ants generally either as the Schollers and darlings of Mars weilding their swords or as Pioners leuelling of mountaines or as Ingmers contriuing the course of waters or hunting in the woods or plowing in the field or looking to their flockes on the moâ—ntaines or working in their shops or at least set vpon some externall worke or other that their wits as Bodin merily speakes might seeme to bee in their handes From whence come for the most part ouâ— seuerall sortes of stuffes our choice workes in wood mettall Iuoâ—y our variety of instruments from the Italian or Spaniard No
stands with experience that in any Water or Sea where the flood is stopped and hindred by quicke-sands it returnes with greater force as it were enraged and swelâ— so much the higher which is the cause why in the coasts of Cambaia it is liâ—ted vp so high because the shores are so shallow and so short and exposed to impediments that in the ebbâ— the Sea â—â—ns backe many miles leaues the sandâ— vncouered Whence it must needs returne with greater violence This also is found in the Indian Sea and neere Panama in the Southerne Sea where the Sea ruÌ„ning back for two leagues certaine Ilands and Lands are left naked so that in these three Seas here named the Sea seemes to enlarge its limits in bredth more then in other places to which we may ascribe this effect For the Seas about Europe wee may pronounce also that for the most part they haue short shallow shores as may easily appeare in the confines of Belgia But it may be obiected of the English shores that they swell very high albeit the depth of the Water in the middle is found to be 144 foot Here must we haue recourse to the other cause the flowing of a large wide sea into a narrow channell for the large torrents of water running swiftly into a narrow channell being hindred on both sides by the shores from spreading it selfe in bredth is enforced to swell in hight so that the effect is rather to be ascribed to the violence of a greâ—t current enbosoming it selfe into a streite channell which may more euidently shew it selfe in 3 instances For in the streite chanels of Zeland and Holland it is lifted vp about three foote At Bristoll in England by reason of a greater force of Waters running from the Sea into a more narrow channell and seconded by the maine Ocean at the backe it swels to the hight of 60 foote In the Armorean seas where larger seas are emptied into more narrow streites then the former it increaseth to 90 foote Out of which experiments may wee plainely collect that to the increase of the motiâ—n of the sea besides the saltnesse of the Water two other causes are concurring to wit the shallownesse of the shore and the streitnesse of the channell wherein a great and large sea is to bee exâ—â—erated This may lastly bee farther illustrated from the disparity of these seas with others for in the Adriaticke Egaan Ionian and almost all the African seaâ— the sea seldome swels to so great a measure whereof the cause is as well the depth of the seas as the equality of thâ— shores for as the depth is a cause that sometimes it flowes not at all and the inequality and shortnesse of the shore that it flowes high so a meane hight of the Waters from the bottome and a more equall figuration of the coasts may bee a cause of an indifferent working of the Water Hitherto wee haue shewed the variety of motion in the sea in regard of the diuersity of places wee are next to speake something concerning the variation of it in regard of the times which though it properly appertaine not to Geography yet am I loath to leaue it out because the discourse is pleasant Concerning which point the Marriners make six degrees of change in the tides according to the times First diurnall whereof wee speake in this discourse The second Hebdomedary or weekely which Possidonius called monethly or weekely because it is distinguished by seuerall weekes of a moneth but tarries not till the end of the moneth For it is found by experience of Nauigatours that a day before the coniunction of the Moone with the Sunne and the day of coniunction and a day afterwards the seas in the maine Ocean haue their greatest flowes and ebbes being lifted higher and laid lower downe and then the tides are most swift The fourth day from the coniunction the tide is lesse and lesse swift The fift yet lesse then then the former and the sixt day lesse then the fift But in the seuenth day which is a day before the quarter and in the eight following wherein it is halfe-faced and in the ninth which is a day after the quarter the sea is as it were dead not much stirring neither much ebbing or much flowing which was as it seemes only obserued by Pliny in the Euboian Euripus but whether it so happen else-where I leaue to men experienced in these matters This motion as it doth encrease according to the age of the Moone So it is said proportionally to decrease againe The third motion is monethly which seemes in the time of the coÌ„iunction wherein the sea-tides are highest and swiftest The fourth is called motus semestris or six-monthly happening at the times of the Equinoctiall differing one from the other like monethes The fift is called Trimestris because it happeneth onely in three moneths distance The last is Annuall which Patricius witnesseth that himselfe saw in Liburnia in the moneth of Ianuary These motions I carelesly passe ouer because the distinction seemes to me full of vncertainty and sâ—arce warranted and such experiments as are brought for the proofe of it concerne rather particular places then the generall nature of the sea 3 Hitherto of the generall motion of the sea The Speciall is that which is obserued in some speciall places 1 It is probable that the sea is carried somewhere from East to West and somewhere from North to South and contrariwise It hath beene a receiued opinion amongst Philosophers of this later age that the sea by the rapture of the heauens should be moued round as it were in a diurnall course which they haue lâ—boured to proue by diuers experiments First because it is obserued by Marriners that a ship can well saile from Spaine into America with an indifferent winde in 30 dayes when she can hardly returne vnder three moneths which they ascribe to the circular motion of the sea For a ship going from East to West sailes with the Water but from West to East against the streame so that the one must needes bee swifter and the other slower Their second experiment to confirme this point is of a ship sayling from Spaine to Holland which may as they say swifter returne backe then goe thither To this motion of the Water from East to West Iulius Scaliger hath added another which he would haue to be from North to South from Terra Laboratoris Southward But Patricius not denying these motions would haue many more in diuerse seas not admitting any vniuersall circular motion enforced by the heauens but various motions diuersly disposed in diuers seas for which hee giues many instances some whereof wee will here relate First going about to disproue Scaligers opinion and experience hee brings the experiment of the Portugall Nauigatours who testifie that they came from Mosambicke of the side on Madagascar into Malebar in 28 sometimes in 30 other times in 35 dayes which is farre from the accompt of