Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	know_v	see_v	world_n	2,634	5	4.4966	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30486	A short consideration of Mr. Erasmus Warren's defence of his exceptions against the theory of the earth in a letter to a friend.	Burnet, Thomas, 1635?-1715.	1691 (1691)	Wing B5947; ESTC R36301	36,168	44

Tradition is to be made out it is not expected that it should be made appear that none were ignorant of that Tradition in former Ages or that all that mention'd it understood the true grounds and extent of it but 't is enough to shew the plain footsteps of it in Antiquity as a Conclusion tho' they did not know the reasons and premises upon which it depended For instance The Conflagration of the world is a doctrine of Antiquity traditionally deliver'd from age to age but the Causes and manner of the Conflagration they either did not know or have not deliver'd to us In like manner that the first age and state of the world was without change of Seasons or under a perpetual Equinox of this we see many footsteps in Antiquity amongst the Jews Christians Heathens Poets Philosophers but the Theory of this perpetual Equinox the causes and manner of it we neither find nor can reasonably expect from the Ancients So much for the Equinox This Chapter as it begun with an errour so it unhappily ends with a paralogism namely that because 30 days made a month at the Deluge therefore those days were neither longer nor shorter than ours are at present Tho' we have sufficiently expos'd this before yet one thing more may be added in answer to his confident conclusion in these words But to talk as the Answerer does that the Month should be lengthen'd by the Days being so is a fearful blunder indeed For let the days by slackening the Earth's diurnal motion have been never so long yet its annual motion continuing the same the Month must needs have kept its usual length only fewer days would have made it up 'T is not usual for a Man to persevere so confidently in the same errour As if the intervals of time hours days months years could not be proportionably increast so as to contain one another in the same proportion they did before and yet be every one increast as to absolute duration Take a Clock for instance that goes too slow The circuit of the Dial-plate is 12. hours let these represent the 12 Signs in his Zodiack and the hand to be the Earth that goes thorough them all and consequently the whole circuit of the Dial-plate represents the Year Suppose as we said this Clock to go too slow this will not hinder but still fifteen minutes make a quarter in this Clock four quarters make an hour and 12. hours the whole circuit of the Dial-plate But every one of these intervals will contain more time than it did before according to absolute duration or according to the measure of another Clock that does not go too slow This is the very case which he cannot or will not comprehend but concludes thus in effect that because the hour consists still of four quarters in this Clock therefore it is no longer than ordinary The 9th Chapter also begins with a false notion that Bodies quiescent as he hath now alter'd the case have a nitency downwards Which mistake we rectified before if he please Then he proceeds to the Oval figure of the Earth And many flourishes and harangues are made here to little purpose For he goes upon a false supposition that the Waters of the Chaos were made Oval by the weight or gravitation of the Air. A thing that never came into the words or thoughts of the Theorist Yet upon this supposition he runs into the deserts of Bilebulgerid and the waters of Mare del Zur Words that make a great noise but to no effect If he had pleas'd he might have seen the Theorist made no use of the weight of the Air upon this occasion by the instance he gave of the pressure of the Moon and the flux of the waters by that pressure Which is no more done by the gravitation of the Air than the Banks are prest in a swift current and narrow chanel by the gravitation of the water But he says rarefied Air makes less resistance than gross Air and rarefied water in an Aeolipile it may be he thinks presses with less force than unrarefied Air possibly may be rarefied to that degree as to lessen its resistance but we speak of Air moderately agitated so as to be made only more brisk and active Moreover he says the waters that lay under the Poles must have risen perpendicularly and why might they not as well have done so under the Equator The waters that lay naturally and originally under the Poles did not rise at all but the waters became more deep there by those that were thrust thither from the middle parts of the Globe Upon the whole I do not perceive that he hath weaken'd any one of the Propositions upon which the formation of an Oval Earth depended Which were these First that the tendency of the waters from the center of their motion would be greater and stronger in the Equinoctial parts than in the Polar or in those parts where they mov'd in greater circles and consequently swifter than in those where they were mov'd in lesser circles and slower Secondly Agitated Air hath more force to repel what presses against it than stagnant Air and that the Air was more agitated and rarefied under the Equinoctial parts than under the Poles Thirdly Waters hinder'd and repell'd in their primary tendency take the easiest way they can to free themselves from that force so as to persevere in their motion Lastly to flow laterally upon a Plain or to ascend upon an inclin'd Plain is easier than to rise perpendicularly These are the Propositions upon which that discourse depended and I do not find that he hath disprov'd any one of them And this Sir is a short account of a long Chapter impertinencies omitted Chap. 10. Is concerning the original and causes of Mountains which the Excepter unhappily imputes to the heat and influence of the Sun Whether his Hypothesis be effectually confuted or not I am very willing to stand to the judgment of any unconcern'd person that will have the patience to compare the Exceptions and the Answer in this Chapter Then as to his Historical arguments as he calls them to prove there were Mountains before the Flood from Gyants that sav'd themselves from the Flood upon Mount Sion and Adam's wandring several hundreds of years upon the Mountains of India These and such like which he brought to prove that there were Mountains before the Flood he now thinks fit to renounce and says he had done so before by an anticipative sentence But if they were condemn'd before by an anticipative sentence as fables and forgeries why were they stuft into his Book and us'd as Traditional evidence against the Theory Lastly he contends in this Chapter for Iron and Iron-tools before the Flood and as early as the time of Cain● because he built a City which he says could not be built without Iron and Iron-tools To which it was Answer'd that Cain's like Paris or London he had reason to believe that they