three hundred sixty five Days and six hours Now these fix hours at four years end come to twenty four hours that makes up a Day which is added to the Month of February And then that Year is called Leap-year which by the Romans was named Bissextilis As to the Months of the Sun as we reckon them some have thirty Days some thirty one and February alone has but twenty eight except every Leap or fourth year when it has twenty nine Days Which that you may find out readily at any time do but mind these following Verses Thirty Days hath November April June and September Of eight and twenty there is one And the rest are of thirty one Phil. But did the Ancients hold the same Year as we do Sophr. Before the time of Julius Caesar they held several forts of Yeas But that Emperour forty years before Christs Birth ordained the Year to consist of three hundred sixty five days and fix hours Phil. Pray tell me the Difference of the Old and New style and what 's the Ground of it Soph. The Old Style which the Greek Church and most Protestants keep still is the old Julian Account which for many Ages seemed to have no sensible Error But in process of time it was discovered to be not altogether agreeable with the natural Motion of the Sun the Julian Year exceeding the rue Solar Year ten Minutes and forty eight Seconds which caused the Equinoxes and Solstices yearly to change their Places and fly back so many minutes and seconds Whereupon Pope Gregory the XIII by the advice and direction of Antonius Lilius and other excellent Mathematicians corrected the Calender making the Year to consist of three hundred sixty five days five hours forty nine minutes twelve seconds And to the end that the vernal Equinox which then was on to the eleventh of March might be reduced to the one and twentieth of March as it was at the time of the first Nicene Council he commanded ten day in October to be left out so as the fourth day of October was accounted for the fourteenth day This hapned in the Year fifteen hundred eighty two from which time this Account was called the Gregorian Account and so came the Distinction of Old and New Style the Old according to the Julian and the New according to the Gregorian Account Phil. Thus the Nations that hold the New Style do reckon ten days before us and when it is with us for exemple the first day of May 't is the eleventh with them Sophr. Right But as we differ in the Style so we do from some Nations as to the beginning of ' Years and of Days Phil. How so my Sophronius Sophr. You know that in most Parts of Europe they begin the Year as the Romans did on the first of January And so we do here in England in some respect therefore we call it New-Years-Day But upon a Civil Account and for our Date of Buying or Selling c. We begin the Year and so do the Spaniards eight weeks after viz. upon Lady-Day the twenty fifth of March So the Jews after they got our of Egypt began their Year much about the same time in March to which answered in part their Month Nisan Whereas before they were wont to begin it in their Month called Tisri or Ethanim which comprehended part of our September and October Now the Venetians begin theirs the first of March And so did Romulus the Founder of Rome for 't is observed that before Julius Caesar the Month of July was called Quintilis or the fifth Month from March The Moscovites who follow the Greek Church begin their Year the first of September upon this ground For they believe the World began in Autumn and whereas we reckon our Years from the Coming of Christ into the World they reckon theirs from the time of the Creation As for Days you must know there is a Natural and Artificial Day that containing Day and Night and consisting of twenty four hours this beginning at Sun-rising and ending at Sun-set The Natural Day is reckoned in most parts of Europe from one midnight to another reckoning twice twelve hours that is from Midnight to Noon twelve hours and from Noon to the Midnight following twelve hours more beginning with one two three c. But in Italy as formerly in Athens they reckon twenty four hours all along without coming back to one as we do and that from Sun-set to Sun-set At Nuremberg and some other Places of Germany they reckon their Days as the Ancient Jews and Chaldeans from one Sun-rising to another beginning with one a Clock and so on to the twenty fourth hour 'T is true the Jews had besides their Civil Day a Sacred Day destined for Holy Exercises which began at Sun-set and continued till the next Sun-set In Moscovy they reckon their day from the Sun-rising till Sun-set and when the Sun is gone down then they reckon the first hour of the night and so on till the Sun appearing again over their Horizon finishes the time of their Night and begins with them a new Day Phil. I have heard very often of Equinoxes and Solstices but could never understand clearly what they are Be pleased to give me as clear an Account of them as you can Sophr. In Order to that you must know there are yearly two Equinoxes and two Solstices a Vernal and an Autumnal Equinox a Summer and a Winter Solstice which begin the four several Seasons of the Year For the Vernal Equinox begins the Spring the Summer Solstice the Summer the Autumnal Equinox the Autumn and the. Winter-Solstice the Winter And as in the Equinoxes the Days and Nights are of an equal length so in the Summer-Solstice we have our longest Days and in the Winter-Solstice our shortest Now the Equiquinoxes are so called from the Latin Aequinoctium because then the Days and Nights are of an equal length And the Solstices have their Name from the Latin Word Solstitium which signifies a stop of the Sun Not that the Suns Motion be stopped except from coming nearer us than the Tropick of Cancer and from going further from us than the Tropick of Capricorn But of this you shall hear more hereafter Phil. What shall we then proceed upon Sophr. Next to the Glorious Brightness of the Sun the Vastness of its Body the prodigious Distance thereof from us and its continual Motion to or from us let us now consider the Influence of it by its Heat which in a manner is the Life of Plants and Animals For as without the Light of the Sun the whole Frame of Nature should be buried in Darkness so without the Heat that arises from it no living Creature could live Neither is this Heat inherent in the Body of the Sun but it is wonderfully produced as Philosophers teach us by the Reflection of its Beams Wherewith the Air being warmed foments and keeps alive all Vegetables Phil. But what is an Eclipse of the Sun
and five of the third four hundred and seventy seven of the fourth two hundred and seventeen of the fifth and forty nine of the sixth To which if you add besides five Cloudy and nine Dark you will find the compleat Number aforesaid of one thousand twenty two Those of the first Magnitude are reckoned to be each of them an hundred and seven times bigger than the Earth those of the second Magnitude ninety times of the third seventy two times of the fourth fifty six of the fifth twenty six and of the sixth eighteen Thus much for the fixed Stars Now let us come to the seven Planets whose Names follow here according to their respective height with their several Figures as they are used by Astrologers Viz. Saturn ♄ Jupiter ♃ Mars ♂ Sol ☽ Venus ♠Mercury ☿ Luna ☽ Phil. How come they to be called Planets Sophr. They are called Planets that is wandring Stars not that they be subject to any uncertain or irregular Motion but because they have either in respect to themselves or the fixed Stars a different Motion and that they are not always at an equal distance from each other But the Copernicans deny the Sun to be a Planet and will have it to be a fixed Star And whereas we say the Sun turns about the Earth they hold quite contrary that the Earth turns about the Sun I suppose you have heard of this Opinion by the by and for ought I know it may be true enough But we will not insist upon it Shall I now tell you the several but prodigious Distances of the Planets from us You will be amazed at it But thus we have it from approved Astronomers Saturn is fourteen Millions of Leagues distant from us Jupiter eight Millions of Leagues Mars twelve hundred thousand Sol or the Sun eleven hundred thousand Venus a hundred and sixty seven thousand Mercury sixty four thousand and Luna or the Moon betwixt thirty and forty thousand Leagues And yet the Planets are nearer than any of the fixed Stars Phil. This is past any mans Belief but an Astronomers But if it be so sure these Celestial Bodies must be of a vast Magnitude to be seen at such a distance Sophr. The Sun which is counted by much the largest of all the Planets is by some reported to be two hundred times at least bigger than the Earth and by the most moderate a hundred and sixty six times Then they make Jupiter ninety five times at least bigger than the Earth and Saturn ninety times Mars they reckon to be one third part bigger than the Earth Venus lesser by thirty seven times the Moon by thirty nine times but they make Mercury much lesser Phil. Pray what Planet is that you call Venus Sophr. The same which is more commonly known by the name of Morning-Star in the Morning and of Evening-Star in the Evening Phil. But how comes it Sophronius that whilst the Sun appears above our Horizon none of the other Planets and indeed no Star is seen Sophr. The Reason is plain For a greater Light drowns a lesser and the Sun being as it were the source of Light must needs have a greater proportion of it than any of the Stars Phil. Are you then of Opinion that the Stars have no Light of their own Sophr. I do not say so But it is credibly thought they borrow the greatest part of their Light from the Sun And therefore it seems that God has placed the Sun in the midst of the Planets that those above and beneath it might equally partake of its Splendor Phil. So much for that Sophronius I desire now to understand their Motion Sophr. To clear this Point you must know that those Philosophers who hold the Sun moves about the Earth which is the vulgar Opinion suppose two several Motions of the Stars in general The one Natural or Proper from West to East and the other Violent from East to West And they attribute the Cause of this last Motion as I have already hinted to the great Orb called Primum Mobile which turns from East to West round the World with an equal rapidity within the space of twenty four hours and with it hurries away all the lesser Orbs. Which is observable in the Sun particularly Whereas according to the Natural Motion of the Stars from West to East 't is to be observed amongst the Planets That cold Saturn does not finish its Course but within the Compass of almost thirty years bright Jupiter finishes his in about twelve years fiery Mars within little less than two years the Sun in one year fair Venus in one year and a half Mercury in something less than half a year the Moon in twenty seven days and about eight hours Phil. I do not understand these contrary Motions It is apparent as you say that the Sun moves daily from East to West and so goes round about the World But how can it at the same time move by a proper motion of its own a quite contrary way that is from West to East How can any thing go backward and forward at the same time This is past my Understanding Sophr. Do but suppose a small Fly upon a Globe to run through the Ecliptick Line which shews the proper Motion of the Sun Phil. What then Sophronius Sophr. Then turn the Globe never so much about from East to West still you will find that the Fly in the mean time gets forward in her course from West to East And if you do so turn the Globe about that as often as it turns quite round the fly may advance one Degree in her Course Westward you will find that by turning the Globe three hundred sixty five times the fly shall be gone as many Degrees in a quite contrary way Such is the Yearly Course of the Sun from West to East according to which it goes about one Degree every day and in a years time runs over the twelve Signs or Constellations called the Houses of the Sun Phil. You have explained it to me with as much clearness as may be Sophr. Now from this Course of the Sun is come the Distinction and Distribution of Time which is the measure of Motion And to proceed à minori ad majus there is first a Minute next an Hour then Days Weeks Months Seasons Years Threescore Minutes go to an Hour twenty four Hours to a natural Day seven Days to one Week four Weeks to a Month according to the Moon and some odd dayes more to a Month of the Sun Now twelve of these Months make the four Seasons of the Year viz. three Months to each Season And so the Year does consist of twelve Months fifty two Weeks or of three hundred sixty five Dayes and about six hours Except it be a Leap-year and then there is three hundred sixty six Days Phil. Pray what 's the Occasion of this additional Day Sophr. You must know that according to the old Julian Account the Year consists of
extending from the Borders of Austria to the Black Sea and so dividing Hungary Transilvania and Moldavia from Poland 5. Mount Haemus reaching from the Gulf of Venice as far as the Black Sea and so parting Greece from Servia and Bulgaria 6. The Dofrine Hills a vast and continual Ridge of Mountains which divide Norway from Sweden In the other Parts of the World you have first in Asia Taurus of which Caucasus is a part and Imaus greater than any in Europe That running a vast way from West to East and This from North to South In Africk Atlas extending from the Atlantick Ocean a prodigious way Eastward besides the Mountains of the Moon in the South parts In the Northern America the Mountains of New Mexico which run also North of Florida And in the Southern America the Andes reaching from the North parts of Peru to the Streights of Magellan above three thousand Miles Those are Philalethes the greatest and most noted Mountains in the World All of them generally of a Rocky Substance and in most places overspread with Forests None of them free from Snow even in the heat of Summer In short they are all troublesom and very dangerous to travel over by reason of their steep and tedious Ascents narrow ways and craggy Rocks deep and dreadful Precipices fierce Whirl-winds and huge Balls of Snow which sometimes tumble down from the top with great noise and violence And yet which is Remarkable amongst some of these dreadful Hills as the Alps there are Valleys incredibly fruitful and temperate with Towns and Villages in them Generally these Hills are Impassable except in a few Places which therefore were by the Romans called Portae or from the Greek Pylae or Thermopylae And as from Lakes so from these Mountains spring many of the greatest Rivers Some produce Metals as Gold Silver Iron c. and others produce none at all Now the lesser sort of Hills are commonly Sandy Chalky or Clammy And some of these as Mount Aetna in Sicily Vesuvius in the Kingdom of Naples and Hecla in Iseland are famous for those dreadful Fires which sometimes do break out of them Phil. Pray what 's the cause of those frequent Eruptions of Fire and Vomiting of Flames Sophr. The great Abundance of Sulphureous Matter contained in the bosom of those Hills the Wind which gets in at the chinks blowing the Fire and the Water on the other side adding to the force of it Phil. Then 't is to be supposed that when the Combustible Matter shall be wasted the Conflagration shall cease Sophr. Sure enough And therefore in Tercera and St. Michael two of the Azores Islands there are now no such Fires to be seen as there has been formerly but only now and then a Smoak And 't is observable that in the Ascension Island and St. Helena the Soil is so like Ashes that it may be credibly supposed there have been formerly some Fires of this kind Phil. But do you think Sophronius the Hills are of as old standing as the World Sophr. For my part I am inclined to believe the greatest Hills were created at first as they are Not that I think as some do that God having first made the Earth perfectly Round without any hollowness or one part higher than another and then contrived hollow places in the Earth to contain the Waters the Hills came of that Earth which made room for the Waters For certainly as many more Mountains as there are in the World could not fill up all those Concavities And yet I am apt to think that some Hills have been raised accidentally as those Sandy Hills near the Sea in the Low Countreys wherein are found many shells For 't is very probable those Shells were carried thither with the Sand by some violent Winds and afterwards compacted together by succeeding Rains and so hardened in process of time Phil. I confess 't is not unlikely Now I would sain know Sophronius whether or no there be Concavity's or hollow places Windings and Turnings Precipices and the like in the Bowels of the Earth Sophr. There 's no doubt of it if you consider the nature of Earth-quakes and those Rivers that having run a good way under ground come up again Phil. What have you now to say as to Forrests and Desarts Soph. In Europe the Forest of most note was the Hercynian Forest which over-run not only a great part of Germany but following the course of the Danube spread it self over Hungary and Transilvania and from thence on the left hand over Poland and Moscovy A Wood so formidable to the Romans that when they had gone 60. days Journey through it they came back and durst not venture to search the end of it But in Germany the greatest part thereof is long since consumed and no place there so much overspread with it as Bohemia In Poland and Moscovy this Forrest is the most visible and in the last especially Which is so over-run with it that when I was there an Attendant on the Right Honourable the Earl of Carlisle his Majesties Embassador to the Court of Moscovy we travelled 15 hundred miles through that Countrey and all within that Forrest Next to which for Fame was the Forrest called Ardennes in the Lower Germany Which in the time of Caesar extended from the Rhine one way as far as Tournay in Flanders and was in Compass at least 500. miles An inconsiderable Length you will say in comparison to that of Hercynia But now 't is not above 30. Leagues in length reaching but from Thionville in Luxemburg to Liege And yet not all that Woodland neither though within the Verge of that Forrest there being in that Tract of Ground many Villages and a great deal of Arable Land In short I shall observe to you that most of our European Forrests are of Fruitless Tree as Oak Beech Pine Juniper Alder and Maple-tree of Elm Ash and Poplar-tree but above all of Firr Though there are some indeed of Olive Orange and Myrtle-trees But in Asia there are whole Forrests of Cedar Cinamon Nutmeg and Clove-trees In Africk of Limon Orange Palme and Tamarind-trees And lastly America is famous for its Cedars but particularly for that red and exceeding hard Wood called Brasil from the name of a Country there which has whole Forrests thereof As to Desarts or Wildernesses properly so called they are either Sandy Stony or Moorish In Europe we are little troubled with them But in Asia there 's enough of 'em and especially in that part of Arabia which from hence is called Arabia Deserta A Countrey say's Melchior who had travelled in it where are sound neither Men nor Beasts no not so much as Birds or Trees Grass or Pasture but only Stony High and Craggy Mountains In short 't is a wild Place and full of vast Desarts so wast and desolate that such as travel there must carry their Provisions with them and guide themselves in their Journey by the course of the Stars 'T is
to the general Rule Some Rivers run under Ground more or less in the midst of their Course and at last come up again as new Rivers Such are the Guadiana and the Rhone in Europe Tigris in Asia Niger and Nubia in Africk Some spread themselves into the form of a Lake as the Tanais and Oby And others cross a Lake with so swift a course that they preserve themselves distinct from the Waters of it as the. Rhone aforesaid which coming down the Alpes falls into the Lake Leman and having run through the whole length of it from East to West comes out at Geneva Some Rivers have great Cataracts or Falls as the Rhine betwixt Bilefelt and Shaffausen the Rhone betwixt Geneva and Lyon and la Somme betwixt Amiens and Abbeville So 't is said of the River Nilus in Africk that in two several places it falls amongst Rocks with so terrible a noise that the Neighbouring People grow deaf with it Phil. Pray let us hear something of their Fall into the Sea Sophr. Many of the greatest Rivers fall in through several Mouths as the Danube and Nilus which have no less than seven each of them And Olearius in his Travels through Tartary to Persia tells us of 70. Mouths through which the River Volga that I have been upon several times disburdeneth it self after a winding Course of a thousand leagues into the Caspian Sea But there are some Rivers and commonly small ones that neither fall into other Rivers nor yet into the Sea but either lose themselves in the Ground or turn into a Lake Phil. Are all Rivers of the same Colour as ours are Sophr. They are generally so But yet there be some of a blackish colour some whitish and others reddish Of this last sort was the Adonis a River of Phaenicia in Syria which rises out of Mount Libanus and falls into the Sea 6. miles South of Barut This River in Summer-time used to contract a kind of Redness occasioned by the Winds which then blowing most vehemently did thereby carry down the Stream a great quantity of minium or red Earth from the sides of the Hills wherewith the Water was discoloured Phil. Is not this the River which was reported as Lucian has it to stream blood when the obsequies of Adonis the Darling of Venus were yearly celebrated Sophr. The very same Thus a natural Accident was made use of to give the better colour to the Superstition as if Adonis's Wounds did bleed every year Phil. Now as to the Tast of River-Water are all Rivers sweet as ours are Sophr. 'T is to be observed first that all Rivers subject to the Tide have a Tast of the Sea-water especially near their Fall into the Sea and so far as the Tide go's they have a brackish kind of Tast But there are other Rivers that have a brackish and mineral Tast upon another Account that is from such Minerals as they meet in their Course Phil. You know that Rivers are apt to overflow after a great Rain or Thaw as it frequently happens either at the beginning or at the latter end of Winter But I have heard of a more general and constant Overflowing of some great Rivers beyond Sea which I much admire at Sophr. 'T is this overflowing upon which depends the Want or Plenty of those Countrys And the River Nilus amongst others is as famous for that as it is for its Crocodiles In May says Thevenot it begins to flow and so increases every day some Inches till die latter end of September or the beginning of October At which time it begins to fall and is as long ebbing as flowing In the Year 1658. it increased according to the same Author who was then in the great Caire to the height of almost 22 Pics each Pic at 24 Inches And then the River began to decrease the 23d of September Phil. What becomes in the mean time of the Inhabitants and their Cattle during this great Land-Flood For Egypt at that time must needs look like a Sea Sophr. They retire upon Hills and there abide till the decrease of the Waters holding still a Commerce by the Intercourse of Boats Now as it happens sometimes that we have some Years too wet and others too dry so if Nilus overflows too much or too little Aegypt do's suffer for 't Unless it rise to 16 Pics 't is a bad Year and when it do's rise to 24. 't is as bad But if it chance at any time not to overflow at all 't is worst of all For then it does not only presage a Famine in Egypt but as some will have it prognosticates a Change in the State And accordingly 't is said that in the tenth and eleventh Years of Cleopatra a little before her Fall with her Sweet-heart Antonius the River increased not at all Phil. This is indeed very Remarkable But when the Water of Nilus is withdrawn to its natural Channel I suppose the Ground is very Slimy having lain so long under Water Sophr. So very Slimy that whereas we are fain to dung our Grounds the Egyptians throw Sand upon theirs before they Sow or Plant any thing And of this Slime is ingendred many living Creatures and as some say such innumerable heaps of Frogs that if the Country were not furnished as it is with a proportionable number of Storks by whom they are greedily devoured the Plague of Frogs would come a second time upon the Inhabitants Phil. Is it true that it never rains in Egypt Sophr. T is a Vulgar Error strongly confuted by Monsieur Thevenot Who affirms that it rains much in Alexandria and Rosetta but not indeed so much in the City of Caire However he says that he has seen it rain there two days together very hard and with great Thunder-claps in the Month of December The Sixth Discourse Of the National Tarts of the Earth SOphr Besides the Natural Division of the World into Earth and Waters there is a National Division of it which is to be the Subject of our present Discourse And to make it clear to ye you must know first the World is divided into two Principal Parts the Known and the Unknown World The Unknown World or that Part of the World which is yet Unknown to us lies about the Poles but the greater Part towards the Southern Pole That Part which lies towards the North Pole is called in Latin Terra Borealis or Terra Polaris Arctica and the other Part that lies towards the South Pole Terra Australis or Terra Polaris Antarctica The Known World is usually divided into four Parts Europe Asia Africk and America But it is a most unequal Division and I think it more rational to divide it thus Viz. the Known World first into two Parts the Old and the New World then the Old World into three Europe Asia and Africa and the New into two the Northern and Southern America For as the Old World do's visibly consist of three distinct Peninsules so is