the left side of the Solar Discus and going to hide themselves and to set in the right side the Oriental termes that is of their first appearings for six moneths shall be lower than the opposite termes of their occultations and for other six moneths it shall happen contrarily to wit that the said spots rising from more elevated points and from them descending they shall in their courses go and hide themselves in lower points and onely for two dayes in all the year shall those termes of risings and settings be equilibrated after which freely beginning by small degrees the inclination of the courses of the spots and day by day growing bigger in three moneths it shall arrive at its greatest obliquity and from thence beginning to diminish in such another time it shall reduce it self to the other Aequilibrium It shall happen for a fourth wonder that the course of the greatest obliquity shall be the same with the course made by the right line and in the day of the Libration the arch of the course shall seem more than ever incurvated Again in the other times according as the pendency shall successively diminish and make it approach towards the Aequilibrium the incurvation of the arches of the courses on the contrary shall by degrees increase SAGR. I confesse Salviatus that to interrupt you in your Discourse is ill manners but I esteem it no lesse rudeness to permit you to run on any farther in words whilst they are as the saying is cast into the air for to speak freely I know not how to form any distinct conceit of so much as one of these conclusions that you have pronounced but because as I thus generally and confusedly apprehend them they hold forth things of admirable consequence I would gladly some way or other be made to understand the same SALV The same that befalls you befell me also whilst my Guest transported me with bare words who afterwards assisted my capacity by describing the businesse upon a material Instrument which was no other than a simple Sphere making use of some of its circles but to a different purpose from that to which they are commonly applied Now I will supply the defect of the Sphere by drawing the same upon a piece of paper as need shall require And to represent the first accident by me propounded which was that the courses or journeys of the spots twice a year and no more might be seen to be made in right lines let us suppose this point O in Fig. 4. to be the centre of the grand Orb or if you will of the Ecliptick and likewise also of the Globe of the Sun it self of which by reason of the great distance that is between it and the Earth we that live upon the Earth may suppose that we see the one half we will therefore describe this circle ABCD about the said centre O which representeth unto us the extream term that divideth and separates the Hemisphere of the Sun that is apparent to us from the other that is occult And because that our eye no lesse than the centre of the Earth is understood to be in the plane of the Ecliptick in which is likewise the centre of the Sun therefore if we should fancy to our selves the body of the Sun to be cut thorow by the said plane the section will appear to our eye a right line which let be BOD and upon that a perpendicular being let fall AOC it shall be the Axis of the said Ecliptick and of the annual motion of the Terrestrial Globe Let us next suppose the Solar body without changing centre to revolve in it self not about the Axis AOC which is the erect Axis upon the plane of the Ecliptick but about one somewhat inclined which let be this EOI the which fixed and unchangeable Axis maintaineth it self perpetually in the same inclination and direction towards the same points of the Firmament and of the Universe And because in the revolutions of the Solar Globe each point of its superficies the Poles excepted describeth the circumference of a circle either bigger or lesser according as it is more or lesse remote from the said Poles let us take the point F equally distant from them and draw the diameter FOG which shall be perpendicular to the Axis EI and shall be the diameter of the grand circle described about the Poles EI. Supposing not that the Earth and we with her be in such a place of the Ecliptick that the Hemisphere of the Sun to us apparent is determin'd or bounded by the circle ABCD which passing as it alwayes doth by the Poles AC passeth also by EI. It is manifest that the grand circle whose diameter is FG shall be erect to the circle ABCD to which the ray that from our eye falleth upon the centre O is perpendicular so that the said ray falleth upon the plane of the circle whose diameter is FG and therefore its circumference will appear to us a right line and the self same with FG whereupon if there should be in the point F a spot it comming afterwards to be carried about by the Solar conversion would upon the surface of the Sun trace out the circumference of that circle which seems to us a right line It s course or passage will therefore seem straight And straight also will the motion of the other spots appear which in the said revolution shall describe lesser circles as being all parallel to the greater and to our eye placed at an immense distance from them Now if you do but consider how that after the Earth shall in six moneths have run thorow half the grand Orb and shall be situate opposite to that Hemisphere of the Sun which is now occult unto us so as that the boundary of the part that then shall be seen may be the self same ABCD which also shall passe by the Poles EI you shall understand that the same will evene in the courses of the spots as before to wit that all will appear to be made by right lines But because that that accident takes not place save onely when the teminator or boundary passeth by the Poles EI and the said terminator from moment to moment by meanes of the Earths annual motion continually altereth therefore its passage by the fixed Poles EI shall be momentary and consequently momentary shall be the time in which the motions of those spots shall appear straight From what hath been hitherto spoken one may comprehend also how that the apparition and beginning of the motion of the spots from the part F proceeding towards G their passages or courses are from the left hand ascending towards the right but the Earth being placed in the part diametrically opposite the appearance of the spots about G shall still be to the left hand of the beholder but the passage shall be descending towards the right hand F. Let us now describe the Earth to be situate one fourth part farther distant
altogether ignorant of their whole businesse and concerns but if he shall say that they do operate and that they are directed to this end he doth affirm the same thing which a little before he denied and praiseth that which even now he condemned in that he said that the Celestial bodies situate so far remote as that they appear very small cannot have any influence at all upon the Earth But good Sir in the Starry Sphere pre-established at its present distance and which you did acknowledg to be in your judgment well proportioned to have an influence upon these Terrene bodies many stars appear very small and an hundred times as many more are wholly invisible unto us which is an appearing yet lesse than very small therefore it is necessary that contradicting your self you do now deny their operation upon the Earth or else that still contradicting your self you grant that their appearing very small doth not in the least lessen their influence or else that and this shall be a more sincere and modest concession you acknowledg and freely confesse that our passing judgment upon their magnitudes and distances is a vanity not to say presumption or rashnesse SIMP Truth is I my self did also in reading this passage perceive the manifest contradiction in saying that the Stars if one may so speak of Copernicus appearing so very small could not operate on the Earth and not perceiving that he had granted an influence upon the Earth to those of Ptolomy and his sectators which appear not only very small but are for the most part very invisible SALV But I proceed to another consideration What is the reason doth he say why the stars appear so little Is it haply because they seem so to us Doth not he know that this commeth from the Instrument that we imploy in beholding them to wit from our eye And that this is true by changing Instrument we shall see them bigger and bigger as much as we will And who knows but that to the Earth which beholdeth them without eyes they may not shew very great and such as in reality they are But it 's time that omitting these trifles we come to things of more moment and therefore I having already demonstrated these two things First how far off the Firmament ought to be placed to make that the grand Orb causeth no greater difference than that which the Terrestrial Orb occasioneth in the remotenesse of the Sun And next how likewise to make that a star of the Firmament appear to us of the same bignesse as now we see it it is not necessary to suppose it bigger than the Sun I would know whether Tycho or any of his adherents hath ever attempted to find out by any means whether any appearance be to be discovered in the starry Sphere upon which one may the more resolutely deny or admit the annual motion of the Earth SAGR. I would answer for them that there is not no nor is there any need there should seeing that it is Copernicus himself that saith that no such diversity is there and they arguing ad hominem admit him the same and upon this assumption they demonstrate the improbability that followeth thereupon namely that it would be necessary to make the Sphere so immense that a fixed star to appear unto us as great as it now seems ought of necessity to be of so immense a magnitude as that it would exceed the bignesse of the whole grand Orb a thing which notwithstanding as they say is altogether incredible SALV I am of the same judgment and verily believe that they argue contra hominem studying more to defend another man than desiring to come to the knowledge of the truth And I do not only believe that none of them ever applied themselves to make any such observation but I am also uncertain whether any of them do know what alteration the Earths annual motion ought to produce in the fixed stars in case the starry Sphere were not so far distant as that in them the said diversity by reason of its minuity dis-appeareth for their surceasing that inquisition and referring themselves to the meer assertion of Copernicus may very well serve to convict a man but not to acquit him of the fact For its possible that such a diversity may be and yet not have been sought for or that either by reason of its minuity or for want of exact Instruments it was not discovered by Copernicus for though it were so this would not be the first thing that he either for want of Instruments or for some other defect hath not known and yet he proceeding upon other solid and rational conjectures affirmeth that which the things by him not discovered do seem to contradict for as hath been said already without the Telescope neither could Mars be discerned to increase 60. times nor Venus 40. more in that than in this position yea their differences appear much lesse than really they are and yet neverthelesse it is certainly discovered at length that those mutations are the same to an hair that the Copernican Systeme required Now it would be very well if with the greatest accuratenesse possible one should enquire whether such a mutation as ought to be discoverable in the fixed stars supposing the annual motion of the Earth would be observed really and in effect a thing which I verily believe hath never as yet been done by any done said I no nor haply as I said before by many well understood how it ought to be done Nor speak I this at randome for I have heretofore seen a certain Manuscript of one of these Anti-Copernicans which said that there would necessarily follow in case that opinion were true a continual rising and falling of the Pole from six moneths to six moneths according as the Earth in such a time by such a space as is the diameter of the grand Orb retireth one while towards the North and another while towards the South and yet it seemed to him reasonable yea necessary that we following the Earth when we were towards the North should have the Pole more elevated than when we are towards the South In this very error did one fall that was otherwise a very skilful Mathematician a follower of Copernic as Tycho relateth in his Progymnasma pag. 684. which said that he had observed the Polar altitude to vary and to differ in Summer from what it is in Winter and because Tycho denieth the merit of the cause but findeth no fault with the method of it that is denieth that there is any mutation to be seen in the altitude of the Pole but doth not blame the inquisition for not being adapted to the finding of what is sought he thereby sheweth that he also esteeemed the Polar altitude varied or not varied every six moneths to be a good testimony to disprove or inferre the annual motion of the Earth SIMP In truth Salviatus my opinion also tells me
because the angle F is acute by reason that its base AB is lesse than the diameter DC of the semicircle DFC it shall be placed in the greater portion of the circumscribed circle cut by the base AB And because the said AB is divided in the midst and at right angles by FG the centre of the circumscribed circle shall be in the line FG which let be the point I and because that of such lines as are drawn from the point G which is not the centre unto the circumference of the circumscribed circle the biggest is that which passeth by the centre GF shall be bigger than any other that is drawn from the point G to the circumference of the said circle and therefore that circumference will cut the line GH which is equal to the line GF and cutting GH it will also cut AH Let it cut it in L and conjoyn the line LB These two angles therefore AFB and ALB shall be equal as being in the same portion of the circle circumscribed But ALB external is bigger than the internal H therefore the angle F is bigger than the angle H. And by the same method we might demonstrate the angle H to be bigger than the angle E because that of the circle described about the triangle AHB the centre is in the perpendicular GF to which the line GH is nearer than the line GE and therefore the circumference of it cutteth GE and also AE whereupon the proposition is manifest We will conclude from hence that the difference of appearance which with the proper term of art we might call the Parallax of the fixed stars is greater or lesse according as the Stars observed are more or lesse adjacent to the Pole of the Ecliptick so that in conclusion of those Stars that are in the Ecliptick it self the said diversity is reduced to nothing In the next place as to the Earths accession by that motion to or recession from the Stars it appeareth to and recedeth from those that are in the Ecliptick the quantity of the whole diameter of the grand Orb as we did see even now but that accession or recession to or from the stars about the Pole of the Ecliptick is almost nothing and in going to and from others this difference groweth greater according as they are neerer to the Ecliptick We may in the third place know that the said difference of Aspect groweth greater or lesser according as the Star observed shall be neerer to us or farther from us For if we draw another Meridian lesse distant from the Earth as for example this DFI in Fig. 7. a Star placed in F and seen by the same ray AFE the Earth being in A would in case it should be observed from the Earth in B appear according to the ray BF and would make the angle of difference namely BFA bigger than the former AEB being the exteriour angle of the triangle BFE SAGR. With great delight and also benefit have I heard your discourse and that I may be certain whether I have rightly understood the same I shall give you the summe of the Conclusions in a few words As I take it you have explained to us the different appearances that by means of the Earths annual motion may be by us observed in the fixed stars to be of two kinds The one is that of their apparent magnitudes varied according as we transported by the Earth approach or recede from the same The other which likewise dependeth on the same accession and recession their appearing unto us in the same Meridian one while more elevated and another while lesse Moreover you tell us and I understand it very well that the one and other of these mutations are not made alike in all the stars but in some greater and in others lesser and in others not at all The accession and recession whereby the same star ought to appear one while bigger and another while lesser is insensible and almost nothing in the stars neer unto the pole of the Ecliptick but is greatest in the stars placed in the Ecliptick it self and indifferent in the intermediate the contrary happens in the other difference that is the elevation or depression of the stars placed in the Ecliptick is nothing at all greatest in those neerest to the Pole of the said Ecliptick and indifferent in the intermediate Besides both these differences are more sensible in the Stars neerest to us in the more remote lesse sensible and in those that are very far distant wholly disappear This is as to what concerns my self it remaineth now as I conceive that something be said for the satisfaction of Simplicius who as I believe will not easily be made to over-passe those differences as insensible that are derived from a motion of the Earth so vast and from a mutation that transports the Earth into places twice as far distant from us as the Sun SIMP Truth is to speak freely I am very loth to confesse that the distance of the fixed Stars ought to be such that in them the fore-mentioned differences should be wholly imperceptible SALV Do not throw your self into absolute despair Simplicius for there may perhaps yet some qualification be found for your difficulties And first that the apparent magnitude of the stars is not seen to make any sensible alteration ought not to be judged by you a thing improbable in regard you see the guesses of men in this particular to be so grossely erroneous especially in looking upon splendid objects and you your self beholding v. g. a lighted Torch at the distance of 200 paces if it approach nearer to you 3. or 4. yards do you think that it will shew any whit encreased in magnitude I for my part should not perceive it certainly although it should approach 20. or 30. yards nearer nay it hath sometimes happened that in seeing such a light at that distance I know not how to resolve whether it came towards me or retreated from me when as it did in reality approach nearer to me But what need I speak of this If the self same accession and recession I speak of a distance twice as great as that from the Sun to us in the star of Saturn is almost totally imperceptible and in Jupiter not very observable what shall we think of the fixed stars which I believe you will not scruple to place twice as far off as Saturn In Mars which for that it is nearer to us SIMP Pray Sir put your self to no farther trouble in this particular for I already conceive that what hath been spoken touching the unaltered apparent magnitude of the fixed stars may very well come to passe but what shall we say of the other difficulty that proceeds from not perceiving any variation in the mutation of aspect SALV We will say that which peradventure may satisfie you also in this particular And to make short would you not be satisfied if there should be discovered in the stars
not be a trouble to you to explain unto us those Problems the declaration whereof you did even now request might be deferred until too morrow Be pleased to grant us your promised indulgence and laying aside all other discourses proceed to shew us that the motions which Copernicus assigns to the Earth being taken for granted and supposing the Sun and fixed stars immoveable there may follow the same accidents touching the elevations and depressions of the Sun touching the mutations of the Seasons and the inequality of dayes and nights c. in the self same manner just as they are with facility apprehended in the Ptolomaick Systeme SALV I neither ought nor can deny any thing that Sagredus shall request And the delay by me desired was to no other end save only that I might have time once again to methodize those prefatory points in my fancy that serve for a large and plain declaration of the manner how the forenamed accidents follow as well in the Copernican position as in the Ptolomaick nay with much greater facility and simplicity in that than in this Whence one may manifestly conceive that Hypothesis to be as easie to be effected by nature as difficult to be apprehended by the understanding yet neverthelesse I hope by making use of another kind of explanation than that used by Copernicus to render likewise the apprehending of it somewhat lesse obscure Which that I may do I will propose certain suppositions of themselves known and manifest and they shall be these that follow First I suppose that the Earth is a spherical body turning round upon its own Axis and Poles and that each point assigned in its superficies describeth the circumference of a circle greater or lesser according as the point assigned shall be neerer or farther from the Poles And that of these circles the greatest is that which is described by a point equidistant from the said Poles and all these circles are parallel to each other and Parallels we will call them Secondly The Earth being of a Spherical Figure and of an opacous substance it is continually illuminated by the Sun according to the half of its surface the other half remaining obscure and the boundary that distinguisheth the illuminated part from the dark being a grand circle we will call that circle the terminator of the light Thirdly If the Circle that is terminator of the light should passe by the Poles of the Earth it would cut being a grand and principal circle all the parallels into equal parts but not passing by the Poles it would cut them all in parts unequal except only the circle in the middle which as being a grand circle will be cut into equal parts Fourthly The Earth turning round upon its own Poles the quantities of dayes and nights are termined by the arches of the Parallels intersected by the circle that is the terminator of the light and the arch that is scituate in the illuminated Hemisphere prescribeth the length of the day and the remainer is the quantity of the night These things being presupposed for the more clear understanding of that which remaines to be said we will lay it down in a Figure And first we will draw the circumference of a circle that shall represent unto us that of the grand Orb described in the plain of the Ecliptick and this we will divide into four equal parts with the two diameters Capricorn Cancer and Libra Aries which at the same time shall represent unto us the four Cardinal points that is the two Solstices and the two Equinoctials and in the centre of that circle we will place the Sun O fixed and immoveable SAGR. To me as far as concerneth sense there appeareth no small difference betwixt the simplicity and facility of operating effects by the means assigned in this new constitution and the multiplicity confusion and difficulty that is found in the ancient and commonly received Hypothesis For if the Universe were disposed according to this multiplicity it would be necessary to renounce many Maximes in Philosophy commonly received by Philosophers as for instance That Nature doth not multiply things without necessity and That She makes use of the most facile and simple means in producing her effects and That She doth nothing in vain and the like I do confesse that I never heard any thing more admirable than this nor can I believe that Humane Understanding ever penetrated a more sublime speculation I know not what Simplicius may think of it SIMP These if I may speak my judgment freely do seem to me some of those Geometrical subtilties which Aristotle finds fault with in Plato when he accuseth him that by his too much studying of Geometry he forsook solid Philosophy and I have known and heard very great Peripatetick Philosophers to disswade their Scholars from the Study of the Mathematicks as those that render the wit cavilous and unable to philosophate well an Institute diametrically contrary to that of Plato who admitted one to Philosophy unlesse he was first well entered in Geometry SALV I commend the policy of these your Peripateticks in dehorting their Disciples from the Study of Geometry for that there is not art more commodious for detecting their fallacies but see how they differ from the Mathematical Philosophers who much more willingly converse with those that are well verst in the commune Peripatetick Philosophy than with those that are destitute of that knowledg who for want thereof cannot distinguish between doctrine and doctrine But passing by this tell me I beseech you what are those extravagancies and those too affected subtilties that make you think this Copernican Systeme the lesse plausible SIMP To tell you true I do not very well know perhaps because I have not so much as learnt the reasons that are by Ptolomy produced of those effects I mean of those stations retrogradations accessions recessions of the Planets lengthenings and shortnings of dayes changes of seasons c. But omitting the consequences that depend on the first suppositions I find in the suppositions themselves no small difficulties which suppositions if once they be overthrown they draw along with them the ruine of the whole fabrick Now forasmuch as because the whole module of Copernicus seemeth in my opinion to be built upon infirm foundations in that it relyeth upon the mobility of the earth if this should happen to be disproved there would be no need of farther dispute And to disprove this the Axiom of Aristotle is in my judgement most sufficient That of one simple body one sole simple motion can be natural but here in this case to the Earth a simple body there are assigned 3. if not 4. motions and all very different from each other For besides the right motion as a grave body towards its centre which cannot be denied it there is assigned to it a circular motion in a great circle about the Sun in a year and a vertiginous conversion
beholds the Terrestrial Globe with one and the same aspect never deviating from the same SAGR. Oh! when will there be an end put to the new observations and discoveries of this admirable Instrument SALV If this succeed according to the progresse of other great inventions it is to be hoped that in processe of time one may arrive to the sight of things to us at present not to be imagined But returning to our first discourse I say for the sixth resemblance betwixt the Moon and Earth that as the Moon for a great part of time supplies the want of the Suns light and makes the nights by the reflection of its own reasonable clear so the Earth in recompence affordeth it when it stands in most need by reflecting the Solar rayes a very cleer illumination and so much in my opinion greater than that which cometh from her to us by how much the superficies of the Earth is greater than that of the Moon SAGR. Hold there Salviatus hold there and permit me the pleasure of relating to you how at this first hint I have penetrated the cause of an accident which I have a thousand times thought upon but could never find out You would say that the imperfect light which is seen in the Moon especially when it is horned comes from the reflection of the light of the Sun on the Supersicies of the Earth and Sea and that light is more clear by how much the horns are lesse for then the luminous part of the Earth beheld by the Moon is greater according to that which was a little before proved to wit that the luminous part of the Earth exposed to the Moon is alway as great as the obscure part of the Moon that is visible to the Earth whereupon at such time as the Moon is sharp-forked and consequently its tenebrous part great great also is the illuminated part of the Earth beheld from the Moon and its reflection of light so much the more potent SALV This is exactly the same with what I was about to say In a word it is a great pleasure to speak with persons judicious and apprehensive and the rather to me for that whilest others converse and discourse touching Axiomatical truths I have many times creeping into my brain such arduous Paradoxes that though I have a thousand times rehearsed this which you at the very first have of your self apprehended yet could I never beat it into mens brains SIMPL. If you mean by your not being able to perswade them to it that you could not make them understand the same I much wonder thereat and am very confident that if they did not understand it by your demonstration your way of expression being in my judgment very plain they would very hardly have apprehended it upon the explication of any other man but if you mean you have not perswaded them so as to make them believe it I wonder not in the least at this for I confesse my self to be one of those who understand your discourses but am not satisfied therewith for there are in this and some of the other six congruities or resemblances many difficulties which I shall instance in when you have gone through them all SALV The desire I have to find out any truth in the acquist whereof the objections of intelligent persons such as your self may much assist me will cause me to be very brief in dispatching that which remains For a seventh conformity take their reciprocal responsion as well to injuries as favours whereby the Moon which very often in the height of its illumination by the interposure of the Earth betwixt it and the Sun is deprived of light and eclipsed doth by way of revenge in like manner interpose it self between the Earth and the Sun and with its shadow obscureth the Earth and although the revenge be not answerable to the injury for that the Moon often continueth and that for a reasonable long time wholly immersed in the Earths shadow but never was the Earth wholly nor for any long time eclipsed by the Moon yet neverthelesse having respect to the smalnesse of the body of this in comparision to the magnitude of the other it cannot be denied but that the will and as it were valour of this is very great Thus much for their congruities or resemblances It should next follow that we discourse touching their disparity but because Simplicius will favour us with his objections against the former its necessary that we hear and examine them before we proceed any farther SAGR. And the rather because it is to be supposed that Simplicius will not any wayes oppose the disparities and incongruities betwixt the Earth and Moon since that he accounts their substances extremely different SIMPL. Amongst the resemblances by you recited in the parallel you make betwixt the Earth and Moon I find that I can admit none confidently save onely the first and two others I grant the first namely the spherical figure howbeit even in this there is some kind of difference for that I hold that of the Moon to be very smooth and even as a looking-glasse whereas we find and feel this of the Earth to be extraordinary montuous and rugged but this belonging to the inequality of superficies it shall be anon considered in another of those Resemblances by you alledged I shall therefore reserve what I have to say thereof till I come to the consideration of that Of what you affirm next that the Moon seemeth as you say in your second Resemblance opacous and obscure in its self like the Earth I admit not any more than the first attribute of opacity of which the Eclipses of the Sun assure me For were the Moon transparent the air in the total obscuration of the Sun would not become so duskish as at such a time it is but by means of the transparency of the body of the Moon a refracted light would passe through it as we see it doth through the thickest clouds But as to the obscurity I believe not that the Moon is wholly deprived of light as the Earth nay that clarity which is seen in the remainder ot its Discus over and the above the small crescent enlightened by the Sun I repute to be its proper and natural light and not a reflection of the Earth which I esteem unable by reason of its asperity cragginesse and obscurity to reflect the raies of the Sun In the third Parallel I assent unto you in one part and dissent in another I agree in judging the body of the Moon to be most solid and hard like the Earth yea much more for if from Aristotle we receive that the Heavens are impenetrable and the Stars the most dense parts of Heaven it must necessarily follow that they are most solid and most impenetrable SAGR. What excellent matter would the Heavens afford us for to make Pallaces of if we could procure a substance so hard and so
Moon shews it self more bright by night than by day in respect of the obscurity of the space of the ambient and confequently do you not know in genere that every bright body shews the clearer by how much the ambient is obscurer SIMPL. This I know very well SALV When the Moon is horned and that secondary light seemeth to you very bright is it not ever nigh the Sun and consequently in the light of the crepusculum twilight SIMPL. It is so and I have oftentimes wish'd that the Air would grow thicker that I might be able to see that same light more plainly but it ever disappeared before dark night SALV You know then very certainly that in the depth of night that light would be more conspicuous SIMPL. I do so and also more than that if one could but take away the great light of the crescent illuminated by the Sun the presence of which much obscureth the other lesser SALV Why doth it not sometimes come to pass that one may in a very dark night see the whole face of the Moon without being at all illuminated by the Sun SIMPL. I know not whether this ever happeneth save onely in the total Ecclipses of the Moon SALV Why at that time this its light would appear very clear being in a most obscure medium and not darkned by the clarity of the luminous crescents but in that position how light did it appear to you SIMPL. I have sometimes seen it of the colour of brass and a little whitish but at other times it hath been so obscure that I have wholly lost the sight of it SALV How then can that light be so natural which you see so cleer in the close of the twilight notwithstanding the impediment of the great and contiguous splendor of the crescents and which again in the more obscure time of night all other light removed appears not at all SIMPL. I have heard of some that believed that same light to be participated to these crescents from the other Stars and in particular from Venus the Moons neighbour SALV And this likewise is a vanity because in the time of its total obscuration it ought to appear more shining than ever for you cannot say that the shadow of the Earth intercepts the sight of Venus or the other Stars But to say true it is not at that instant wholly deprived thereof for that the Terrestrial Hemisphere which in that time looketh towards the Moon is that where it is night that is an intire privation of the light of the Sun And if you but diligently observe you will very sensibly perceive that like as the Moon when it is sharp-horned doth give very little light to the Earth and according as in her the parts illuminated by the Suns light do encrease so likewise the splendor to our seeming encreaseth which from her is reflected towards us thus the Moon whilst it is sharp-forked and that by being between the Sun and the Earth it discovereth a very great part of the Terrestrial Hemisphere illuminated appeareth very clear and departing from the Sun and passing towards the Quadrature you may see the said light by degrees to grow dim and after the Quadrature the same appears very weak because it continually loseth more and more of the view of the luminous part of the Earth and yet it should succeed quite contrary if that light were its own or communicated to it from the Stars for then we should see it in the depth of night and in so very dark an ambient SIMPL. Stay a little for I just now remember that I have read in a little modern tract full of many novelties That this secondary light is not derived from the Stars nor innate in the Moon and least of all communicated by the Earth but that it is received from the same illumination of the Sun which the substance of the Lunar Globe being somewhat transparent penetrateth thorow all its body but more livelily illuminateth the superficies of the Hemisphere exposed to the rays of the Sun and its profundity imbuing and as I may say swallowing that light after the manner of a cloud or chrystal transmits it and renders it visibly lucid And this if I remember aright he proveth by Authority Experience and Reason citing Cleomedes Vitellion Macrobius and a certain other modern Author and adding That it is seen by experience to shine most in the days nearest the Conjunction that is when it is horned and is chiefly bright about its limb And he farther writes That in the Solar Ecclipses when it is under the Discus of the Sun it may be seen translucid and more especially towards its utmost Circle And in the next place for Arguments as I think he saith That it not being able to derive that light either from the Earth or from the Stars or from it self it necessarily follows that it cometh from the Sun Besides that if you do but grant this supposition one may easily give convenient reasons for all the particulars that occur For the reason why that secundary light shews more lively towards the outmost limb is the shortness of the space that the Suns rays hath to penetrate in regard that of the lines which pass through a circle the greatest is that which passeth through the centre and of the rest those which are farthest from it are always less than those that are nearer From the same principle he saith may be shewn why the said light doth not much diminish And lastly by this way the cause is assigned whence it comes that that same more shining circle about the utmost edge of the Moon is seen at the time of the Solar Ecclipse in that part which lyeth just under the Discus of the Sun but not in that which is beside the Discus which happeneth because the rays of the Sun pass directly to our eye through the parts of the Moon underneath but as for the parts which are besides it they fall besides the eye SALV If this Philosopher had been the first Author of this opinion I would not wonder that he should be so affectionate to it as to have received it for truth but borrowing it from others I cannot find any reason sufficient to excuse him for not perceiving itâ— fallacies and especially after he had heard the true cause of that effect and had it in his power to satisfie himself by a thousand experiments and manifest circumstances that the same proceeded from the reflection of the Earth and from nothing else and the more this speculation makes something to be desired in the judgment of this Author and of all those who give no credit to it so much the more doth their not having understood and remembred it excuse those more recess Antients who I am very certain did they now understand it would without the least repugnance admit thereof And if I may freely tell you what I think I cannot believe but that this Modern doth in his
of our mountains in a thicknesse of one mile onely SALV The very mountains of the Moon themselves are a proof thereof which percussed on one side of the Sun do cast on the contrary side very dark shadows terminate and more distinct by much than the shadows of ours but had these mountains been diaphanous we could never have come to the knowledg of any unevennesse in the superficies of the Moon not have seen those luminous montuosities distinguished by the terms which separate the lucid parts from the dark much lesse should we see this same term so distinct if it were true that the Suns light did penetrate the whole thicknesse of the Moon yea rather according to the Authors own words we should of necessity discern the passage and confine between the part of the Sun seen and the part not seen to be very confused and mixt with light and darknesse for that that matter which admits the passage of the Suns rayes thorow a space of two thousand miles must needs be so transparent that it would very weakly resist them in a hundredth or lesser part of that thicknesse neverthelesse the term which separateth the part illuminated from the obscure is incident and as distinct as white is distinct from black and especially where the Section passeth through the part of the Moon that is naturally more clear and montanous but where the old spots do part which are certain plains that by means of their spherical inclination receive the rayes of the Sun obliquely there the term is not so distinct by reason of the more dimme illumination That lastly which he saith how that the secondary light doth not diminish and languish according as the Moon encreaseth but conserveth it self continually in the same efficacy is most false nay it is hardly seen in the quadrature when on the contrary it should appear more splendid and be visible after the crepusculum in the dark of night Let us conclude therefore that the Earths reflection is very strong upon the Moon and that which you ought more to esteem we may deduce from thence another admirable congruity between the Moon and Earth namely that if it be true the Planets operate upon the Earth by their motion and light the Earth may probably be no lesse potent in operating reciprocally upon them with the same light and peradventure motion also And though it should not move yet may it retain the same operation because as it hath been proved already the action of the light is the self same I mean of the light of the Sun reflected and motion doth nothing save only vary the aspects which fall out in the same manner whether we make the Earth move and the Sun stand still or the contrary SIMPL. None of the Philosophers are found to have said that these inferiour bodies operate on the Coelestial nay Aristotle affirmes the direct contrary SALV Aristotle and the rest who knew not that the Earth and Moon mutually illuminated each other are to be excused but they would justly deserve our censure if whilest they desire that we should grant and believe with them that the Moon operateth upon the Earth with light they should deny to us who have taught them that the Earth illuminates the Moon the operation the Earth hath on the Moon SIMPL. In short I find in my self a great unwillingnesse to admit this commerce which you would perswade me to be betwixt the Earth and Moon placing it as we say amongst the number of the Stars for if there were nothing else the great separation and distance between it and the Coelestial bodies doth in my opinion necessarily conclude a vast disparity between them SALV See Simplicius what an inveterate affection and radicated opinion can do since it is so powerful that it makes you think that those very things favour you which you produce against your self For if separation and distance are accidents sufficient to perswade with you a great diversity of natures it must follow that proximity and contiguity import similitude Now how much more neerer is the Moon to the Earth than to any other of the Coelestial Orbs You must acknowledg therefore according to your own concession and you shall have other Philosophers bear you company that there is a very great affinity betwixt the Earth and Moon Now let us proceed and see whether any thing remains to be considered touching those objections which you made against the resemblances that are between these two bodies SIMPL. It rests that we say something touching the solidity of the Moon which I argued from its being exquisite smooth and polite and you from its montuosity There is another scruple also comes into my mind from an opinion which I have that the Seas reflection ought by the equality of its surface to be rendered stronger than that of the Earth whose superficies is so rough and opacous SALV As to the first objection I say that like as among the parts of the Earth which all by their gravity strive to approach the nearest they can possible to the center some of them alwayes are more remote from it than the rest as the mountains more than the valleys and that by reason of their solidity and firmnesse for if they were of fluid they would be even so the seeing some parts of the Moon to be elevated above the sphericity of the lower parts argueth their hardnesse for it is probable that the matter of the Moon is reduced into a spherical form by the harmonious conspiration of all its parts to the same sentense Touching the second doubt my thinks that the particulars already observed to happen in the Looking-glasses may very well assure us that the reflection of light comming from the Sea is far weaker than that which cometh from Land understanding it alwayes of the universal reflection for as to that particular on which the water being calm casteth upon a determinate place there is no doubt but that he who shall stand in that place shall see a very great reflection in the water but every way else he shall see the surface of the Water more obscure than that of the Land and to prove it to your senses let us go into yonder Hall and power forth a little water upon the Pavement Tell me now doth not this wet brick shew more dull than the other dry ones Doubtlesse it doth and will so appear from what place soever you behold it except one onely and this is that way which the light cometh that entereth in at yonder window go backwards therefore by a little and a little SIMPL. Here I see the west part shine more than all the rest of the pavement and I see that it so hapneth because the reflection of the light which entereth in at the window cometh towards me SALV That moisture hath done no more but filled those little cavities which are in the brick with water and reduced its superficies to an exact evenesse
amongst the Furies but when he is telling merry tales amongst the Meonion Damosels Ah unheard of sordidnesse of servile souls to make themselves willing slaves to other mens opinions to receive them for inviolable Decrees to engage themselves to seem satisfied and convinced by arguments of such efficacy and so manifestly concludent that they themselves cannot certainly resolve whether they were really writ to that purpose or serve to prove that assumption in hand or the contrary But which is a greater madnesse they are at variance amongst themselves whether the Author himself hath held the affirmative part or the negative What is this but to make an Oracle of a Log and to run to that for answers to fear that to reverence and adore that SIMPL. But in case we should recede from Aristotle who have we to be our Guid in Philosophy Name you some Author SALV We need a Guid in unknown and uncouth wayes but in champion places and open plains the blind only stand in need of a Leader and for such it is better that they stay at home But he that hath eyes in his head and in his mind him should a man choose for his Guid. Yet mistake me not thinking that I speak this for that I am against hearing of Aristotle for on the contrary I commend the reading and diligently studying of him and onely blame the servile giving ones self up a slave unto him so as blindly to subscribe to what ever he delivers and without search of any farther reason thereof to receive the same for an inviolable decree Which is an abuse that carrieth with it another great inconvenience to wit that others will no longer take pains to understand the validity of his Demonstrations And what is more shameful than in the middest of publique disputes whilest one person is treating of demonstrable conclusions to hear another interpose with a passage of Aristotle and not seldome writ to quite another purpose and with that to stop the mouth of his opponent But if you will continue to study in this manner I would have you lay aside the name of Philosophers and call your selves either Historians or Doctors of Memory for it is not fit that those who never philosophate should usurp the honourable title of Philosophers But it is best for us to return to shore and not lanch farther into a boundlesse Gulph out of which we shall not be able to get before night Therefore Simplicius come either with arguments and demonstrations of your own or of Aristotle and bring us no more Texts and naked authorities for our disputes are about the Sensible World and not one of Paper And forasmuch as in our discourses yesterday we retriev'd the Earth from darknesse and exposed it to the open skie shewing that the attempt to enumerate it amongst those which we call Coelestial bodies was not a position so foil'd and vanquish't as that it had no life left in it it followeth next that we proceed to examine what probability there is for holding of it fixt and wholly immoveable scilicet as to its entire Globe what likelihood there is for making it moveable with some motion and of what kind that may be And forasmuch as in this same question I am ambiguous and Simplicius is resolute as likewise Aristotle for the opinion of its immobility he shall one by one produce the arguments in favour of their opinion and I will alledge the answers and reasons on the contrary part and next Sagredus shall tell us his thoughts and to which side he finds himself inclined SAGR. Content provided alwayes that I may reserve the liberty to my self of alledging what pure natural reason shall sometimes dictate to me SALV Nay more it is rhat which I particularly beg of you for amongst the more easie and to so speak material considerations I believe there are but few of them that have been omitted by Writers so that onely some of the more subtle and remote can be desired or wanting and to investigate these what other ingenuity can be more fit than that of the most acute and piercing wit of Sagredus SAGR. I am what ever pleaseth Salviatus but I pray you let us not sally out into another kind of digression complemental for at this time I am a Philosopher and in the Schools not in the Court. SALV Let our contemplation begin therefore with this consideration that whatsoever motion may be ascribed to the Earth it is necessary that it be to us as inhabitants upon it and consequently partakers of the same altogether imperceptible and as if it were not at all so long as we have regard onely to terrestrial things but yet it is on the contrary as necessary that the same motion do seem common to all other bodies and visible objects that being separated from the Earth participate not of the same So that the true method to find whether any kind of motion may be ascribed to the Earth and that found to know what it is is to consider and observe if in bodies separated from the Earth one may discover any appearance of motion which equally suiteth to all the rest for a motion that is onely seen v. gr in the Moon and that hath nothing to do with Venus or Jupiter or any other Stars cannot any way belong to the Earth or to any other save the Moon alone Now there is a most general and grand motion above all others and it is that by which the Sun the Moon the other Planets and the Fixed Stars and in a word the whole Universe the Earth onely excepted appeareth in our thinking to move from the East towards the West in the space of twenty four hours and this as to this first appearance hath no obstacle to hinder it that it may not belong to the Earth alone as well as to all the World besides the Earth excepted for the same aspects will appear in the one position as in the other Hence it is that Aristotle and Ptolomy as having hit upon this consideration in going about to prove the Earth to be immoveable argue not against any other than this Diurnal Motion save onely that Aristotle hinteth something in obscure terms against another Motion ascribed to it by an Ancient of which we shall speak in its place SAGR. I very well perceive the necessity of your illation but I meet with a doubt which I know not how to free my self from and this it is That Copernicus assigning to the Earth another motion beside the Diurnal which according to the rule even now laid down ought to be to us as to appearance imperceptible in the Earth but visible in all the rest of the World me thinks I may necessarily infer either that he hath manifestly erred in assigning the Earth a motion to which there appears not a general correspondence in Heaven or else that if there be such a congruity therein Ptolomy on the other
its peculiar right motion If therefore in the circumference CD certain equal parts CF FG GH HL be marked and from the points F G H L right lines be drawn towards the centre A the parts of them intercepted between the two circumferences CD and BI shall represent unto us the same Tower CB transported by the Terrestrial Globe towards DI in which lines the points where they come to be intersected by the arch of the semicircle CI are the places by which from time to time the falling stone doth passe which points go continually with greater and greater proportion receding from the top of the Tower And this is the cause vvhy the right motion made along the side of the Tower apeareth to us more and more accelerate It appeareth also how by reason of the infinite acutenesse of the contact of those two circles DC CI the recession of the cadent moveable from the circumference CFD namely from the top of the Tower is towards the beginning extream small which is as much as if one said its motion downwards is very slow and more and more slow in infinitum according to its vicinity to the term C that is to the state of rest And lastly it is seen how in the end this same motion goeth to terminate in the centre of the Earth A. SAGR. I understand all this very well nor can I perswade my self that the falling moveable doth describe with the centre of its gravity any other line but such an one as this SALV But stay a little Sagredus for I am to acquaint you also with three Observations of mine that its possible will not displease you The first of which is that if we do well consider the moveable moveth not really with any more than onely one motion simply circular as when being placed upon the Tower it moved with one single and circular motion The second is yet more pleasant for it moveth neither more nor lesse then if it had staid continually upon the Tower being that to the arches CF FG GH c. that it would have passed continuing alwayes upon the Tower the arches of the circumference CI are exactly equal answering under the same CF FG GH c. Whence followeth the third wonder That the true and real motion of the stone is never accelerated but alwayes even and uniforme since that all the equal arches noted in the circumference CD and their respondent ones marked in the circumference CI are past in equal times so that we are left at liberty to seek new causes of acceleration or of other motions seeing that the moveable as well standing upon the Tower as descending thence alwayes moveth in the same fashion that is circularly with the same velocity and with the same uniformity Now tell me what you think of this my fantastical conjecture SAGR. I must tell you that I cannot with words sufficiently expresse how admirable it seemeth to me and for vvhat at present offereth it self to my understanding I cannot think that the business happeneth otherwise and vvould to God that all the demonstrations of Philosophers were but half so probable as this However for my perfect satisfaction I would gladly hear how you prove those arches to be equal SALV The demonstration is most easie Suppose to your self a line drawn from I to E. And the Semidiameter of the circle CD that is the line CA being double the Semidiameter CE of the circle CI the circumference shall be double to the circumference and every arch of the greater circle double to every like arch of the lesser and consequently the half of the arch of the greater circle equal to the whole arch of the lesse And because the angle CEI made in the centre E of the lesser circle and which insisteth upon the arch CI is double the angle CAD made in the centre A of the greater circle to which the arch CD subtendeth therefore the arch CD is half of the arch of the greater circle like to the arch CI and therefore the two arches CD and CI are equal and in the same manner we may demonstrate of all their parts But that the business as to the motion of descending grave bodies proceedeth exactly thus I will not at this time affirm but this I will say that if the line described by the cadent moveable be not exactly the same with this it doth extream neerly resemble the same SAGR. But I Salviatus am just now considering another particular very admirable and this it is That admitting these considerations the right motion doth go wholly mounting and that Nature never makes use thereof since that even that that use which was from the beginning granted to it which was of reducing the parts of integral bodies to their place when they were separated from their whole and therefore constituted in a depraved disposition is taken from it and assigned to the circular motion SALV This would necessarily follow if it were concluded that the Terrestrial Globe moveth circularly a thing which I pretend not to be done but have onely hitherto attempted as I shall still to examine the strength of those reasons which have been alledged by Philosophers to prove the immobility of the Earth of which this first taken from things falling perpendicularly hath begat the doubts that have been mentioned which I know not of what force they may have seemed to Simplicius and therefore before I passe to the examination of the remaining arguments it would be convenient that he produce what he hath to reply to the contrary SIMP As to this first I confesse indeed that I have heard sundry pretty notions which I never thought upon before and in regard they are new unto me I cannot have answers so ready for them but this argument taken â—rom things falling perpendicularly I esteem it not one of the strongest proofs of the mobility of the Earth and I know not what may happen touching the shots of great Guns especially those aimed contrary to the diurnal motion SAGR. The flying of the birds as much puzzleth me as the objection of the Gun-shot and all the other experiments above alledged For these birds which at their pleasure flie forwards and backwards and wind to and again in a thousand fashions and which more importeth lie whole hours upon the wing these I say do not a little pose me nor do I see how amongst so many circumgyrations they should not lose the motion of the Earth and how they should be able to keep pace with so great a velocity as that which they so far exceed with their flight SALV To speak the truth your scruple is not without reason and its possible Copernicus himself could not find an answer for it that was to himself entirely satisfactory and therefore haply past it over in silence albeit he was indeed very brief in examining the other allegations of his adversaries I believe through his height of wit placed on greater aud sublimer
through the air according to the direction of the motion made in the piece the said motion shall continue on according to the inclination of the line BD and so shall no longer be perpendicular but inclined towards the East to which part the piece doth also move whereupon the ball may follow the motion of the Earth and of the piece Now Simplicius you see it demonstrated that the Range which you took to be perpendicular is not so SIMP I do not very well understand this business do you Salviatus SALV I apprehend it in part but I have a certain kind of scruple which I wish I knew how to express It seems to me that according to what hath been said if the Piece be erected perpendicular and the Earth do move the ball would not be to fall as Aristotle and Tycho will have it far from the Piece towards the West nor as you would have it upon the Piece but rather far distant towards the East For according to your explanation it would have two motions the which would with one consent carry it thitherward to wit the common motion of the Earth which carrieth the Piece and the ball from CA towards ED and the fire which carrieth it by the inclined line BD both motions towards the East and therefore they are superiour to the motion of the Earth SAGR. Not so Sir The motion which carrieth the ball towards the East cometh all from the Earth and the fire hath no part at all therein the motion which mounteth the ball upwards is wholly of fire wherewith the Earth hath nothing to do And that it is so if you give not fire the ball will never go out of the Piece nor yet rise upwards a hairs breadth as also if you make the Earth immoveable and give fire the ball without any inclination shall go perpendicularly upwards The ball therefore having two motions one upwards and the other in gyration of both which the transverse line BD is compounded the impulse upward is wholly of fire the circular cometh wholly from the Earth and is equal to the Earths motion and being equal to it the ball maintaineth it self all the way directly over the mouth of the Piece and at last falleth back into the same and because it always observeth the erection of the Piece it appeareth also continually over the head of him that is near the Piece and therefore it appeareth to mount exactly perpendicular towards our Zenith or vertical point SIMP I have yet one doubt more remaining and it is that in regard the motion of the ball is very swift in the Piece it seems not possible that in that moment of time the transposition of the Piece from CA to AD should confer such an inclination upon the transverse line CD that by means thereof the ball when it cometh afterwards into the air should be able to follow the course of the Earth SAGR. You err upon many accounts and first the inclination of the transverse line CD I believe it is much greater than you take it to be for I verily think that the velocity of the Earths motion not onely under the Equinoctial but in our paralel also is greater than that of the ball whilst it moveth in the Piece so that the interval CE would be absolutely much bigger than the whole length of the Piece and the inclination of the transverse line consequently bigger than half a right angle but be the velocity of the Earth more or be it less in comparison of the velocity of the fire this imports nothing for if the velocity of the Earth be small and consequently the inclination of the transverse line be little also there is then also need but of little inclination to make the ball suspend it self in its range directly over the Piece And in a word if you do but attentively consider you will comprehend that the motion of the Earth in transferring the Piece along with it from CA to ED conferreth upon the transverse line CD so much of little or great inclination as is required to adjust the range to its perpendicularity But you err secondly in that you referr the faculty of carrying the ball along with the Earth to the impulse of the fire and you run into the same error into which Salviatus but even now seemed to have fallen for the faculty of following the motion of the Earth is the primary and perpetual motion indelibly and inseparably imparted to the said ball as to a thing terrestrial and that of its own nature doth and ever shall possess the same SALV Let us yield Simplicius for the business is just as he saith And now from this discourse let us come to understand the reason of a Venatorian Problem of those Fowlers who with their guns shoot a bird flying and because I did imagine that in regard the bird flieth a great pace therefore they should aim their shot far from the bird anticipating its flight for a certain space and more or less according to its velocity and the distance of the bird that so the bullet hasting directly to the mark aimed at it might come to arrive at the self same time in the same point with its motion and the bird with its flight and by that means one to encounter the other and asking one of them if their practise was not so to do He told me no but that the slight was very easie and certain and that they took aim just in the same manner as if they had shot at a bird that did sit still that is they made the flying bird their mark and by moving their fowling-piece they followed her keeping their aim still full upon her till such time as they let fly and in this manner shot her as they did others sitting still It is necessary therefore that that motion though slow which the fowling-piece maketh in turning and following after the flight of the bird do communicate it self to the bullet also and that it be joyned with that of the fire so that the ball hath from the fire the motion directly upwards and from the concave Cylinder of the barrel the declination according to the flight of the Bird just as was said before of the shot of a Canon where the ball receiveth from the fire a virtue of mounting upwards towards the Zenith and from the motion of the Earth its winding towards the East and of both maketh a compound motion that followeth the course of the Earth and that to the beholder seemeth onely to go directly upwards and return again downwards by the same line The holding therefore of the gun continually directed towards the mark maketh the shoot hit right and that you may keep your gun directed to the mark in case the mark stands still you must also hold your gun still and if the mark shall move the gun must be kept upon the mark by moving And upon this dependeth the proper answer to the other argument taken
of SIMP See here it is where he beginneth to argue against the diurnal motion of the Earth he having first confuted the annual Motus terrae annuus asserere Copernicanos cogit conversionem ejusdem quotidianam alias idem terrae Hemisphaerium continenter ad Solem esset conversum obumbrato semper averso In English thus The annual motion of the Earth doth compell the Copernicans to assert the daily conversion thereof otherwise the same Hemisphere of the Earth would be continually turned towards the Sun the shady side being always averse And so one half of the Earth would never come to see the Sun SALV I find at the very first sight that this man hath not rightly apprehended the Copernican Hypothesis for if he had but taken notice how he alwayes makes the Axis of the terrestrial Globe perpetually parallel to it self he would not have said that one half of the Earth would never see the Sun but that the year would be one entire natural day that is that thorow all parts of the Earth there would be six moneths day and six moneths night as it now befalleth to the inhabitants under the Pole but let this mistake be forgiven him and let us come to what remaineth SIMP It followeth Hanc autem gyrationem Terrae impossibilem esse sic demonstramus Which speaks in English thus That this gyration of the Earth is impossible we thus demonstrate That which ensueth is the declaration of the following figure wherein is delineated many descending grave bodies and ascending light bodies and birds that fly to and again in the air c. SAGR. Let us see them I pray you Oh! what fine figures what birds what balls and what other pretty things are here SIMP These are balls which come from the concave of the Moon SAGR. and what is this SIMP This is a kind of Shell-fish which here at Venice they call buovoli and this also came from the Moons concave SAGR. Indeed it seems then that the Moon hath a great power over these Oyster-fishes which we call armed sishes SIMP And this is that calculation which I mentioned of this Journey in a natural day in an hour in a first minute and in a second which a point of the Earth would make placed under the Equinoctial and also in the parallel of 48 gr And then followeth this which I doubted I had committed some mistake in reciting therefore let us read it His positis necesse est terra circulariter mota omnia ex aëre eidem c. Quod si hasce pilas aequales ponemus pondere magnitudine gravitate in concavo Sphaerae Lunaris positas libero descensui permittamus si motum deorsum aequemus celeritate motui circum quod tamen secus est cum pila A c. elabentur minimum ut multum cedamus adversariis dies sex quo tempore sexies circa terram c. In English thus These things being supposed it is necessary the Earth being circularly moved that all things from the air to the same c. So that if we suppose these balls to be equal in magnitude and gravity and being placed in the concave of the Lunar Sphere we permit them a free descent and if we make the motion downwards equal in velocity to the motion about which nevertheless is otherwise if the ball A c. they shall be falling at least that we may grant much to our adversaries six dayes in which time they shall be turned six times about the Earth c. SALV You have but too faithfully cited the argument of this person From hence you may collect Simplicius with what caution they ought to proceed who would give themselves up to believe others in those things which perhaps they do not believe themselves For me thinks it a thing impossible but that this Author was advised that he did design to himself a circle whose diameter which amongst Mathematicians is lesse than one third part of the circumference is above 72 times bigger than it self an errour that affirmeth that to be considerably more than 200 which is lesse than one SAGR. It may be that these Mathematical proportions which are true in abstract being once applied in concrete to Physical and Elementary circles do not so exactly agree And yet I think that the Cooper to find the semidiameter of the bottom which he is to fit to the Cask doth make use of the rule of Mathematicians in abstract although such bottomes be things meerly material and concrete therefore let Simplicius plead in excuse of this Author and whether he thinks that the Physicks can differ so very much from the Mathematicks SIMP The substractions are in my opinion insufficient to salve this difference which is so extreamly too great to be reconciled and in this case I have no more to say but that Quandoque bonus dormilet Homerus But supposing the calculation of Salviatus to be more exact and that the time of the descent of the ball were no more than three hours yet me thinks that coming from the concave of the Moon which is so great a distance off it would be an admirable thing that it should have an instinct of maintaining it self all the way over the self-same point of the Earth over which it did hang in its departure thence and not rather be left a very great way behind SALV The effect may be admirable and not admirable but natural and ordinary according as the things precedent may fall out For if the ball according to the Authors suppositions whilst it staid in the concave of the Moon had the circular motion of twenty four hours together with the Earth and with the rest of the things contained within the said Concave that very vertue which made it turn round before its descent will continue it in the same motion in its descending And so far it is from not keeping pace with the motion of the Earth and from staying behind that it is more likely to out-go it being that in its approaches to the Earth the motion of gyration is to be made with circles continually lesser and lesser so that the ball retaining in it self that self-same velocity which it had in the concave it ought to anticipate as I have said the vertigo or conversion of the Earth But if the ball in the concave did want that circulation it is not obliged in descending to maintain it self perpendicularly over that point of the Earth which was just under it when the descent began Nor will Copernicus or any of his followers affirm the same SIMP But the Author maketh an objection as you see demanding on what principle this circular motion of grave and light bodies doth depend that is whether upon an internal or an external principle SALV Keeping to the Probleme of which we speak I say that that very principle which made the ball turn round whil'st it was in the Lunar concave is the same that maintaineth also the circulation
that should affirm that the principle of the circular motions of grave and light bodies is an intern accident I know not how he may prove that it cannot be a substance SIMP He brings many Arguments against this The first of which is in these words Si secundum nempè si dicas tale principium esse substantiam illud est aut materia aut forma aut compositum Sed repugnant iterum tot diversae rerum naturae quales sunt aves limaces saxa sagittae nives fumi grandines pisces c. quae tamen omnia specie genere differentia moverentur à naturà suâ circulariter ipsa naturis diversissima c. In English thus If the second that is if you shall say that this principle is a substance it is either matter or form or a compound of both But such diverse natures of things are again repugnant such as are birds snails stones darts snows smoaks hails fishes c. all which notwithstanding their differences in species and kind are moved of their own nature circularly they being of their natures most different c. SALV If these things before named are of diverse natures and things of diverse natures cannot have a motion in common it must follow if you would give satisfaction to all that you are to think of more than two motions onely of upwards and downwards and if there must be one for the arrows another for the snails another for the stones and another for fishes then are you to bethink your self of worms topazes and mushrums which are not less different in nature from one another than snow and hail SIMP It seems that you make a jest of these Arguments SALV No indeed Simplicius but it hath been already answered above to wit that if one motion whether downwards or upwards can agree with all those things afore named a circular motion may no less agree with them and as you are a Peripatetick do not you put a greater difference between an elementary comet and a celestial star than between a fish and a bird and yet both those move circularly Now propose your second Argument SIMP Si terra staret per voluntatem Dei rotaréntne caetera an non si hoc falsum est à naturâ gyrare si illud redeunt priores quaestiones Et sanè mirum esset quòd Gavia pisciculo Alauda nidulo suo corvus limaci petraque etiam volans imminere non posset Which I thus render If the Earth be supposed to stand still by the will of God should the rest of bodies turn round or no If not then it 's false that they are revolved by nature if the other the former questions will return upon us And truly it would be strange that the Sea-pie should not be able to hover over the small fish the Lark over her nest and the Crow over the snail and rock though flying SALV I would answer for my self in general terms that if it were appointed by the will of God that the Earth should cease from its diurnal revolution those birds would do what ever should please the same Divine will But if this Author desire a more particular answer I should tell him that they would do quite contrary to what they do now if whilst they being separated from the Earth do bear themselves up in the air the Terrestrial Globe by the will of God should all on a sudden be put upon a precipitate motion it concerneth this Author now to ascertain us what would in this case succeed SAGR. I pray you Salviatus at my request to grant to this Author that the Earth standing still by the will of God the other things separated from it would continue to turn round of their own natural motion and let us hear what impossibilities or inconveniences would follow for I as to my own particular do not see how there can be greater disorders than these produced by the Author himself that is that Larks though they should flie could not be able to hover over their nests nor Crows over snails or rocks from whence would follow that Crows must suffer for want of snails and young Larks must die of hunger and cold not being able to be fed or sheltered by the wings of the old ones This is all the ruine that I can conceive would follow supposing the Authors speech to be true Do you see Simplicius if greater inconveniences would happen SIMP I know not how to discover greater but it is very credible that the Author besides these discovered other disorders in Nature which perhaps in reverend respect of her he was not willing to instance in Therefore let us proceed to the third Objection Insuper quî fit ut istae res tam variae tantùm moveantur ab Occasu in Ortum parallelae ad Aequatorem ut semper moveantur nunquam quiescant which speaks to this sense Moreover how comes it to pass that these things so diverse are onely moved from the West towards the East parallel to the Aequinoctial that they always move and never rest SALV They move from West to East parallel to the Aequinoctial without ceasing in the same manner as you believe the fixed stars to move from East to West parallel to the Aequinoctial without ever resting SIMP Quarè quò sunt altiores celeriùs quò humiliores tardiùs i. e. Why are the higher the swifter and the lower the â—lower SALV Because that in a Sphere or circle that turns about upon its own centre the remoter parts describe greater circuits and the parts nearer at hand describe lesser in the same time SIMP Quare quae Aequinoctiali propriores in majori quae remotiores in minori circulo feruntur scilicet Why are those near the Aequinoctial carried about in a greater circle and those which are remote in a lesser SALV To imitate the starry Sphere in which those nearest to the Aequinoctial move in greater circles than the more remote SIMP Quarè Pila eadem sub Aequinoctiali tota circa centrum terrae ambitu maximo celeritate incredibili sub Polo verò circa centrum proprium gyro nullo tarditate supremà volveretur That is Why is the same ball under the Aequinoctial wholly turned round the centre of the Earth in the greatest circumference with an incredible celerity but under the Pole about its own centre in no circuite but with the ultimate degree of tardity SALV To imitate the stars of the Firmament that would do the like if they had the diurnal motion SIMP Quare eadem res pila v. g. plumbea si semel terram circuivit descripto circulo maximo eandem ubique non circummigret secundùm circulum maximum sed translata extra Aequinoctialem in circulis minoribus agetur Which speaketh thus Why doth not the same thing as for example a ball of lead turn round every where according to the same great circle if once describing a great circle it hath incompassed the Earth but being removed from the
Aequinoctial doth move in lesser circles SALV Because so would nay according to the doctrine of Ptolomey so have some fixed stars done which once were very near the Aequinoctial and described very vast circles and now that they are farther off describe lesser SAGR. If I could now but keep in mind all these fine notions I should think that I had made a great purchase I must needs intreat you Simplicius to lend me this Book for there cannot chuse but be a sea of rare and ingenious matters contained in it SIMP I will present you with it SAGR. Not so Sir I would not deprive you of it but are the Queries yet at an end SIMP No Sir hearken therefore Si latio circularis gravibus levibus est naturalis qualis est ea quae fit secundùm lineam rectam Nam si naturalis quomodo is motus qui circum est naturalis est cùm specie differat à recto Si violentus quî fit ut missile ignitum sursum evolans scintillosum caput sursùm à terrâ non autem circum volvatur c. Which take in our idiom If a circular lation is natural to heavy and light things what is that which is made according to a right line For if it be natural how then is that motion which is about the centre natural seeing it differs in species from a right motion If it be violent how is it that a fiery dart flying upwards sparkling over our heads at a distance from the Earth but not turning about c. SALV It hath been said already very often that the circular motion is natural to the whole and to its parts whilst they are in perfect disposure and the right is to reduce to order the parts disordered though indeed it is better to say that neither the parts ordered or disordered ever move with a right motion but with one mixed which might as well be averred meerly circular but to us but one part onely of this motion is visible and observable that is the part of the right the other part of the circular being imperceptible to us because we partake thereof And this answers to the rays which move upwards and round about but we cannot distinguish their circular motion for that with that we our selves move also But I believe that this Author never thought of this mixture for you may see that he resolutely saith that the rays go directly upwards and not at all in gyration SIMP Quare centrum sphaere delapsae sub Aequatore spiram describit in ejus plano sub aliis parallelis spiram describit in cono sub Polo descendit in axe lineam gyralem decurrens in superficie cylindricâ consignatam In English to this purpose Why doth the centre of a falling Globe under the Aequinoctial describe a spiral line in the plane of the Aequator and in other parallels a spiral about a Cone and under the Pole descend in the axis describing a gyral line running in a Cylindrical Superficie SALV Because of the lines drawn from the Centre to the circumference of the sphere which are those by which graves descend that which terminates in the Aequinoctial designeth a circle and those that terminate in other parallels describe conical superficies now the axis describeth nothing at all but continueth in its own being And if I may give you my judgment freely I will say that I cannot draw from all these Queries any sense that interfereth with the motion of the Earth for if I demand of this Author granting him that the Earth doth not move what would follow in all these particulars supposing that it do move as Copernicus will have it I am very confident that he would say that all these effects would happen that he hath objected as inconveniences to disprove its mobility so that in this mans opinion necessary consequences are accounted absurdities but I beseech you if there be any more dispatch them and free us speedily from this wearisom task SIMP In this which follows he opposes Copernicus his Sectators who affirm that the motion of the parts separated from their whole is onely to unite themselves to their whole but that the moving circularly along with the vertigenous diurnal revolution is absolutely natural against which he objecteth saying that according to these mens opinion Si tota terra unà cum aquà in nihilum redigeretur nulla grando aut pluvia è nube decideret sed naturalater tantùm circumferetur neque ignis ullus aut igneum ascenderet cùm illorum non improbabili sententià ignis nullus sit suprà Which I translate to this sense If the whole Earth together with the Water were reduced into nothing no hail or rain would fall from the clouds but would be onely naturally carried round neither any fire or fiery thing would ascend seeing to these that men it is no improbable opinion that there is no fire above SALV The providence of this Philosopher is admirable and worthy of great applause for he is not content to provide for things that might happen the course of Nature continuing but will shew hic care in what may follow from those things that he very well knows shall never come to pass I will grant him therefore that I may get som pretty passages out of him that if the Earth and Water should be reduced to nothing there would be no more hails or rains nor would igneal matters ascend any longer upwards but would continually turn round what will follow what will the Philosopher say then SIMP The objection is in the words which immediately follow here they are Quibus tamen experientia ratio adversatur Which nevertheless saith he is contrary to experience and reason SALV Now I must yield seeing he hath so great an advantage of me as experience of which I am unprovided For as yet I never had the fortune to see the Terrestrial Globe and the element of Water turn'd to nothing so as to have been able to observe what the hail and water did in that little Chaos But he perhaps tells us for our instruction what they did SIMP No he doth not SALV I would give any thing to change a word or two with this person to ask him whether when this Globe vanished it carried away with it the common centre of gravity as I believe it did in which case I think that the hail and water would remain insensate and stupid amongst the clouds without knowing what to do with themselves It might be also that attracted by that great void Vacuum left by the Earths absenting all the ambients would be rarified and particularly the air which is extreme easily drawn and would run thither with very great haste to fill it up And perhaps the more solid and material bodies as birds for there would in all probability be many of them scattered up and down in the air would retire more towards the centre of the great vacant sphere for it
actuate it at the same instant with different and as it were of contrary motions I cannot believe that any one would say such a thing unlesse he had undertook to maintain this position right or wrong SALV Stay a little and find me out this place in the Book Fingamus modo cum Copernico terram aliqua suâ vi ab indito principio impelli ab Occasu ad Ortum in Eclipticae plano tum rursus revolvi ab indito etiam principio circa suimet centrum ab Ortu in Occasum tertio deflecti rursus suopte nutu à septentrione in Austrum vicissim I had thought Simplicius that you might have erred in reciting the words of the Author but now I see that he and that very grossely deceiveth himself and to my grief I find that he hath set himself to oppose a position which he hath not well understood for these are not the motions which Copernicus assignes to the Earth Where doth he find that Copernicus maketh the annual motion by the Ecliptick contrary to the motion about its own centre It must needs be that he never read his Book which in an hundred places and in the very first Chapters affirmeth those motions to be both towards the same parts that is from West to East But without others telling him ought he not of himself to comprehend that attributing to the Earth the motions that are taken one of them from the Sun and the other from the primum mobile they must of necessity both move one and the same way SIMP Take heed that you do not erre your self and Copernicus also The Diurnal motion of the primum mobile is it not from East to West And the annual motion of the Sun through the Ecliptick is it not on the contrary from West to East How then can you make these motions being conferred on the Earth of contraries to become consistents SAGR. Certainly Simplicius hath discovered to us the original cause of error of this Philosopher and in all probability he would have said the very same SALV Now if it be in our power let us at least recover Simplicius from this errour who seeing the Stars in their rising to appear above the Oriental Horizon will make it no difficult thing to understand that in case that motion should not belong to the Stars it would be necessary to confesse that the Horizon with a contrary motion would go down and that consequently the Earth would reoolve in it self a contrary way to that wherewith the Stars seem to move that is from West to East which is according to the order of the Signes of the Zodiack As in the next place to the other motion the Sun being fixed in the centre of the Zodiack and the Earth moveable about its circumference to make the Sun seem unto us to move about the said Zodiack according to the order of the Signes it is necessary that the Earth move according to the same order to the end that the Sun may seem to us to possesse alwayes that degree in the Zodiack that is opposite to the degree in which we find the Earth and thus the Earth running verbi gratia through Aries the Sun will appear to run thorow Libra and the Earth passing thorow the signe Taurus the Sun will passe thorow Scorpio and so the Earth going thorow Gemini the Sun seemeth to go thorow Sagittarius but this is moving both the same way that is according to the order of the signes as also was the revolution of the Earth about its own centre SIMP I understand you very well and know not what to alledge in excuse of so grosse an error SALV And yet Simplicius there is one yet worse then this and it is that he makes the Earth move by the diurnal motion about its own centre from East to West and perceives not that if this were so the motion of twenty four hours appropriated by him to the Universe would in our seeming proceed from West to East the quite contrary to that which we behold SIMP Oh strange Why I that have scarce seen the first elements of the Sphere would not I am confident have erred so horribly SALV Judg now what pains this Antagonist may be thought to have taken in the Books of Copernicus if he absolutely invert the sense of this grand and principal Hypothesis upon which is founded the whole summe of those things wherein Copernicus SAGR. I have twice or thrice observed in the discourses of this Authour that to prove that a thing is so or so he still alledgeth that in that manner it is conformable with our understanding or that otherwise we should never be able to conceive of it or that the Criterium of Philosophy would be overthrown As if that nature had first made mens brains and then disposed all things in conformity to the capacity of their intellects But I incline rather to think that Nature first made the things themselves as she best liked and afterwards framed the reason of men capable of conceiving though not without great pains some part of her secrets SALV I am of the same opinion But tell me Simplicius which are these different natures to which contrary to experience and reason Copernicus assignes the same motions and operations SIMP They are these The Water the Air which doubtlesse are Natures different from the Earth and all things that are in those elements comprised shall each of them have those three motions which Copernicus pretends to be in the Terrestriall Globe and my Authour proceedeth to demonstrate Geometrically that according to the Copernican Doctrine a cloud that is suspended in the Air and that hangeth a long time over our heads without changing place must of necessity have all those three motions that belong to the Terrestrial Globe The demonstration is this which you may read your self for I cannot repeat it without book SALV I shall not stand reading of it nay I think it an impertinency in him to have inserted it for I am certain that no Copernican will deny the same Therefore admitting him what he would demonstrate let us speak to the objection which in my judgment hath no great strength to conclude any thing contrary to the Copernican Hypothesis seeing that it derogates nothing from those motions and those operations whereby we come to the knowledge of the natures c. Answer me I pray you Simplicius Those accidents wherein some things exactly concur can they serve to inform us of the different natures of those things SIMP No Sir nay rather the contrary for from the idendity of operations and of accidents nothing can be inferred but an idendity of natures SALV So that the different natures of the Water Earth Air and other things conteined in these Elements is not by you argued from those operations wherein all these Elements and their affixes agree but from other operations is it so SIMP The very same SALV So
might charge Kepler with grosse ignorance but the imposture was so very dull and obvions that he could not with all his craft alter the opinion which Kepler hath begot of his Doctrine in the minds of all the Learned As in the next place to the instance against the perpetual motion of the Earth taken from the impossibility of its moving long without wearinesse in regard that living creatures themselves which yet move naturally and from an intern principle do grow weary and have need of rest to relax and refresh their members SAGR. Methinks I hear Kepler answer him to that that there are some kinde of animals which refresh themselves after wearinesse by rowling on the Earth and that therefore there is no need to fear that the Terrestrial Globe should tire nay it may be reasonably affirmed that it enjoyeth a perpetual most tranquil repose keeping it self in an eternal rowling SALV You are too tart and Satyrical Sagredus but let us lay aside jests whilst we are treating of serious things SAGR. Excuse me Salviatus this that I say is not so absolutely besides the business as you perhaps make it for a motion that serveth instead of rest and removeth weariness from a body tired with travail may much more easily serve to prevent the coming of that weariness like as preventive remedies are more easie than curative And I hold for certain that if the motion of animals should proceed in the same manner as this that is ascribed to the Earth they would never grow weary Seeing that the weariness of the living creature deriveth it self in my opinion from the imployment of but one part alone in the moving of its self and all the rest of the body as v. g. in walking the thighs and the legs onely are imployed for carrying themselves and all the rest on the contrary you see the motion of the heart to be as it were indefatigable because it moveth it self alone Besides I know not how true it may be that the motion of the animal is natural and not rather violent nay I believe that one may truly say that the soul naturally moveth the members of an animal with a motion preternatural for if the motion upwards is preternatural to grave bodies the lifting up of the legs and the thighs which are grave bodies in walking cannot be done without violence and therefore not without labour to the mover The climbing upwards by a ladder carrieth the grave body contrary to its natural inclination upwards from whence followeth weariness by reason of the bodies natural aversness to that motion but in moving a moveable with a motion to which it hath no aversion what lassitude what diminution of vertue and strength need we fear in the mover and how should the forces waste where they are not at all imployed SIMP They are the contrary motions wherewith the Earth is pretended to move against which the Authour produceth his argument SAGR. It hath been said already that they are no wise contraries and that herein the Authour is extteamly deceived so that the whole strength of the argument recoileth upon the Opponent himself whilst he will make the First Mover to hurry along with it all the inferiour Spheres contrary to the motion which they themselves at the same time exercise It belongs therefore to the Primum Mobile to grow weary which besides the moving of its self is made to carry so many other Spheres and which also strive against it with a contrary motion So that the ultimate conclusion that the Authour inferred saying that discoursing of the effects of Nature a man alwayes meets with things that favour the opinion of Aristotle and Ptolomy and never any one that doth not interfer with Copernicus stands in need of great consideration and it is better to say that one of these two Hypotheses being true and the other necessarily false it is impossible that a man should ever be able to finde any argument experience or right reason in favour of that which is false like as to the truth none of these things can be repugnant Vast difference therefore must needs be found between the reasons and arguments produced by the one and other party for and against these two opinions the force of which I leave you your self to judge of Simplicius SALV But you Sagredus being transported by the velocity of your wit have taken my words out of my mouth whilst I was about to say something touching this last argument of the Author and although you have more then sufficiently refuted him yet neverthelesse I will adde somewhat which then ran in my minde He proposeth it as a thing very unlikely that a body dissipable and corruptible as the Earth should perpetually move with a regular motion especially for that we see living creatures in the end to grow weary and to stand in need of rest and the improbability is increased in that the said motion is required to be of velocity incomparable and immense in respect to that of animals Now I cannot see why the velocity of the Earth should at present trouble it so long as that of the starry Sphere so very much bigger doth not occasion in it any disturbance more considerable than that which the velocity of a machine that in 24 hours maketh but one sole revolution produceth in the same If the being of the velocity of the Earths conversion according to the model of that machine inferreth things of no greater moment than that let the Author cease to fear the Earths growing weary for that not one of the most feeble and slow-pac't animals no not a Chamaeleon would tire in moving no more than four or five yards in 24 hours but if he please to consider the velocity to be no longer in relation to the model of the machine but absolutely and inasmuch as the moveable in 24 hours is to pass a very great space he ought to shew himself so much more reserved in granting it to the starry Sphere which with a velocity incomparably greater than that of the Earth is to carry along with it a thousand bodies each much bigger than the Terrestrial Globe Here it remains for us to see the proofs whereby the Authour concludes the new stars Anno 1572. and Anno 1604. to be sublunary and not coelestial as the Astronomers of those times were generally perswaded an enterprize very great certainly but I have considered that it will be better in regard the Book is new and long by reason of its many calculations that between this evening and to morrow morning I make them as plain as I can and so meeting you again to morrow to continue our wonted conferences give you a brief of what I shall observe therein and if we have time left we will say something of the Annual motion ascribed to the Earth In the mean time if either of you and Simplicius in particular hath any thing to
Rule if when BD is 58. BG is 42657. in case the said DB were 8142. how much would BC be I multiply the second term by the third and the product is 347313294. which ought to be divided by the first namely by 58. and the quotient shall be the number of the parts of the line BC whereof the semidiameter AB is 100000. And to know how many semidiameters BA the said line BC doth contein it will be necessary anew to divide the said quotient so found by 100000. and we shall have the number of semidiameters conteined in BC. Now the number 347313294. divided by 58. giveth 5988160¼ as here you may see And this divided by 100000. the product is 59 88160 100000 But we may much abbreviate the operation dividing the first quotient found that is 347313294. by the product of the multiplication of the two numbers 58. and 100000. that is And this way also there will come forth 59 5113294 5â—00â—â—â— And so many semidiameters are contained in the line BC to which one being added for the line AB we shall have little lesse than 61. semidiameters for the two lines ABC and therefore the right distance from the centre A to the Star C shall be more than 60. semidiameters and therefore it is superiour to the Moon according to Ptolomy more than 27. semidiameters and according to Copernicus more than 8. supposing that the distance of the Moon from the centre of the Earth by Copernicus his account is what the Author maketh it 52 semidiameters With this same working I find by the observations of Camerarius and of Munosius that the Star was situate in that same distance to wit somewhat more than 60. semidiameters These are the observations and these following next after them the calculations The next working is made upon two observations of Tycho and of Munosius from which the Star is calculated to be distant from the Centre of the Earth 478 Semidiameters and more These workings following make the Star remote from the Centre more than 358 Semidiameters From this other working the star is found to be distant from the centre more than 716. semidiameters These as you see are five workings which place the star very much above the Moon And here I desire you to consider upon that particular which even now I told you namely that in great distances the mutations or if you please corrections of a very few minutes removeth the star a very great way farther off As for example in the first of these workings where the calculation made the star 60. semidiameters remote from the centre with the Parallax of 2. minutes he that would maintain that it was in the Firmament is to correct in the observations but onely two minutes nay lesse for then the Parallax ceaseth or becommeth so small that it removeth the star to an immense distance which by all is received to be the Firmament In the second indagation or working the correction of lesse than 4 m. prim d th the same In the third and fourth like as in the first two minutes onely mount the star even above the Firmament In the last preceding a quarter of a minute that is 15. seconds gives us the same But it doth not so occur in the sublunary altitudes for if you fancy to your self what distance you most like and go about to correct the workings made by the Authour and adjust them so as that they all answer in the same determinate distance you will find how much greater corrections they do require SAGR. It cannot but help us in our fuller understanding of things to see some examples of this which you speak of SALV Do you assign any whatsoever determinate sublunary distance at pleasure in which to constitute the star for with small ado we may assertain our selves whether corrections like to these which we see do suffice to reduce it amongst the fixed stars will reduce it to the place by you assigned SAGR. To take a distance that may favour the Authour we will suppose it to be that which is the greatest of all those found by him in his 12 workings for whilst it is in controversie between him and Astronomers and that they affirm the star to have been superiour to the Moon and he that it was inferiour very small space that he proveth it to have been lower giveth him the victory SALV Let us therefore take the seventh working wrought upon the observations of Tycho and Thaddaeus Hagecius by which the Authour found the star to have been distant from the centre 32. semidiameters which situation is most favourable to his purpose and to give him all advantages let us moreover place it in the distance most disfavouring the Astronomers which is to situate it above the Firmament That therefore being supposed let us seek in the next place what corrections it would be necessary to apply to his other 11 workings And let us begin at the first calculated upon the observations of Hainzelius and Mauroice in which the Authour findeth the distance from the centre about 3. semidiameters with the Parallax of 4 gr 42 m. 30. sec. Let us see whether by withdrawing it 20. minutes onely it will rise to the height of 32. semidiameters See the short and true operation Multiply the sine of the angle BDC by the sine of the chord BD and divide the product the five last figures being cut off by the sine of the Parallax and the quotient will be 28. semidiameters and an half so that though you make a correction of 4 gr 22 min. 30 sec. taken from 4 gr 42 min. 30 sec. it shall not elevate the star to the altitude of 32. semidiameters which correction for Simplicius his understanding it is of 262. minutes and an half In the second operation made upon the observations of Hainzelius and Sculerus with the Parallax of 0 gr 8 min. 30 sec. the star is found in the height of 25. semidiameters or thereabouts as may be seen in the subsequent working And bringing back the Parallax 0 gr 8 m. 30 sec. to 7 gr 7 m. whose sine is 204 the star elevateth to 30 semidiameters or thereabouts therefore the correction of 0 gr 1 mi. 30 sec. doth not suffice Now let us see what correction is requisite for the third working made upon the observations of Hainzelius and Tycho which rendereth the star about 19 semidiameters high with the Parallax of 10 m. pri The usual angles and their sines and chord found by the Authour are these next following and they remove the star as also in the Authours working 19 semidiameters from the centre of the Earth It is necessary therefore for the raising of it to diminish the Parallax according to the Rule which he likewise observeth in the ninth working Let us therefore suppose the Parallax to be 6 m. prim whose sine is 175 and the division being made there is found likewise lesse than 31 semidiameters for the stars distance And therefore the
are perswaded Aristotle himself would do in the case SIMP To tell you the truth I know not how to resolve which of the two inconveniences is to be esteemed the lesser SALV Apply not I pray you this term of inconvenience to a thing which possibly may of necessity be so It was an inconvenience to place the Earth in the centre of the Coelestial revolutions but seeing you know not to which part he would incline I esteeming him to be a man of great judgment let us examine which of the two choices is the more rational and that we will hold that Aristotle would have received Reassuming therefore our discourse from the beginning we suppose with the good liking of Aristotle that the World of the magnitude of which we have no sensible notice beyond the fixed stars as being of a spherical figure and moveth circularly hath necessarily and in respect of its figure a centre and we being moreover certain that within the starry Sphere there are many Orbs the one within another with their stars which likewise do move circulary it is in dispute whether it is most reasonable to believe and to say that these conteined Orbs do move round the said centre of the World or else about some other centre far remote from that Tell me now Simplicius what you think concerning this particular SIMP If we could stay upon this onely supposition and that we were sure that we might encounter nothing else that might disturb us I would say that it were much more reasonable to affirm that the Orb containing and the parts contained do all move about one common centre than about divers SALV Now if it were true that the centre of the World is the same about which the Orbs of mundane bodies that is to say of the Planets move it is most certain that it is not the Earth but the Sun rather that is fixed in the centre of the World So that as to this first simple and general apprehension the middle place belongeth to the Sun and the Earth is as far remote from the centre as it is from that same Sun SIMP But from whence do you argue that not the Earth but the Sun is in the centre of the Planetary revolutions SALV I infer the same from most evident and therefore necessarily concludent observations of which the most palpable to exclude the Earth from the said centre and to place the Sun therein are the seeing all the Planets one while neerer and another while farther off from the Earth with so great differences that for example Venus when it is at the farthest is six times more remote from us than when it is neerest and Mars riseth almost eight times as high at one time as at another See therefore whether Aristotle was not somewhat mistaken in thinking that it was at all times equidistant from us SIMP What in the next place are the tokens that their motions are about the Sun SALV It is argued in the three superiour planets Mars Jupiter and Saturn in that we find them alwayes neerest to the Earth when they are in opposition to the Sun and farthest off when they are towards the conjunction and this approximatian and recession importeth thus much that Mars neer at hand appeareth very neer 60 times greater than when it is remote As to Venus in the next place and to Mercury we are certain that they revolve about the Sun in that they never move far from him and in that we see them one while above and another while below it as the mutations of figure in Venus necessarily argueth Toâ—ching the Moon it is certain that she cannot in any way seperate from the Earth for the reasons that shall be more distinctly alledged hereafter SAGR. I expect that I shall hear more admirable things that depend upon this annual motion of the Earth than were those dependant upon the diurnal revolution SALV You do not therein erre For as to the operation of the diurnal motion upon the Celestial bodies it neither was nor can be other than to make the Universe seem to run precipitately the contrary way but this annual motion intermixing with the particular motions of all the planets produceth very many extravagancies which have disarmed and non-plust all the greatest Scholars in the World But returning to our first general apprehensions I reply that the centre of the Celestial conversions of the â—ive planets Saturn Jupiter Mars Venus and Mercury is the Sun and shall be likewise the centre of the motion of the Earth if we do but succeed in our attempt of placing it in Heaven And as for the Moon this hath a circular motion about the Earth from which as I said before it can by no means alienate it self but yet doth it not cease to go about the Sun together with the Earâ—h in an annual motion SIMP I do not as yet very well apprehend this structure but it may be that with making a few draughts thereof one may better and more easily discourse concerning the same SALV T is very true yea for your greater satisfaction and admiration together I desire you that you would take the pains to draw the same and to see that although you think you do not apprehend it yet you very perfectly understand it And onely by answering to my interrogations you shall designe it punctually Take therefore a sheet of paper and Compasses And let this white paper be the immense expansion of the Universe in which you are to distribute and dispose its parts in order according as reason shall direct you And first in regard that without my instruction you verily believe that the Earth is placed in this Universe therefore note a point at pleasure about which you intend it to to be placed and mark it with some characters SIMP Let this mark A be the place of the Terrestrial Globe SALV Very well I know secondly that you understand perfectly that the said Earth is not within the body of the Sun nor so much as contiguous to it but distant for some space from the same and therefore assign to the Sun what other place you best like as remote from the Earth as you please and mark this in like manner SIMP Here it is done Let the place of the Solar body be O. SALV These two being constituted I desire that we may think of accomodating the body of Venus in such a manner that its state and motion may agree with what sensible experiments do shew us and therefore recall to mind that which either by the past discourses or your own observations you have learnt to befal that star and afterwards assign unto it that state which you think agreeth with the same SIMP Supposing those Phaenomena expressed by you and which I have likewise read in the little treatise of Conclusions to be true namely that that star never recedes from the Sun beyond such a determinate space of 40 degrees or
thereabouts so as that it never cometh either to apposition with the Sun or so much as to quadrature or yet to the sextile aspect and more than that supposing that it sheweth at one time almost 40 times greater than at another namely very great when being retrograde it goeth to the vespertine conjnnction of the Sun and very small when with a motion straight forwards it goeth to the matutine conjunction and moreover it being true that when it appeareth bigge it shews with a corniculate figure and when it appeareth little it seems perfectly round these appearances I say being true I do not see how one can choose but affirm the said star to revolve in a circle about the Sun for that the said circle cannot in any wise be said to encompasse or to contain the Earth within it nor to be inferiour to the Sun that is between it and the Earth nor yet superiour to the Sun That circle cannot incompasse the Earth because Venus would then sometimes come to opposition with the Sun it cannot be inferiour for then Venus in both its conjunctions with the Sun would seem horned nor can it be superiour for then it would alwayes appear round and never cornicular and therefore for receit of it I will draw the circle CH about the Sun without encompassing the Earth SALV Having placed Venus it is requisite that you think of Mercury which as you know alwayes keeping about the Sun doth recede lesse distance from it than Venus therefore consider with your self what place is most convenient to assign it SIMP It is not to be questioned but that this Planet imitating Venus the most commodious place for it will be a lesser circle within this of Venus in like manner about the Sun being that of its greatest vicinity to the Sun an argument an evidence sufficiently proving the vigour of its illumination above that of Venus and of the other Planets we may therefore upon these considerations draw its Circle marking it with the Characters BG SALV But Mars Where shall we place it SIMP Mars Because it comes to an opposition with the Sun its Circle must of necessity encompass the Earth But I see that it must necessarily encompass the Sun also for coming to conjunction with the Sun if it did not move over it but were below it it would appear horned as Venus and the Moon but it shews alwayes round and therefore it is necessary that it no less includeth the Sun within its circle than the Earth And because I remember that you did say that when it is in opposition with the Sun it seems 60 times bigger than when it is in the conjunction me thinks that a Circle about the Centre of the Sun and that taketh in the earth will very well agree with these Phaenomena which I do note and mark DI where Mars in the point D is near to the earth and opposite to the Sun but when it is in the point I it is at Conjuction with the Sun but very far from the Earth And because the same appearances are observed in Jupiter and Saturn although with much lesser difference in Jupiter than in Mars and with yet lesse in Saturn than in Jupiter me thinks I understand that we should very commodiously salve all the Phaenomena of these two Planets with two Circles in like manner drawn about the Sun and this first for Jupiter marking it EL and another above that for Saturn marked FM SALV You have behaved your self bravely hitherto And because as you see the approach and recession of the three Superiour Planets is measured with double the distance between the Earth and Sun this maketh greater difference in Mars than in Jupiter the Circle DI of Mars being lesser than the Circle EL of Jupiter and likewise because this EL is lesse than this Circle FM of Saturn the said difference is also yet lesser in Saturn than in Jupiter and that punctually answereth the Phaenomena It remains now that you assign a place to the Moon SIMP Following the same Method which seems to me very conclusive in regard we see that the Moon cometh to conjunction and opposition with the Sun it is necessary to say that its circle encompasseth the Earth but yet doth it not follow that it must environ the Sun for then at that time towards its conjunction it would not seem horned but alwayes round and full of Light Moreover it could never make as it often doth the Eclipse of the Sun by interposing betwixt it and us It is necessary therefore to assign it a circle about the Earth which should be this NP so that being constituted in P it will appear from the Earth A to be in conjunction with the Sun and placed in N it appeareth opposite to the Sun and in that position it may fall under the Earths shadow and be obscured SALV Now Simplicius what shall we do with the fixed stars Shall we suppose them scattered through the immense abisses of the Universe at different distances from any one determinate point or else placed in a superficies spherically distended about a centre of its own so that each of them may be equidistant from the said centre SIMP I would rather take a middle way and would assign them an Orb described about a determinate centre and comprized within two spherical superficies to wit one very high and concave and the other lower and convex betwixt which I would constitute the innumerable multitude of stars but yet at divers altitudes and this might be called the Sphere of the Universe conteining within it the Orbs of the planets already by us described SALV But now we have all this while Simplicius disposed the mundane bodies exactly according to the order of Copernicus and we have done it with your hand and moreover to each of them you have assigned peculiar motions of their own except to the Sun the Earth and starry Sphere and to Mercury with Venus you have ascribed the circular motion about the Sun without encompassing the Earth about the same Sun you make the three superiour Planets Mars Jupiter and Saturn to move comprehending the Earth within their circles The Moon in the next place can move in no other manner than about the Earth without taking in the Sun and in all these motions you agree also with the same Copernicus There remains now three things to be decided between the Sun the Earth and fixed stars namely Rest which seemeth to belong to the Earth the annual motion under the Zodiack which appeareth to pertain to the Sun and the diurnal motion which seems to belong to the Starry Sphere and to be by that imparted to all the rest of the Universe the Earth excepted And it being true that all the Orbs of the Planets I mean of Mercury Venus Mars Jupiter and Saturn do move about the Sun as their centre rest seemeth with so much more reason
to put any falshood upon you as it might have happened if the objection by me disguised and by you over-lookt had been the same in effect as it seemed to be in appearance that is really valid and conclusive but it is not so nay I rather suspect that to try me you make as if you did not see its nullity But I will herein be too hard for you and force from your tongue that which you would so artificially conceal and therefore tell me what that thing should be whereby you come to know the station and retrogradation of the Planets which is derived from the annual motion aud which is so great that at least some foot-steps of such an effect ought to appear in the stars of the Ecliptick SAGR. This demand of yours containeth two questions to which it is necessary that I make reply the first relates to the imputation which you lay upon me of a Dissembler the other concerneth that which may appear in the stars c. As to the first I will say with your permission that it is not true that I have dissembled my knowing the nullity of that objection and to assure you of the same I now tell you that I very well understand the nullity thereof SALV But yet I do not understand how it can be that you spake not friendly when you said you did not know that same fallacy which you now confesse that you know very well SAGR. The very confession of knowing it may assure you that I did not dissemble when I said that I did not understand it for if I had had a mind and would dissemble who could hinder me from continuing in the same simulation and denying still that I understand the fallacy I say therefore that I understood not the same at that time but that I do now at this present apprehend it for that you have prompted my intellect first by telling me resolutely that it is null and then by beginning to question me so at large what thing that might be whereby I might come to know the station and retrogradation of the Planets and because this is known by comparing them with the fixed stars in relation to which they are seen to vary their motions one while towards the West and another towards the East and sometimes to abide immoveable and because there is not any thing above the Starry Sphere immensely more remote from us and visible unto us wherewith we may compare our fixed stars therefore we cannot discover in the fixed stars any foot-steps of what appeareth to us in the Planets This I believe is the substance of that which you would force from me SALV It is so with the addition moreover of your admirable ingenuity and if with half a word I did open your eyes you by the like have remembred me that it is not altogether impossible but that sometime or other something observable may be found amongst the fixed stars by which it may be gathered wherein the annual conversion resides so as that they also no lesse than the Planets and Sun it self may appear in judgment to bear witnesse of that motion in favour of the Earth for I do not think that the staâ—s are spread in a spherical superficies equally remote from a common centre but hold that their distances from us are so various that some of them may be twice and thrice as remote as others so that if with the Telescope one should observe a very small star neer to one of the bigger and which therefore was very exceeding high it might happen that some sensible mutation might fall out between them correspondent to that of the superiour Planets And so much shall serve to have spoken at this time touching the stars placed in the Ecliptick Let us now come to the fixed stars placed out of the Ecliptick and let us suppose a great circle erect upon i. e. at right angles to the Plane of the same and let it for example be a circle that in the Starry Sphere answers to the Solstitial Colure and let us mark it CEH in Fig. 8. which shall happen to be withal a Meridian and in it we will take a star without the Ecliptick which let be E. Now this star will indeed vary its elevation upon the Earths motion for from the Earth in A it shall be seen according to the ray AE with the elevation of the angle EAC but from the Earth placed in B it shall be seen according to the ray BE with the elevation of the angle EBC bigger than the other EAC that being extern and this intern and opposite in the triangle EAB the distance therefore of the star E from the Ecliptick shall appear changed and likewise its altitude in the Meridian shall become greater in the position B than in the place A according as the angle EBC exceeds the angle EAC which excesse is the quantity of the angle AEB For in the triangle EAB the side AB being continued to C the exteriour angle EBC as being equal to the two interiour and opposite E and A exceedeth the said angle A by the quantity of the angle E. And if we should take another star in the same Meridian more remote from the Ecliptick as for instance the star H the diversity in it shall be greater by being observed from the two stations A and B according as the angle AHB is greater than the other E which angle shall encrease continually according as the observed star shall be farther and farther from the Ecliptick till that at last the greatest mutation will appear in that star that should be placed in the very Pole of the Ecliptick As for a full understanding thereof we thus demonstrate Suppose the diameter of the Grand Orb to be AB whose centre in the same Figure is G and let it be supposed to be continued out as far as the Starry Sphere in the points D and C and from the centre G let there be erected the Axis of the Ecliptick GF prolonged till it arrive at the said Sphere in which a Meridian DFC is supposed to be described that shall be perpendicular to the Plane of the Ecliptick and in the arch FC any points H and E are imagined to be taken as places of fixed stars Let the lines FA FB AH HG HB AE GE BE be conjoyned And let the angle of difference or if you will the Parallax of the star placed in the Pole F be AFB and let that of the star placed in H be the angle AHB and let that of the star in E be the angle AEB I say that the angle of difference of the Polar star F is the greatest and that of the rest those that are nearer to the greatest are bigger than the more remote that is to say that the angle F is bigger than the angle H and this bigger than the angle E. Now about the triangle FAB let us suppose a circle to be described And
much trouble or difficulty master the roughnesses of these novel and fantastical opinions SALV If that which Gilbert writeth be true then is it no opinion but the subject of Science nor is it new but as antient as the Earth it self nor can it being true be rugged or difficult but plain and easie and when you please I shall make you feel the same in your hand for that you of your self fancy it to be a Ghost and stand in fear of that which hath nothing in it of dreadfull like as a little child doth fear the Hobgoblin without knowing any more of it save the name as that which besides the name is nothing SIMP I should be glad to be informed and reclaimed from an errour SALV Answer me then to the questions that I shall ask you And first of all Tell me whether you believe that this our Globe which we inhabit and call Earth consisteth of one sole and simple matter or else that it is an aggregate of matters different from each other SIMP I see it to be composed of substances and bodies very different and first for the greatest parts of the composition I see the Water and the Earth which extreamly differ from one another SALV Let us for this once lay aside the Seas and other Waters and let us consider the solid parts and tell me if you think them one and the same thing or else different SIMP As to appearance I see that they are different things there being very great heaps of unfruitful sands and others of fruitful soiles There are infinite sharp and steril mountains full of hard stones and quarries of several kinds as Porphyre Alablaster Jasper and a thousand other kinds of Marbles There are vast Minerals of so many kinds of metals and in a word such varieties of matters that a whole day would not suffice only to enumerate them SALV Now of all these different matters do you think that in the composition of this grand masse there do concur portions or else that amongst them all there is one part that far exceeds the rest and is as it were the matter and substance of the immense lump SIMP I believe that the Stones Marbles Metals Gems and the so many other several matters are as it were Jewels and exteriour and superficial Ornaments of the primary Globe which in grosse as I believe doth without compare exceed all these things put together SALV And this principal and vast masse of which those things above named are as it were excressences and ornaments of what matter do you think that it is composed SIMP I think that it is the simple or lesse impure element of Earth SALV But what do you understand by Earth Is it haply that which is dispersed all over the fields which is broke up with Mattocks and Ploughs wherein we sowe corne and plant fruits and in which great boscages grow up without the help of culture and which is in a word the habitation of all animals and the womb of all vegetables SIMP T is this that I would affirm to be the substance of this our Globe SALV But in this you do in my judgment affirm that which is not right for this Earth which is broke up is sowed and is fertile is but one part and that very small of the surface of the Globe which doth not go very deep yea its depth is very small in comparison of the distance to the centre and experience sheweth us that one shall not dig very low but one shall finde matters very different from this exteriour scurf more solid and not good for the production of vegetables Besides the interne parts as being compressed by very huge weights that lie upon them are in all probability slived and made as hard as any hard rock One may adde to this that fecundity would be in vain conferred upon those matters which never were designed to bear fruit but to rest eternally buried in the profound and dark abysses of the Earth SIMP But who shall assure us that the parts more inward and near to the centre are unfruitful They also may perhaps have their productions of things unknown to us SALV You may aswell be assured thereof as any man else as being very capable to comprehend that if the integral bodies of the Universe be produced onely for the benefit of Mankind this above all the rest ought to be destin'd to the sole conveniences of us its inhabitants But what benefit can we draw from matters so hid and remote from us as that we shall never be able to make use of them Therefore the interne substance of this our Globe cannot be a matter frangible dissipable and non-coherent like this superficial part which we call EARTH but it must of necessity be a most dense and solid body and in a word a most hard stone And if it ought to be so what reason is there that should make you more scrupulous to believe that it is a Loadstone than a Porphiry a Jasper or other hard Marble Happily if Gilbert had written that this Globe is all compounded within of Pietra Serena or of Chalcedon the paradox woulâ— have seemed to you lesse exorbitant SIMP That the parts of this Globe more intern are more compressed and so more slived together and solid and more and more so according as they lie lower I do grant and so likewise doth Aristotle but that they degenerate and become other than Earth of the same sort with this of the superficial parts I see nothing that obliegeth me to believe SALV I undertook not this discourse with an intent to prove demonstratively that the primary and real substance of this our Globe is Load-stone but onely to shew that no reason could be given why one should be more unwilling to grant that it is of Load-stone than of some other matter And if you will but seriously consider you shall find that it is not improbable that one sole pure and arbitrary name hath moved men to think that it consists of Earth and that is their having made use commonly from the beginning of this word Earth as well to signifie that matter which is plowed and sowed as to name this our Globe The denomination of which if it had been taken from stone as that it might as well have been taken from that as from the Earth the saying that its primary substance was stone would doubtlesse have found no scruple or opposition in any man And is so much the more probable in that I verily believe that if one could but pare off the scurf of this great Globe taking away but one full thousand or two thousand yards and afterwards seperate the Stones from the Earth the accumulation of the stones would be very much biger than that of the fertile Mould But as for the reasons which concludently prove de facto that is our Globe is a Magnet I have mentioned none of them nor is this a time to alledg
them and the rather for that to your benefit you may read them in Gilbert onely to encourage you to the perusal of them I will set before you in a similitude of my own the method that he observed in his Philosophy I know you understand very well how much the knowledg of the accidents is subservient to the investigation of the substance and essence of things therefore I desire that you would take pains to informe your self well of many accidents and properties that are found in the Magnet and in no other stone or body as for instance of attracting Iron of conferring upon it by its sole presence the same virtue of communicating likewise to it the property of looking towards the Poles as it also doth it self and moreover endeavour to know by trial that it containeth in it a virtue of conferring upon the magnetick needle not onely the direction under a Meridian towards the Poles with an Horizontal motion a property a long time ago known but a new found accident of declining being ballanced under the Meridian before marked upon a little spherical Magnet of declining I say to determinate marks more or lesse according as that needle is held nearer or farther from the Pole till that upon the Pole it self it erecteth perpendicularly whereas in the middle parts it is parallel to the Axis Furthermore procure a proof to be made whether the virtue of attracting Iron residing much more vigorously about the Poles than about the middle parts this force be not notably more vigorous in one Pole than in the other and that in all pieces of Magnet the stronger of which Poles is that which looketh towards the South Observe in the next place that in a little Magnet this South and more vigorous Pole becometh weaker when ever it is to take up an iron in presence of the North Pole of another much bigger Magnet and not to make any tedious discourse of it assertain your self by experience of these and many other properties described by Gilbert which are all so peculiar to the Magnet as that none of them agree with any other matter Tell me now Simplicius if there were laid before you a thousand pieces of several matters but all covered and concealed in a cloth under which it is hid and you were required without uncovering them 〈…〉 a guesse by external signes at the matter of each of them and that in making trial you should hit upon one that should openly shew it self to have all the properties by you already acknowledged to reside onely in the Magnet and in no other matter what judgment would you make of the essence of such a body Would you say that it might be a piece of Ebony or Alablaster o◠Tin SIMP I would say without the least haesitation that it was a piece of Load-stone SALV If it be so say resolutely that under this cover and scurf of Earth stones metals water c. there is hid a great Magnet forasmuch as about the same there may be seen by any one that will heedfully observe the same all those very accidents that agree with a true and visible Globe of Magnet but if no more were to be seen than that of the Declinatory Needle which being carried about the Earth more and more inclineth as it approacheth to the North Pole and declineth lesse towards the Equinoctial under which it finally is brought to an Aequilibrium it might serve to perswade even the most scrupulous judgment I forbear to mention that other admirable effect which is sensibly observed in every piece of Magnet of which to us inhabitants of the Northern Hemisphere the Meridional Pole of the said Magnet is more vigorous than the other and the difference is found greater by how much one recedeth from the Equinoctial and under the Equinoctial both the parts are of equal strength but notably weaker But in the Meridional Regions far distant from the Equinoctial it changeth nature and that part which to us was more weak acquireth more strength than the other and all this I confer with that which we see to be done by a small piece of Magnet in the presence of a great one the vertue of which superating the lesser maketh it to become obedient to it and according as it is held either on this or on that side the Equinoctial of the great one maketh the self same mutations which I have said are made by every Magnet carried on this side or that side of the Equinoctiall of the Earth SAGR. I was perswaded at the very first reading of the Book of Gilbertus and having met with a most excellent piece of Magnet I for a long time made many Observations and all worthy of extream wonder but above all that seemeth to me very stupendious of increasing the faculty of taking up Iron so much by arming it like as the said Authour teacheth and with arming that piece of mine I multiplied its force in octuple proportion and whereas unarmed it scarce took up nine ounces of Iron it being armed did take up above six pounds And it may be you have seen this Loadstone in the Gallery of your Most Serene Grand Duke to whom I presented it upholding two little Anchors of Iron SALV I saw it many times and with great admiration till that a little piece of the like stone gave me greater cause of wonder that is in the keeping of our Academick which being no more than of six ounces weight and sustaining when unarmed hardly two ounces doth when armed take up 160. ounces so as that it is of 80. times more force armed than unarmed and takes up a weight 26. times greater than its own a much greater wonder than Gilbert could ever meet with who writeth that he could never get any Loadstone that could reach to take up four times its own weight SAGR. In my opinion this Stone offers to the wit of man a large Field to Phylosophate in and I have many times thought with my self how it can be that it conferreth on that Iron which armeth it a strength so superiour to its own and finally I finde nothing that giveth me satisfaction herein nor do I find any thing extraordinary in that which Gilbert writes about this particular I know not whether the same may have befallen you SALV I extreamly praise admire and envy this Authour for that a conceit so stupendious should come into his minde touching a thing handled by infinite sublime wits and hit upon by none of them I think him moreover worthy of extraordinary applause for the many new and true Observations that he made to the disgrace of so many fabulous Authours that write not only what they do not know but what ever they hear spoken by the foolish vulgar never seeking to assure themselves of the same by experience perhaps because they are unwilling to diminish the bulk of their Books That which I could have desired in Gilbert is that he had
happen to me in the present Probleme for being desirous to assure my self by some other accident whether the reason of the Proposition by me found were true namely whether the substance of the Magnet were really much lesse continuate than that of Iron or of Steel I made the Artists that work in the Gallery of my Lord the Grand Duke to smooth one side of that piece of Magnet which formerly was yours and then to polish and burnish it upon which to my satisfaction I found what I desired For I discovered many specks of colour different from the rest but as splendid and bright as any of the harder sort of stones the rest of the Magnet was polite but to the tact onely not being in the least splendid but rather as if it were smeered over with foot and this was the substance of the Load-stone and the shining part was the fragments of other stones intermixt therewith as was sensibly made known by presenting the face thereof to filings of Iron the which in great number leapt to the Load-stone but not so much as one grain did stick to the said spots which were many some as big as the fourth part of the nail of a mans finger others somewhat lesser the least of all very many and those that were scarce visible almost innumerable So that I did assure my self that my conjecture was true when I first thought that the substance of the Magnet was not close and compact but porous or to say better spongy but with this difference that whereas the sponge in its cavities and little cels conteineth Air or Water the Magnet hath its pores full of hard and heavy stone as appears by the exquisite lustre which those specks receive Whereupon as I have said from the beginning applying the surface of the Iron to the superficies of the Magnet the minute particles of the Iron though perhaps more continuate than these of any other body as its shining more than any other matter doth shew do not all nay but very few of them incounter pure Magnet and the contacts being few the union is but weak But because the cap of the Load-stone besides the contact of a great part of its superficies invests its self also with the virtue of the parts adjoyning although they touch not that side of it being exactly smoothed to which the other face in like manner well polisht of the Iron to be attracted is applyed the contract is made by innumerable minute particles if not haply by the infinite points of both the superficies whereupon the union becometh very strong This observation of smoothing the surfaces of the Irons that are to touch came not into the thoughts of Gilbert for he makes the Irons convex so that their contact is very small and thereupon it cometh to passe that the tenacity wherewith those Irons conjoyn is much lesser SAGR. I am as I told you before little lesse satisfied with this reason that if it were a pure Geometrical Demonstration and because we speak of a Physical Problem I believe that also Simplicius will find himself satisfied as far as natural science admits in which he knows that Geometrical evidence is not to be required SIMP I think indeed that Salviatus with a fine circumlocution hath so manifestly displayed the cause of this effect that any indifferent wit though not verst in the Sciences may apprehend the same but we confining our selves to the terms of Art reduce the cause of these and other the like natural effects to Sympathy which is a certain agreemet and mutual appetite which ariseth between things that are semblable to one another in qualities as likewise on the contrary that hatred enmity for which other things shun abhor one another we call Antipathy SAGR. And thus with these two words men come to render reasons of a great number of accidents and effects which we see not without admiration to be produced in nature But this kind of philosophating seems to me to have great sympathy with a certain way of Painting that a Friend of mine used who writ upon the Tele or Canvasse in chalk here I will have the Fountain with Diana and her Nimphs there certain Hariers in this corner I will have a Hunts-man with the Head of a Stag the rest shall be Lanes Woods and Hills and left the remainder for the Painter to set forth with Colours and thus he perswaded himself that he had painted the Story of Acteon when as he had contributed thereto nothing of his own more than the names But whether are we wandred with so long a digression contrary to our former resolutions I have almost forgot what the point was that we were upon when we fell into this magnetick discourse and yet I had something in my mind that I intended to have spoken upon that subject SALV We were about to demonstrate that third motion ascribed by Copernicus to the Earth to be no motion but a quiescence and maintaining of it self immutably directed with its determinate parts towards the same determinate parts of the Universe that is a perpetual conservation of the Axis of its diurnal revolution parallel to it self and looking towards such and such fixed stars which most constant position we said did naturally agree with every librated body suspended in a fluid and yielding medium which although carried about yet did it not change directionin respect of things external but onely seemed to revolve in its self in respect of that which carryed it round and to the vessel in which it was transported And then we added to this simple and natural accident the magnetick virtue whereby the self Terrestrial Globe might so much the more constantly keep it immutable SAGR. Now I remember the whole businesse and that which then came into my minde which I would have intimated was a certain consideration touching the scruple and objection of Simplicius which he propounded against the mobility of the Earth taken from the multiplicity of motions impossible to be assigned to a simple body of which but one sole and simple motion according to the doctrine of Aristotle can be natural and that which I would have proposed to consideration was the Magnet to which we manifestly see three motions naturally to agree one towards the centre of the Earth as a Grave the second is the circular Horizontal Motion whereby it restores and conserves its Axis towards determinate parts of the Universe and the third is this newly discovered by Gilbert of inclining its Axis being in the plane of a Meridian towards the surface of the Earth and this more and lesse according as it shall be distant from the Equinoctial under which it is parallel to the Axis of the Earth Besides these three it is not perhaps improbable but that it may have a fourth of revolving upon its own Axis in case it were librated and suspended in the air or other fluid and yielding Medium so that
for a long tract or distance from West to East that is according to the course of the fluxes and refluxes therefore in this the agitations are very great and would be much more violent between Hercules Pillars in case the Straight of Gibraltar did open lesse and those of the Straight of Magellanes are reported to be extraordinary violent This is what for the present cometh into my mind to say unto you about the causes of this first period diurnal of the Tide and its various accidents touching which if you have any thing to offer you may let us hear it that so we may afterwards proceed to the other two periods monethly and annual SIMP In my opinion it cannot be denied but that your discourse carrieth with it much of probability arguing as we say ex suppositione namely granting that the Earth moveth with the two motions assigned it by Copernicus but if that motion be disproved all that you have said is vain and insignificant and for the disproval of that Hypothesis it is very manifestly hinted by your Discourse it self You with the supposition of the two Terrestrial motions give a reason of the ebbing and flowing and then again arguing circularly from the ebbing and flowing draw the reason and confirmation of those very motions and so proceeding to a more specious Discourse you say that the Water as being a fluid body and not tenaciously annexed to the Earth is not constrained punctually to obey every of its motions from which you afterwards infer its ebbing and flowing Now I according to your own method argue the quite contrary and say the Air is much more tenuous and fluid than the Water and lesse annexed to the Earths superficies to which the Water if it be for nothing else yet by reason of its gravity that presseth down upon the same more than the light Air adhereth therefore the Air is much obliged to follow the motions of the Earth and therefore were it so that the Earth did move in that manner we the inhabitants of it and carried round with like velocity by it ought perpetually to feel a Winde from the East that beateth upon us with intolerable force And that so it ought to fall out quotidian experience assureth us for if with onely riding post at the speed of eight or ten miles an hour in the tranquil Air the incountering of it with our face seemeth to us a Winde that doth not lightly blow upon us what should we expect from our rapid course of 800. or a thousand miles an hour against the Air that is free from that motion And yet notwithstanding we cannot perceive any thing of that nature SALV To this objection that hath much of likelihood in it I reply that its true the Air is of greater tenuity and levity and by reason of its levity lesse adherent to the Earth than Water so much more grave and bulky but yet the consequence is false that you infer from these qualities namely that upon account of that its levity tenuity and lesse adherence to the Earth it should be more exempt than the Water from following the Terrestrial Motions so as that to us who absolutely pertake of of them the said exemption should be sensible and manifest nay it happeneth quite contrary for if you well remember the cause of the ebbing and flowing of the Water assigned by us consisteth in the Waters not following the unevennesse of the motion of its Vessel but retaining the impetus conceived before without diminishing or increasing it according to the precise rate of its diminishing or increasing in its Vessel Because therefore that in the conservation and retention of the impetus before conceived the disobedience to a new augmentation or diminution of motion consisteth that moveable that shall be most apt for such a retention shall be also most commodious to demonstrate the effect that followeth in consequence of that retention Now how much the Water is disposed to maintain such a conceived agitation though the causes cease that impress the same the experience of the Seas extreamly disturbed by impetuous Winds sheweth us the Billows of which though the Air be grown calm and the Wind laid for a long time after continue in motion As the Sacred Poet pleasantly sings Qual l'alto Egeo c. And that long continuing rough after a storm dependeth on the gravity of the water For as I have elsewhere said light bodies are much easier to be moved than the more grave but yet are so much the less apt to conserve the motion imparted when once the moving cause ceaseth Whence it comes that the Aire as being of it self very light and thin is easily mov'd by any very small force yet it is withall very unable to hold on its motion the Mover once ceasing Therefore as to the Aire which environs the Terrestrial Globe I would fay that by reason of its adherence it is no lesse carried about therewith then the Water and especially that part which is contained in its vessels which vessels are the valleys enclosed with Mountains And we may with much more reason affirm that this same part of the Air is carried round and born forwards by the rugged parts of the Earth than that the higher is whirl'd about by the motion of the Heavens as ye Peripateticks maintain What hath been hitherto spoken seems to me a sufficient answer to the allegation of Simplitius yet nevertheless with a new instance and solution founded upon an admirable experiment I will superabundantly satisfie him and confirm to Sagredus the mobility of the Earth I have told you that the Air and in particular that part of it which ascendeth not above the tops of the highest Mountains is carried round by the uneven parts of the Earths surface from whence it should seem that it must of consequence come to passe that in case the superficies of the Earth were not uneven but smooth and plain no cause would remain for drawing the Air along with it or at least for revolving it with so much uniformity Now the surface of this our Globe is not all craggy and rugged but there are exceeding great tracts very even to wit the surfaces of very vast Seas which being also far remote from the continuate ledges of Mountains which environ it seem to have no faculty of carrying the super-ambient Air along therewith and not carrying it about we may perceive what will of consequence ensue in those places SIMP I was about to propose the very same difficulty which I think is of great validity SALV You say very well Simplicius for from the not finding in the Air that which of consequence would follow did this our Globe move round you argue its immoveablenesse But in case that this which you think ought of necessary consequence to be found be indeed by experience proved to be so will you accept it for a sufficient testimony and an argument for the mobility of
in short times make their revolutions about Jupiter Insomuch that it is not to be questioned nay we may hold it for sure and certain that if for example the Moon continuing to be moved by the same movent faculty should retire by little and little in lesser Circles it would acquire a power of abreviating the times of its Periods according to that Pendulum of which in the course of its vibrations we by degrees shortned the cord that is contracted the Semidiameter of the circumferences by it passed Know now that this that I have alledged an example of it in the Moon is seen and verified essentially in fact Let us call to mind that it hath been already concluded by us together with Copernicus That it is not possible to separate the Moon from the Earth about which it without dispute revolveth in a Moneth Let us remember also that the Terrestrial Globe accompanyed alwayes by the Moon goeth along the circumference of the Grand Orb about the Sun in a year in which time the Moon revolveth about the Earth almost thirteen times from which revolution it followeth that the said Moon sometimes is found near the Sun that is when it is between the Sun and the Earth and sometimes much more remote that is when the Earth is situate between the Moon and Sun neer in a word at the time of its conjunction and change remote in its Full and Opposition and the greatest vicinity differ the quantity of the Diameter of the Lunar Orb. Now if it be true that the virtue which moveth the Earth and Moon about the Sun be alwayes maintained in the same vigour and if it be true that the same moveable moved by the same virtue but in circles unequal do in shorter times passe like arches of lesser circles it must needs be granted that the Moon when it is at a lesse distance from the Sun that is in the time of conjunction passeth greater arches of the Grand Orb than when it is at a greater distance that is in its Opppsition and Full. And this Lunar inequality must of necessity be imparted to the Earth also for if we shall suppose a right line produced from the centre of the Sun by the centre of the Terrestrial Globe and prolonged as far as the Orb of the Moon this shall be the semidiameter of the Grand Orb in which the Earth in case it were alone would move uniformly but if in the same semidiameter we should place another body to be carried about placing it one while between the Earth and Sun and another while beyond the Earth at a greater distance from the Sun it is necessary that in this second case the motion common to both according to the circumference of the great Orb by means of the distance of the Moon do prove a little slower than in the other case when the Moon is between the Earth and Sun that is at a lesser distance So that in this businesse the very same happeneth that befals in the time of the clock that lead which is placed one while farther from the centre to make the vibrations of the staffe or ballance lesse frequent and another while nearer to make them thicker representing the Moon Hence it may be manifest that the annual motion of the Earth in the Grand Orb and under the Ecliptick is not uniform and that its irregularity proceedeth from the Moon and hath its Monethly Periods and Returns And because it hath been concluded that the Monethly and Annual Periodick alterations of the ebbings and flowings cannot be deduced from any other cause than from the altered proportion between the annual motion and the additions and substractions of the diurnal conversion and that those alterations might be made two wayes that is by altering the annual motion keeping the quantity of the additions unaltered or by changing of the bignesse of these reteining the uniformity of annual motion We have already found the first of these depending on the irregularity of the annual motion occasioned by the Moon and which hath its Monethly Periods It is therefore necessary that upon that account the ebbings and flowings have a Monethly Period in which they do grow greater and lesser Now you see that the cause of the Monethly Period resideth in the annual motion and withal you see how much the Moon is concerned in this business and how it is therewith interrupted apart without having any thing to do with either with Seas or Waters SAGR. If one that never had seen any kinde of Stairs or Lader were shewed a very high Tower and asked if ever he hoped to climb to the top of it I verily believe that he would answer he did not not conceiving how one should come thither any way except by flying but shewing him a stone of but a foot high and asking him whether he thought he could get to the top of that I am certain that he would answer he could and farther that he would not deny but that it was not onely one but ten twenty and an hundred times easier to climb that But now if he should be shewed the Stairs by means whereof with the facility by him granted it is possible to get thither whither he a little before had affirmed it was impossible to ascend I do think that laughing at himself he would confess his dulness of apprehension Thus Salviatus have you step by step so gently lead me that not without wonder I finde that I am got with small pains to that height which I despaired of arriving at 'T is true that the Stair-case having been dark I did not perceive that I was got nearer to or arrived at the top till that coming into the open Air I discovered a great Sea and spacious Country And as in ascending one step there is no labour so each of your propositions by it self seemed to me so plain that thinking I heard but little or nothing that was new unto me I conceived that my benefit thereby had been little or none at all Whereupon I was the more amazed at the unexpected exit of this discourse that hath guided me to the knowledge of a thing which I held impossible to be demonstrated One doubt onely remains from which I desire to be freed and this it is Whether that if the motion of the Earth together with that of the Moon under the Zodiack are irregular motions those irregularities ought to have been observed and taken notice of by Astronomers which I do not know that they are Therefore I pray you who are better acquainted with these things than I to free me from this doubt and tell me how the â—ase stands SALV You ask a rational question and answering to the Objection I say That although Astronomy in the courses of many ages hath made a great progress in discovering the constitution and motions of the Celestial bodies yet is it not hitherto arrived at that height but that very many things remain undecided and
haply many others also undiscovered It is to be supposed that the first observers of Heaven knew no more but one motion common to all the Stars as is this diurnal one yet I believe that in few dayes they perceived that the Moon was inconstant in keeping company with the other Stars but yet withal that many years past before that they distinguished all the Planets And in particular I conceit that Saturn by its slowness and Mercury by reason of its seldom appearing were the last that were observed to be wandring and errant It is to be thought that many more years run out before the statioâ—s and retrogradations of the three superiour Planets were known as also their approximations and recessions from the Earth necessary occasions of introducing the Eccentrix and Epicicles things unknown even to Aristotle for that he makes no mention thereof Mercury and Venus with their admirable apparitions how long did they keep Astronomers in suspence before that they could resolve not to speak of any other of their qualities upon their situation Insomuch that the very order onely of the Mundane bodies and the integral structure of the parts of the Universe by us known hath been doubted of untill the time of Copernicus who hath at last given us notice of the true constitution and real systeme according to which those parts are disposed so that at length we are certain that Mercury Venus and the other Planets do revolve about the Sun and that the Moon revolveth about the Earth But how each Planet governeth it self in its particular revolution and how precisely the structure of its Orb is framed which is that which is vulgarly called the Theory of the Planets we cannot as yet undoubtedly resolve Mars that hath so much puzled our Modern Astronomers is a proof of this And to the Moon her self there have been assigned several Theories after that the said Copernicus had much altered it from that of Ptolomy And to descend to our particular case that is to say to the apparent motion of the Sun and Moon touching the former there hath been observed a certain great irregularity whereby it passeth the two semicircles of the Ecliptick divided by the points of the Equinoxes in very different times in passing one of which it spendeth about nine dayes more than in passing the other a difference as you see very great and notable But if in passing small arches such for example as are the twelve Signs he maintain a most regular motion or else proceed with paces one while a little more swift and another more slow as it is necessary that it do in case the annual motion belong to the Sun onely in appearance but in reality to the Earth in company with the Moon it is what hath not hitherto been observed nor it may be sought Touching the Moon in the next place whose restitutions have been principally lookt into an account of the Eclipses for which it is sufficient to have an exact knowledge of its motion about the Earth it hath not been likewise with a perfect curiosity inquired what itâ— course is thorow the particular arches of the Zodiack That therefore the Earth and Moon in running through the Zodiack that is round the Grand Orb do somewhat accellerate at the Moons change and retard at its full ought not to be doubted for that the said difference is not manifest which cometh to be unobserved upon two accounts First Because it hath not been lookt for Secondly Because that its possible it may not be very great Nor is there any need that it should be great for the producing the effect that we see in the alteration of the greatness of ebbings and flowings For not onely those alterations but the Tides themselves are but small matters in respect of the grandure of the subjects on which they work albeit that to us and to our littleness they seem great For the addition or subduction of one degree of velocity where there are naturally 700 or 1000 can be called no great alteration either in that which conferreth it or in that Which receiveth it the Water of our Mediterrane carried about by the diurnal revolution maketh about 700 miles an hour which is the motion common to the Earth and to it and therefore not perceptible to us that which we sensibly discern to be made in the streams or currents is not at the rate of full one mile an hour I speak of the main Seas and not of the Straights and this is that which altereth the first naturall and grand motion and this motion is very great in respect of us and of Ships for a Vessel that in a standing Water by the help of Oares can make v. g. three miles an hour in that same current will row twice as far with the stream as against it A notable difference in the motion of the Boat though but very small in the motion of the Sea which is altered but its seven hundredth part The like I say of its rising and falling one two or three feet and scarcely four or five in the utmost bounds of a streight two thousand or more miles long and where there are depths of hundreds of feet this alteration is much less than if in one of the Boats that bring us fresh Water the said Water upon the arrest of the Boat should rise at the Prow the thickness of a leaf I conclude therefore that very small alterations in respect of the immense greatness and extraordinary velocity of the Seas is sufficient to make therein great mutations in relation to our smallness and to our accidents SAGR. I am fully satisfied as to this particular it remains to declare unto us how those additions and substractions derived from the diurnal Vertigo are made one while greater and another while lesser from which alterations you hinted that the annual period of the augmentations and diminutions of the ebbings and flowings did depend SALV I will use my utmost endeavours to render my self intelligible but the difficulty of the accident it self and the great attention of mind requisite for the comprehending of it constrains me to be obscure The unequalities of the additions and substractions that the diurnal motion maketh to or from the annual dependeth upon the inclination of the Axis of the diurnal motion upon the plane of the Grand Orb or if you please of the Ecliptick by means of which inclination the Equinoctial intersecteth the said Ecliptick remaining inclined and oblique upon the same according to the said inclination of Axis And the quantity of the additions importeth as much as the whole diameter of the said Equinoctial the Earths centre being at the same time in the Solstitial points but being out of them it importeth lesse and lesse according as the said centre successively approacheth to the points of the Equinoxes where those additions are lesser than in any other places This is the whole businesse but wrapt up in the
obscurity that you see SAGR. Rather in that which I do no not see for hitherto I comprehend nothing at all SALV I have already foretold it Neverthelesse we will try whether by drawing a Diagram thereof we can give some small light to the same though indeed it might better be set forth by solid bodies than by bare Schemes yet we will help our selves with Perspective and fore-shortning Let us draw therefore as before the circumference of the Grand Orb as in Fig. 4. in which the point A is understood to be one of the Solstitials and the diameter AP the common Section of the Solstitial Colure and of the plane of the Grand Orb or Ecliptick and in that same point A let us suppose the centre of the Terrestrial Globe to be placed the Axis of which CAB inclined upon the Plane of the Grand Orb falleth on the plane of the said Colure that passeth thorow both the Axis of the Equinoctial and of the Ecliptick And for to prevent confusion let us only draw the Equinoctial circle marking it with these characters DGEF the common section of which with the plane of the grand Orb let be the line DE so that half of the said Equinoctial DFE will remain inclined below the plane of the Grand Orb and the other half DGE elevated above Let now the Revolution of the said Equinoctial be made according to the order of the points DGEF and the motion of the centre from A towards E. And because the centre of the Earth being in A the Axis CB which is erect upon the diameter of the Equinoctial DE falleth as hath been said in the Solstitial Colure the common Section of which and of the Grand Orb is the diameter PA the said line PA shall be perpendicular to the same DE by reason that the Colure is erect upon the grand Orb and therefore the said DE shall be the Tangent of the grand Orb in the point A. So that in this Position the motion of the Centre by the arch AE that is of one degree every day differeth very little yea is as if it were made by the Tangent DAE And because by means of the diurnal motion the point D carried about by G unto E encreaseth the motion of the Centre moved almost in the same line DE as much as the whole diameter DE amounts unto and on the other side diminisheth as much moving about the other semicircle EFD The additions and subductions in this place therefore that is in the time of the solstice shall be measured by the whole diameter DE. Let us in the next place enquire Whether they be of the same bigness in the times of the Equinoxes and transporting the Centre of the Earth to the point I distant a Quadrant of a Circle from the point A. Let us suppose the said Equinoctial to be GEFD its common section with the grand Orb DE the Axis with the same inclination CB but the Tangent of the grand Orb in the point I shall be no longer DE but another which shall cut that at right Angles and let it be this marked HIL according to which the motion of the Centre I shall make its progress proceeding along the circumference of this grand Orb. Now in this state the Additions and Substractions are no longer measured by the diameter DE as before was done because that diameter not distending it self according to the line of the annual motion HL rather cutting it at right angles those terms DE do neither add nor substract any thing but the Additions and Substractons are to be taken from that diameter that falleth in the plane that is errect upon the plane of the grand Orb and that intersects it according to the line HL which diameter in this case shall be this GF and the Adjective if I may so say shall be that made by the point G about the semicircle GEF and the Ablative shall be the rest made by the other semicircle FDG Now this diameter as not being in the same line HL of the annual motion but rather cutting it as we see in the point I the term G being elevated above and E depressed below the plane of the grand Orb doth not determine the Additions and Substractions according to its whole length but the quantity of those first ought to be taken from the part of the line HL that is intercepted between the perpendiculars drawn upon it from the terms GF namely these two GS and FV So that the measure of the additions is the line SV lesser then GF or then DE which was the measure of the additions in the Solstice A. And so successively according as the centre of the Earth shall be constituted in other points of the Quadrant AI drawing the Tangents in the said points and the perpendiculars upon the same falling from the terms of the diameters of the Equinoctial drawn from the errect planes by the said Tangents to the plane of the grand Orb the parts of the said Tangents which shall continually be lesser towards the Equinoctials and greater towards the Solstices shall give us the quantities of the additions and substractions How much in the next place the least additions differ from the greatest is easie to be known because there is the same difference betwixt them as between the whole Axis or Diameter of the Sphere and the part thereof that lyeth between the Polar-Circles the which is less than the whole diameter by very near a twelfth part supposing yet that we speak of the additions and substractions made in the Equinoctial but in the other Parallels they are lesser according as their diameters do diminish This is all that I have to say upon this Argument and all perhaps that can fall under the comprehension of our knowledge which as you well know may not entertain any conclusions save onely those that are firm and constant such as are the three kinds of Periods of the ebbings and flowings for that they depend on causes that are invariablâ— simple and eternal But because that secondary and particular causes able to make many alterations intermix with these that are the primary and universal and these secondary causes being part of them inconstant and not to be observed as for example The alteration of Winds and part though terminate and fixed unobserved for their multiplicity as are the lengths of the Straights their various inclinations towards this or that part the so many and so different depths of the Waters who shall be able unless after very long observations and very certain relations to frame so expeditious Histories thereof as that they may serve for Hypotheses and certain suppositions to such as will by their combinations give adequate reasons of all the appearances and as I may say Anomalie and particular irregularities that may be discovered in the motions of the Waters I will content my self with advertising you that the accidental causes are in nature and are able to produce
filched from the Ancients and somewhat altered 99 Aristotle his Arguments for the Earths Quiescence and Immobility 107 Aristotle were he alive would either refute his Adversaries Arguments or else would alter his Opinion 113 Aristotles first Argument against the Earths Motion is defective in two things 121 The Paralogisme of Aristotle and Ptolomy in supposing that for known which is in question 121 Aristotle admitteth that the Fire moveth directly upwards by Nature and round about by Participation 122 Aristotle and Ptolomy seem to confute the Earths Mobility against those who think that it having along time stood still began to move in the time of Pythagoras 168 Aristotle his errour in affirming falling Grave Bodies to move according to the proportion of their gravities 199 Aristotle his Demonstrations to prove the Earth is finite are all nullified by denying it to be moveable 294 Aristotle maketh that Point to be the Centre of the Universe about which all the Celestial Spheres do revolve 294 A question is put if Arist. were forced to receive one of two Propositions that make against his Doctrine which he would admit 294 Aristotle his Argument against the Ancients who held that the Earth was a Planet 344 Aristotle taxeth Plato of being over-studious of Geometry 361 Aristotle hâ—ldeth those Effects to be miraculous of which the Causes are unknown 384 ASTRONOMERS Astronomers confuted by Anti-Tycho 38 The principal Scope of Astronomers is to give a reason of Appearances and Phaenomena 308 Astronomers all agree that the greater Magnitudes of the Orbes is the cause of the tardity in their Conversions 331 Astronomers perhaps have not known what Appearances ought to follow upon the Annual Motion of the Earth 338 Astronomers having omitted to instance what alterations those are that may be derived from the Annual Motion of the Earth do thereby testifie that they never rightly understood the same 343 ASTRONOMICAL Astronomical Observations wrested by Anti-Tycho to his own purpose 39 Astronomical Instruments are very subject to errour 262 ASTRONOMY Astronomy restored by Copernicus upon the Suppositions of Ptolomy 308 Many things may remain as yet unobserved in Astronomy 415 AUCUPATORIAN An Aucupatorian Problem for shooting of Birds flying 157 AXIOME or Axiomes In the Axiome Frustra fit per plura c. the addition of aequae bene is super fluous 106 Three Axiomes that are supposed manifest 230 Certain Axiomes commonly admitted by all Philosophers 361 B BODY and Bodies Contraries that corrupt reside not in the same Body that corrupteth 30 GRAVE BODY If the Celestial Globe were perforated a Grave Body descending by that Bore would passe and ascend as far beyond the Centre as it did descend 203 The motion of Grave Bodies Vide Motion The Accelleration of Grave Bodies that descend naturally increaseth from moment to moment 205 We know no more who moveth Grave Bodies downwards than who moveth the Stars round nor know we any thing of these Courses more than the Names imposed on them by our selves 210 The great Masse of Grave Bodies being transferred out of their Place the seperated parts would follow that Masse 221 PENSILE BODY Every Pensile Body carried round in the Circumference of a Circle acquireth of it self a Motion in it self contrary to the same 362 CELESTIAL BODIES neither heavy nor light according to Aristotle 23 Celestial Bodies are Generable and Corruptible because they are Ingenerable and Incorruptible 29 Amongst Celest. Bodies there is no contrariety 29 Celestial Bodies touch but are not touched by the Elements 30 Rarity and Density in Celestial Bodies different from Rarity and Density in the Elements 30 Celestial Bodies designed to serve the Earth need no more but Motion and Light 45 Celestial Bodies want an interchangeable Operation on each other 46 Celestial Bodies alterable in their externe parts 46 Perfect Sphericity why ascribed to Celestial Bodies by Peripateticks 69 All Celestial Bodies have Gravity and Levity 493 ELEMENTARY BODIES Their propension to follow the Earth hath a limited Sphere of Activity 213 LIGHT BODIES easier to be moved than heavy but lesse apt to conserve the Motion 400 LUMINOUS BODIES Bodies naturally Luminous are different from those that are by nature Obscure 34 The reason why Luminous Bodies appear so much the more enlarged by how much they are lesser 304 Manifest Experience shews that the more Luminous Bodies do much more irradiate than the lesse Lucid. 306 SIMPLE BODYES have but one Simple Motion that agreeth with them 494 SPHERICAL BODIES In Spherical Bodies Deorsum is the Centre and Sursum the Cirference 479 BONES The ends of the Bones are rotund and why 232 BUONARRUOTTI Buonarruotti a Statuary of admirable ingenuity 86 C CANON A shameful Errour in the Argument taken from the Canon-Bullets falling from the Moons Concave 197 An exact Computation of the fall of the Canon-Bullet from the Moons Concave to the Centre of the Earth 198 CELESTIAL Celestial Substances that be Vnalterable and Elementary that be Alterable necessary in the opinion of Aristotle 2 CENTRE The Sun more probably in the Centre of the Vniverse than the Earth 22 Natural inclination of all the Globes of the World to go to their Centre 22 Grave Bodies may more rationally be affirmed to tend towards the Centre of the Earth than of the Vniverse 25 CHYMISTS Chymists interpret the Fables of Poets to be Secrets for making of Gold 93 CIRCLE and Circular It is not impossible with the Circumference of a small Circle few times revolved to measure and describe a line bigger than any great Circle whatsoever 222 The Circular Line perfect according to Aristotle and the Right imperfect and why 9 CLARAMONTIUS The Paralogisme of Claramontius 241 The Argument of Claramontius recoileth upon himself 245 The Method observed by Claramontius in consuting Astronomers and by Salviatus in refuting him 253 CLOUDS Clouds no lesse apt than the Moon to be illuminated by the Sun 73 CONCLUSION and Conclusions The certainty of the Conclusion helpeth by a resolutive Method to finde the Demonstration 37 The Book of Conclusioâ—s frequently mentioned was writ by Christopher Scheiner a Jesuit 195 323. CONTRARIES Contraries that corrupt reside not in the same Body that corrupteth 30 COPERNICAN Answers to the three first Objections against the Copernican System 303 The Copernican System difficul to be understood but easie to be effected 354 A plain Scheme representing the Copernican Systeme and its consequences 354 The proscribing of the Copernican Doctrine after so long a Tolleration and now that it is more than ever followed studied and confirmed would be an affront to Truth 444 The Copern System admirably agreeth with the Miracle of Joshuah in the Literal Sense 456 If Divines would admit of the Copernican System they might soon find out Expositions for all Scriptures that seem to make against it 459 The Copernican System rejected by many out of a devout respect to Scripture Authorities 461 The Copernican System more plainly asserted in Scripture than the Ptolomaick 469 COPERNICANS Copernicans are
Earth answered by Examples of the like Motions in other Celestial Bodies 236 A fourth Argument of Claramontius against the Copernican Hypothesis of the Earths Mobility 239 From the Earths obscurity and the splendor of the fixed Stars it is argued that it is moveable and they immoveable 239 A fifth Argument of Claramontius against the Copernican Hypothesis of the Earths Mobility 240 Another difference between the Earth and Celestial Bodies taken from Purity and impurity 240 It seems a Solecisme to affirme that the Earth is not in Heaven 241 Granting to the Earth the Annual it must of necessity also have the Diurnal Motion assigned to it 300 Discourses more than childish that serve to keep Fools in the Opinion of the Earths Stability 301 The Difficulties removed that arise from the Earths moving about the Sun not solitarily but in consort with the Moon 307 The Axis of the Earth continueth alwayes parallel to it self and describeth a Cylindraical Superficies inclining to the Orb. 344 The Orb of the Earth never inclineth but is immutably the same 345 The Earth approacheth or recedeth from the fixed Stars of the Ecliptick the quantity of the Grand Orb. 349 If in the fixed Stars one should discover any Mutation the Motion of the Earth would be undeniable 351 Necessary Propositions for the better conceiving of the Consequences of the Earths Motion 354 An admirable Accident depending on the not-inclining of the Earths Axis 358 Four several Motions assigned to the Earth 362 The third Motion ascribed to the Earth is rather a resting immoveable 363 An admirable interne vertue or faculty of the Earths Globe to behold alwayes the same part of Heaven 363 Nature as iâ— sport maketh the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea to prove the Earths Mobility 379 All Terrene Effects indifferently confirm the Motion or Rest of the Earth except the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea 380 The Cavities of the Earth cannot approach or recede from the Centre of the same 387 The Hypothesis of the Earths Mobility taken in favour of the Ebbing and Flowing opposed 399 The Answers to those Objections made against the Earths Motion 399 The Revolution of the Earth confirmed by a new Argument taken from the Aire 400 The vaporous parts of the Earth partake of its Motions 400 Another observation taken from the Ayr in confirmation of the motion of the Earth 402 A Reason of the continual Motion of the Air and Water may be given by making the Earth moveable rather then by making it immoveable 405 The Earths Mobility held by sundry great Philosophers amongst the Antients 437 468 The Fathers agree not in expounding the Texts of Scripture that are alledged against the Earths Mobility 450 The Earth Mobility defended by many amongst the Modern Writers 478 The Earth shall stand still after the Day of Judgement 480 The Earth is another Moon or Star 486 The Earths several Motions according to Copernicus 491 The Earth secundum totum is Immutable though not Immoveable 491 The Earths Natural Place 492 The Earths Centre keepeth her in her Natural Place 493 The Earth in what Sense it may absolutely be said to be in the lowest part of the World 496 EBBING and Ebbings The first general Conclusion of the impossibility of Ebbing and Flowing the Immobility of the Terrestrial Globe being granted 380 The Periods of Ebbings and Flowings Diurnal Monethly and Annual 381 Varieties that happen in the Diurnal Period of the Ebbings and Flowings 382 The Causes of Ebbings and Flowings alledged by a Modern Phylosopher 382 The Cause of the Ebbing and Flowing ascribed to the Moon by a certain Prelate 383 The Cause of the Ebbing c. referred by Hyeronimus Borrius and other Peripateticks to the temperate heat of the Moon 383 Answers to the Vanities alledged as Causes of the Ebbing and Flowing 383 It s proved impossible that there should naturally be any Ebbing and Flowing the Earth being immoveable 386 The most potent and primary Cause of the Ebbing and Flowing 390 Sundry accidents that happen in the Ebbings and Flowings 391 Reasons renewed of the particular Accidents observed in the Ebbings and Flowings 393 Second Causes why in several Seas and Lakes there are no Ebbings and Flowings 394 The Reason why the Ebbings and Flowings for the most part are every Six Hours 395 The Cause why some Seas though very long suffer no Ebbing and Flowing 395 Ebbings and Flowings why greatest in the Extremities of Gulphs and least in the middle parts 396 A Discussion of some more Abstruce Accidents observed in the Ebbing and Flowing 396 The Ebbing and Flowing may depend on the Diurnal Motion of Heaven 404 The Ebbing and Flowing cannot depend on the Motion of Heaven 405 The Causes of the Periods of the Ebbings and Flowings Monethly and Annual at large assigned 407 The Monethly and Annual alterations of the Ebbings and Flowings can depend on nothing save on the alteration of the Additions and Subtractions of the Diurnal Period from the Annual 408 Three wayes of altering the proportion of the Additions of the Diurnal Revolution to the Annual Motion of the Ebbing and Flowing 409 Ebbings and Flowings are petty things in comparison of the vastnesse of the Seas and the Velocity of the Motion of the Terrestrial Globe 417 EFFECT and Effects Of a new Effect its necessary that the Cause be likewise new 370 The Knowledge of the Effects contribute to the investigation of the Causes 380 True and Natural Effects follow without difficulty 387 Alterations in the Effects argue alteration in the Cause 407 ELEMENTS and their Motions Vide MOTION ENCYCLOPEDIA Subtilties sufficiently insipid ironically spoken and taken from a certain Encyclopedia 153 EXPERIMENTS Sensible Experiments are to be preferred before Humane Argumentations 21 33 42. It is good to be very cautious in admitting Experiments for true to those that never tryed them 162 Experiments and Arguments against the Earths Motion seem so far concluding as they lye under Equivokes 162 The Authority of Sensible Experiments and necessary Demonstrations in deciding of Physical Controversies 436 EYE The Circle of the Pupil of the Eye contracteth and enlargeth 329 How to finde the distance of the Rays Concourse from the Pupil of the Eye 329 F FAITH Faith more infallible than either Sense or Reason 475 FIRE Fire moveth directly upwards by Nature and round about by Participation according to Aristotle 122 It is improbable that the Element of Fire should be carried round by the Concave of the Moon 405 FIGURE and Figures Figure is not the Cause of Incorruptibility but of Longer Duration 66 The perfection of Figure appeareth in Corruptible Bodies but not in the Eternal 69 If the Spherical Figure conferred Eternity all things would be Eternal 69 It is more difficult to finde Figures that touch in a part of their Surface then in one sole point 185 The Circular Figure placed amongst the Postulata of Mathematicians 186 Irregular Figures and Formes difficult to be introduced 187 Superficial figures increase in proportion
double to their Lines 304 FLEXURES The necessity and use of Flexures in Animals for varying of their Motions 232 FOSCARINI Foscarini his Reconciling of Scripture Texts with the Copernican Hypothesis 473 G GENERABILITY Generability and Corruptibility are onely amongst Contraries according to Arist. 26 Generability and Alterability are greater perfections in Mundane Bodies then the Contrary Qualities 44 GEOMETRICAL and Geometry Geometrical Demonstrations of the Triple Dimension 4 Geometrical Exactnesse needlesse in Physical Proofs 6 Aristotle taxeth Plato for being too studious of Geometry 334 Peripatetick Phylosophers condemne the Study of Geometry and why 461 GILBERT The Magnetick Phylosophy of Will-Gilbert 364 The Method of Gilbert in his Philosophy 367 GLOBE Our Globe would have been called Stone instead of Earth if that name had been given it in the beginning 367 GOD. God and Nature do employ themselves in caring for Men as if they minded nothing else 333 An Example of Gods care of Man-kind taken from the Sun 333 God hath given all things an inviolable Law to observe 4â— GREAT Great and Small Immense c. are Relative Terms 334 GRAVITY Grave Vide Body Gravity and Levity Rarity and Density are contrary qualities 30 Things Grave had being before the Common Centre of Gravity 221 Gravity and Levity of Bodies defined 493 GUN and Gunnery The Reason why a Gun should seem to carry farther towards the West than towards the East 148 The Revolution of the Earth supposed the Ball in the Gun erected perpendicularly doth not move by a perpendicular but an inclined Line 155 It is ingenuously demonstrated that the Earths Motion supposed the Shot of Great Guns ought to vary no more than in its Rest. 161 The Experiment of a Running Chariot to find out the difference of Ranges in Gunnery 148 A Computation in Gunnery how much the Ranges of Great Shot ought to vary from the Mark the Earths Motion being Granted 160 H HEAVEN Heaven an Habitation for the Immortal Gods 26 Heavens Immutability evident to Sense 26 Heaven Immutable because there never was any Mutation seen in it 34 One cannot saith Aristotle speak confidently of Heaven by reason of its great distance 42 The substance of the Heavens impenetrable according to Aristotle 54 The Substance of Heaven Intangible 55 Many things may be in Heaven that are Invisible to us 334 There are more Documents in the Open Book of Heaven than Vulgar Wits are able to Penetrate 444 Heaven and Earth ever mutually opposed to each other 480 Which are really the Greater Lights in Heaven and which the lesser 484 Heaven is not composed of a fifth Essence differing from the Matter of inferiour Bodies 494 Heaven is no Solid or Dense Body but Rare 494 Christ at his Incarnation truly descended from Heaven and at his Ascension truly ascended into Heaven 496 Of the First Second and Third Heaven 497 Heaven in the Sense of Copernicus is the same with the most tenuous Aether but different from Paradice which excells all the Heavens 499 HELL Hell is in the Centre of the Earth not of the World 480 HELIX The Helix about the Cylinder may be said to be a Simple Line 7 HYPOTHESIS The true Hypothesis may dispatch its Revolutions in a shorter time in lesser Circles than in greater the which is proved by two Examples 410 I JEST A Jest put upon one that offered to sell a certain Secret of holding Correspondence at a Thousand Miles distance 79 A Jest of a certain Statuary 94 IMPOSSIBILITY and Impossibilities Nature attempts not Impossibilities 10 To seek what would follow upon an Impossibility is Folly 22 INCORRUPTIBILITY Incorruptibility esteemed by the Vulgar out of their fear of Death 45 INFINITY Of Infinity the Parts are not one greater than another although they are comparatively unequal 106 INSTRUMENT and Instruments Instruments Astronomical very subject to Errour 262 Copernicus understood not some things for want of Instruments 338 A proof of the small credit that is to be given to Astronomical Instruments in Minute Observations 351 Ptolomy did not confide in an Instrument made by Archimedes 352 Instruments of Tycho made with great Expence 352 What Instruments are most apt for exact Observations 352 INVENTORS The First Inventors and Observers of things ought to be admired 370 JOSHUAH The Miracle of Joshuah in commanding the Sun to stand still contradicts the Ptolomaick System 456 Joshuahs Miracle admirably agreeth with the Pythagorick Systeme 457 IRON It s proved that Iron consists of parts more subtil pure and compact than the Magnet 370 JUPITER Jupiter and Saturn do encompasse the Earth and the Sun 258 Jupiter augments lesse by Irradiation than the Dog-Star 305 K KEPLER The Argument of Kepler in favour of Copernicus 242 An Explanation of the true Sense of Kepler and his Defence 243 The feigned Answer of Kepler couched in an Artificial Irony 244 Kepler is with respect blamed 422 Keplers reconciling of Scripture Texts whith the Copernican Hypothesis 461 KNOW c. The having a perfect Knowledge of nothing maketh some beleeve they understand all things 84 Gods manner of Knowing different from that of Man 87 The great Felicity for which they are to be envied who perswade themselves that they Know every thing 164 Our Knowledge is a kind of Reminiscence according to Plato 169 L LIGHT Light reflected from the Earth into the Moon 52 The Reflex Light of uneven Bodies is more universal than that of the smooth and why 62 The more rough Superficies make greater Reflection of Light than the lesse rough 65 Perpendicular Rays of Light illuminate more than the Oblique and why 65 The more Oblique Rays of Light illuminate lesse and why 65 Light or Luminous Bodies appear the brighter in an Obscure Ambient 74 LINE The Right Line and Circumference of an infinite Circle are the same thing 342 LAWYERS Contentious Lawyers that are retained in an ill Cause keep close to some expression fallen from the adverse party at unawares 324 LOOKING-GLASSES Flat Looking-Glasses cast forth their Reflection towards but one place but the Spherical every way 39 LYNCEAN The Lyncean Academick the first Discoverer of the Solar spots and all the other Celestial Novelties 312 The History of his proceedings for a long time about the Observation of the Solar Spots 312 M MAGNET Many properties in the Magnet 367 The Magnet armed takes up more Iron than when unarmed 369 The true cause of the Multiplication of Vertue in the Magnet by means of the Arming 370 A sensible proof of the Impurity of the Magnet 371 The several Natural Motions of the Magnet 374 Philosophers are forced to confesse that the Magnet is compounded of Celestial Substances and of Elementary 375 The Error of those who call the Magnet a mixt Body and the Terrestrial Globe a simple Body 375 An improbable Effect admired by Gilbertus in the Magnet 376 MAGNETICK Philosophy The Magnetick Philosophy of William Gilbert 364 MAGNITUDE The Magnitude of the Orbs and the Velocity of the Motions of Planets
move with an Absolute Motion but per accidens 491 ANIMAL MOTION The Diversity of the Motions of Animals depend on their Flexures 232 The Flexures in Animals are not made for varying of their Motions 232 The Motions of Animals are of one sort 232 The Motions of Animals are all Circular 233 Secondary Motion of Animals dependent on the first 233 Animals would not grow weary of their Motion proceeding as that which is assigned to the Terrestrial Globe 244 The Cause of the wearinesse that attends the Motion of Animals 244 The Motion of an Animal is rather to be called Violent than Natural 244 ANNUAL MOTION The Annual Motion of the Earth must cause a constant and strong Winde 228 The Errour of the Antagonist of Copernicus is manifest in that he declareth that the Annual and Diurnal Motion belonging to the Earth are both one way and not contrary 235 The Annual Motion of the Earth mixing with the Motions of the other Planets produce extravagant Appearances 296 Rest Annual Motion and the Diurnal ought to be distributed betwixt the Sun Earth and Firmament 300 Granting to the Earth the Annual it must of necessity have the Diurnal Motion assigned to it 300 The sole Annual Motion of the Earth causeth great inequality in the Motions of the Planets 310 A Demonstration of the inequalities of the three superiour Planets dependent on the Annual Motion of the Earth 310 The Annual Motion of the Earth most apt to render a reason of the Exorbitance of the five Planets 312 Argument of Tycho against the Annual Motion from the invariable Elevation of the Pole 338 Vpon the Annual Motion of the Earth alteration may ensue in some Fixed Stars not in the Pole 341 The Parallogisme of those who believe that in the Annual Motion great alterations are to be made about the Elevation of the Fixed Stars is confuted 341 Enquiry is made what mutations and in what Stars are to be discovered by means of the Earths Annual Motion 342 Astronomers having omitted to instance what alterations those are that may be derived from the Annual Motion of the Earth do thereby testifie that they never rightly understood the same 343 The Annual Motion made by the Centre of the Earth under the Ecliptick and the Diurnal Motion made by the Earth about its own Centre 344 Objections against the Earths Annual Motion taken from the Fixed Stars placed in the Ecliptick 345 An Indice or Observation in the Fixed Stars like to that which is seen in the Planets is an Argument of the Earths Annual Motion 347 The Suns Annual Motion how it cometh to passe according to Copernicus 355 The Annual and Diurnal Motion are consistent in the Earth 362 Three wayes of altering the proportion of the Additions of the Diurnal Revolution to the Annual Motion 409 The Earths Annual Motion thorow the Ecliptick unequal by reason of the Moons Motion 413 The Causes of the inequality of the Additions and Substractions of the Diurnal Conversion from the Annual Motion 418 CIRCULAR MOTION Circular and Right Motion are simple as proceeding in simple Lines 6 The Circular Motion is never acquired Naturally unlesse Right Motion precede it 18 Circular Motion perpetually uniforme 18 In the Circular Motion every point in the Circumference is the beginning and end 20 Circular Motion onely is Uniforme 20 Circular Motion may be continued perpetually 20 Circular Motion onely and Rest are apt to conserve Order 20 To the Circular Motion no other Motion is contrary 26 Circular Motions are not contrary according to Aristotle 100 The Motion of the Parts of the â—arth returning to their Whole may be Circular 237 The Velocity in the Circular Motion encreaseth according to the encrease of the Diameter of the Circle 242 Circular Motion is truly simple and perpetual 495 Circular Motion belongeth to the Whole Body and the Right to its Parts 496 Circular and Right Motion are coincident and may consist together in the same Body 496 COMMON MOTION A notable Instance of Sagredus to shew the non-operating of Common Motion 151 An Experiment that sheweth how the Common Motion is imperceptible 224 The concurrence of the Elements in a Common Motion imports no more than their concurrence in a Common Rest. 239 Common Motion is as if it never were 223 340 COMPRESSIVE MOTION Compressive Motion is proper to Gravity Extensive to Levity 49â— CONTRARY MOTIONS An Experiment which plainly shews that two Contrary Motions may agree in the same Moveable 363 The parts of a Circle regularly moved about its own Centre move in diverse times with Contrary Motions 389 DESCENDING MOTION The Inclination of Grave Bodies to the Motion of Descent is equal to their resistance to the Motion of Ascent 191 The Spaces past in the Descending Motion of the falling Grave Body are as the Squares of their times 198 The Motion of Descent belongs not to the Terrestrial Globe but to its parts 362 DIVRNAL MOTION The Diurnal Motion seemeth Commune to all the Vniverse the Earth onely excepted 97 Diurnal Motion why it should more probably belong to the Earth than to the Rest of the Vniverse 98 The first Discourse to prove that the Diurnal Motion belongs to the Earth 99 The Diurnal Motion causeth no Mutation among Celestial Bodies but all changes have relation to the Earth 100 A second Confirmation that the Diurnal Motion belongs to the Earth 100 A third Confirmation that the Diurnal Motion belongs to the Earth 101 A fourth fifth and sixth Confirmation that the Diurnal Motion belongs to the Earth 102 A seventh Confirmation that the Diurnal Motion belongs to the Earth 103 If the Diurnal Motion should alter the Annual Period would cease 409 LOCAL MOTION Local Motion of three kinds Right Circular and Mixt. 6 An entire and new Science of our Academick Galileo concerning Local Motion 198 MIXT MOTION Of Mixt Motion we see not the part that is Circular because we pertake thereof 218 Aristotle granteth a Mixt Motion to Mixt Bodies 375 The Motion of Mixt Bodies ought to be such as may result from the Composition of the Motions of the simple Bodies compounding 375 NATVRAL MOTION Accelleration of the Natural Motion of Graves is made according to the Odd Numbers beginning at Vnity 198 Natural Motion changeth into that which is Preter-Natural and Violent 212 PROGRESSIVE MOTION The Progressive Motion may make the Water in a Vessel to run to and fro 387 RIGHT MOTION Sometimes Simple and sometimes Mixt according to Aristotle 8 Right Motion impossible in the World exactly Ordinate 10 Right Motion Naturally Infinite 10 Right Motion Naturally Impossible 10 Right Motion might possibly have been in the First Chaos 11 Right Motion is useful to reduce into Order things out of Order 11 Right Motion cannot naturally be Perpetual 20 Right Motion assigned to Natural Bodies to reduce them to perfect Order when removed from their Places 20 Right Motion of Grave Bodies manifest to Sense 22 Right Motion with more reason ascribed to the Parts
peculiar to the perfect Sphere onely but belongeth to all Curved Figures 185 In a Moveable Sphere it seemeth more reasonable that its Centre be stable than any of its parts 300 SPHERE of Activity The Sphere of Activity greater in Celestial Bodies than in Elimentary 59 STARRY SPHERE Wearinesse more to be feared in the Starry Sphere than in the Terrestrial Globe 245 By the proportion of Jupiter and of Mars the Starry Sphere is found to be yet more remote 331 Vanity of those mens discourse who argue the Starry Sphere to be too vast in the Copernican Hypothesis 335 The whole Starry Sphere beheld from a great distance might appear as small as one single Star 335 SPHERICAL The Spherical Figure is easier to be made than any other 186 Spherical Figures of sundry Magnitudes may be made with one sole Instrument 187 SPIRIT The Spirit had no intent to teach us whether the Earth moveth or standeth still as nothing concerning our Salvation 436 SOLAR SPOTS Spots generate and dissolve in the face of the Sun 38 Sundry Opinions touching the Solar Spots 39 An Argument that necessarily proveth the Solar Spots to generate and dissolve 40 A conclusive Demonstration to prove that the Spots are contiguous to the Body of the Sun 41 The Motion of the Spots towards the Circumcumference of the Sun appears slow 41 The Figure of the Spots towards the Circumference of the Suns Discus appear narrow and why 41 The Solar Spots are not Spherical but flat like thin plates 41 The History of the proceedings of the Academian for a long time about the Observation of the Solar Spots 312 A conceit that suddenly came into the mind of our Academian concerning the great consequence that followeth upon the Motion of the Solar Spots 314 Extravagant Mutations to be observed in the Motions of the Solar Spots foreseen by the Academick in case the Earth had the Annual Motion 314 The first Accident to be observed in the Motion of the Solar Spots and consequently all the rest explained 315 The events being observed were answerable to the Predictions touching these Spots 318 Though the Annual Motion assigned to the Earth answereth to the Phaenomena of the Solar Spots yet doth it not follow by conversion that from the Phaenomena of the Spots one may inferre the Annual Motion to belong to the Earth 319 The Pure Peripatetick Philosophers will laugh at the Spots and their Phaenomena as the Illusions of the Christals in the Telescope 319 The Solar Spots of Galileo 494 STAR and Stars The Stars infinitely surpasse the rest of Heaven in Density 30 It is no lesse impossible for a Star to corrupt than the whole Terrestrial Globe 37 New Stars discovered in Heaven 38 The small Body of a Star fringed about with Rays appeareth very much bigger than plain naked and in its native Clarity 61 An easie Experiment that sheweth the encrease in the Stars by means of the Adventitious Rays 305 A Star of the Sixth Magnitude supposed by Tycho and Scheiner an hundred and six Millions of times bigger than needs 326 A common errour of all Astronomers touching the Magnitude of the Stars 326 Venus rendereth the Errour of Astronomers in determining the Magnitudes of Stars inexcuseable 326 A way to measure the the apparent Diameter of a Star 327 By depriving Heaven of some Star one might come to know what influence it hath upon us 334 Enquiry is made what Mutations and in what Stars is to be made by means of the Annual Motion of the Earth 342 The Stars neerer to us make greater diversities than the more remote 349 FIXED STARS Great disparity amongst the Motions of the Particular Fixed Stars if their Sphere be moveable 102 The Motions of the Fixed Stars would accelerate and retard in several times if the Starry were moveable 102 The Probable Situation of the Fixed Stars 299 Supposing the Annual Motion of the Earth it followeth that one Fixed Star is bigger than the whole Grand Orbe 324 The apparent diversity of Motion in the Planets is insensible in the Fixed Stars 325 Supposing that a Fixed Star of the First Magnitude is no bigger than the Sun the diversity which is so great in the Planets is almost insensible in the Fixed Stars 325 The Diameter of a Fixed Star of the First Magnitude and one of the Sixth 325 The distance of a Fixed Star of the First Magnitude the Star being supposed to be equal to the Sun 326 In the Fixed Stars the diversity of Aspect caused by the Grand Orb is little more than that caused by the Earth in the Sun 326 The Computation of the Magnitude of the Fixed Stars in respect of the Grand Orbe 326 The Apparent Diameter of a Fixed Star of the First Magnitude not more than five Seconds 328 By another Supposition taken from Astronomers the distance of the Fixed Stars is calculated to be 10800 Semidiameters of the Great Orbe 331 The place assigned to a Fixed Star is much lesse than that of Planet 335 The Mutations of the Fixed Stars ought to be in some greater in others lesser and in others nothing at all 343 The grand Difficulty in Copernicus his Doctrine is that which concerns the Phaenomena of the Sun and Fixed Stars 343 The Fixed Stars in the Ecliptick never Elevate nor Descend on account of the Annual Motion but yet approach and recede 345 The Fixed Stars without the Ecliptick elevate more or lesse according to their distance from the Ecliptick 347 The Epilogue to the Phaenomena of the Fixed Stars caused by the Annual Motion of the Earth 349 A place accommodated for the Observation of the Fixed Stars as to what concerns the Annual Motion of the Earth 352 NEW STAR The greatest and least Elevation of the New Star differ not from each other more than the Polar Altitudes the said Star being in the Firmament 255 STEEL Steel Burnished beheld from one place appears very bright and from another very obscure 64 STONE The Stone falling from the Mast of a Ship lights in the same place whether the Ship move or stands still 126 STRENGTH The Strength diminisheth not were it not employed 244 SUN The Sun more probably in the Centre of the Universe than the Earth 21 Observations from whence it is collected that the Sun and not the Earth is in the Centre of the Celestial Revolutions 295 The Sun and Moon encrease little by Irradiation 305 The Sun it self testifieth the Annual Motion to belong to the Earth 312 If the Earth be immoveable in the Centre of the Zodiack there must be ascribed to the Sun four several Motions as is declared at length 320 The distance of the Sun conteineth twelve hundred and eight Semidiameters of the Earth 325 The Diameter of the Sun half a Degree 325 The Apparent Diameter of the Sun how much it is bigger than that of a Fixed Star 325 An Example of Gods care of Mankind taken from the Sun 333 An exquisite Observation of the approach and departure of
the Receptacles of the Imagination of the Memory and of the Understanding So that which represents it self to the meer sight is as nothing in comparison and proportion to the strange Wonders that by help of long and accurate Observations the Wit of Learned Men discovereth in Heaven And this is the substance of what I had to consider touching this particular In the next place as to those that adde That those Natural Propositions of which the Scripture still speaks in one constant tenour and which the Fathers all unanimously receive in the same sense ought to be accepted according to the naked and literal sense of the Words without glosses and interpretations and received and held for most certain and true and that consequently the Mobility of the Sun and Stability of the Earth as being such are de Fide to be held for true and the contrary opinion to be deemed Heretical I shall propose to consideration in the first place That of Natural Propositions some there are of which all humane Science and Discourse can furnish us only with some plausible opinion and probable conjecture rather than with any certain and demonstrative knowledge as for example whether the Stars be animated Others there are of which we have or may confidently believe that we may have by Experiments long Observations and Necessary Demonstrations an undubitable assurance as for instance whether the Earth and Heavens move or not whether the Heavens are Spherical or otherwise As to the first sort I doubt not in the least that if humane Ratiocinations cannot reach them and that consequently there is no Science to be had of them but only an Opinion or Belief we ought fully and absolutely to comply with the meer Verbal Sense of the Scripture But as to the other Positions I should think as hath been said above That we are first to ascertain our selves of the fact it self which will assist us in finding out the true senses of the Scriptures which shall most certainly be found to accord with the fact demonstrated for two truths can never contradict each other And this I take to be a Doctrine orthodox and undoubted for that I finde it written in Saint Augustine who speaking to our point of the Figure of Heaven and what it is to be believed to be in regard that which Astronomers affirm concerning it seemeth to be contrary to the Scripture they holding it to be rotund and the Scripture calling it as it were a Curtain determineth that we are not at all to regard that the Scripture contradicts Astronomers but to believe its Authority if that which they say shall be false and founded only on the conjectures of humane infirmity but if that which which they affirm be proved by indubitable Reasons this Holy Father doth not say that the Astronomers are to be enjoyned that they themselves resolving and renouncing their Demonstrations do declare their Conclusion to be false but saith that it ought to be demonstrated That what is said in Scripture of a Curtain is not contrary to their true Demonstrations These are his words But some object How doth it appear that the saying in our Bibles Who stretcheth out the Heaven as a Curtain maketh not against those who maintain the Heavens to be in figure of a Sphere Let it be so if that be false which they affirme For that is truth which is spoke by Divine Authority rather than that which proceeds from Humane Infirmity But if peradventure they should be able to prove their Position by such Experiments as puts it out of question it is to be proved that vvhat is said in Scripture concerning a Curtain doth in no vvise contradict their manifest Reasons He proceedeth afterwards to admonish us that we ought to be no less careful and observant in reconciling a Text of Scripture with a demonstrated Natural Proposition than wâ—th another Text of Scripture which should sound to a contrary Sense Nay methinks that the circumspection of this Saint is worthy to be admired and imitated who even in obscure Conclusions and of which we may assure our selves that we can have no knowledge or Science by humane demonstration is very reserved in determining what is to be believed as we see by that which he writeth in the end of his second Book de Genesi ad Litteram speaking whether the Stars are to be believed animate Which particular although at present it cannot easily be comprehended yet I suppose in our farther Progress of handling the Scriptures we may meet with some more pertinent places upon which it will be permitted us if not to determin any thing for certain yet to suggest somewhat concerning this matter according to the dictates of Sacred Authority But novv the moderation of pious gravity being alwaies observed vve ought to receive nothing rashly in a doubtful point least perhaps vve reject that out of respect to our Errour vvhich hereafter Truth may discover to be in no vvise repugnant to the Sacred Volumes of the Old and Nevv Testament By this and other places if I deceive not my self the intent of the Holy Fathers appeareth to be That in Natural questions and which are not de Fide it is first to be considered whether they be indubitably demonstrated or by sensible Experiments known or whether such a knowledge and demonstration is to be had which having obtained and it being the gift of God it ought to be applyed to find out the true Sences of the Sacred Pages in those places which in appearance might seem to speak to a contrary meaning Which will unquestionably be pierced into by Prudent Divines together with the occasions that moved the Holy Ghost for our exercise or for some other reason to me unknown to veil it self sometimes under words of different significations As to the other point Of our regarding the Primary Scope of those Sacred Volumes I cannot think that their having spoken alwaies in the same tenour doth any thing at all disturb this Rule For if it hath been the Scope of the Scripture by way of condescention to the capacity of the Vulgar at any time to express a Proposition in words that bear a sense different from the Essence of the said Proposition why might it not have observed the same and for the same respect as often as it had occasion to speak of the same thing Nay I conceive that to have done otherwise would but have encreased the confusion and diminished the credit that these Sacred Records ought to have amongst the Common People Again that touching the Rest and Motion of the Sun and Earth it was necessary for accommodation to Popular Capacity to assert that which the Litteral sense of the Scripture importeth experience plainly proveth For that even to our dayes people far less rude do continue in the same Opinion upon Reasons that if they were well weighed and examined would be found to be extream trivial and upon Experiments either wholly false
another conceipt thereof they would meet peradventure as many others that accord with it and haply would judge that the Holy Church doth very appositly teach That God placed the Sun in the Centre of Heaven and that thereupon by revolving it in it self after the manner of a Wheel He contributed the ordinary Courses to the Moon and other Erratick Stars whilst that she Sings Coeli Deus sanctissime Qui lucidum Centrum Poli Candore pingis igneo Augens decoro lumine Quarto die qui flammeam Solis rotam constituens Lunae ministras ordinem Vagosque cursus Syderum They might say that the Name of Firmament very well agreeth ad literam to the Starry Sphere and to all that which is above the Planetary Conversions which according to this Hypothesis is altogether firme and immoveable Ad litteram the Earth moving circularly they might understand its Poles where it 's said Nec dum Terram fecerat flumina Cardines Orbis Terrae Which Cardines or Hinges seem to be ascribed to the Earth in vain if it be not to turn upon them FINIS AN ABSTRACT OF THE Learned Treatise OF JOHANNIS KEPLERUS The Emperours Mathematician ENTITULED His Introduction upon MARS IT must be confessed that there are very many who are devoted to Holinesse that dissent from the Judgment of Copernicus fearing to give the Lye to the Holy Ghost speaking in the Scriptures if they should say that the Earth moveth and the Sun stands still But let such consider that since we judge of very many and those the most principal things by the Sense of Seeing it is impossible that we should alienate our Speech from this Sense of our Eyes Therefore many things daily occur of which we speak according to the Sense of Sight when as we certainly know that the things themselves are otherwise An Example whereof we have in that Verse of Virgil Provehimur portu Terraeque urbesque recedunt So when we come forth of the narrow straight of some Valley we say that a large Field discovereth it self So Christ to Peter Duc in altum Lanch forth into the Deep or on high as if the Sea were higher than its Shores For so it seemeth to the Eye but the Opticks shew the cause of this fallacy Yet Christ useth the most received Speech although it proceed from this delusion of the Eyes Thus we conceive of the Rising and Setting of the Stars that is to say of their Ascension and Descension when at the same time that we affirm the Sun riseth others say that it goeth down See my Optices Astronomiae cap. 10. fol. 327. So in like manner the Ptolomaicks affirm that the Planets stand still when for some dayes together they seem to be fixed although they believe them at that very time to be moved in a direct line either downwards to or upwards from the Earth Thus the Writers of all Nations use the word Solstitium and yet they deny that the Sun doth really stand still Likewise there will never any man be so devoted to Copernicus but he will say the Sun entereth into Cancer and Leo although he granteth that the Earth enters Capricorn or Aquarius And so in other cases of the like nature But now the Sacred Scriptures speaking to men of vulgar matters in which they were not intended to instruct men after the manner of men that so they might be understood by men do use such Expressions as are granted by all thereby to insinuate other things more Mysterious and Divine What wonder is it then if the Scripture speaks according to mans apprehension at such time when the Truth of things doth dissent from the Conception that all men whether Learned or Unlearned have of them Who knows not that it is a Poetical allusion Psal. 19. where whilst under the similitude of the Sun the Course of the Gospel as also the Peregrination of our Lord Christ in this World undertaken for our sakes is described The Sun is said to come forth of his Tabernacle of the Horizon as a Bridegroom out of his Chamber rejoycing as a Giant to run a Race Which Virgil thus imitates Tithono croceum linquens Aurora cubile For the first Poets were amongst the Jews The Psalmist knew that the Sun went not forth of the Horizon as out of its Tabernacle yet it seemeth to the Eye so to do Nor did he believe that the Sun moved for that it appeared to his sight so to do And yet he saith both for that both were so to his seeming Neither is it to be adjudged false in either Sense for the perception of the Eyes hath its verity fit for the more secret purpose of the Psalmist in shadowing forth the current passage of the Gospel as also the Peregrination of the Son of God Joshua likewise mentioneth the Vallies on or in which the Sun and Moon moved for that they appeared to him at Jordan so to do And yet both these Pen-men may obtain their ends David and with him Syracides the magnificence of God being made known which caused these things to be in this manner represented to sight or otherwise the mystical meaning by means of these Visibles being discerned And Joshua in that the Sun as to his Sense of Seeing staid a whole day in the midst of Heaven whereas at the same time to others it lay hid under the Earth But incogitant persons onely look upon the contrariety of the words The Sun stood still that is The Earth stood still not considering that this contradiction is confined within the limits of the Opticks and Astronomy For which cause it is not outwardly exposed to the notice and use of men Nor will they understand that the onely thing Joshuah prayed for was that the Mountains might not intercept the Sun from him which request he expressed in words that suited with his Ocular Sense Besides it had been very unseasonable at that time to think of Astronomy or the Errours in Sight for if any one should have told him that the Sun could not really move upon the Valley of Ajalon but onely in relation to Sense would not Joshuah have replyed that his desire was that the day might be prolonged so it were by any means whatsoever In like manner would he have answered if any one had started a question about the Suns Mobility and the Earths Motion But God easily understood by Joshuahs words what he asked for and by arresting the Earths Motion made the Sun in his apprehension seem to stand still For the summ of Joshuahs Prayer amounts to no more but this that it might thus appear to him let it in the mean time be what it would of it self For that it s so seeming was not in vain and ridiculous but accompanied with the desired effect But read the tenth Chap. of my Book that treats of the Optick part of Astronomy where thou shalt finde the Reasons why the Sun doth in this manner seem to all mens thinking to
of Venerable Antiquity and proved many of their greattest and weightiest Opinions to be vain and false The Doctrine of the Antipodes by many of the Antients of approved Wisdome and Learning was held a Paradox no less absurd than this Our Opinion of the Earths Motion may seem to be as likewise that of the Habitablenesse of the Torrid Zone Of these Opinions the first was accounted unpossible by many but the latter was absolutely denyed by the unanimous consent of all But later Authors to the great felicity and perpetual Glory of their Age have not so much by Authority as by accurate diligence and indefatigable study to finde out the truth proved them both to be undoubtedly true Thus I affirm that the Antients were deceived and that in too lightly challenging Credid and Authority for their Inventions they discovered too much folly Here for brevities sake I pass by many Dreams lately detected both of Aristotle and other of the antient Philosophers who in all likelihood if they had dived into the Observations of Modern Writers and understood their Reasons would by changing their judgements have given them the precedency and would have subscribed to their manifest Truth Hereby we see that we are not to have so high a respect for the Aâ—tiens that whatever they assert should be taken upon trust and that Faith should be given to their sayings as if they were Oracles and Truths sent down from Heaven But yet which indeed is chiefly to be regarded in these matters if any thing be found out that is repugnant to Divine Authority or to the Sacred Leaves that were dictated by the Holy Ghost and by His Inspiration expounded by the Holy Doctors of the Church in this case not onely Humane reason but even Sense it self is to submitt which though by all manner of weighty Conditions and circumstances it should hold forth any thing contrary to Divine Authority which indeed is so plain that there is no way left to evade the right understanding of it yet is it to be rejected and we must conclude our selves deceived by it and believe that that is not true which Sense and Reason represents unto us For however we judge of things we have both in this and all other cases a more certain knowledge which proceeds from Divine Faith as S. Peter hath most excellently exprest it Who though with his Senses he saw and perceived the Glory of our Lord in his Transfiguration and heard his words manifesting his great Power yet nevertheless all these things compared with the Light of Faith he adds We have also a more sure word of Prophecy c. Wherefore since this Opinion of Pythagoras and Copernicus hath entred upon the Stage of the World in so strange a Dress and at the first appearance besides the rest doth seem to oppose sundry Authorities of Sacred Scripture it hath this being granted been justly rejected of all men as a meer absurdity But yet because the common Systeme of the World devised by Ptolomy hath hitherto satisfied none of the Learned hereupon a suspition is risen up amongst all even Ptolemy's followers themselves that there must be some other Systeme which is more true than this of Ptolemy For although the Phaenomena of Celestial Bodys may seem to be generally resolved by this Hypothesis yet they are found to be involved with many difficulties and referred to many devices as namely of Orbes of sundry Forms and Figures Epicicles Equations Differences Excentricks and innumerable such like fancies and Chymaera's which savour of the Ens Rationis of Logicians rather than of any Realem Essentiam Of which kinde is that of the Rapid Motion than which I finde not any thing that can be more weakly grounded and more easily controverted and disproved And such is that conceit of the Heaven void of Stars moving the inferior Heavens or Orbes All which are introduced upon occasion of the variety of the Motions of Celestial Bodyes which seemed impossible by any other way to be reduced to any certain and determinate Rule So that the Assertors of that common Opinion freely confess that in describing the Worlds Systeme they cannot as yet discover or teach the true Hypothesis thereof But that their endeavours are onely to finde out amongst many things what is most agreeable with truth and may upon better and more accomodate Reasons answer the Celestial Phaenomena Since that the Telescope an Optick Invention hath been found out by help of which many remarkable things in the Heavens most worthy to be known and till then unthought of were discovered by manifest sensation as for instance That the Moon is Mountainous Venus and Saturn Tricorporeal and Jupiter Quadricorporeal Likewise that in the Via Lactea in the Pleiades and in the Stars called Nobulosae there are many Stars and those of the greatest Magnitude which are by turns adjacent to one another and in the end it hath discovered to us new fixed Stars new planets and new Worlds And by this same Instrument it appears very probable that Venus and Mercury do not move properly about the Earth but rather about the Sun and that the Moon alone moveth about the Earth What therefore can be inferred from hence but that the Sun doth stand immovable in the Centre and that the Earth with the other Celestial Orbes is circumvolved about it Wherefore by this and many other Reasons it appears That the Opinion of Pythagoras and Copernicus doth not disagree with Astronomical and Cosmographical Principles yea that it carryeth with it a great likelihood and probability of Truth Whereas amongst the so many several Opinions that deviate from the common Systeme and devise others such as were those of Plato Calippus Eudoxus and since them of Averroe Cardanus Fracastorius and others both Antient and Modern there is not one found that is more facile more regularly ahd determinately accommodated to the Phaenomena and Motions of the Heavens without Epicycles Excentrix Homocentricks Deferents and the supputation of the Rapid Motion And this Hypothesis hath been asserted for true not onely by Pythagoras and after him by Copernicus but by many famous men as namely Heraclitus and Ecphantus Pythagoreans all the Disciples of that Sect Miceta of Syracuse Martianus Capella and many more Amongst whom those as we have said that have attempted the finding out of New Systemes for they refused both this of Pythagoras and that of Ptolemy are numberless who yet notwithstanding allowed this Opinion of Pythagoras to carry with it much probability and indirectly confirmed it inasmuch as that they rejected the common one as imperfect defective and attended with many contradictions and difficulties Amongst these may be numbered Father Clavius a most learned Jesuite who although he refutes the Systeme of Pythagoras yet acknowledgeth the Levity of the common Systeme and he ingeniously confesseth that for the removal of difficulties in which the common Systeme will not serve the turn Astronomers are forced to enquire
ascribes to the Earth Ends and Foundations which yet it hath not to the Sea a Depth not to be fathomed to Death which is a Privation and consequently a Non-entity it appropriates Actions Motion Passions and other such like Accidents of all which it is deprived as also Epithites and Adjuncts which really cannot suit with it Is not the bitternesse of Death past 1 Sam. 15. 32. Let death come upon them Psal 6. He hath prepared the Instruments of Death Psal. 7. 14. Thou raisest me from the gates of Death Psal. 84. In the midst of the shadow of Death Psal. 23. Love is strong as Death Cant. 8. 9. The First-Born of Death Job 18. 13. Destruction and Death say c. Job 28. 22. And who knows not that the whole History of the rich Glutton doth consist of the like phrases of Vulgar Speech So Ecclesiasticus Chap. 27. vers 11. The godly man abideth in wisdome as the Sun but a fool changeth as the Moon and yet the Moon according to the real truth of the matter no wayes changeth but abides the same for ever as Astronomers demonstrate one half thereof remaining alwayes lucid and the other alwayes opacous Not at any time doth this state vary in it unlesse in respect of us and according to the opinion of the Vulgar Hence it is cleer that the holy Scripture speaks according to the common form of speech used amongst the unlearned and according to the appearance of things and not according to their true Existence In like manner Genes 1. in the description of the Creation of all things the Light is said to be made first of all and yet it followeth in the Text And the Evening and the Morning made the first day and a little after the several Acts of the Creation are distinguished and assigned to several days and concerning each of them it is said in the Text And the Evening and the Morning made the second day and then the third day the fourth day c. Hence many doubts arise all which I shall propound according to the common Systeme that it may appear even from the Hypothesis of that Systeme that the sacred Scripture sometimes for the avoyding of emergent difficulties is to be understood in a vulgar sense and meaning and in respect of us and not according to the nature of things Which distinction even Aristotle himself seemeth to have hinted when he saith * Some things are more intelligible to us others by nature or secundum se. First therefore If the light were made before heaven then it rolled about without heaven to the making of the distinction of Day and Night Now this is contrary to the very doctrine of these men who affirm that no Coelestial Body can be moved unlesse per accidens and by the motion of Heaven and as a knot in a board at the motion of the board Again if it be said that the Light was created at the same time with Heaven and began to be moved with Heaven another doubt ariseth that likewise opposeth the foresaid common Hypothesis For it being said that Day and Night Morning and Evening were made that same is either in respect of the Universe or onely in respect of the Earth and us If so be that the Sun turning round according to the Hypothesis of the Common Systeme doth not cause the Night and Day but only to opacous Bodies which are destitute of all other light but that of the Sun whilst in their half part which is their Hemisphaere and no more for that the Suns light passeth over but one half of an opacous Body unless a very small matter more in those of lesser bulk they are illuminated by the Suns aspect the other half remaining dark and tenebrose by reason of a shadow proceeding from its own Body Therefore the distinction of dayes by the light of heaven according to the description of them in the sacred Scriptures must not be understood absolutely and secundum se and Nature her self but in respect of the Earth and of us its inhabitants and consequently secundum nos 'T is not therefore new nor unusual in sacred Scripture to speak of things secundum nos and only in respect of us and secundum apparentiam but not secundum se and rei naturam or Absolutely and Simply And if any one would understand these Days of sacred Scripture not only secundum nos but also secundum naturam as circulations of Coelestial Light returning to the self same point from whence it did at first proceed so as that there needs no respect to be had to Night or to Darknesse for which sole reason we are fain to imbrace the Interpretation of sacred Scripture secundum nos In opposition to this we may thus argue If the sacred Scripture be understood to speak absolutely of iterated and successive circulations of light and not respectu nostri as if these words Evening and Morning had never been inserted which in their natural acceptation denote the Suns habitude to us and to the Earth For that the Morning is that time when the Sun begins to wax light and to rise above the Horizon in the East and become visible in our Hemisphaere and Evening is the time in which the Sun declines in the West and approacheth with its light neerer to the other opposite Horizon and Hemisphaere which is contiguous to this of ours But the word Day is a Co-relative to the word Night From hence therefore it evidently appeareth that these three words Evening Morning and Day cannot be understood of a Circulation of Light secundum se and absolutè but only secundum nos and respectu nostri and in that sense indeed the Morning and Evening do make the Night and Day In like manner Gen. 1. 16. it is said God made two great Lights the greater Light to rule the Day and the lesser Light to rule the Night and the Stars Where both in the Proposition and in the specification of it things are spoken which are very disagreeing with Coelestial Bodies Therefore those words are in that place to be interpreted according to the foresaid Rules namely according to the third and fourth so that they may be said to be understood according to the sense of the vulgar and the common way of speaking which is all one as if we should say secundum apparentiam and secundum nos vel respectu nostri For first it is said in the Proposition And God made two great Lights meaning by them the Sun and Moon whereas according to the truth of the matter these are not the Greater Lights For although the Sun may be reckoned amongst the Greater the Moon may not be so unless in respect of us Because amongst those that are absolutely the Greater and a little lesser than the Sun nay in a manner equal to it and far bigger than the Moon we may with great reason enumerate Saturn or some of the Fixed Stars of the first
Magnitude such as Canopus otherwise called Arcanar in the end of a River or the Little Dog in the mouth of the Great Dog or the Foot of Orion called Rigel or his Right shoulder or any other of that Magnitude Therefore the two great Lights are to be understood in respect of us and according to vulgar estimation and not according to the true and reall existence of such Bodies Secondly in the specification of the Proposition it is said The greater Light to rule the Day hereby denoting the Sun in which the verbal sense of Scripture agreeth with the Truth of the Thing For that the Sun is the Greatest of all Luminaries and Globes But that which followeth immediately after And the lesser Light to rule the Night meaning the Moon cannot be taken in the true and real sense of the words For the Moon is not the lesser Light but Mercury which is not only much lesser than the Moon but also than any other Star And if again it be said That the Holy Text doth not speak of the Stars but onely of the Luminaries for that presently after they are mentioned apart And the Stars and that what we say is true touching the comparison of the Stars amongst themselves but not in respect of the Luminaries namely the Sun and Moon This reply doth discover a man to be utterly ignorant in these Studies and such who having not the least smattering in them doth conceive an absurd and erroneous Opinion of the Coelestial Bodies For the Moon and Sun considered in themselves and as they appear to us if they should be a far greater distance from us than indeed they are would be no other nor would appear to us otherwise than Stars as the rest do in the Firmament But Great Luminaries they neither are nor seem to be save only in respect of us And so on the other side the Stars as to themselves are no other than so many Suns and so many Moons yet are so far remote from us that by reason of their distance they appear thus small and dim of light as we behold them For the greater and lesser distance of heavenly Bodies caeteris paribus doth augment and diminish their appearance both as to Magnitude and Light And therefore the words which follow in that place of Genesis And the Stars as distinguishing the Stars from the Sun and Moon are to be taken in no other acceptation than that which we have spoken of namely according to the sense of the Vulgar and the common manner of speech For indeed according to the truth of the matter all Coelestial Bodies being shining Globes are of a vast bigness to which if we should be so neer as we are to the Moon they would seem to us of as great yea a greater magnitude than the Moon As likewise on the contrary if we were as far distant from the Sun and Moon as we are from them both Moon and Sun would shew but as stars to us And yet the splendor of the Sun would doubtless be greater intensivè than that of any other star For although it should be granted that some stars as those of the Fixed that twinkle do shine of themselves aud by their own nature as the Sun that derives not its light from others which yet remains undecided and doubtful and borrow not their light from the Sun Nevertheless since the brightness of none of the stars may be compared with the Suns splendour which was created by God first and before all other Luminaries in the highest kind of Light it would therefore notwithstanding follow that none of those stars although placed in the same proximity to us with the Sun and therefore appearing to us of the same Magnitude as the Sun can bestow upon us so much Light as we receive from the Sun As on the contrary the Sun at the same remotenesse from us as they are would indeed as to its Magnitude appear to us as one of those stars but of a splendour much more intense than that of theirs So that now the Earth is nothing else but another Moon or star and so would it appear to us if we should behold it from a convenient distance on high And in it might be observed in that variety of Light and Darkness which the Sun produceth in it by making Day and Night the same difference of Aspects that are seen in the Moon and such as are observed in tricorporate Venus in like manner also 't is very probable that the same might be discerned in other Planets which shine by no light of their own but by one borrowed from the Sun What ever therefore may touching these matters be delivered in the sacred Leaves or the common speech of men dissenting from the real truth it ought as we have said before absolutely to be received and understood secundum vulgi sententiam communem loquendi concipiendi stylum And so to return to our purpose if all this considered the Pythagorian opinion be true it will be easie according to the same Rule to reconcile the authority of sacred Scriptures with it however they seem to oppose it and in particular those of the first and second Classis scilicet by my first Maxime For that in those places the holy Records speak according to our manner of understanding and according to that which appeareth in respect of us For thus it is with those Bodies in comparison of us and as they are described by the vulgar and commune way of humane Discourse So that the Earth appears as if it were standing still and immoveable and the Sun as if it were circumambient about her And so the Holy Scripture is used in the Commune and Vulgar way of speaking because in respect of our sight the Earth seems rather to stand fixed in the Centre and the Sun to circumvolve about it than otherwise as it happens to those that are putting off from the Banks of a River to whom the shore seems to move backwards and go from them but they do not perceive which yet is the truth that they themselves go forwards Which fallacy of our sight is noted and the Reason thereof assigned by the Opticks upon wich as being strange to and besides my purpose I will not stay and on this account is Aeneas brought in by Virgil saying Provehimur portu terraeque urbesque recedunt But it will not be amiss to consider why the sacred Scripture doth so studiously comply with the opinions of the Vulgar and why it doth not rather accurately instruct men in the truth of the matters and the secrets of Nature The Reason is first the benignity of Divine Wisdome whereby it sweetly accomodates it self to all things in proportion to their Capacity and Nature Whence in Natural Sciences it useth natural and necessary causes but in Liberal Arts it worketh liberally upon Generous Persons after a sublime and lofty manner upon the Common People familiarly and humbly upon the Skilful
Therefore neither the whole Earth nor the whole Water nor the whole Air can secundum totum be driuen or forced out of their proper place site or Systeme in the Universe in respect of the order and disposition of other mundane Bodies And thus there is no Star though Erratick Orb or Sphere that can desert its natural place although it may otherwise have some kind of motion Therefore all things how moveable soever are notwithstanding said to be stable and immoveable in their proper place according to the foresaid sense i.e. secundum totum For nothing hinders but that secundum partes they may some waymove which motion shall not be natural but violent Therefore the Earth although it should be moveable yet it might be said to be immoveable according to the precedent Maxime for that its neither moved in a right Motion nor out of the Course assigned it in its Creation for the standing Rule of its motion but keep within its own site being placed in that which is called the Grand Orb above Venus and beneath Mars and being in the middle betwixt these which according to the common opinion is the Suns place it equally and continually moveth about the Sun and the two other intermediate Planets namely Venus and Mercury and hath the Moon which is another Earth but Aetherial as Macrobius after some of the ancient Philosophers will have it about it self From whence inasmuch as she persisteth uniformly in her Course and never at any time departeth from it she may be said to be stable and immoveable and in the same sense Heaven likewise with all the Elements may be said to be immoveable The fifth Maxime followeth being little different from the former Amongst the things created by God some are of such a nature that their parts may be ab invicem or by turns separated from themselves and dis-joyned from their Whole others may not at least taken collectively now those are perishable but these perpetual The Earth therefore since it is reckoned amongst those things that are permanent as hath been said already hath its parts not dissipable nor ab invicem separable from its Centre whereby its true and proper place is assigned it and from its whole taken collectively because according to its whole it is always preserved compact united and cohaerent in it self nor can its parts be seperated from the Centre or from one another unless it may so fall out per accidens and violently in some of its parts which afterwards the obstacle being removed return to their Natural Station spontaneously and without any impulse In this Sense therefore the Earth is said to be Immoveable and Immutable yea even the Sea Aire Heaven and any other thing although otherwise moveable so long as its parts are not dissipable and seperable may be said to be Immoveable at last taken collectively This Principle or Maxim differeth from the precedent only in that this referrs to the parts in order to Place and this in order to the Whole From this Speculation another Secret is discovered For hence it is manifest wherein the proper and genuine formality of the Gravity aad Levity of Bodyes consisteth a point which is not so clearly held forth nor so undeniably explained by the Peripatetick Phylosophy Gravity therefore is nothing else according to the Principles of this new Opinion than a certain power and appetite of the Parts to rejoyn with their Whole and there to rest as in their proper place Which Faculty or Disposition is by Divine Providence bestowed not only on the Earth and Terrene Bodies but as is believed on Coelestial Bodies also namely the Sun Moon and Stars all whose parts are by this Impulsion connected and conserved together cleaving closely to each other and on all sides pressing towards their Centre until they come to rest there From which Concourse and Compression a Sphaerical and Orbicular Figure of the Caelestial Orbes is produced wherein by this occult Quality naturally incident to each of them they of themselves subsist and are alwayes preserved But Levity is the Extrusion and Exclusion of a more tenuose and thin Body from the Commerce of one more Solid and dense that is Heterogeneal to it by vertue of Heat Whereupon as the Motion of Grave Bodies is Compressive so the Motion of Light Bodies is Extensive For it s the propperty of Heat to dilate and rarify those things to which it doth apply conjoine and communicate it self And for this reason we find Levity and Gravity not only in respect of this our Terestrial Globe and the Bodies adjacent to it but also in respect of those Bodies which are said to be in the Heavens in which those parts which by reason of their proclivity make towards their Centre are Grave and those that incline to the Circumference Light And so in the Sun Moon and Starrs there are parts as well Grave as Light And consequently Heaven it self that so Noble Body and of a fifth Essence shall not be constituted of a Matter different from that of the Elements being free from all Mutation in it's Substance Quantity and Quality Nor so admirable and excellent as Aristotle would make us to believe nor yet a solid Body and impermeable and much lesse as the generality of men verily believe of an impenetrable and most obdurate Density but in it as this Opinion will have it Comets may be generated and the Sun it self as t is probable exhaling or attracting sundry vapours to the surface of its Body may perhaps produce those Spots which were observed to be so various and irregular in its Discus of which Galilaeus in a perticular Treatise hath most excellently and most accurately spoken insomuch that though it were not besides my present purpose yet it is convenient that I forbear to speak any thing touching those matters least I should seem to do that which he hath done before me But now if there be found in the Sacred Scriptures any Authority contrary to these things it may be salved by the foresaid Arguments Analogically applyed And furthermore it may be said that that Solidity is to be so understood as that it admits of no vacuum cleft or penetration from whence the least vacuity might proceed For the truth is as that cannot be admitted in bodily Creatures so it is likewise repugnant to Heaven it self being indeed a Body of its own Nature the most Rare of all others and tenuose beyond all Humane Conception and happly hath the same proportion to the Aire as the Aire to the Water It is clear also from these Principles how false these words of Aristotle are that Of one simple Body there is one simple Motion and this is of two kindes Right and Circular the Right is twofold from the medium and to the medium the first of Light Bodyes as the Aire and Fire the second of Grave Bodyes as the Water and Earth the Circular which is about the
medium belongeth to Heaven which is neither Grave nor Light For all this Philosophy is now forsaken and of it self grown into dis-esteem for though it be received for an unquestionable truth in this new Opinion that to a simple body appertains one only simple Motion yet it granteth no Motion but what is Circular by which alone a simple body is conserved in its naturall Place and subsists in its Unity and is properly said to move in loco in a place whereby it comes to pass that a Body for this reason doth continue to move in it self or about its own axis and although it have a Motion yet it abideth still in the same place as if it were perpetually immoveable But right Motion which is properly ad locum to a place can be ascribed only to those things which are out of their naturall place being far from union with one another and from unity with their whole yea that are seperated and divided from it Which being that it is contrary to the Nature and forme of the Universe it necessarily followeth that right Motion doth in short sute with those things which are destitute of that perfection that according to their proper Nature belongeth to them and which by this same right Motion they labour to obtaine untill they are redintigrated with their Whole and with one another and restored to their Naturall place in which at the length having obtained their perfection they settle and remaine immoveable Therefore in right Motions there can be no Uniformity nor simplicity for that they vary by reason of the uncertaine Levity or Gravity of their respective Bodyes for which cause they do not persevere in the same Velocity or Tardity to the end which they had in the beginning Hence we see that those things whose weight maketh them tend downwards do descend at first with a slow Motion but afterwards as they approach neerer and neerer to the Centre they precipitate more and more swiftly And on the otherside those things which by reason of their lightness are carryed upwards as this our Terrestriall fire which is nothing else but a smoak that burneth and is inkindled into a flame are no sooner ascended on high but in almost the self-same moment they fly and vanish out of sight by reason of the rare-faction and extension that they as soon as they acquire are freed from those bonds which violently and against their own Nature kept them under and deteined them here below For which reason it is very apparent that no Right Motion can be called Simple not only in regard that as hath been said it is not even and uniforme but also because it is mixt with the Circular which lurketh in the Right by an occult consent scilicet by reason of the Natural affection of the Parts to conforme unto their Whole For when the Whole moveth Circularly it is requisite likewith that the Parts to the end that they may be united to their Whole howbeit per accidens they are sometimes moved with a Right Motion do move though not so apparently with a Circular Motion as doth their Whole And thus at length we have envinced that Circular Motion only is Simple Uniform and Aequable and of the same tenor or rate for that it is never destitute of its interne Cause whereas on the contrary Right Motion which pertains to things both Heavy and Light hath a Cause that is imperfect and deficient yea that ariseth from Defect it self and that tendeth to and seeketh after nothing else but the end and termination of it self in regard that Grave and Light Bodies when once they have attained their proper and Natural Place do desist from that Motion to which they were incited by Levity and Gravity Therefore since Circular Motion is proper to the Whole and Right Motion to the Parts these differences are not rightly referred to Motion so as to call one Motion Right another Circular as if they were not consistent with one another For they may be both together and that Naturally in the same Body no lesse than it is equally Natural for a Man to participate of Sense and Reason seeing that these differences are not directly opposite to one another Hereupon Rest and Immobility only are opposed to Motion and not one Species of Motion to another And for the other differences à medio ad medium and circa medium they are distinguished not really but only formally as the Point Line and Superficies none of which can be without the other two or without a Body Hence it appears that in as much as this Phylosophy differs from that of Aristotle so in like manner doth this New Cosmographical System vary from the Common one that hath been hitherto received But this by the way upon occasion of explaining the Fifth Maxim For as to the truth or falshood of these foregoing Positions although I conceive them very probable I am resolved to determine nothing at present neither shall I make any farther enquiry into them The Sixth and Last Maxim is this Every thing is Simply denominated such as it is in comparison of all things or of many things which make the greater number of that kinde but not in respect of a few which make but the lesser part of them As for instance a Vessel shall not be called absolutely Great because it is so whilst it is compared with two or three others but it shall be said to be great absolutely and will be so if it exceed in magnitude all indivials or the greater part of them Nor again shall a Man be said to be absolutely Big because he is bigger than a Pigmey nor yet absolutely Little because lesse than a Gyant but he shall be termed absolutely Big or Little in comparison of the ordinary Stature of the greater part of Men. Thus the Earth cannot absolutely be said to be High or Low for that it is found to be so in respect of some small part of the Universe nor again shall it be absolutely affirmed to be High being compared to the Centre of the World or some few parts of the Universe more near to the said Centre as is the Sun Mercury or Venus but it shall receive its absolute denomination according as it shall be found to be in comparison of the greater number of the Spheres and Bodies of the Universe The Earth therefore in comparison of the whole Circuit of the Eighth Sphaere which includeth all Corporeal Creatures and in comparison of Jupiter Mars and Saturn together with the Moon and much more in comparison of other Bodies if any such there be above the Eighth Sphere and especially the Empyrial Heaven may be truly said to be in the lowest place of the World and almost in the Centre of it nor can it he said to be above any of them except the Sun Mercury and Venus So that one may apply unto it the name of an Infime and Low but
not a Supreme or Middle Body And so to come down from Heaven especially the Empyrian to it as it is accepted in the Descent of Christ from Heaven to his Holy Incarnation and from it to go up to Heaven as in Christs return to Heaven in his Glorious Ascention is truly and properly to Descend from the Circumference to the Centre and to ascend from the parts which are nearest to the Centre of the World to its utmost Circumference This Maxim therefore may easily and according to truth explain Theologicall Propositions and this is so much the more confirmed in that as I have observed almost all Texts of Sacred Scripture which oppose the Earth to Heaven are most conveniently and aptly understood of the Empyrial Heaven being the Highest of all the Heavens and Spiritual in respect of its end but not of the inferiour or intermediate Heavens which are a Corporeal and were framed for the benefit of Corporeal Creatures and thus when in the Plural Number Heavens are mentioned then all the Heavens promiscuously and without distinction are to be understood as well the Empyrian it self as the Inferiour Heavens And this Exposition indeed any man that doth but take notice of it may find to be most true And so for this Reason the Third Heaveu into which St. Paul was wrapt up by this Maxim may be taken for the Empyrean if for the the First Heaven we understand that immense Space of Erratick and Moveable Bodies illuminated by the Sun in which are comprehended the Planets as also the Earth moveable and the Sun immoveable Who like a King upon his August Tribunal sits with venerable Majesty immoveable and constant in Centre of all the Sphaeres and with his Divine Beames doth bountifully exhilerate all Coelestial Bodies that stand in need of his vital Light for which they cravingly wander about him and doth liberally and on every side comfort and illustrate the Theatre of the whole World and all its parts even the very least like an immortal and perpetual Lamp of high and unspeakable value The Second Heaven shall be the Starry Heaven commonly called the Eighth Sphaere or the Firmament wherein are all the Fixed Starrs which according to this Opinion of Pythagoras is like as the Sun and Centre void of all Motion the Centre and utmost Circumference mutually agreeing with each other in Immobility And the Third shall be the Empyrean Heaven that is the Seat of the Blessed And in this manner we may come to explain and understand that admirable Secret and profound Mystery aenigmatically revealed by Plato to Dionysius of Syracuse All things are about the King of all things Second things about the second and Third things about the Third For that God being the Centre of Spiritual things the Sun of Corporeal Christ of those that are Mixt or made up of both things do doubtlesse depend of that of these three Centres that is most correspondent and proportionable to them and the Centre is ever adjudged to be the nobler and worthier place and therefore in Animals the Heart in Vegitables the Pith or Kernell wherein the Seed lyeth that conserveth their perpetuity and virtually includes the whole Plant are in the Midst and in the Centre and thus much shall suffice to have hinted at since there may another occasion offer it self for a larger Explication of these things By this Maxim the Authorities and Arguments of the Third Fourth and Fifth Classes are resolved It may be added withall that even the Sun Mercury and Venus that is to say in respect of the Earth are to be thought aboue and not beneath the Earth it self although in respect of the Universe yea and also absolutely they are below The reason is because in respect of the Earth they alwayes appear above its Surface and although they do not environe it yet by the Motion of the said Earth they behold one while one part another while another part of its Circumference Since therefore those things which in a Sphaerical Body are nearer to the Circumference and more remote from the Cenrre are said to be above but those that are next adjoyning to the Centre are said to be below it clearly followeth that whilst the Sun Mercury and Venus are not only turned towards the Surface and Circumference of the said Earth but are at a very great distance without it successively turned about it and every way have a view of it and are very far remote from its Centre they may in respect of the said Earth be said to be above it as also on the other side the Eâ—ath in respect of them may be said to be beneath howbeit on the contrary in respect of the Universe the Earth in reality is much higher than they And thus is salved the Authority of Ecclesiastes in many places expressing those things that are or are done on the Earth in these words Which are done or which are under the Sun And in the same manner those words are reduced to their true Sense wherein it is said That we are under the Sun and under the Moon whereupon Terrene things are expressed by the name of Sublunary The Sixth Classis threatneth a difficulty which is common as well to this of Copernicus as to the Vulgar Opinion so that they are both alike concerned in the solution of it But so far as it opposeth that of Copernicus its answer is easy from the First Maxim But that which is added in the Fourth Classe That it followeth from this Opinion that Hell for that it is included by the Earth as is commonly held doth move circularly about the Sun and in Heaven and that so Hell it self will be found to be in Heaven discovers in my judgment nothing but Ignorance and Calumny that insinuate the belief of their Arguments rather by a corrupt sense of the Words than by solid Reasons taken from the bosome of the Nature of things For in this place Heaven is no wise to be taken for Paradice nor according to the Sense of Common Opinion but as hath been said above according to the Copernican Hypothesis for the subtilest and Purest Aire far more tenuous and rare than this of ours whereupon the Solid Bodies of the Stars Moon and Earth in their Circular and Ordinary Motions do passe thorow it the Sphaere of Fire being by this Opinion taken away And as according to the Common Opinion it was no absurdity to say That Hell being demerged in the Centre of the Earth and of the World it self hath Heaven and Paradice above and below it yea and on all sides of it and that it is in the middle of all the Coelestial Bodies as if it were posited in a more unworthy place so neither in this will it be deemed an Error if from the other System which differeth not much from the Vulgar one those or the like things follow as do in that For both in that of Copernicus and the Vulgar
velocity convenient to the circular motion Betwixt rest and any assigned degree of velocity infinite degrees of less velocity interpose Nature doth not immediately confer a determinate degree of velocity howbeit she could The moveable departing from rest passeth thorow all degrees of velocity without staying in any The ponderous mover descending acquireth impetus sufficient to recarry it to the like height The impetuosity of moveables equally approaching to the centre are equal Vpon an horizontall plane the moveable lieth still The velocity by the inclining plane equal to the velocity by the perpendicular and the motion by the perpendicular swifter than by the inclination Velocities are said to be equal when the spaces passed are proportionate to their time The circular motion is never acquired naturally without right motion precede it Circular motion perpetually uniform The magnitude of the Orbs and the velocity of the motion of the Planets answer proportionably as if descended from the same place Finite and terminate circular motions disorder not the parts of the World In the circular motion every point in the circumference is the begining and end Circular motion onely is uniform Circular motion may be continued perpetually Right motion cannot naturally be perpetual Right motion assigned to natural bodies to reduce them to perfect order when removed from their places Rest onely and circular motion are apt to conserve order Sensible experiments are to be preferred before humane argumentations He who denies sense deserves to be deprived of it Sense sheweth that things grave move to the medium and the light to the concave It is questionable whether descending weights move in a right line The Earth sperical by the conspiration of its parts to its Centre The Sun more probably in the centre of the Vniverse than the Earth Natural inclination of the parts of all the globes of the World to go to their centre The right motion of grave bodies manifest to sense Arguments of Aristotle to prove that grave bodies move with an inclination to arrive at the centre of the Vniverse Heavie bodies move towards the centre of the Earth per accidens To seek what would follow upon an impossibility is folly Coelestial bodies neither heavie nor light according to Aristotle Aristotle cannot equivocate being the inventer of Logick * A famous Italian Painter Paralogism of Aristotle in proving the Earth to be in the Centre of the World The Paralogisme of Aristotle another way discovered Grave bodies may more rationally be affirmed to tend to the Centre of the Earth than of the Vniverse The conditions and attributes which differ the coelestial bodies from Elementary depend on the motions assigned them by Arist. The disputes and contradictions of Philosophers may conduce to the benefit of Philosophy Aristotles discourse to prove the incorruptibility of Heaven Generation corruption is onely amongst contraries according to Arist. To the circular motion no other motion is contrary Heaven an habitation for the immortal Gods Immutability of Heaven evident to sense He proveth that the circular motion hath no contrary It s easier to prove the Earth to move than that corruption is made by contraries Bare transposition of parts may represent bodies under diverse aspâ—cts By denying Principles in the Sciences any Paradox may be maintained * Or Impatible Coelestial Bodies are generable and corruptible because they are ingenerable and incorruptible The forked Syllogism cal'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Amongst Coelestial Bodies there is no contrariety Contraries which are the causes of corruption reside not in the same body that corrupteth Coelestial Bodies touch but are not touched by the Elements Gravity levity rarity and density are contrary qualities The stars infinitely surpass the substance of the rest of Heaven in density Rarity density in Coelestial bodies is different from the rarity density of the elements Aristotle defective in assigning the causes why the elements are generable corruptible Arist. Ptolomey make the Terrestrial Globe immoveable It is better to say that the Terrestrial Globe naturally resteth than that it moveth directly downwards * The word is all' ingiù which the Latine version rendreth sursùm which is quite contrary to the Authors sense Right Motion with more reason attributed to the parts than to the whole Elements The Peripateticks improperly assign those motions to the Elements for Natural with which they never were moved and those for Preternatural with which they alwayes are moved Sensible experiments to be preferred to humane Arguments Heaven immutable because there never was any mutation seen in it Bodies naturally lucid are different from those which are by nature obscure The Mediterranian Sea made by the separation of Abila and Calpen It s no less impossible for a star to corrupt than for the whole Terrestrial Globe Aristotle would change his opinion did he see the novelties of our age The certainty of the conclusion helpeth by a resolutive method to find the demonstration Pythagoras offered an Hecatomb for a Geometrical demonstration which he found New stars discovered in Heaven Spots generate and dissolve in the face of the Sun Solar spots are bigger than all Asia and Affrick * Astronomers confuted by Anti-Tycho Anti-Tycho wresteth Astronomical observations to his own purpose Sundry opinions touching the Solar spots * The Original saith tempestata si muove which the Latine Translation mistaking Tempestata a word in Heraldry for Tempestato rendereth incitata movetur which signifieth a violent transportmeut as in a storm that of a Ship In natural Sciences the art of Oratory is of no force An Argument that necessarily proveth the Solar spots to generate and dissolve A conclusive demonstration that the spots are contiguous to the body of the Sun The motion of the spots towards the circumference of the Sun appears slow The figure of the spots appears narrow towards the circumference of the Suns discus why * Under this word Friend as also that of Academick Common Friend Galilaeus modestly conceals himself throughout these Dialogues The Solar spots are not spherical but flat like thin plates One cannot saith Aristotle speak confidently of Heaven by reason of its great distance Aristotle prefers sense before ratiocination It s a doctrine more agreeing with Aristotle to say the Heavens are alterable than that which affirms them inalterable We may by help of the Telescope discourse better of coelestical matters than Aristot. himself The Declamationâ— of Simplicius Peripatetick Philosophy unchangeable * Extra Stellas Generability and alteration is a greater perfection in the Worlds bodies than the contrary qualities * Impatible The Earth very noble by reason of the many mutations made therein The Earth unprofitable and full of idlenesse its alterations taken away The Earth more noble than Gold and Jewels Scarcity and plenty enhanse and debase the price of things Incorruptibility esteemed by the vulgar out of their fear of death The disparagers of corruptibility deserve to be turned into Statua's The Coelestial bodies designed to serve
A Game in Italy which is to glide bullets down an inclining stone c. * A Game in Italy wherein they strive who shall trundle or throw a wooden bowle neerest to an assigned mark * This is that excellent tract which we give the first place in our second Volume The line described by a moveable in its natural descent the motion of the Earth about its own centre being presupposed would probably be the circumference of a circle A moveable falling from the top of the Tower moveth in the circumference of a circle It moveth neither more nor lesse than if it had staid alwayes there It moveth with an uniform not an accelerate motion Right motion seemeth wholly excluded in nature * Vadia del tutto a monte rendered in the Latine omnino pessum eat The reason why a Gun should seem to carry farther towards the West than towards the East The experiment of a running chariot to find out the difference of Ranges * Balestrone da bolzoni The solution of the argument taken from great-Guns shot towards the East West A notable case of Sagredus to shew the non-operating of common motion * Alessandretta Subtilties sufficiently insipid ironically spoken and taken from a certain Encyclopaedia An instance against the deurnal motion of the earth taken from the shot of a Peece of Ordinance perpendicularly The answer to the objection shewing the equivoke Another answer to the same objection Projects continue their motion by the right line that followeth the direction of the motion made together with the proficient whil'st they were conjoin'd therewith The revolution of the Earth supposed the ball in the piece erected perpendicularly doth not move by a perpendicular but an inclined line The manner how Fowlers shoot birds flying The answer to the objection takâ—n from the shots of great Guns maâ—e towards the North and South The answer to the Argument taken from the shots at point blanck towards the East West The followers of Copernicus too freely admit certain propositions for true which are very doubtfull A Computation how much the ranges of great shot ought to vary from the marke the Earths motion being granted a That is in plainer termes the fraction 15 200000 is more than the fraction 4 50000 for dividing the denominators by their â—ominators and the first produceth 13333 1 3 the other but 12500. b It shall be neer 2 2 5 inches accounting the pace to be Geometrical containing 5 foot It is demonstrated with great subtilty that the Earths motion supposed Canon shot ought not to vary more than in rest It is requisite to be very cautious in admitting experimâ—nts for true to those who never tried them Experiments and arguments against the Earths motion seem so far concluding as they lie hid under equivokes The great felicity for which they are much to be envied who perswade themselves that they know every thing The answer to the argument taken from the flight of birds contrary to the motion of the Earth An experiment with which alone is shewn the nullity of all the objections produced against the motion of the Earth * Tafaris horse-flyes The stupidity of some that think the Earth to have begun to move when Pythagoras began to affirme that it did so Aristotle and Ptolomy seem to confute the mobility of the Earth against those who thought that it having a long time stood still did begin to move in the time of Pythagoras Our knowledg is a kind of reminiscence according to Plato Thâ— motion impressed by the projicient is onely by a right line The project moveth by the Tangent of the circle of the motion precedent in the point of separation A grave project as sâ—on as it is separated from the projicient begineth to decline A geometrical demonstration to prove the impossibility of extrusion by means of the terrestrial vertigo The truth sometimes gaines strength by contradiction The sphere although material toucheth the material plane but in one point onely The definition of the sphere The demonstration of a Peripatetick to prove the right line to be tâ—e shortest of all lines The Paralogism of the same Peripatetick which proveth ignotum per ignotius A demonstration that the sphere toucheth the plane but in one point Why the sphere in abstract toucheth the plane onely in one point and not the material in concrete Things are exactly the same in abstract as in concrete Contact in a single point is not peculiar to the perfect Spheres onely but belongeth to all curved figures It is more difficult to find Figures that touch with a part of their surface than in one sole point The Sphericall Figure is easier to be made than any other The circular Figure only is placed amongst the postulatâ— of Mathematicians * Demands or Petitions Sphericall Figures of sundry magnitudes may be made with one onely instrument Irregular forms difficult to be introduced The constitution of the Vniverse is one of the most noble Problems The cause of the projection increaseth not according to the proportion of the velocity increased by making the wheel bigger Granâ—iâ—g the diurnal vertigo of the Earth that by some sudden stop or obstacle it were arrested houses mountains themselves and perhaps the whole Globe would be shake â—n pieces The inclination of grave bodies to the motion downwards is equal to their resistance to the motion upwards * A portable ballance wherewith market-people weigh their commodities giving it gravity by removing the weight farther from the cock call'd by the Latines Campana trutina The greater velocity exactly compensates the greater gravity * Strappar la cavezza is to break the bridle Other objections of two modern Authors against Copernicus The first objection of the modern Author of the little tract of Conclusions A Cannon bullet would spend more than six days in falling from the Concave of the Moon to the centre of the Earth according to the opinion of that modern Author of the Conclusions A shamefull errour in the Argument taken from the bullets falling out of the Moons concave An exact compute of the time of the fall of the Canon bullet from the Moons concave to the Earths centre * The Author * By these Writings he every where meanes his Dialogues De motu which I promise to give you in my second Volume Acceleration of the natural motion of grave bodies is made according to the odde numbers beginning at unity The spaces past by the falling grave body are as the squares of their times An intire and new Science of the Academick concerning local motion The error of Aristotle in affirming falling grave bodies to move according to the proportion of their gravities a Note that these Calculations are made in Italian weights and measuâ—es And 100 pounds Haverdupoise make 1â—1 l. Florentine And 100 Englâ—◠〈◊〉 makes 150◠〈◊〉 Florent so that the brace or yard of our Author is 1 4 of our yard b Note that these Calculations are made
Litigious Lawyers that are extertained in an ill cause keep close to sâ—me exâ—ression fallen from the adverse party at unawares * Or progressions The apparent diversity of motion in the Planets is insensible in the fixed Stars Supposing that a fixed Star of the sixth magnitude is no bigger than the Sun the diversitie which is so great in the Planets in the fixed Stars is almost insensible The distance of the Sun containeth 1208 Semid of the Earth * The Diameter of the Sun half a degree The Diameter of a fixed Star of the first magnitude and of one of the sixth The apparent Diameter of the Sun how much it is bigger than that of a fixed star The distance of a fixed star of the sixth magnitude how much it is the star being supposed to be equal to the Sun In the fixed stars the diversitie of aspect caused by the grand Orb is little more then that caused by the Earth in the Sun A star of the sixth magnitude supposed by Tycho and the Authour of the Book of Conclusions an hundred and six milions of times bigger than needs The computation of the magnitude of the fixed Stars in respect to the grand Orb. A common errour of all the Astronomers touching the magnitude of the stars Venus renders the errour of Astronomers in determining the magnitudes of stars inexcusable A way to measure the apparent diameter of a star * Rendred in Latine Corum that is to say North-west * i. e. Is subtended by The diameter of a fixed star of the first magnitude not more than five sec. min. The circle of the pupil of the eye enlargeth and contracteth * Panicum a small grain like to Mill I take it to be the same with that called Bird Seed * Strisce How to find the distance of the rays concourse from the pupil All Astronomers agree that the greater magnitudes of the Orbes is the cause of the tardity of the conversions By another supposition taken from Astronomers the distance of the fixed Stars is calculated to be 10800 semidiameters of the grand Orb. By the proportion of Jupiter and of Mars the starry Sphere is found to be yet more remoâ—e Immeâ—se magnitudes and numbers are incomprehensible by our understanding God Nature do imploy themselves in caring for men as if they minded nothing else An example of Gods care of mankind taken from the Sun It is great rashnesse to censure that to be superfluous in hâ—ll verse which we do not perceive to be made for us By depriving Heaven of some star one might come to know what influence it hath upon us Many things may be in Heaven that are invisible to us Great small immense c. are relative terms Vanity of those mens discourse who judg the starry sphere too vast in the Copernican Hypothesis * Spelloncola which is here put for the lâ—ast of Fishes The space assigned to a fixed star is much lesse than that of a Planet A star is called in respect of the space that environs it The whole starry sphere behold from a great distance might appear as small as one single star Instances of the Authour of the Conclusions by way of interogation * Or Gulph Answers to the interrogatories of the said Authour The Authour of the Conclusions confound and contradicts himself in his interrogations Interrogatories put to the Authour of the Conclusions by which the weaknesse of his is made appear That remote objects appeare so small is the defect of the eye as is demonstrated Tycho nor his followers ever attempted to see whether there are any appearances in the Firmament for or against the annual mâ—tion Astronomers perhaps have not known what appearances ought to follow upon the annual motion of the Earth Copernicus understood not some things for want of Instruments Tycho and others argue against the annual motion from the invariable elevation of the Pole * Christophorus Rothmannus Motion 〈◊〉 it is common is as if it never were An example fitted to prove that the altitude of the Pole ought not to vary by means of the Earths annual motion * Corsia the bank or bench on which slaves sit in a Gally Upon the annual motion of the Earth alteration may ensue in some fixed star not in the Pole The equivoke of those who believe that in the annual motion great mutations are to be made about the elevation of a fixed star is confuted The right line and circumference of an infinite circle are the same thing Enquiry is made what mutations in what stars are to be discovered by means of the annual motion of the Earth Astronomers having omitted to instance what alterations those are that may be derived from the annual motion of the Earth do thereby testifie that they never rightly understood the same The mutations of the fixed stars ought to be in some greater in others lesser and in others nothing at all * Bandola that end of a skeen wherewith housewives fasten their hankes of yarn thread or silk The grand difficulty in Copernicus his Doctrine is that which concerns the Phaenomena of the Sun and fixed stars * Pettine it is the stay in a Weavets Loom that permitteth no knot or snarle to passe it called by them the Combe of the Loom Aristotles argument against the Ancients who held that the Earth was a Planet The annual motion made by the centre of the Earth under the Ecliptick and the diurnal motion made by the Earth about its own centre The axis of the Earth continueth alwayes parallel to it self and describeth a Cylindraical superficies inclining to the grand Orb. The Orb of the Earth never inclineth but is immutably the same The fixed stars placed in the Ecliptick never elevate nor descend on account of the annual motion but yet approach and recede Objections against the Earths annual motion taken from the fixed stars placed in the Ecliptick * Or will prove of good alloy The station direction and retrogradation of the Planets is known in relation to the fixed stars An Indice is the fixed stars like to that which is 〈◊〉 in the Planeâ—s is an argument of the Earths annual motion The fixed stars without the Ecliptick elevate and descend more or lesse according to their distance from the said Ecliptick * i. e. of the Ecliptick The Earth approacheth or recedeth from the fixed stars of the Ecliptick the quantity of the Diameter of the Grand Orb. The stars nearer to us make greater differences than the more remote The Epilogue of the Phaenomena of the fixed stars caused by the annual motion of the Earth In objects far remote and luminous a small approach or recession is imperceptible If in the fixed stars one should discover any annual mutation the motion of the Earth would be undeniable It is proved what small credit is to be given to Astronomical Instruments in minute observations * Braccia Italian * Or Miâ— Ptolomy did not trust to an Instrument made by Archimedes Instruments
Christianus ita noverit ut cirtissima ratione vel experientiâ teneat Turpe autem est nimis perniciosum ac maxime cavendum ut Christianum de his rebus quasi secundum Christianas litteras loquentem ita delirare quilibet infidelis audiat ut quem admodum dicitur toto Caelo errare conspiciens risuÌ„tenere vix possit non tam molestum est quod errans homo derideretur sed quod auctores nostri ab tis qui foris sunt talia sensisse creduntur cum magno exitio corim de quorum salute satagimus tanquam indocti reprehenduntur atque respuuntur Cum enim quemquam de numero Christianorum eaiâ—re quam ipsi optime norunt deprehenderint vanam sententiam suam de nostris libris asserent quo pacto illis Libris credituri sunt de Resurrectione Mortuorum de spe vitae eternae Regnoque Celorum quando de his rebus quas jam experiri vel indubitatis rationibus percipere potuerunt fallaciter putaverint esse conscriptos y Quid enim molestiae tristiaeque ingerant prudentibus fratribus tenerarâ—j praesumpiores satis dici non potest cum si quando de falsa prava opinione sua reprehendi convinci caeperint ab iis qui nostrorum librorum auctoritate apertissima falsitate dixerunt eosdnm libros Sanctos unde id probent proferre conantur vel etiam memoriter quae ad testimonium vâ—lere arbitrantur multa inde verba pronunciant non intelligentes neque quae loquuntur neque de quibus affirmant If this passage seem harsh the Reader must remember that I do but Translate * 〈…〉 On it s own Axis * Lux ejus colligit convertitque ad se omnia quae videntur quae moventur quae illustrantur quae calescunt uno nomine ea quae ab ejus splendore continentur Itaque Sol 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicitur quod omnia congreget colligatque dispersa * Si enim Sol hic quem videmus eorum quae sub sensum cadunt essentias qualitates quaeque multa sint ac dissimiles tamen ipse qui unus est aequaliterque lumen fundit renovat alit tuetur perficit dividit conjungit fovet faecunda reddit auget mutat firmat edit movet vitaliaque facit omnia unaquaque res hujus universitatis pro captu suo unius atque ejusdem Solis est particeps causasque multorum quae participent in se aequabiliter anticipatas habet certe majori raticne c. Solem stetisse dum adhuc in Hemisphaerio nostro supra scilicet Horizontem existeret Cajetan in loco * Or Poles * Gen. Chp. 〈◊〉 v. 1. * Psal. 24. 2. * Psal. 137. 1. * Chap. 1. v. 4 to 9. Psal. 104. v. 5. * Shelter * Officium * In vita ejus * Followers of that Learned Kings Hypothesis * That is 5000 miles eight of these making an Italian or English mile of a 1000. paces every pacâ— containing 5. Feet * Chap. 1. v. 4. The Motion of the Earth not against Scripture Faith is more certain than either Sense or Reason * 2 Pet. 1. 19. * Or Primum Mobile * Cardan de rerum vaâ—iet Lib. 1. Cap. 1. * P. Clavius in ultima suor Operum editione The Author first Theologically dâ—fendeâ—h the â—arths Mâ—bility approved by â—ary of the Moderns b Or In Sole posuit tabernaculum suum according to the Translation our Author followeth In Sphericall Bodies Deorsum is the Centre and Sursum the Circumference Hell is in the centre of the Earth not of the World Heaven and Eartâ— are always 〈◊〉 opposed to each other After the day of Judgment the Earth shall stand immoveable * Circa Cardines Coeli Luke 16. Alia sunt notiora nobis alia notiora natura vel secundum se Arist lib. 1. Phys. * Aut ad Umbram Which are really the great Lights in Heaven The Sun Moon and Stars are one the same thing The Earth is another Moon or Star Why the Sunne seemeth to us to move not the Earth Aeneid 3. a Eccles. c. 1. v. ult b Chap. 3. v. 11. c 1 Cor. c. 4. v. 5. d 1 Cor. c. 13. v. 12. e 1 John c. 3. v. 2. f 1 Cor. c. 13. v. 12. g Ecclesiast 15. 3. h 1 Cor. c. 2. v. 2. i Isa. c. 48. v. 17. 1 Thess. 4. Joshua c. 10. ver 12. * expected Isa. c. 38. v. 8. â— Several Motions of the Earth according to Copernicus The Earth Secundum Totum is Immutable though not Immovable The Earth cannot Secundum Totum remove out of its Natural Place The Natural Place of the Earth The Moon is an Aetherial Body The Earths Centre keepeth it in its Natural Place Gravity and Levity of Bodies what it is All Coelestial Bodies have Gravity and Levity Compressive Motion proper to Gravity the Extensive to Levity Heaven is not composed of a fift Essence differing from the matter of inferior Bodies Nor yet a Solid or dense Body but Rare * Delle Macchie solarj * Vnius Corporis simplicis unus est motus simplex et huic dua species Rectus Circularis Rectus duplex à medio ad medium primus levium ut Aeris Ignis secundus gravium ut Aquae Terra Circularis quiest circa medium competit Coelo quod neque est grave neque leve Arist. de Coelo Lib. 1. * Vide Copernicum de Revolutionibus Coelest Simple Motion peculiar to only Simple Bodies Right Motion belongeth to Imperfect Bodies and that are out of their natural Places Right Motion cannot be Simple Right Motion is ever mixt with the Circular * aequabilis * Even Circular Motion is truly Simple and Perpetual Circular Motion belongeth to the Whole Body and the Right to its parts Circular and Right Motion coincedent and may consist together in the same Body The Earth in 〈◊〉 sense it may 〈…〉 be said 〈…〉 the lowest 〈◊〉 of the World Christ in his Incarnation truly descended from Heaven and in his Asceâ—sion truly ascended into Heaven 2 Cor. c. 12. v. 3. Whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell The Sun is King Heart and Lamp of the World himself being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 absolutely independent The Aenigma of Plato a Circa omniâ—m Regem sunt omnia Secunda circa Secundum et Tertia circa Tertium Vide Theodo de Graec. affect curat lib. 2. Sâ—euch lib. de Parennj Philoso Eccles. c. 1. 2. 3. and almost thoout * Quod fiunt vel sunt sub sole Heaven according to Copernicus is the same with the most tenuous Aether but different from Paradice which surpasseth all the Heavens a Exod. 25. 31. b My Authour following the vulgar Translation which hath an Eligance in some things beyond ours cites the words thus Facies Candelabrum ductile de auro mundissimo Hastile ejus Calamos Sphaerulas ac Lilia ex ipso procedentia c verse 12. d or Spheres e Though our Authour speaketh here positively of nine Months c. Fathers are not agreed about the period of this planet nor that of Mercury as you may see at large in Ricciolus Almagest nov Tom. 1. part 1. l. 7. sect 3. cha 11. num 11. page 627. where he maketh Venus to consummate her Revolution in neer 225 dayes or 7 12 Mon. and Mercury in about 88 dayes or 3 Months in which he followeth Kepl. in Epitome Astronom p. 760. f vers 33 34. g 1 Kings c. 7. v. 49. 2 Chron. c. 4. vers 7. h Exod. 28. 33 34 39. v. 24 25 26. i Sap. c. 18. v. 24. k Exod. c. 28. v. 6 9 17 36. l Or totus Orbis Terrarum as the vulgar Translation hath it m Numb c. 20. v. 5. n Joel c. 1. v. 12. o Hagg. c. 2. v. 19. p Deut. c. 8. v. 8. q 1 Kings c 7. v. 20. 2 Kings c. 25. v. 17. 2 Chro. c. 3. v. 15 16. c. 4. v. 12. 13. Jerem. c. 52. v. 21 22. r Gen. c. 1. v. 1. s Psal. 67. v. 6 7. * Psal. 9 v. 5 6. * Institutionum omnium Doctrâ—narum * De Oraculis * De Divinatiâ—-ne artificiosa * De Divinatiâ—-ne Naturali Cosmologica a Nella continuatione dell Nuntio siderio b Lâ—ttera al P. Abbaâ—â— D. B. Castelli D'Aâ—cetro li. 3. Decemb. 16 9. c De Motu Aquanâ— â—ib 2. Prop. 37. p. 191. * And as is at large demonstrated by that most excellent and Honourable personage Mr. Boile in the industrious experiment of his Pneumatical Engine * Artesia * Commentarius beareth many senses but in this place signifieth a certain Register of the quantities of the Waters in the several publique Aquiducts of Rome which word I find frequently used in the Law-books of antient Civilians And by errogation we are to understand the distribution or delivering out of those stores of Water * A Coyn of Pope Julius worth six pence * Or Sluice * In Pregadi a particular Council the Senators of which have great Authority * A Venice Brace is 11 16 of our yard * A River of that name * I. Savii dell ' Acque a particular Council that take care of the Lakes and other Aquatick affairs * He here intends the Demonstrations following at the end of the first Book * Deeper * Lib. 1. * The Countrey or Province lying round the City heretofore called Latium * Or Lordship * The Popes Exchequer * Polesine is a plat of Ground almost surrounded with Bogs or waters like an Island * People of Ferrara * In Chanels made by hand * The inch of these places is somewhat bigger than ours * Of Adriano * Larghezza but misprinted
move And as to the motion by a right line they must grant us that Nature maketh use of it to reduce the small parts of the Earth Water Air Fire and every other integral Mundane body to their Whole when any of them by chance are separated and so transported out of their proper place if also haply some circular motion might not be found to be more convenient to make this restitution In my judgment this primary position answers much better even according to Aristotles own method to all the other consequences than to attribute the straight motion to be an intrinsick and natural principle of the Elements Which is manifest for that if I aske the Peripatetick if being of opinion that Coelestial bodies are incorruptibe and eternal he believeth that the Terrestial Globe is not so but corruptible and mortal so that there shall come a time when the Sun and Moon and other Stars continuing their beings and operations the Earth shall not be found in the World but shall with the rest of the Elements be destroyed and annihilated I am certain that he would answer me no therefore generation and corruption is in the parts and not in the whole and in the parts very small and superficial which are as it were incensible in comparison of the whole masse And because Aristotle deduceth generation and corruption from the contrariety of streight motions let us remit such motions to the parts which onely change and decay and to the whole Globe and Sphere of the Elements let us ascribe either the circular motion or a perpetual consistance in its proper place the only affections apt for perpetuation and maintaining of perfect order This which is spoken of the Earth may be said with the same reason of Fire and of the greatest part of the Air to which Elements the Peripateticks are forced to ascribe for intrinsical and natural a motion wherewith they were never yet moved nor never shall be and to call that motion preternatural to them wherewith if they move at all they do and ever shall move This I say because they assign to the Air and Fire the motion upwards wherewith those Elements were never moved but only some parts of them and those were so moved onely in order to the recovery of their perfect constitution when they were out of their natural places and on the contrary they call the circular motion preternatural to them though they are thereby incessantly moved forgeting as it seemeth what Aristotle oft inculcateth that nothing violent can be permanent SIMPL. To all these we have very pertinent answers which I for this time omit that we may come to the more particular reasons and sensible experiments which ought in conclusion to be opposed as Aristotle saith well to whatever humane reason can present us with SAGR. What hath been spoken hitherto serves to clear up unto us which of the two general discourses carrieth with it most of probability I mean that of Aristotle which would perswade us that the sublunary bodies are by nature generable and corruptible c. and therefore most different from the essence of Coelestial bodies which are impassible ingenerable incorruptible c. drawn from the diversity of simple motions or else this of Salviatus who supposing the integral parts of the World to be disposed in a perfect constitution excludes by necessary consequence the right or straight motion of simple natural bodies as being of no use in nature and esteems the Earth it self also to be one of the Coelestial bodies adorn'd with all the prerogatives that agree with them which last discourse is hitherto much more likely in my judgment than that other Therefore resolve Simplicius to produce all the particular reasons experiments and observations as well Natural as Astronomical that may serve to perswade us that the Earth differeth from the Coelestial bodies is immoveable and situated in the Centre of the World and what ever else excludes its moving like to the Planets as Jupiter or the Moon c. And Salviatus will be pleased to be so civil as to answer to them one by one SIMPL. See here for a begining two most convincing Arguments to demonstrate the Earth to be most different from the Coelestial bodies First the bodies that are generable corruptible alterable c. are quite different from those that are ingenerable incorruptible unalterable c. But the Earth is generable corruptible alterable c. and the Coelestial bodies ingenerable incorruptible unalterable c. Therefore the Earth is quite different from the Coelestial bodies SAGR. By your first Argument you spread the Table with the same Viands which but just now with much adoe were voided SIMPL. Hold a little Sir and take the rest along with you and then tell me if this be not different from what you had before In the former the Minor was proved à priori now you see it proved à posteriori Judg then if it be the same I prove the Minor therefore the Major being most manifest by sensible experience which 〈…〉 that in the Earth there are made continual generations corruptions alterations c. which neither our senses nor the traditions or memories of our Ancestors ever saw an instance of in Heaven therefore Heaven is unalterable c. and the Earth alterable c. and therefore different from Heaven I take my second Argument from a principal and essential accident and it is this That body which is by its nature obscure and deprived of light is divers from the luminous and shining bodies but the Earth is obscure and void of light and the Coelestial bodies splendid and full of light Ergo c. Answer to these Arguments first that we may not heap up too many and then I will alledge others SALV As to the first the stresse whereof you lay upon experience I desire that you would a little more distinctly produce me the alteration which you see made in the Earth and not in Heaven upon which you call the Earth alterable and the Heavens not so SIMPL. I see in the Earth plants and animals continually generating and decaying winds rains tempests storms arising and in a word the aspect of the Earth to be perpetually metamorphosing none of which mutations are to be discern'd in the Coelestial bodies the constitution and figuration of which is most punctually conformable to that they ever were time out of mind without the generation of any thing that is new or corruption of any thing that was old SALV But if you content your self with these visible or to say better seen experiments you must consequently account China and America Coelestial bodies for doubtlesse you never be held in them these alterations which you see here in Italy and that therefore according to your apprehension they are inalterable SIMPL. Though I never did see these alterations sensibly in those places the relations of them are not to be questioned besides that cum eadem
sit ratio totius partium those Countreys being a part of the Earth as well as ours they must of necessity be alterable as these are SALV And why have you not without being put to believe other mens relations examined and observed those alterations with your own eyes SIMPL. Because those places besides that they are not exposed to our eyes are so remote that our sight cannot reach to comprehend therein such like mutations SALV See now how you have unawares discovered the fallacy of your Argument for if you say that the alterations that are seen on the Earth neer at hand cannot by reason of the too great distance be seen in America much lesse can you see them in the Moon which is so many hundred times more remote And if you believe the alterations in Mexico upon the report of those that come from thence what intelligence have you from the Moon to assure you that there is no such alterations in it Therefore from your not seeing any alterations in Heaven whereas if there were any such you could not see them by reason of their too great distance and from your not having intelligence thereof in regard that it cannot be had you ought not to argue that there are no such alterations howbeit from the seeing and observing of them on Earth you well argue that therein such there are SIMPL. I will shew so great mutations that have befaln on the Earth that if any such had happened in the Moon they might very well have been observed here below We find in very antient records that heretofore at the Streights of Gibraltar the two great Mountains Abila and Calpen were continued together by certain other lesse Mountains which there gave check to the Ocean but those Hills being by some cause or other separated and a way being opened for the Sea to break in it made such an inundation that it gave occasion to the calling of it since the Mid-land Sea the greatness whereof considered and the divers aspects the surfaces of the Water and Earth then made had it been beheld afar off there is no doubt but so great a change might have been discerned by one that was then in the Moon as also to us inhabitants of the Earth the like alterations would be perceived in the Moon but we find not in antiquity that ever there was such a thing seen therefore we have no cause to say that any of the Coelestial bodies are alterable c. SALV That so great alterations have hapned in the Moon I dare not say but for all that I am not yet certain but that such changes might occur and because such a mutation could onely represent unto us some kind of variation between the more clear and more obscure parts of the Moon I know not whether we have had on Earth observant Selenographers who have for any considerable number of years instructed us with so exact Selenography as that we should confidently conclude that there hath no such change hapned in the face of the Moon of the figuration of which I find no more particular description than the saying of some that it represents an humane face of others that it is like the muzle of a Lyon and of others that it is Cain with a bundle of thorns on his back therefore to say Heaven is unalterable because that in the Moon or other Coelestial bodies no such alterations are seen as discover themselves on Earth is a bad illation and concludeth nothing SAGR. And there is another odd kind of scruple in this Argument of Simplicius running in my mind which I would gladly have answered therefore I demand of him whether the Earth before the Mediterranian inundation was generable and corruptible or else began then so to be SIMPL. It was doubtless generable and corruptible also before that time but that was so vast a mutation that it might have been observed as far as the Moon SAGR. Go to if the Earth was generable and corruptible before that Inundation why may not the Moon be so likewise without such a change Or why should that be necessary in the Moon which importeth nothing on Earth SALV It is a shrewd question But I am doubtfull that Simplicius a little altereth the Text of Aristotle and the other Peripateticks who say they hold the Heavens unalterable for that they see therein no one star generate or corrupt which is probably a less part of Heaven than a City is of the Earth and yet innumerable of these have been destroyed so as that no mark of them hath remain'd SAGR. I verily believed otherwise and conceited that Simplicius dissembled this exposition of the Text that he might not charge his Master and Consectators with a notion more absurd than the former And what a folly it is to say the Coelestial part is unalterable because no stars do generate or corrupt therein What then hath any one seen a Terrestrial Globe corrupt and another regenerate in its place And yet is it not on all hands granted by Philosophers that there are very few stars in Heaven less than the Earth but very many that are much bigger So that for a star in Heaven to corrupt would be no less than if the whole Terrestrial Globe should be destroy'd Therefore if for the true proof of generation and corruption in the Universe it be necessary that so vast bodies as a star must corrupt and regenerate you may satisfie your self and cease your opinion for I assure you that you shall never see the Terrestrial Globe or any other integral body of the World to corrupt or decay so that having been beheld by us for so many years past they should so dissolve as not to leave any footsteps of them SALV But to give Simplicius yet fuller satisfaction and to reclaim him if possible from his error I affirm that we have in our age new accidents and observations and such that I question not in the least but if Aristotle were now alive they would make him change his opinion which may be easily collected from the very manner of his discoursing For when he writeth that he esteemeth the Heavens inalterable c. because no new thing was seen to be begot therein or any old to be dissolved he seems implicitely to hint unto us that when he should see any such accident he would hold the contrary and 〈◊〉 as indeed it is meet sensible experiments to natural reason for had he not made any reckoning of the senses he would not then from the not seeing of any sensible mutation have argued immutability SIMPL. Aristotle deduceth his principal Argument à priori shewing the necessity of the inalterability of Heaven by natural manifest and clear principles and then stablisheth the same à posteriori by sense and the traditions of the antients SALV This you speak of is the Method he hath observed in delivering his Doctrine but I do not bethink it yet to be that wherewith he
the said Globe SIMP In this case it is not requisite to argue with me alone for if it should so fall out and that I could not comprehend the cause thereof yet haply it might be known by others SALV So that by playing with you a man shall never get but be alwayes on the losing hand and therefore it would be better to give over Nevertheless that we may not cheat our third man we will play on We said even now and with some addition we reitterate it that the Ayr as if it were a thin and fluid body and not solidly conjoyned with the Earth seem'd not to be necessitated to obey its motion unlesse so far as the cragginess of the terrestrial superficies transports and carries with it a part thereof contigious thereunto which doth not by any great space exceed the greatest altitude of Mountains the which portion of Air ought to be so much less repugnant to the terrestrial conversion by how much it is repleat with vapours fumes and exhalations matters all participating of terrene qualities and consequently apt of their own nature to the same motions But where there are wanting the causes of motion that is where the surface of the Globe hath great levels and where there is less mixture of the terrene vapours there the cause whereby the ambient Air is constrained to give entire obedience to the terrestrial conversion will cease in part so that in such places whilst the Earth revolveth towards the East there will be continually a wind perceived which will beat upon us blowing from the East towards the West and such gales will be the more sensible where the revolution of the Globe is most swift which will be in places more remote from the Poles and approaching to the greatest Circle of the diurnal conversion But now de facto experience much confirmeth this Phylosophical argumentation for in the spatious Seas and in their parts most remote from Land and situate under the Torrid Zone that is bounded by the Tropicks where there are none of those same terrestrial evaporations we finde a perpetual gale move from the East with so constant a blast that ships by favour thereof sail prosperously to the West-India's And from the same coasting along the Mexican shore they with the same felicity pass the Pacifick Ocean towards the India's which to us are East but to them are West Whereas on the contrary the Course from thence towards the East is difficult and uncertain and not to be made by the same Rhumb but must vere more to Land-ward to recover other Winds which we may call accidentary and tumultuary produced from other Principles as those that inhabit the continent find by experience Of which productions of Winds the Causes are many and different which shall not at this time be mentioned And these accidentary Winds are those which blow indifferently from all parts of the Earth and make rough the Seas remote from the Equinoctial and environed by the rugged Surface of the Earth which is as much as to say environ'd with those perturbations of Air that confound that primary Gale The which in case these accidental impediments were removed would be continually felt and especially upon the Sea Now see how the effect of the Water and Air seem wonderfully to accord with the Celestial observations to confirm the mobility of our Terrestrial Globe SAGR. I also for a final close will relate to you one particular which as I believe is unknown unto you and which likewise may serve to confirm the same conclusion You Salviatus alledged That Accident which Sailers meet with between the Tropicks I mean that perpetual Gale of Winde that beats upon them from the East of which I have an account from those that have many times made the Voyage And moreover which is very observable I understand that the Mariners do not call it a Wind but by another name which I do not now remember taken haply from its so fixed and constant Tenor which when they have met with they tie up their shrouds and other cordage belonging to the Sails and without any more need of touching them though they be in a sleep they can continue their course Now this constant Trade-wind was known to be such by its continual blowing without interruptions for if it were interrupted by other Windes it would not have been acknowledged for a singular Effect and different from the rest from which I will infer That it may be that also our Mediterranean Sea doth partake of the like accident but it is not observed as being frequently altered by the confluence of other windes And this I say not without good grounds yea upon very probable conjectures whch came unto my knowledge from that which tendred it self to my notice on occasion of the voyage that I made into Syria going Consul for this Nation to Aleppo and this it is That keeping a particular account and memorial of the dayes of the departure and arrival of the Ships in the Ports of Alexandria of Alexandretta and this of Venice in comparing sundry of them which I did for my curiosity I found that in exactness of account the returns hither that is the voiages from East to West along the Mediterrane are made in less time then the contrary courses by 25. in the Hundred So that we see that one with another the Eastern windes are stronger then the Western SALV I am very glad I know this particular which doth not a little make for the confirmation of the Earths mobility And although it may be alledged That all the Water of the Mediterrane runs perpetually towards the Straits-mouth as being to disimbogue into the Ocean the waters of as many Rivers as do discharge themselves into the same I do not think that that current can be so great as to be able of it self alone to make so notable a difference which is also manifest by observing that the water in the Pharo of Sicily runneth back again no less towards the East than it runneth forwards towards the West SAGR. I that have not as Simplicius an inclination to satisfie any one besides my self am satisfied with what hath been said as to this first particular Therefore Salviatus when you think it sit to proceed forward I am prepared to hear you SALV I shall do as you command me but yet I would fain hear the opinion also of Simplicius from whose judgement I can argue how much I may promise to my self touching these discourses from the Peripatetick Schools if ever they should come to their ears SIMP I desire not that my opinion should serve or stand for a measure whereby you should judge of others thoughts for as I have often said I am inconsiderable in these kinde of studies and such things may come into the mindes of those that are entered into the deepest passages of Philosophy as I could never think of as having according to the Proverb
scarce kist her Maid yet nevertheless to give you my sudden thoughts I shall tell you That of those effects by you recounted and particularly the last there may in my judgement very sufficient Reasons be given without the Earths mobility by the mobility of the Heavens onely never introducing any novelty more than the inversion of that which you your self propose unto us It hath been received by the Peripatetick Schools that the Element of Fire and also a great part of the Aire is carried about according to the Diurnal conversion from East to West by the contact of the Concave of the Lunar Orb as by the Vessel their container Now without going out of your track I will that we determine the Quantity of the Aire which partaketh of that motion to distend so low as to the Tops of the highest Hills and that likewise they would reach to the Earth if those Mountains did not impede them which agreeth with what you say For as you affirm the Air which is invironed by ledges of Mountains to be carried about by the asperity of the moveable Earth we on the contrary say That the whole Element of Air is carried about by the motion of Heaven that part only excepted which lyeth below those bodies which is hindred by the asperity of the immoveable Earth And whereas you said That in case that asperity should be removed the Air would also cease to be whirld about we may say That the said asperity being removed the whole Aire would continue its motion Whereupon because the surfaces of spacious Seas are smooth and even the Airs motion shall continue upon those alwaies blowing from the East And this is more sensibly perceived in Climates lying under the Line and within the Tropicks where the motion of Heaven is swifter and like as that Celestial motion is able to bear before it all the Air that is at liberty so we may very rationally affirm that it contributeth the same motion to the Water moveable as being fluid and not connected to the immobility of the Earth And with so much the more confidence may we affirm the same in that by your confession that motion ought to be very small in resect of the efficient Cause which begirting in a natural day the whole Terrestrial Globe passeth many hundreds of miles an hour and especially towards the Equinoctial whereas in the currents of the open Sea it moveth but very few miles an hour And thus the voiages towards the West shall come to be commodious and expeditious not onely by reason of the perpetual Eastern Gale but of the course also of the Waters from which course also perhaps the Ebbing and Flowing may come by reason of the different scituation of the Terrestrial Shores against which the Water coming to beat may also return backwards with a contrary motion like as experience sheweth us in the course of Rivers for according as the Water in the unevenness of the Banks meeteth with some parts that stand out or make with their Meanders some Reach or Bay here the Water turneth again and is seen to retreat back a considerable space Upon this I hold That of those effects from which you argue the Earths mobility and alledge it as a cause of them there may be assigned a cause sufficiently valid retaining the Earth stedfast and restoring the mobility of Heaven SALV It cannot be denied but that your discourse is ingenious hath much of probability I mean probability in appearance but not in reality existence It consisteth of two parts In the first it assignes a reason of the continual motion of the Eastern Winde and also of a like motion in the Water In the second It would draw from the same Sourse the cause of the Ebbing and Flowing The first part hath as I have said some appearance of probability but yet extreamly less then that which we take from the Terrestrial motion The second is not onely wholly improbable but altogether impossible and false And coming to the first whereas it is said that the Concave of the Moon carrieth about the element of Fire and the whole Air even to the tops of the higher Mountains I answer first that it is dubious whether there be any element of Fire But suppose there be it is much doubted of the Orbe of the Moon as also of all the rest that is Whether there be any such solid bodies and vast or elss Whether beyond the Air there be extended a continuate expansion of a substance of much more tenuity and purity than our Air up and down which the Planets go wandring as now at last a good part of those very Phylosophers begin to think But be it in this or in that manner there is no reason for which the Fire by a simple contract to a superficies which you your self grant to be smooth and terse should be according to its whole depth carried round in a motion different from its natural inclination as hath been defusely proved and with sensible reasons demonstrated by Il Saggiatore Besides the other improbability of the said motions transfusing it self from the subtilest Fire throughout the Air much more dense and from that also again to the Water But that a body of rugged and mountainous surface by revolving in it self should carry with it the Air contiguous to it and against which its promontaries beat is not onely probable but necessary and experience thereof may be daily seen though without seeing it I believe that there is no judgement that doubts thereof As to the other part supposing that the motion of Heaven did carry round the Air and also the Water yet would that motion for all that have nothing to do with the Ebbing and Flowing For being that from one onely and uniform cause there can follow but one sole and uniform effect that which should be discovered in the Water would be a continuate and uniform course from East to West and in that a Sea onely which running compass environeth the whole Globe But in determinate Seas such as is the Mediterrane shut up in the East there could be no such motion For if its Water might be driven by the course of Heaven towards the West it would have been dry many ages since Besides that our Water runneth not onely towards the West But returneth backwards towards the East and that in ordinal Periods And whereas you say by the example of Rivers that though the course of the Sea were Originally that onely from East to West yet nevertheless the different Position of the Shores may make part of the Water regurgitate and return backwards I grant it you but it is necessary that you take notice my Simplicius that where the Water upon that account returneth backwards it doth so there perpetually and where it runneth straight forwards it runneth there alwayes in the same manner for so the example of the Rivers shewes you But in the case
follow that Hell is either in the Sun forasmuch as it is supposed by this Hypothesis to be in the Centre of the World or else supposing that Hell is in the Centre of the Earth if the Earth should move about the Sun it would necessarily ensue that Hell together with the Earth is in Heaven and with it revolveth about the third Heaven than which nothing more absurd can be said or imagined The fifth Classis is of those Authorities which alwayes oppose Heaven to the Earth and so again the Earth to Heaven as if there were the same relation betwixt them with that of the Centre to the Circumference and of the Circumference to the Centre But if the Earth were in Heaven it should be on one side thereof and would not stand in the Middle and consequently there would be no such relation betwixt them which nevertheless do not only in Sacred Writ but even in Common Speech ever and every where answer to each other with a mutual Opposition Whence that of Genes 1. In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth and Psal. 115. The Heaven even the Heavens are the Lords but the Earth hath he given to the Children of menâ— and our Saviour in that Prayer which he prescribeth to us Matth. 6. Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven and S. Paul 1 Corinth 15. The first man is of the Earth earthy the second man is of Heaven heavenly and Coloss. 1. By him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth and again Having made peace through the Blood of his Crosse for all things whether they be things in Earth or things in Heaven and Chap. 3. Set your affections on things above not on things on the Earth with innumerable other such like places Since therefore these two Bodies are alwayes mutually opposed to each other and Heaven without all doubt referreth to the Circumference it must of necessity follow that the Earth is to be adjudged the place of the Centre The sixth and last Classis is of those Authorities which being rather of Fathers and Divines than of the Sacred Scripture say That the Sun after the day of Judgment shall stand immoveable in the East and the Moon in the West Which Station if the Pythagorick Opinion hold true ought rather to be ascribed to the Earth than to the Sun for if it be true that the Earth doth now move about the Sun it is necessary that after the day of Judgment it should stand immoveable And truth is if it must subsist without motion in one constant place there is no reason why it should rather stand in one site of that Place than in another or why it should rather turn one part of it than another to the Sun if so be that every of its parts without distinction which iâ— destitute of the Suns light cannot choose but be dismal and much worse affected than that part which is illuminated Hence also would arise many other absurdities besides these These are the Classes c. from which great assaults are made against the structure of the Pythagorick Systeme yet by that time I shall have first laid down six Maximes or Principles as impregnable Bulwarks erected against them it will be easie to batter them and to defend the Hypothesis of Pythagoras from being attaqued by them Which before I propound I do proâ—ess with that Humility and Modesty which becometh a Christian and a person in Religious Orders that I do with reverence submit what I am about to speak to the Judgment of Holy Church Nor have I undertaken to write these things out of any inducements of Temerity or Ambition but out of Charity and a Desire to be auxiliary to my neighbour in his inquisition after Truth And there is nothing in all this Controversie maintained by me that expect to be better instructed by those who profess these Studies which I shall not retract if any persons shall by solid Reasons reiterated Experiments prove some other Hypothesis to be more probable but yet until such time as they shall decide the Point I shall labour all I can for its support My first and chiefest Maxime is this When any thing is attributed in Holy Writ to God or to a Creature that 's not beseeming to or incommensurate with them it must of necessity be received and expounded one or more of the four following wayes First it may be said to agree with them Metaphorically and Proportionally or by Similitude Secondly According to our manner of Considering Apprehending Conceiving Vnderstanding Knowing c. Thirdly according to the Opinion of the Vulgar and the Common way of Speaking to which Vulgar Speech the Holy Ghost doth very often with much study accomodate it self Fourthly In respect of our selves and for that he makes himself like unto us Of each of these wayes there are these examples God doth not walk since he is Infinite and Immoveable He hath no Bodily Members since he is a Pure Act and consequently is void of all Passion of Minde and yet in Sacred Scripture Gen. 3. vers 8. it is said He walked in the cool of the day and Job 22. vers 14. it is said He walketh in the Circuit of Heaven and in many other places coming departing making hast is ascribed to God and likewise Bodily parts as Eyes Ears Lips Face Voice Countenance Hands Feet Bowâ—â— Garments Arms as also many Passions such as Anger Sorrow Repentance and the like What shall we say therefore Without doubt such like Attributes agree with God to use the Schoolmens words Metaphorically Proportionally and by Similitude And touching Passions it may be said that God condescendeth to represent himself after that manner as for instance The Lord is angry i. e. He revealeth himself as one that is angry He grieved i. e. He revealeth himself as one that is sorrowful It repented him that he had made man i. e. He seemed as one that repented And indeed all these things are Comparativè ad nos and in respect of us So God is said to be in Heaven to move in time to shew himself to hide himself to observe and mark our steps to seek us to stand at the door to knock at the door not that he can be contained in a bodily place nor that he is really moved nor in time nor that humane manners or customes can agree with him save only according to our manner of Apprehension This Conception of ours orderly distinguisheth these Attributes in him one from another when notwithstanding they are one and the same with him This Apprehension of ours divideth also his actions into several times which neverthelesse for the most part are produced in one and the same instant And this to conclude alwayes apprehendeth those things with some defect which notwithstanding are in God most perfect For this reasâ—n doth the Sacred Scripture express it self according to the Vulgar Opinion whilst it