Planets in their mean motions with the distance of the four Elements from the Earth's centre THe Firmament or 8. Sphere in which the fixed Stars are placed is affirm'd by Astronomers to be in distance from the Worlds centre the Earths diameter 9327 times from the Terrestial Globes superficies 18653 semi-diameters the distance from us in miles 65285 500 the least Star in this Sphere is conceived greater than the Globe compos'd of Earth and Water and that all the Stars of the first magnitude are 100. times as great in relation to their Cubes Under the starry Firmament there are imagined 7. peculiar Spheres involv'd within one another on these the ancient Astronomers did fancy little circles called Epicycles whose centres were in the superficies of those Orbs in whose circumferences they plac'd the centre of each Planet according to its proper Sphere thereby to solve the irregular motion of each wandring Star in their various courses and excentrick motions that point which is most remote from the centre of the Earth is called Apogaeon the lowest Perigaeon the difference between them is termed the mean motion the Planet being then on the superficies of his own Sphere Saturn the highest of all the Planets in his mean motion is in distance from the superficies of the Earrh 10358 1 10 Semidiameters in proportion to it as 31 to 11. being greater than the Terrestrial Globe 22 3 10 according to cubical numeration and is in distance above us in our Hemisphere 36153318 Miles this later age by Telescopes hath discovered 2 Stars that attend him interposing themselves sometimes betwixt him and us Jupiter in his mean motion is in distance from the Earth 3917 4 10 semi-diametrs and is in proportion to it as 12 to 5. and greater than the Terrestrial Globe according to the Cubes made of their diameters 13 8 10 and in distance from us 13711090 he hath 4 Stars discovered that make a progress with him through the 12 Signes but keep no equal distance and do often interpose themselves and us Mars in his mean motion is above the Earth 1713 2 10 semi-diameters and is in distance from the superficies of the terrestrial Globe 5996200 Miles and according to Tycho Brahe the Cube made of his Diameter is less then that of the Earth 13 times and a little more Sol in his Apogaeon is from the superficies of the Earth 1169 semi-diameters in his Perigaeon 1089 and consequently in his mean motion 1129 and according to his Cube 139 times greater then the cube made of the terrestrial Globes diameter and is in distance from the Earths superficies 3951500 Miles Venus is in proportion unto the terrestrial Globe as 6 to 11. and she is lesser then the globe of Earth 6â— 1 1 times and in her mean motion is in distance from thence so much as the Sun is or very neer Mertury is held less then the terrestrial Globe 19 times very neer and in his mean motion hath the same distance allowed him almost as the Sun hath in his mean motion Luna in her mean motion is in distance from the Earth's superficies 58 9 10 semi-diameters in Miles 206050 and the cube made of the terrestrial Globes diameter will contain that made of the Moon 's 42 8 10 the proportion being as 2 is unto 7 and so much greater is the Globe of Earth then that of the Moon Vnder the Moon 's Sphere is the Element of Fire conceived for to be in thickness 154050 Miles whose concave or neerest distance from the superficies of the Earth and Water is conjectured 52000 Miles and from the center 55500 Miles The upper Region of the Air being next unto the Element of Fire is suppos'd to contain in thickness 51994 Miles and the concave of it in distance from the superficies of the Earth 6 Miles the Middle Region 4 Miles and the lowest two Miles which is the distance from the Earth to the highest watery clouds and this is the Region of Air in which we mortals draw our vital breath in The two lowest Elements do make one Globe consisting of Earth and Water whose Diameter is 7000 Miles and the whole circumference 22000 Miles and according to this proportion 61 1 9 miles upon this Globe will answer unto one degree in the Heavens but expect no exactness in the dimensions Here I could have shown you a great assembly of various opinions but not assisted with any convincing Reasons or grounded upon undeniable demonstrations as in the magnitudes and distances of the Stars most supposing them for to be in a further distance from the Earth and of greater magnitudes in which proportions I have followed Tycho Brahe but not altogether in their heights Some deny these several Spheres and the motions called Accessus and Recessus others will have them moved by Angelical powers and this opinion is assisted by the great Doctor and light of the Catholike Church St. Augustine lib. 83. p. 74. saying Every visible thing in this World is under the charge of an Angelical power And so writeth St. Jerome cap. 28. On Ezech. That there is an Element of Fire some reject others do affir it but deny that either the Fire or the Air have any morion with the Heavens from East to West Aristoile affirms the Air to be naturally of a hot quality the Stoiks and Cardanus do think it cold Turnebius neither but apt for either heat or cold The common received opinion is that the upper Region of the Air is naturally hot and dry the second cold and moist the lowest Region temperate according unto the place and Season of the year but generally the whole Element of Air is thought to be hot and moist Now as for the two lower Elements Earth and Water as united together they do make one Globe and this assertion generally ratified and unanimously consented unto by the ablest men in all Ages yet something in approbation of this shall be said hereafter But as for the greatness of this Globe it is doubted of by many although not with such dissonant and diversity of opinions as for the magnitude and height of the Spheres and the other two Elements for some do seem to prove by Eclypses of the Sun and Moon and voyages at Sea what part or how many leagues or miles upon this Globe will answer unto one degree of the Heavens the common opinion is 20 leagues or 60 miles and by this account the terrestrial Globe is in compass 21600 miles Ptolemaeus accounts 500 Stadiums for 1 degree that is 22500 miles if the Stadium in Egypt did not exceed that in Italy others will have it 66 miles allowed for one degree and in compass then 23760 miles but I have in this allowed for the whole circumference of the Earth 22000 miles Thus numerous are the opinions of learned Philosophers Geometritians Astronomers Geographers Cosmographers and Navigators and their ways so ambiguous seldome agreeing in any thing often crossing one another that if there
descension is said of any Star that sets with the ☉ as the little Dog-star the 5. day of June but this is also said of any Star that sets in the night time The Heliacal rising of any Star is to be understood of those that have been obscured with the Sun-beams and the Sun moving according to the succession of the signs the Star begins again to appear at his rising a little before the Sun as you may see in the Latitude of 52. g 0. And on the seventh of August the Lions heart quite obscured and a few days after will be seen to rise before the Sun and the Heliacal setting is any Star that is seen presently after the Sun setting and a few days after will be quite obscured with the glory of his beams as the 28. of August you may behold Spica Virginis in the West and in a few days after offuscated with the resplendent radius of the Sun his proper motion being East-ward This I do desire may satisfie most courteous Reader as an abstract of the world and if further satisfaction be desired vouchsafe to look over my books of Astronomy and for the better recording in your memory the apparition and occultation of the Stars accept of these verses though from a rude Minerva Ascention Cosmicall as Poets say Are Stars that rise with Sol or in the day Those asterismes Acronycall they call That in the night do either rise or fall And those Heliacall Astraea says Whom Phoebus does offuscate with his rays AN INTRODUCTION TO THE Second Part of Meteors AS for the word Meteors it signifies an apparition in the Air as taken in the common or usual sense or high and lifted up but in general there are two sorts one risen from Vapours and Exhalations termed by the Philosophers imperfect mixt bodies by reason they are easily reduced into their first nature or proper Element as Hail or Snow quickly resolving into Water and all those which are accounted perfectly mixt are thunder bolts c. and the reason they do give is because that such as these will not so soon be converted into their first Elements from whence they were extracted or derived the material cause of all are hot and moist vapours or hot and dry exhalations from Water and Earth the efficient cause under God is from the fixed and wandering Stars by vertue of whose beams a light rarifi'd substance is extracted from gross and heavy bodies as vapours from water and exhalations from Earth their qualities are heat and moisture which causeth diversity of effects especially in those lesse perfectly mixt which are the subjects now intended Vapours do consist of the four Elements but the substance water as the steam of a boyling Pot which hangs like a dew upon the lid or cover over it And Exhalations are commonly like smoak of nature hot and dry as you may behold in a Summers day to offuscate the Air or make it seem dusky with the ascending of thin sumes and after this comes usually thunder which shews from whence these exhalations were extracted for out of Fire and Air only no Meteor can consist as wanting matter the Fire of it self as being an Element is so subtile that it cannot be purified whereas all exhalations and vapours must be refined and consequently extracted from some grosser body for the Air if much rarified would turn to Fire as you may see in violent and circular motions of wheels or such like things that are set on fire by rarification of the Air where the matter is dry and combustible and when the Air becomes grosse it turns to Water as you may see by your breath in the winter time or the Air inclosed in vaults or other hollow places will quickly be condensed by opposition of the outward Air or coldnesse of the place especially against rainy weather but lot us now ascend to unmask some other doubtful quaeries The places where Meteors are generated is generally held for to be in all or any Region of the Air which are three viz. the upper from the Element of Fire to the clouds the middle Region containing the clouds the lowest from the clouds unto the Earth but Tycho Brahe with some others do conceive the Element of Air for to be delated up into the Firmament or fixed Stars but that above the Element of Fire to be of a Celestial nature differing from the inferiour Air and their reasons are derived from the height of Comets observed not only above the Element of Fire but with the Planets and some higher then the Sphere of Saturn even with the fixed Stars as the new Star in Cassiopaeia which was seen and the height taken by Ticho himself in the year of the World's Redeemer 1572 without parallax The proof of the altitude of Comets is deduced from their Parallaxes that is the difference between the true and apparant height of any blazing Star being observed from the superficies of the terrestrial Globe and not from the center of the Heavens and this difference is discovered several ways First as by observing some noted and fixed Stars ascending the Horizon with it or presently before or after and if they do keep the same distance or neer unto it that Comet must needs be very high or by several observations made in other Countries for if neer the Firmament those fixed Stars will appear with it in all Hemispheres alike But if the distance between them varies and in a small distance of place or time it argues those blazing Stars are very low And thus the Parallaxis of any thing visible under the Firmament will be found greater or lesser according to the height of it As the Star in Cassiopaeia appearing in the year of Grace 1972. differing but little or nothing in the Parallax or the observations made by divers Astronomers in several Countries in the year of the Virgin 's being a 1585 there was a Comes appeared in the Sphere betwixt Saturn and Jupiter and an other in the year of the Incarnation of the Son of God 1618. between Jupiter and Mars Aristotle with Regiomontanus and many others of his followers do affirm all Comets to be sublunary and this their Schollars do alledge that if the Astronomical hypotheses be true the Star in Cossiopaeia was greater then the fixed Stars of the first magnitude and consequently by their own demonstrations bigger then the whole Globe of Earth and Water above 100. times and a greater body cannot be extracted from a lesse from whence then say they could the matter be drawn or exhaled to feed so great a light for the space of a year and four months but to this Galilaeus answers that the highest Sky under the Firmament hath matter in it for the generation of these blazing Stars Licetus to defend the height of Comets doth argue that the Sky hath hard condensed knots in it made and enlightned by the rays both of the fixed and wandring Stars Gemma Phrysius did diligently observe in
being a Mother 316. Maxentius in the Eastern Countries raised a terrible Persecution putting all Christians to death that he could find and with severall kinds of tortures to force them from their allegiance and service to the Son of God This persecution constrained many to fly their Countries and divers for fear of Maxentius and his unhumane competitours obscured themselves in Caves of beasts in the Desarts where from savage Creatures they found more mercy then from Man But this Christ reveng'd persecuting the Tyrants with Plague and Famine which so consumed many Countrys that they were destitute almost of Men Women or Children until the Emperour had nothing but beasts to rule over and not many of them neither From the Birth of our Lord and Saviour 1346. there happned in that year three great conjunctions of the higher Planets viz. ♄ ♃ and ♂ and these three all in ☌ in ♒ this year produced one of the most universal and destructive Plagues that ever was inflicted upon wretched mortals this pestiferous infection took the original in the East Indies and past over the world no people safe either by Land or Sea the Air being generally contaminated as with a deadly poyson many that year went to Sea hoping by that means to avoid it but in vain for there they were surprised with their whole families this Epidemical disease was so dreadful that it banished all humanity and perverted man from being a sociable creature Friends forsaking their Friends and Alies Parents unnaturally forsook their Children and ungrateful Children their Parents This general disease continued 9. years in several Countreys and was as mortiferous and raging as ever was Plague in any Countrey Some writers affirm how that this Plague began from fiery Exhalations risen out of the Earth whose malignancy infected the Air and from those distempers begot raging Feavers in Men untill the sword made incision of their inflamed veins a remedy worse then the disease Others say this Plague took its sad Exordium from fire that fell from Heaven the most authentick Chronologers record it thus Lamech a City of Arabia now known by the name of Mecha the Metropolitan of the Antichristian Mahumetans superstition in this City it rained Bloud and Snakes the space of three days and nights together the Serpents soon after perished in such multitudes that the stench of their corrupted bodies contaminated the Air in all the adjacent Regions this stupendious storm raz'd Mahumets Temple to the ground and sever'd into many pieces the Sepulchre of that infernal Impostor The next year the Earth denyed her accustomed fruits introducing a Famine more mortiferous then the former these direful calamities not moving man to repentance O incredulous and obdurate hearts but contemning those dreadful judgements were pleased with their enemies fall until they fell themselves Piety expulsed fled into exile while envy and confusion in Arms put the world in an uproar the sword licensed in the hands of Furies making a rude decimation of those who had espaced both Plague and Famine These three last deplorable afflictions were the most universal and destructive that the world ever felt or the Inhabitants groaned under since the general Deluge when in 40. days all living souls were destroyed from off the face of the Earth but what the Ark was fraighted withal whereby to replant the world again and those for many months were wafted over the angry waves that lav'd the Earth polluted with enormous crimes and transgressions of unbelieving licentious men only under the Law of Nature to which brute Beasts subject themselves This Ark represented the figure of Baptism 1 Pet. 3.20 21. And moreover St. Hierome calls it a Type of the Catholike Church the raging storms and tumultuous billows in opposition to one another resemble Herefies and Persecutions the Ark out-lived the fury of the Deluge and so shall the other to the worlds consummation all perished that were not in the first so I need say no more of the last Historiographers conjecture that more Men Women and Children perished in one of these Epidemical diseases then in the universal Flood the World being conceived more populous then in the days of Noah and the continuance much longer many will not believe these being but humane traditions and 't is not strange since they want faith in divine Records whereof some object that if the Deluge were 15. cubits above the highest Hills the superficies of the Waters on which the Ark floated was swell'd up to the middle Region of the Air in which no living creature can subsist besides they make queries from whence should these magazins of Waters be extracted the Fountains of the Earth they conceive not sufficient the Clouds are but thin dilated vapours the Waters mentioned above the Firmament could not descend so low in 100. years without a miracle To their objections I might answer 't was the providence of God which preserved them to whom nothing is impossible being sole Creator and Moderator of the Universe but since an Omnipotent and divine power condescended to make Mans preservation by a humane means humane reasons may be expected for which I refer the over curious unto the learned Expositors of Genesis yet not to leave them in a Sea at last something I will say not positively affirmed but conjecturally intimated only As for their Suppositions the whole Element of Air is held naturally hot and moist and the middle Region cold but by accident which frigid and restringent cause being chang'd the quality must cease and so the Air in general might convert to vapours innumerable and the waters in the Earth peradventure were dilated and so made more fluxible whose Fountains were opened for 40. continued days the Catarracts descending from their overburthned clouds which time to humane apprehension might encrease the inundation to submerge the terrestrial Globe 15. Cubits above the highest hills whereof 't is probable the Armenian mountains were most exalted above the Earths center and as the clouds were exonerated by the waters that fell 't is like this inferiour Air did ascend and assume the middle Regions Sphere and so made apt for all living creatures to breath in The Deluge ebbing Mount Ararat appear'd on whose firm foundation the Ark rested the Waters by an orderly summons retreated some to replenish the Earths entrails and exhausted veins others confin'd to channels of spacious Rivers ample Lakes and Oceans almost unterminated a great part by the influence of Stars might be sublim'd and reconverted to vapours thence rarifying to Air ascend their proper Orbs again the grosser parts sink to their seats of gravity and so will I this being above my Sphere yet pleased in recollecting my preservation past the hope of one in future transports my mind beyond a Deluge the landing Eternity A Compendium of Meteors and Signs observed in former Ages as at this present most prodigious in Nature stupendious to Mortals and portentious in their dismal events THe Symptomes of Natures distempers I have
Vera effigies THOMAE WILLSFORD Aetatis suae 46. Omnia videntur formata ratione Numerorum Boetius Mans shadow oft does first appeare And so does his Effigies heere Looke in his Bookes and there you 'l finde Him in the Mirrour of his Minde M Boteler Ro Vaughan sculp NATURES SECRETS OR The Admirable and wonderfull HISTORY Of the generation of Meteors Particularly describing The temperatures and qualities of the Four Elements the Heights Magnitudes and Influences of the fixt and wandring Stars the efficient and finall causes of Comets Earthquakes Deluges Epidemicall Diseases and Prodigies of precedent times Registred by the Students of Nature Their Conjecturall presages of the Weather from the Planets mutuall Aspects and Sublunary bodies with the proportions and observations on the Weather-glass with Philosophicall paraphrases rendred explicitely usefull at Sea and Land By the industry and observations of THOMAS WILLSFORD Gent. Venite videte opera Domini quae posuit prodigia super terram Psal 45. v. 8. LONDON Printed for Nath. Brook at the Angel in Cornhill 1658. A DEDICATION TO The Right Honourable the Lady Stafford Sister to the Lord Henry Stafford deceas'd Lineally descended from the eminent and ancient Earles thereof and sole Heir surviving the most illustrious Dukes of Buckingham Madam THe splendor of your renowned Family and the influence of Celestiall Graces illuminating the moral vertues you inherit attracts me and my Meteors as the Sun does Exhalations and Atomes although many have been observ'd more illustrious to vulgar eyes and more stupendious to common capacities gaz'd upon by the gaping Multitude with terror and admiration yet some of them now totally eclipst others prov'd but Ignes fatui the greatest and highest like enflamed Comets elevated on the wings of Ambition consume themselves with their own glory discover'd by their Horoscopes through the Perspectives of Reason Demonstrated by the Parallaxes of their Spheres and by Experience found that the most exalted are but Falling Stars whose coruscations shew their gross extractions something sublim'd from the faeces of the Earth whereas I look upon your Honour like a benevolent Planet Culminant which may be eclipst for some time and also set yet will rise again recover its former lustre and dissipate those Meteors that mask the face of little Stars and thus Serene Lady a smile from you by vertue of your Rays will calme the most rigid brow clear the frowns and cloudy aspects of malignant readers convert the aspersions of palli'd Envy into Pearls and scatter the misty Exhalations risen from splenitick bodies to obtenebrate the weaker inspection of others but if it be judg'd presumption to require so honourable a Protection in defence of so mean a Peece vouchsafe me leave to prostrate this at your Honours Feet whereby your shadow may prove as propitious and tutelary as the Laurel whose shade is held a Sanctuary against storms of Thunder and Lightning I have compendiously render'd here most auspicious Lady the prognostication of Meteors with sundry observations plaine and conspicuous as in a Mirrour in favour of your Sexe to whom I hope 't will be acceptable reflecting on the providence of Nature and in imitation of her dictates providing best for those who are in most danger to be damnified by the assaults and suddain incursions of angry storms and this her motherly affection not only visible in Sensitive Creatures but in all Vegetables vailing their bonners to salute the Sun while their blossoms receive his vivificating beams and if too hot for their natures their leaves fan the Air or their Husks make Vmbrelloes against the inflammation of his Rays and at other times contract them like traverse curtains whereby to shelter their infant Buds and tender Blooms from being storm'd or injur'd by the excesse or fury of the weather but the nobler Creatures endow'd with the use of Reason as your Honour with an ample portion fortifi'd with knowledge those are refer'd to search and argue the cause or by precursing signs deriv'd from the effects prefage the events as the collections of Experience Upon these animadversions in order to Natures Instincts I compos'd this treatise your tender and beautiful Sexe transcending her pleasant and odoriferous Flowers and since the better sort are often now expos'd to rude and boysterous storms by the abortive production of a more blustering uncivil Age the precepts of Gratitude obliged me to dedicate these Observations to your Honour as the Noblest in my eye that the World may witnesse my sincere and grateful intentions for sheltring me In testimony whereof it is sign'd by Your affectionate kinsman and most devoted servant Thomas Willsford A GENERAL PREFACE TO The Ingenious and Judicious speculators of Nature illustrating here the Antiquity of this Meteorological subject in prognosticating their effects Benevolent Reader I Shall present you here with a small compendium of a mighty subject offer'd up to the glory of God and intended for your benefit in the description of the Heavens the Heights Magnitudes Periods and Aspects of the fixt and wandring Stars the natural qualities and greatness of the four Elements the generation of Meteors and Prognostications of the Weathers variable transmutations with the alterations of Sensitive and Vegetable Creatures in their dispositions and inclinations a subject into which the Wise and Learned of precedent Ages have made serious and diligent inquisitions omitting Catalogues of Philosophers from Aristotle and his Disciples on the speculative part continued by succession to these times and for the practical observations of many I will record a few Thales one of the Athenian Wise-men a grand contemplator of Nature and so judicious a proficient in this Art that he said he could be rich when he would by prognosticating Weathers temper in succeeding years from thence presaging plenty or scarcity of Fruits after him divers made observations of the Stars aspects and those grave Experience ratified as in relation to particular Countries or regions after a long tract of time this knowledge was made more universal by being contracted into general Rules and those again much illustrated by the industry of Ptolomaeus the Alexandrian whose fame survives his Funeral Since his time very many have writ of this Subject in a continual succession unto this present Age yet never render'd till now in our vulgar tongue And that I may please all Sexes and Ages the Ignorant and Learned diversity of predictions are here inserted from the Heavens to the Elements from the lofty Pine to the humble Shrub and little Vegetables from Birds and Beasts and Fishes in the deep down to the Minerals in the Earths pregnant womb besides ocular Demonstrations to preserve you from the injury or assaults of the Weather Yet some perhaps will bluster and make a noyse like Thunder without Lightning because dedicated to a Woman should I name her Vertues they would be calm'd or charm'd by their own Reasons to silence but 't will displease her Modesty so I will only intimate her Favours reflecting upon
my mind as the Sun upon a Cloud which he rais'd represented this Impression having imprinted in my memory her Nobleness indelible not convenient to be publish'd at this present time As for the subject of this Treatise it appertains to the Astronomer in part 't is true yet who understands the Characters and Aspects of the Signs and Planets by this will know them in any Ephemeris or Annual Kalender whereby you may judge of the future Weather For our present purpose Mr. William Lillies is the best extant As for apparitions in the Airy Regions you have here the Observations upon them and for the nature of Vegetables they are more essentially observ'd and better known in general then the influence of the Stars or the nature of Meteors are discovered to learned Men especially all tender and redolent Flowers that embroyder the Earth or perfume the Air whose natural instincts each Florist observes as Kalenders of the Weathers mutability besides these here 's Birds and Beasts that are domestick Creatures or familiarly seen which if they satisfie not the beholders I have presented them with a Glasse not to see their features in but to view the state of the Air whether Dropsical or Feaverish Hot or Cold and by a member sequestred from the Element confin'd within a transparent Glasse where behold its contraction or rarefaction and from thence you may visibly presage the approaching weather the fourth and last Part is historical so there is something in every ones Sphere or Element The Tables of the Stars natural qualities in their tempers seem oppugnant to themselves as ♄ cold and dry with ♃ hot and moist likewise in pag. 82 line 28 and 29 and such like seeming contradictions in general but not in particular respects these are the observations of others faithfully recollected and transfer'd to your judgements as Moderators whereby I will not deceive you if you be deceiv'd The Cosmical rising and setting of some Stars are mention'd here when as to many Places and whole Countries those Asterismes can neither rise nor set In all such cases 't is to be understood if visible when neer the Horizon of that place or direct North the Sun ascending or descending that Hemisphere at the same time As for terms Latine words and quotations not explain'd they are known unto the Lady for whom this is chiefly intended and if they do eclipse or offuscate the subject as in relation to others the next Impression shall delucide them And as for those who only know how to find fault I can with more facility remit then such as they can censure So all such malignant spirits I leave to themselves and reconvert my discourse from them to the Ingenious as the Heliotrope from its shade to court the Sun and if they are satisfied I am pleas'd by subscribing Your friend and coadjutor THOMAS WILLSFORD To his honoured Uncle Mr. Thomas Willsford upon his Book of Meteors HEav'n is by earth epitomiz'd The greater world by th'lesse Comprisd The sacred Harmony o' th spheres Made audible to mortal ears Nature's Anatomy displayd The universal frame survayd The Elements complexions shown And every Star's Dominion The Weathers watr in glasses cast Speaks how her fits may change or last Whence bearded Comets have their births And strong Convulsions shake the Earth Whence all portentous symptomes rise Bad Omens and sad prodigies These are thy tracks pervious to none But to thy better thoughts alone Whose mystique Causes do'st explore Seeing implum'd effects in store Who Can'st the Cabala of Fate And energy of Planets state While stupid we on Terrene Regions move But Looking up see Stars and Thee above Edward Boteler AN INTRODUCTION TO THE WORLDS EPITOMY AND THE Generation of Meteors ACcording to my Talent received from the sole Creator of the Vniverse whose Fiat alone made this great and stupendious Machine of the World for whose excellency Man cannot find an attribute but Supereminent in all beginnings Eternal Immense Omnipotent c. which we cannot comprehend Who in the beginning created Heaven and Earth Gen. 1. cap. 1. And by his omnipotent Word alone made on the first Day Light which He divided from darknesse whose Divine assistance I now implore to illuminate my understanding and to dissipate the clouds of Error involving humane Learning deviated in diversity of Tracts in which obtenebrated ways we grope for what we seek in the bewildred cogitations of others whereof some do think they see so well as Argus when they are as blind as Moles Phantasmes undermining their wilful benighted judgements Others there be whose sordid minds are buried deep in Earth or so propense on vanities that they reflect not upon Natures dayly works much lesse on the Sacred Deity from whence she was ordained herself should but any stupid man that hath a glimmering light in the use of Reason behold the Heavens he must needs read there an immense Creator if his Reason enters into judgement for to examine the cause or contemplate on the effects observe the illuminated Orbs how by an orderly course and succession they rise and set distinguishing Days from Nights and Seasons of the Year contracting their Lights or distributing their Rays impartially to the Pesant as the Prince they cannot but confesse the Providence Goodnesse and Bounty of an Infinite and universal Opificer Which moved Ovid though a Heathen wavering like a weather-cock turn'd with Air of poetical fictions yet from them converts himself to point at the original Author Metam lib. 1. describing of the Chaos Quia corpore in uno Frigida pugnabant calidis humentia sice is Mollia cum duris sine pondere habentia pondus Hanc Deus melior litem Natura diremit And a little after Ille Opifex rerum mundi melior is origo Declining here the Poets and Philosophers authority let any rational man but contemplate of the least vegetable or sensitive creature a time there was it had no being it increases to maturity and perfection at a period declines again returning unto Earth from whence extracted according to the course and conception of Nature which evidently demonstrates that She and the World had an original as by their Fruits and off-spring the subjects of mortality and consequently must have an end Eccles-cap 3. consider then the omnipotency of an Eternal Creator by whose sacred Word alone 't was made by whose Providence it continues and by whose Power it shall perish all things declaring the Almighty Deity and so apparently that there are not any but must see it except wilfully blinded in their understandings and thus writeth the Apostle of the Gentiles S. Paul inspired by the holy Ghost ad Roma cap. 1. ver 20. Invisibilia enim Dei à creatione Mundi per ea quae facta sunt intellecta conspiciuntur sempiterna quoque ejus virtus Divinitas ita ut sint inexcusabiles Now to return from whence I came and look back to the Creation on the second Day God made the Firmament
as the bounds unto this great work for the Empyreal-Heaven or his blessed Seat is an Orb unlimited whose Centre is everywhere and the Circumference nowhere and since that Genesis doth mention the Heavens as the nobler part of this admired Architecture I desire here to begin where I hope for to conclude having finished my Pilgrimage through this transitory Desart and in what I shall err may it be ascrib'd to my weaknesse and not my will and that we may always remember our imbecillities and reflect on the Glory and Majesty of the sole eternal God Behold the Regal Psalmist 75. ver 1. Confitebimur tibi Deus confitebimur invocabimus nomen tuum narrabimus Mirabilia tua The subject of my intended discourse is Meteors originally deriv'd from the Creation of the 4 Elements their conceptions extracted from thence by Nature with a continual succession from Corruptions to Generations and from hence Reason assisted with Experience discusses their Qualities and from their material cause prognosticates their effects the Stars are generally conceiv'd the efficient cause in elevating and digesting the matter which Nature imploys to what 't is aptest for thus the wandring Planets and fixed Constellations over-looks their transmutations and by their mutual aspects do generate the Meteors from whence Man does prognosticate the Weather either at the present or by calculation of their places for any time in future yet the nature of these Stars being known but by the effects depending much upon Experience on Demonstration little this presciential knowledge is often subjected unto errors besides the course is more uncertain by reason so few do concur and not an Age free from extravagant opinions of Philosophers and Astronomers started up in opposition to what hath been maintain'd and generally receiv'd before the World 's inviron'd in obscurity for the pride of Knowledge which transgression made humane Sciences conjectural under the tuition of Experience yet since we are allowed to argue and dispute upon it conclusions may be deduced and made apt for humane use and Nature beheld through the Meteoroscopes of Reason although with mists before our eyes the Scouts to our understandings yet some are sharper-sighted than others and many think they discover more than they doe and multitudes magnifie and multiply things greater then they are or more than is true so I will record here a few supposed both Wise and Learned men and so proceed Empedocles the Philosopher of Sicilia a man famous for wit and endow'd with a profound talent of humane learning imploying all the faculties of his mind to discover the secrets of Nature and the substance of the Celestial orbes in which the Elements are involv'd he maintain'd to consist of Water of this opinion he had many disciples which flourished until buried with the Author's and in this later Age his paradoxes are reviv'd again unto which Galilaeus doth much incline others conceive them to be form'd out of a refined Element of Air and the Stars of Fire many urges that the arched vaults of Heaven are compos'd out of Natures Quintessence as it were a sublim'd substance refin'd from the 4 Elements yet differing essentially in their Qualities as by being neither Hot nor Cold Drie nor Moist Ponderous nor Light to be brief a body which they fancie but understand it not Aristotle conceiveth the Stars to be a thicker part of their Spheres in which they are infixt not differing in matter nor Species any more than knots in a piece of timber and these condensed Orbes apt to receive light being void of lustre in themselves like the common people of the Skies but as they are illuminated by the influence of the Sun nor have they heat but by reflection nor colour but by participation of divers phaenomenons or appearances of sundrie colours but all this cannot be admitted since sage Experience in peculiar motions by demonstration overthrows their Arguments and Reason denies their conclusions In the Firmament are plac'd all the fixed Stars accounted in number but 1143 and of those there are 14 rarely visible besides multitudes without peradventure that never were or shall be seen to Mortals since by Perspectives some have been discovered in this later age to attend particular Planets never observ'd before and by several mediums undoubtedly have influences on sublunary bodies yet by what means 't is in dispute but least my cogitations should wander with those Stars it shall ascend to the fixed distinguished by their Magnitudes whose differences are 6. as by these paradigmas following 1 The number of Stars of the first Magnitude are accounted 15. viz. as the Scorpions and Lions heart c. 2 Those of the second Magnitude are reckoned 45. viz. the north Horne of Taurus and the Foot of Gemini c. 3 Of the third Magnitude there are numbred 208 Stars as the Breast and Knees of Cassiopeia 4 The fourth Magnitude doth list 474. as the Northern and Southern Asse c. 5 The fifth Magnitude or difference doth number 217 as the least in the Pleiades and the Ram. 6 Of the sixth and last Magnitude 49 Stars as those in the mouth and on the back of Capricornus c. There are accounted besides all these 14 little cloudy or obscured Stars that seldome do appear viz. Praesepe in the breast of Cancer the sum of these is 1022. to which if you add 121 Stars of several magnitudes discovered by the Portugalls in their voyages to the East-Indies the totall will be 1143 in several Constellations according to Astronomers observations but I believe not true since the Sacred Records puts to man this quaery Who can number the Stars but these are more than we know or shall use in our observations here although there were none created unnecessary nor can there be less without an error The fixed Stars are so called for never changing their positions or latitudes and their longitudes not one minuit in a year as all the Planets daily doe to distinguish the fixed and avoid confusion they are contracted into several Constellations or Asterismes the easier to be remembred the sooner to be found and the better for observation these Celestial Configurations are now numbred 58. representing the formes and names of Men Beasts Birds Fishes c. deriving their Pedegrees from Astronomers Poetical fictions or their natural effects as when the Sun enters the Sign of Aquarius these northern Countries to expect much rain or snow Canis major or Sirius at his Heliacal occultation or setting inflames the Air and makes Dogs apt to run mad as Pliny testifies lib. 1. cap. 40. the Egyptians call'd their river Nilus Siris from the Dog star observing their inundations to happen constantly every year when this Star ascended their Horizon with the Sun and those floods over-running their valleys untill his Haliacal rising or apparition summon'd those extravagant but fertile waves to retreat into their confined channels Hypotheses of Astronomers concerning the heights and magnitudes of the fixed Stars and also the
be a truth in them it is hard for to discover which it is and being found difficult to follow but whether this admired and stupendious machine of the World be greater or lesser 't is not for me to argue And thus I will conclude Psal 135. ver 6. Omnia quaecunque voluit Dominus fecit in Coelo in Terra in mari in omnibus abyssis The 7 Planets or wandring Stars with their Characters colour motion period and courses FIrst under the Firmament or Starry Heaven is plac'd the planet Saturn ♄ who is the highest of them his colour is pale his course is finished through the 12 Signes in 29 years 5 moneths 2 weeks 1 day and 8 hours The next Orbe to this is Jupiter ♃ a fair and bright planet he passeth through the 12 Signs of the Zodiack in a 11 years 11 moneths 5 days and 17 hours or very neer Mars ♂ appeareth in his proper Sphere of a red or fiery colour marching through the 12 Signs in 1 year 11 moneths 1 week 6 days and 22 hours or thereabouts The Sun ☉ is next being placed in the middle of the planets the better to distribute his light unto the rest they being illuminated by him their bright and glorious Prince and is called Sol quasi solus for this Planet is as Monarch of the Skies all the Stars receiving their lustre from Him his progress through the Zodiack is finished in a year consisting of 365 days 5 hours 49 minuits and 16 seconds almost for the odd hours and minuits is allowed a day every fourth year Venus ♀ is a very bright and clear shining Planet she finisheth her course in a year sometimes rising before the ☉ she is called the morning Star and at other times will follow the ☉ and then is called th◠〈◊〉 Stars she seldome goeth 4 degrees from the ☉ and can never exceed two whole Signs or 60 degrees Mercuny ☿ posting to and fro in the sixth Sphere but cannot exceed 30 degrees or one whole Sign in distance at any time from the ☉ and so is seldome visible being obscured by the Sun beams and when seen he is not bright and finisheth his course in something lesse then the space of a year The Moon ☽ is the lowest of all the Planets and consequently swiftest in her motion She passeth through the 12 Signs of the Zodiack in 27 days 7 hours 43 minuits and 5 seconds but from one new Moon unto another it is 29 days and odd hours by reason of the ☉ proper motion from the West Eastward in those 27 days The mutual Aspects or positions of the 7 Planets THe Planets are called wandring Stars both for their various courses and not keeping any certain distance one from another each of them moving in a proper peculiar Sphere the Sun only keeping under the Ecliptick line but all the other 6 according to their motions changing continually their latitudes being sometimes Southward of the Ecliptick as was said before which mutability of their courses you may plainly behold by the Moon who passes by all other Planets in less then 30 days and so do all the other 5 Planets according to their proper motions mutually aspect one another and are conceived by Astronomers to have the more force in their influences upon all sublunary things according to their positions and the powerful effects of their natures are supposed to be hindred or further'd by the interposition of another which in things of this nature ought to be judiciously and circumspectly considered weighing with reason the position of the Planets their natures the Seasons of the year with the temperature of the Signs they are in and the intervening Aspects of the other Stars of which Aspects there be many observed by Astronomers but those which may concern this Treatise are these following Conjunction of any two Planets is when they have one Longitude both of them being under one Sign and degree of the Zodiack Sextile aspect is when any two Planets are in distance one from another in respect of their Longitudes ⅙ part of the 12 Signs that is two whole Signs or 60 degrees Quartile aspect is when the difference of two Planets Longitudes shall be ¼ part of the Zodiack that is 3 Signes being a quadrant or 90 degrees Trine is the aspect of any two Planets that differ in Longitude one from another ⅓ part of the Zodiack that is 4 whole Signs or 120 degrees Opposition is the aspect of two Planets directly opposite differing in Longitude 6 of the 12 Signs that is 180 degrees and for brevity are charactered thus according to their Aspects A Table of the 7 Planets aspects The Characters ☌ Conjunction Degrees of the Zodiack 00  ⚹ Sextile  60  □ Quartile  90  △ Trine  120  ☠Opposition  180 The natures and qualities of the four Elements AN Element is a beginning out of which all bodies are compos'd mixed with some part of all the four which are these viz. 1 Fire 2 Air 3 Water and 4 Earth these four do fill up the whole Orbe from the center of the Heavens to the Moons Sphere whereby a vacuum or an emptiness is avoided which Nature doth abhor and so hath curiously made them as to be the bounds of the connex superficies of one another and consequently to the concaves of their Spheres and are described in order thus Fire Under the Moon 's Sphere is plac'd the Element of Fire void of all weight and most remote from the center of gravity this Element is of nature extremely hot and dry Air. Next unto the Fire is placed the Element of Air which is also light and is by nature hot and moist Earth and Water The other two that is the Water and the Earth as joyned and commixt together do make one Globe for the Water is heavy and by nature cold and moist the Earth extremely cold and dry but heavier then the Water yet both these Elements pressing to the center of the Spheres To prove the Earth's roundnesse NAture in all her admirable works does aim at that which is most convenient and attains unto the greatest perfection which is a spherical figure being most capacious and uniform of all others one part counterposing the other thus Nature hath made the center of the Heavens the seat of Gravity to which all heavy things must naturally tend unto and so consequently if it were of any form but round the fluxible waters would be divorced from the Earth dissenting it to run unto the center But some will object that it is not round by reason of some high exalted hills spacious plains and deep depressed vallies and do conceive these a sufficient demonstration but this Argument will be of no force if you consider the greatness of the terrestrial Globe For Mount Pelion was observed by Dicaearchus whose perpendicular height was sound to be but 12 Stadiums that is but an Italian mile and a half and
this the highest hill that was then known and so writeth Pliny lib. 1. cap. 65. but in the same Chapter he falls into a great absurdity conceiving the Alpes to be 50 miles high Eratosthenes a famous Geometrician found the perpendicular of mount Atlas not to exceed 10 Stadiums a small proportion in respect of the Globes rotundity And that the superficies of the Water is also round it doth evidently appear by every little bubble or drop of water falling from any place or lying upon some dust it will immediately contract into a spherical or round form whereby to preserve it self from drought this naturally and voluntarily doing so argues the roundness and form of the whole Element whose parts they are the ☽ eclipst demonstrates the Earth's rotundity and let this suffice as not requisite in this Treatise conducing to our purpose The concord and disagreement of the four Elements THis Globe composed of Earth and Water is suspended in the center of the Heavens equidistant on every side counterpoised with its own weight circumvolved with the Element of Air and that within the Fire these 4 Elements have naturally a peculiar quality in themselves participating with some and contrary to others as the Fire in hot the Air most the Water cold and the Earth dry in this the Fire and Water be naturally opposite as heat and cold the Air and Earth be in opposition as wet and drought these 4 Elements do also participate of one anothers qualities as thus the Fire is of nature hot and dry the Air hot and moist the Water cold and moist the Earth cold and dry So the Air agrees with the Fire in respect of heat and with the Water in respect of moisture The other medium is the Water in combination with the Air in moisture and in coldness with the Earth the two extreams as Earth with Water in respect of coldness and agreeing with the Fire in dryness By the commixtion of these 4 Elements all bodies are ingendred and by their mutual affininities do subsist and if any one predominates or be defective it turns the other 3 into discord and if not in time united it subverts the frame and destroys for want of concord what it should preserve in peace for if the Fire prevails it burns and turns to Feavers and if defective the heat of the Air being equally opposed with the cold of the Water moisture in them both predominates equalled with the drought of the Earth So that the cold then onely rules with which nothing can live The nature and temperature of the 4 Seasons THe 4 Seasons of the year are compared to the four Ages in every Man and his complexion or constitution unto the four Elements and first the Spring is compared to Infancy being Airy hot and moist 2. Summer to youth as being Fiery hot and dry grown to full perfection of strength and vigour of body every part and member ripe 3. Autumne is likened to elder Age the body and strength in Man declining being Watery cold and moist his beauty withering 4. Winter resembling old and decrepit Age being cold and dry But some do suppose the 4 Seasons of the year to be in opposition one unto another for what one Season does produce the contrary will destroy And so they conceive as the Spring is hot and moist that Autumne is cold and dry and as the Summer is naturally hot and dry so Winter is opposite unto it being cold and moist But these Seasons vary as the Climates doe The Complexions in Man are these 1 Choler like Fire hot and dry 2 Sanguine Air hot and moist 3 Phlegme Water cold and moist 4 Melancholy Earth cold and dry THus one does qualifie and allay the violence of the other but yet you must conceive they are not equally commixt in every Man Beast or vegetable Creature but all differing and every member or part participating much more of one then of another as the vital Spirit of Fare the Flesh of the Air the Humidity of the Water and the Bones in more affinity with the Earth yet these compositions not alike infused as you may see in the diversity of Spirits and conditions of Men by the agility of some Beasts and the slownesse of some others the mildnesse of one creature and the fury of another as the servile Asse dull and slow Horses valiant and nimble Lions indomitable always raging as with a perpetual feaver inflamed with choler And so it is in all other Creatures differing in their temperatures both in their several kinds and species and the like we see in Vegetables and Minerals in their compositions yet participating in all four of the Elements but in some of them more then in others As in Plants the roots are most Earthly their leaves in affinity with the Water their Blossoms do participate of the Air and their seeds of the Fire for without heat nothing can be produc'd all Stones do generally partake most of the Earth yet there be exceptions as Flint-stones and Thunderbolts are of a fiery quality Crystal and Pearls of a Watry and in others the Air and Water most predominates as the Pumice-stone made of the froth of the Sea and flotes upon it being exceedingly light which argues it participates but little of Earth and lesse of Fire from whence the old Adagie is derived To strike fire out of a Pumice-stone is to expect an impossibility in Nature But this discourse here is not in season and so let us return The 4 Seasons EVery one of the four Seasons is conceived to be qualified with the Signs as they are commixt with their several temperatures called the triplicity three Signs being in every Season as we have said already but for your more ease I will place it here again but not intending to induce or perswade any for to believe that which I do not confidently credit my self as that their natural tempâ—ratures are known yet I doubt nor but that the Stars by their aspects and influences are causes of distemperatures and alters the Air and all sublunary bodies Yet by what means it is not certainly demonstrated unto Reason being but extracted from bare effects where doubtful Experience is only Mistris For if it were a truth that the nature and temperature of them were discovered to man we could not egregiously err so often as we doe besides the aspects being general the effects would be so too the Climate considered but this is quite otherwise when the weather will alter in a little space or few miles and there may be at one time in four neer adjacent places Rain Snow Hail and fair weather yet to satisfie some Experience having thus delivered it I will neither approve nor quite reject it but leave it indifferent to every ones judgement as they please to peruse or omit it And here I will subject to your view the Signs Temperatures Complexions and Natures of the four Seasons observed by many The sympathy of the twelve Signs
Air and out of the inferior part of the lower Region For it is generally conceived the rain that falls from the middle Region descends in little orbs whereby to preserve it self and resist the violence of the Air through which it passeth and becomes small by reason of the distance and time in falling for the Hall does demonstrate both the bignesse and rotundity of the drops which from humide exhalations drawn up unto the middle Region and there converted into water and immediately as the drops do distill down they are contracted into Ice by the Airs coldnesse in that part which is called Hail derived from the high Dutch Hagell opparadventure from the Hebrew Egell which signifies congealed drops In the Winter season it is seldome observed to Hail by reason the cold in the middle Region is more remisse then in warm weather and in Sommer-time it is also rare upon any very hot day because the heat of the lower Region will not permit it for to pass without dissolving of it before it comes unto the Earth but frequently in the Spring and Autumn the heat being then sufficient to elevate the matter and yet not so violent as to dissolve it in the fall yet sometimes it happens that great Hail-stones are precipitated at Mid-Sommer or in very hot seasons and are then the greater if the matter be sufficient by how much the more it is opposed by the lower Region made hot by reflection of the Sun for in all times of the year you may find if observed more and greater storms of Hail to fall in the day time then in the night And some do conceive that there is a fiery nature included in them besides the heat of that subtile vapour which made it to ascend that middle Region for by contraries it is undoubtedly congealed as you may see in Salt which is hot and dry to be made of water whose natural temperature is directly opposite being cold and moist in open weather or by the fire-side or in Sommer-time take a little Salt and mix some Snow with it stir them together till they do incorporate and they will contract themselves into Ice which is done by Antiperistasis or repulsion on every part as the middle Region of the Air is cold and these frigide Meteors are ingenerated there Many other things might be here inserted which for brevity sake are omitted The lower Region of the Air and the effects it produceth THis Region of Air receives all the former qualities by course according to the seasons of the year and by the former means out of waterish places there are exhaled from the Earth moist and crude vapours the grosser part of them being earthly and containing but little heat they are unable to ascend unto the middle Region yet with the help of that heat included in those vapours and the attractive vertue of the celestial Orbs they are raised above the Earth and there often times congealed before they can be dissolved into water and these are called Frosts whereof there be many kinds according to the matter exhaled and the temperature of the season as some times of the year the ground in the mornings will be hoary like the head of Time and the grasse crisped with the Frost at other times rine-frosts or congealed mists hanging like pendants on the trees there be also black or windfrosts which are not so wholsome for they are grosse and earthly vapours exhaled out of more undigested humors and not so easily discovered by the sight as by the sense of feeling There be some vapours exhaled which are called mists the name derived as from the mixture of Air and Water of these there be several sorts as some vapours thin and sterile and have not moisture sufficient to beget water nor the heat in them is not prevalent to elevate the grosse humor and cause them to ascend but they hang upon the earth untill the Sun rises which if he chases away and dissipates by the vertue of his beams it argues a fair day There be besides all these gross mists or fogs which are more earthly then the former composed of crude and undigested vapors drawn from corrupted places as out of fennes and marish grounds these are very unwholsome and very unpleasant to the sense of smelling but are usually the worse according to the places from whence they were extracted or after much calm and moist weather The nature of Dews in general are these DEws are defined for to be liquid vapours extracted from the water or earth these have an affinity unto frost as Rain unto Snow and are alike in the material cause the efficient cause is attributed unto the Stars and the coldnesse of the Air These Dews are conceived to be very earthly and ponderous for they do not ascend high but are converted into a watry substance so soon almost as extracted being observed much more upon low and wet grounds then upon high and dry hills and thicker upon the humble shrub then upon trees or any exalted plant as the lofty Cedar The usual time of these Dews is in the evening the heat of the Sun declining being unable to support the Meteors which he raised and he deserting the Hemisphere those that were more elevated must likewise fall and the hotter the day was the greater are the exhalations and the nights are usually then cooler to convert them into water All Dews are commonly observed the greater the Moon increasing or at the full most of all the season of the year is to be considered and the weather for the hotter the day is the cooler will be the night by reason of the shadow which the terrestrial Globe then makes As for an instance you may see by the shade of trees or any other interposed body which are cooler in Sommer-time then in Winter as in respect of the Air in general for in shadowed places in the heat of Sommer the Air as in opposition to the Heat doth contract it self into a grosser body from whence some conjecture as by the parts that the whole Element of Air is by nature cold The Virgins thread There is a Dew that flies in the Air like small untwisted Silk or Yarn and falling upon the ground or plants it does convert it self into a form like Spiders Webs the matter they consist of is held for to be an earthly and slimy matter or exhalation something dry these are observed for to be both in the Spring Sommer and Autumn but in these Northern Countrys they are most frequent the Sun neer Libra the days being temperately warm the earth not exceeding dry nor yet over-charged with moisture Mell-dews Honey-dews some conjecture for to be earthly exhalations mixed with waterish vapours and many suppose them for to be exhalations from plants and all sorts of flowers and vegetables and this does evidently appear in Sugar-canes and divers kinds of Indian Reeds that have in the morning a Dew hanging upon them in taste resembling honey
â—6 degree are turbulent their natures being of ♂ and ☿ the Northern parts are hot the Southern moist â™ The former parts of Sagittarius from the 26. unto the 6. degree of ♑ the Stars are moist and colder then in former ages the middle part of â™ from the 6. degree of ♑ unto the 16 the Stars are of the nature of ♃ and ♂ yet temperate inclining to cold the hinder part of â™ from the 16. of ♑ to the 28. fiery the Northern part of this constellation is windy the South part moist and inconstant ♑ The first part of Capricornus from the 28. degree to the 7. of â™’ the Stars do participate of ♂ and ♀ which are hot and hurtful the middle of ♑ from the 7. degree of â™’ unto the 15 more temperate lastly from the 15. degree to the 21. of â™’ is observed rainy weather for the Northern and Southern part of this asterism is generally held moist and also hurtful â™’ The beginning of Aquarius is from the 21. degree unto the end of the same very moist the middle of it unto the 8. degree of ♓ temperate of the nature of ♄ and ♃ the end of this sign in the 15. degree of ♓ windy the Northern part of this constellation is hot the Southern part snow or cold weather ♓ The former parts of Pisces from the 15. degree unto the 30. more cold then in former ages the middle parts from the beginning of ♈ unto the 15. degree moister then formerly and lastly from the 15. degree of ♈ unto the 28. causing a thick and dark air the Northern part windy and the Southern is held waterish which concludes the 12. Signs and the properties of them in particular Aphorismes or selected places out of Cardanus CArdan 7 Aph. 73. does propound these ♓ and ♈ do cause winds and the half of ♉ the other part of ♉ being more aireal participating of ♊ doth produce suddain and fruitful showres ♊ Author of winds ♋ and ♌ produceth great heat and storms of Hail â™ remisse heat and giveth showres ♎ and â™ inequality of Air â™ Snow and Rain ♑ cold weather does produce and â™’ waters especially in the beginning Stadius and the later observers collects these properties of the 12. Signs of the first mover and 8. Sphere conformable to this Age. ♈ OF the Primum mobile lesse subject to Thunder but apter to hail then in the times of Ptolomy ♉ Hot and moderately moist ♊ Temperate inclining to heat and also to drought ♋ Cloudy and not the parent of fair weather in times past ♌ Hot with a scorching drought and suffocating â™ Thunder with moisture but more temperate then in former ages ♎ Various and mutable inclining something unto drought â™ Flery but more remisse then in the time of Ptolomy â™ Windy but moister then formerly ♑ Temperately cold and a little moist â™’ Cold and watery ♓ More cold then in former ages The natures properties and operations of the 7. Planets upon sublunary bodies in causing Meteors ♄ SAturn by nature is more cold then dry especially being East-ward of the ☉ and in earthly signs producing then both clouds and coldnesse of the Air in time of heat it lessens it and in frosty weather it much increases the cold when he passes from one sign into another for many days together he causeth red clouds and fiery apparitions in the Air inundations earth-quakes snow frosts and much cold according to the season of the year and situation of the Country Card. ♃ Jupiter is of nature hot and moist and is accounted the parent of fair weather being temperate both in heat and moisture mittigating the cold of Winter and the heat of Sommer causing gentle winds and a temperate Air with much serenity being East-ward of the ☉ he increaseth heat and West-ward moisture Card. ♂ Mars is hot and dry in excesse and in fiery Signs in Sommer he causeth much heat and in Winter-time remisse mittigating the coldnesse of the weather he is accounted as Lord paramount of tempests violent and suddain storms of Rain Hail Thunder Lightning excessive heat in fiery Signs and much Rain in passing by the Pleiades as is observed by Stadius ☉ Sol is by nature hot and dry but more or lesse according to the Sign he is in or aspected with the other six Planets or assisted by the fixed Stars in his annual revolution his greatest force is in making Hail moderate in Rain little Frosts and Snow the general motive of vapours and exhalations the destributer of light unto the rest of the Stars Monarch of the skies inabling them with his rays and the earth with fruitfulnesse ♀ Venus is temperately cold and moist yet Argol says moderately warm predominating over humors she warmeth little and moistneth much especially when she is the morning Star in Winter she maketh the Air temperate but moist and in Sommer she lessens the drought and causes great Dews and gentle showres but chiefly when she is in the beginning of ♋ Card. ☿ Mercury is by nature mutable and doubtful according to the Sign or nature of the Star he is withal or the Aspect of any other Planet participating of their natures with whom he is associated he is held the father of winds in earthly and watery Signs and causeth Thunder and Lightning often in fiery or airy Signs ☽ Luna the lowest Planet is of nature cold and moist and but little warm she naturally moveth the waters having much force over all phlegmatick bodies and cold humors and increaseth them according to her place in the Zodiack the Aspect with the ☉ and the other Planets her association with the fixed Stars and her latitude from the Ecliptick Astrologers do allow the Moon these temperatures from the ☌ to the first of â–¡ cold and moist from the first â–¡ unto ☠moist and something warm from ☠to the last â–¡ dry and a little warm from the last â–¡ to the ☌ cold and something dry but in general she is held to increase the humors in all bodies from the new unto the full and decreasing for to dry them up or lessen them yet more or lesse according to her place and season of the year and the full ☽ is conceived cold in Sommer and temperate in the Winter season the new ☽ warm in Sommer and produceth the coldest nights in Winter and in general the conjunctions of the Luminaries bringeth the fairest weather and their oppositions the greatest store of Rain Card. And thus far for the particular observations of the Planets properties and natures Proper and peculiar observations of the weather in every one of the four Seasons or Quarters of the Year Spring IN the conjunction or opposition of the Luminaries immediately or the last before the Vernal Equinox if ♂ were in ☌ with either the ☉ or ☽ expect much Thunder and Lightning for to follow if ♀ in March or April be retrograde expect much wet weather to follow Sommer If the 5. Planets be direct
the matter be extracted from the Earth it causeth sterility by consuming the Humidum radicale all this it does presage and more the iminent scourge of God as the observations of Historiographers and Poets do abundantly testifie and thus writeth Manil. a heathen Nunquam futilibus excanduit ignibus aether Et nunquam Coelo spectatum impune Cometem And although such prodigies do usually proceed from natural causes yet God who is Omnipotent did know from all eternity the actions of the Worlds inhabitants and their rebellious proceedings against His Sacred Majesty arming themselves in vain with fortifications against just Heaven and combining together with the associations of evil Spirits in League and Covenant with them when the Immense Creator if he pleases can make not onely the Elements to destroy mankind but the very Atomes or the most contemptible things that ever were made for mans use and those to execute his commands as witnesse the Egyptian plagues where Nature produced those stupendious effects and little despicable creatures almost destroyed a mighty Kingdome Yet these had forerunning signes with mercy to admonish Pharaoh and draw his people to repentance And thus speaks Esdrae 2. cap. 9. Et dedisti signa atque portenta in Pharaone in universis servis ejus in omni populo terrae illius The State of Rome at the death of Julius Cesar was menaced with a dreadful Blazing Star presaging the effusion of much blood which quickly after did ensue for these Meteors do beget choler and from thence fury rage and madnesse the Parents of commotions ushring in Sword Plague or Famine Of this writes Virg. lib. 1. Geor. Non alias Coelo ceciderunt plura sereno Fulgura nec dir◠toties arsere Cometae The effects of Comets or fiery impressions in the Air are not universally seen to all Countries nor yet oftentimes to all places within those regions nor are their influencies obnoxious to all men where they be visible yet motives unto every particular man to repent Although there hath been no calamity yet in the World so general but God out of his Mercy hath preserved many and in acknowledging of his goodnesse thus it is recorded in the Sacred Records Joshuae Cap. 24. v. 17. Fecitque videntibus nobis signa ingentia custodivi nos in omni via per quam ambulavimus Comets do declare the greatnesse of the Creator and are as admonitions from Him who like a Father and a merciful Judge infinite in his Love as in his Justice giving us these signs as warnings like an indulgent Parent who shews us the rod before the Sentence be pronounced the continuance of their direful effects are as the rest in dispute but by some observed thus That for so many natural days as any Blazing Star or fiery Meteor shall continue so long will their sad effects endure in succeeding years answering the number of those days this is but a meer conjectural opinion derived rather from the annotations of doubtful Experience then grounded upon any humane reason But whether this be true or that these dreadful and stupendious Meteors be the cause of these woful ensuing events I dare not subscribe my weak opinion but this I will confidently affirm that they are evident Demonstrations of an Omnipotent Diety and motives to make the proudest Creature strike Sail to amaze the wisest and terrifie the most valiant Eccles 3.14 Omnia opera sua fecerit Deus ut timeatur The un usual tumults or disorder of the Elements presages the wrath of God connexed with His Mercy by his stupendious works to draw us unto Him if not for Love yet for fear of punishment For if the Elements of Fire and Air do rage whither shall we run to save our selves upon the Seas we shall suffer wrack by the storm or perish in the tumultuous waves if the Earth does prove unstable where shall we set our feet houses nor caves cannot defend us when the bases of Rocks and Mountains shake and the whole Globe of Earth shall tremble whither shall we fly who can secure us Here I find comfort and hopes of safety with St. Augustine In te Domine speravi non confundar in aeternum And Psal 121. ver 2. Auxilium meum â Domino qui fecit coelum terram Blazing Stars though unusualy forerunners of sorrow yet oftentimes commixt with joy of which there be many examples one is recorded at the death of Nero the Emperour a Tyrant a Parricide a Murderer of Christians and a professed enemy to Mankind and at last contrary to the perpetual establish'd Laws of Nature kill'd himself A little before his death there appeared a fiery Comet whose event in his fall was happy This homicide raised the first persecution in the Primitive Church and put to death St. Peter and St. Paul Apostles as you may read in St. Chrysostom and in Lactantius l. 4. c. 21. de vera Sapientia God hath given us Signs in the Heavens both of His wrath and mercy of which I have shewn you here some precedents and do intend to manifest it with a few more examples but conclude the Introduction here with this The Rain bow which we often see is from a natural cause as the Comets fiery impressions and all Meteors are suppos'd to be yet the proclamations of the Creator and their significations oftentimes beyond the knowledge or reach of humane reason the Rainbow given to Noah was a Sign of Peace Gen. cap. 9. ver 13. Arcum nieum ponam in nubibus coeli erit Signum foederis inter me inter terram THE FOURTH PART Shewing The opinions of some Men concerning Blazing Stars with a compendious Historical observation of their events with divers other prodigies epitomiz'd ALl Comets or fiery impressions are generally observed swiftest at the first and their influences of greatest force having then most matter and peradventure more violent and obnoxious when newly inflam'd But all this is oppugned by Scaliger who conceives no Comet for to consist of a fiery nature but a crude and undigested vapour illuminated by the Planets or fixed Stars as are those Meteors commonly called falling Stars which are like gellies not enflam'd but transparent and apt to receive light and these Meteors being illuminated by the Celestial orbs do represent as in a mirrour their figures or apparent forms of the Stars or Sun which apparitions are common in the Northern Climates although held portentions to us And such as do continue long where the material cause is great and the rays of the Sun wanting force to dissipate them As for an instance in the year of Grace 1596. the Hollanders sayling by Nova Zembla to search for a N. E. passage into China and the East Indies there did appear for 17 continued days the perfect effigies of the Sun after the 17. of October when as the true Sun was depressed the Horizon of that place being in the latitude of 77 degrees The like you may read in
menacing the subversion of the whole Island all which quickly after came to pass by their own intestine wars and the invasion made by Julius Cesar who subdued it to the State of Rome the people subjugated to the Tyranny of the ensuing Emperours As for the forerunning signs of calamities this Island groaned under there were seen in the Air globes of fire and dreadfull screaks and noises heard to the astonishment of the people Anno 1558. began deformed reformation whose infatuated doctrine was attended with a prodigious and fatal Comet hanging over their heads as a messenger of God's wrath In these times there fell out of the Air such multitudes of strange and monstruous proportion'd flies that for many miles in Germany they destroyed the corn in the fields and all vegetables until with want they died the corruption of whose bodies infected the Air and so begot an Epidemical disease in testimony of the protestation made In the year of Christ 1588. it is reported by Snellius how that at Amsterdam a little before Sun-setting there was beheld in the Air the form of a Seafight which continued the space of an hour where the conquered were seen to flie this was little before the Spaniards proud Armado came insulting into our narrow Seas who presuming of their strength to captive England were by the blessing of God frustrated of their design and put to flight being severed with a puffe of wind and many thrown upon our coast with shipwrackt fortunes craving mercy of us whom they presum'd to conquer under the disguise of Religion when it was to enlarge their Dominions by enthralling us An Embleme of humane greatness and how imbecile it is a story paralleld by Xerues both in their pride and successe Of these portentions apparitions and direful forewarnings of God's just wrath against the finful World there be many fearful examples over-long to be rehearsed in this Treatise so that all of this kind I will here forbear and conclude with those immediately following the death of Julius Cesar Dictator murdered by the Senators in the Senate house at which time there appeared a Blazing Star with divers other prodigious signs of ensuing woe and effusion of bloud which presently after followed For seven nights after his death there was heard hideous howling of Dogs and Wolves neer their great Towns fatal Birds screaking in their Cities Beasts did speak the Images in their Temples did sweat Mount Aetna brake forth with dreadful globes of fire where stones were melted the Earth gap'd Rivers stood still the Alpes trembled armed bands appear'd in the Air Trumpets were heard to sound the Sun pale and wan and almost obscured for a year following and of Cesar's slaughter thus writeth Ovid. Metam Lib. 15. Arma ferunt inter nigras crepitantia nubes Terribilesque tubas auditaque cornua coelo Praemonuisse nefas Solis quoque trist is imago Lurida solicitis praebebat lumina terris Of this writeth Virgil. Geor. Lib. 1. and also Tibullus lib. 2. Ele. 5. Of Parelii Lunary Rain-bows and some stupendious Eclipses of the Luminaries also light nights and dark days Before the bloudy conflict between Cesar and Pompey in the fields of Pharsaelia where blind Fortune was arbitrator which of these two fond ambitious Men should rule the subingated World at that time there appeared 3 Suns or 2 Parelii as if declaring the greatnesse and glory of these two Potentates who were but as false lights for they both soon vanish'd In the year of Grace 1525 there appeared 6 Suns or 5 Parelii all visible at one time Gem. Phri Lib. 1. cap. 8. and quickly after this was Francis King of France overthrown in Battall and of a great Prince made a captive by the Spaniards about this time also many false Prophets did arise Pliny Lib. 2. in his natural History writes of 3 Suns or 2 Parelii that were seen in Bosphorus but neither registers the age nor records the event He mentions also 3 when Lu. Plancus and Marc. Lepidus were Consuls and when Claudius Cesar was Consul and when C. Domitius and Ca. Fannius were Consuls there appeared at one time 3 Moons he affirms also some nights so light as that they were not but in respect of time easily distinguished from the day but what followed he relates not But this happned about the Nativity of our Lord and Saviour who was the light of the World and did disperse the clouds of errour and idolatry which had a long time infatuated the Heathens in their benighted understandings and now to be illuminated with the Truth and this recorded to be seen not only in Judaea but in Spain and other places of Europe Aristotle lib. 3. cap. 2. Mete writeth of two Rain-bows made by the rays of the Moon in the night season these were seen in his days Thimon writes of two Rain-bows seen in the night and both in the space of 3 years Albertus records one in his time the Moon not at full in the Sgn of ♑ the Sun in ♉ ready for to enter ♊ the time of year being about the middle of April the ☽ in the South and the Rain-bow in the North part of the hemisphere Americus who gave the West Indies its name writes of one Rain-bow which he did see in the north part of the Horizon about midnight but very pale Gemma Phri lib. 2. cap. 2. Cosmo writes of one that was seen the 12. of March about midnight the Air clear and temperate this Rain-bow was described with perfect colours as those that we see in the day And Daniel Sennertus a famous Physitian of Wittenberg reports of one Rain-bow which himself did behold about Midsommer-time in the year of Christ 1599 immediately after a direful Tempest of Thunder and Rain this Rain-bow appeared very beautiful between the North and East part of the Horizon by which it should seem 't was after 12 at night Snellius lib. de Cometa 1618 writes how that in the year of our Lord God 1617 and in the month of December the Moon neer the full there did appear a Rain-bow in the night and upon the 30. day of December following going towards the Hague he did see another continuing from 5 to 6 in the evening these were a little before the beginning of the Palatinate wars fatal unto Germany and hurtful to all Christendome Divers portentious Eclipses both of Sun and Moon have happened according to the course of Nature although prodigious and Egyptian darkness too hath benighted us continuing 3 or 4 days as John Stow in his Annals testifieth and that some days in Holland were not distinguished from the nights and divers men in the time of artificial day did miscarry by reason of darkness having lost their ways mistook their Inns and so fell into their graves shortning their voyages to their journeys end And Sleidanus records the like of this in Germany in the year of Christ 1547 in the moneth of April when the Sun was obscured to their Horizon for
which while he lived was lockt up in his breast resolved never to be published till after his death being experiments in Physick and Chyrurgery compounding Medicines c. 50 Culpepper's Semiotica or his Astrological judgement of Diseases much enlarged from the Decumbiture of the sick the way to find out the cause change and end of the disease also whether the sick be likely to live or die with the signs of life and death by the body of the sick party according to the judgement of Hippocrates with a Treatise of Urines by N. Culpepper 51. Cornelius Agrippa his fourth book of Occult Philosophy or Geomancy Magical Elements of Peter de Abbona the nature of Spirits made English by R. Turner 52. A Glimpse of Divine Light being an Explication of some passages exhibited to the Commissioners of Whitehall for approbation of publick Preachers against Joh. Harrison of Lund Chap. Lancash 53. The Queens Closet opened Incomparable Secret in physick chyrurgry preserving candying cooking as they were presented to the Queen transcribed from the true copies of her Majesties own Receipt books by W. M. one of her late servants 54. The Conveyancers of Light or the compleat Clerk and Scriveners Guide being an exact draught of all Presidents and Assurances now in use as they were penned and perfected by divers learned Judges eminent Lawyers and great conveyancers both ancient and modern whereunto is added a Concordance from K. Rich. 3. to this present 55. A Satyre against Hypocrites 4. 56. Iron Rod put into the L. Protectors hand to break in pieces all antichrist power by J. Sanders 57. Wits Interpreter the English Parnassus or a guide to those admirable accomplishments that compleat our english Gentry in the most acceptable qualifications of Discourse or Writings also the whole mystery of those pleasing Witchcrafts of Eloquence and Love are made easie in the Art of Reasoning Theatre of Courtship Labyrinth of Fancies Love songs Drollery the perfect inditer of Letters a la mode by J. C. 58. The Floating Island a Trage-comedy acted before the King by the Students of Christ Church in Oxford By Dr. Stroude 59. Paracelsus Occult Philosophy of the mysteries of Nature and his secret Alchimy 60. Wit and Drollery with other Jovial Poems by Sir I.M. â—am 1. Sym. 5. W.D. Never before printed 61. Illustrious Shepherdess the imperious Brother translated out of Spanish a famed Romance 62. Monarchy no Monarchy with the Prophefies of the White King and other explained to which is added several Hieroglyphicks by W. Lilly Student in Astrology With his other Works 63. Short-hand writing made most plain and easiest that ever was newly published by J. Rich Mr. in short-writing 64. Tectonicon shewing the exact measuring all manner of land-squares timber stone steeples pillars globes also the making and use of the Carpenters rule c. fit to be known by all Surveyors Land-meters Joyners Carpenters and Masons by L. Diggs 65. Heaven and Earth shaken a Treatise shewing how Kings Princes and their governments are turned and changed by J. Davis Minist in Dever 66. The Tears of the Indies being an Historical Relation of the cruelties of the Spaniards in the Islands of Hispaniola Cuba Jamaica c. in the West Indies by Cosaus B. in Spain an eye-witness 67. Them is Aurea the Laws of the Fraternity of the Rosie Cross written by Count Mayerus and now Englished for to inform that honourable Society by T. H. 68. Compleat Midwifes practise in the high and weighty concernments of the Birth of Mankind or perfect Rules derived from the Experiences and Writings not only of our English but the most accomplished and absolute practise of many French Spanish Italians and other Nations fitted for the weakest capacities in a short time to attain the knowledg of the whole Art by T. C. and others 69. Sportive Wit the Muses Merriment a new spring of Drollery Jovial Fancies c. 70. J. Tradescan's Rarities published by himself 71. Most approved Medicines Remedies for the diseases in the body of Man by A. Read Dr. in Ph. 72. Art of simpling an introduction to the knowledge and gathering of Plants wherein the Definitions Divisions Places Descriptions Differences Names Vertues times of flourishing and gathering Uses Temperatures signatures of plants To which is added a Discovery of the lesser World by W. C. 73. Willsfords Arithmetick made plain to the easiest capacity in two books viz. Natural Decimal being most useful for all Gentlemen Merchants Shop-keepers and all others by T. Willsford Gent. 74. Adam in Eden the paradise of Plants a Description of all our English plants wild or otherwise with their Signatures applied to the parts of the body of Man with their Physical use that a man may be his own Physitian the ingredients being to be had in every field and garden made publick by W. Coles M. D. for the benefit of all English men 75. The perfect Cook a right method of the Art of Cookery restoring the whole practice to a more finer way then ever before extant 76. Medicina Magica tamen Physica the method of curing diseases by Sympathy and Antipathy a work fit to be known by all by S. Bolton 77. The Treasury of the Soul 78. The expert Doctors Dispensatory the whole Art of Physick restored to practice The Apothecaries Shop and Chyrurgians Closet with all safe practises are maintained a useful piece 79. The History and Nature of Meteors with the weathers prediction by T. Willsford Gent. 80. The proceeding of the High Court of Justice against the late King Charls with his Speech upon the Scaffold and other proceedings Jan. 30. 1648. 81. Commentary on the 15. Psalm by Mr. Christopher Cartwright Min. of the Gospel in York 82. Sir Kellum Digby's and other Ladies of Honour their Physick and Chirurgery with preferving c. 83. Cabinet of Jewels mans misery God's mercy Christ's treasury c. in eight Sermons with an Appendix of the nature of Tythes under the Gospel with an Expediency of Marriage in publick Assembly by J. Cragg Min. of the Gospel 84. The mysteries of Love and Eloquence or the Arts of Wooing and Complementing in which are discovered the pleasures recreations of perswasive Language whether by Letters or other usual or more secret Dispatches c. FINIS