Selected quad for the lemma: end_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
end_n	length_n	north_n	south_n	1,240	5	9.3918	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31068	The blazing star, or, A discourse of comets, their natures and effects in a letter from J.B. to T.C. concerning the late comet seen on Sunday, December the 11, 1664, at Ibbesley in Hantshire and since at London and Westminster and divers other places of this kingdom.	J. B.	1665 (1665)	Wing B94; ESTC R5134	25,274	54

his Mathematical instrument would needs demonstrate from the Parallax or equal distance that it was in the Heaven among the Planets and as that Comet or Star one thousand five hundred seventy two was seen for 16 whole months together in Casiopaea moving with equal motion and looking with an invariable position that is to say kept an equal distance with the fixed Stars and the other one thousand five hundred seventy seven observed in Sagittary so this was in Taurus in an equal line with the Eagles-heart not far from or rather in a constellation called the Ship and in the hinder Mast Pardon the inaccurate expressions of a person that never saw the Sea of that Ship his demonstration was ocular and so not easily confuted But I who have a great kindness for my old Master Aristotle put him off at present with the difference that was between Tuddaeus and Cornelius Gemma about the Comet 1577. the first affirming it in Sagittarius the second asserting it in Mercury and others from their different arguments concluding it in neither And withall how easily we are deceived in the nearness of the Moon and Stars and therefore how easily we may be so in the distance of these Comets we think the Moon toucheth some high Mountains and we think those Mountains touch the Moon when alas our sight only deceiveth us in the lowness of the one and the height of the other and how easily we are deceived when the Medium is so unconstant as the Air is when the distance is so great as from us to the upper Region and when the motion is so irregular as must needs be the motion of a vapour that is carried about with some wandring Planet a Novice can tell you out of his Magirus Thus I talk'd And because I might not seem of their humour that overthrow all and build nothing I would needs rub up my old Philosophy and say That Comets were either immovable or movable Those that are immovable are such thick exhalations as are drawn no farther than the lower part of the upper Region of the Air and there will not stir being too big for the virtue or force of the Planets under which they lie Those that are moveable as most are and this particularly are thinner matter drawn up to the upper end of the upper Region of the Air moving either with the Air constantly and directly or with its own matter unconstantly sometimes here sometimes there or else as this seems to doe by the impulse and influence of the Planet that is predominant above it for so Scaliger saith in his 77 Exercit. Etenim quum materiam informam fidus ab ima nostra attraxerit regione quare nunc abs se compactam formatam Libratam sibi propriorem non secum evehat sustinet igitur eam stella ut ita dicam parens ejus quasi cum a sole nubis suppenduntur Quid mirum si secum trahat eadem namque potestati quispiam attrahi retineri alibi disputatum est That is in brief The Stars and Sun raise these exhalations and they keep them up and guide them only I must adde that as Fire followeth the matter that feeds it so likewise this Flame doth its fuel sometimes from the North to the West sometimes from the North to the East sometimes quicker sometimes slower for it moves so swift sometimes that as it is seen late at Night so it is seen early in the Morning as if with Venus it out-ran the Sun whence some have mistaken the same Comet to be two At this rate of Pedantry I went on but the mischief of it was I could not give a reason for it presently until we came to consider how long it was likely to continue or to be seen and my Gentleman before he was aware said it might be seen for a fortnight which words I laid hold of and urged him to make it out and though he used many ways none would do but this viz. That it hath been observed to decrease so much since the first notice taken of it that if it would fall away proportionably so much every night it could be seen but sixteen nights at farthest whence I concluded my Masters old discourse that the Exhalation that makes a Comet is never so thin but it may last seven dayes Brevissimum saith Pliny quo cernerentur spatium septem dierum annotatum est The shortest space of their appearance is seven dayes but may be so thick compacted and copious that it may last seven months Longissimum octoginta dies that mistake of Pliny Cardan hath corrected in his Comment Quadupert Ptol. l. 2. c. 9. Whence it follows that the celebrated flame in Taurus is nothing but a little Exhalation gathered some 800. miles round by the Catholique or Universal Virtue of some Flames which have drawn it up and will keep it there as long as it lasts which will not be half so long as the Sword-Comet that hung as Josephus reports it over Jerusalem a whole Year before the Panolethria or utter destruction of the Jewes Besides I remember the account that Gassendus had given of the Comet that appeared from the end of November to the middle of January which makes good my Supposition and take it thus in his own words About the end of this Year meaning 1618. there appeared a famous Comet to the observation whereof he meaning Perreskin exhorted all the learned men he was acquainted with himself being destitute of fitting Instruments and not daring to trust himself in the Air because of his sickliness made no other observation save that by the Perspective Glass he discerned the form of its Head and how it differed from the Tayl which he compared to the Sun beams shining through a Window But he was glad when he heard afterwards that such as dwell not in Aix might a little after diligently observe all things thereunto pertaining And that I may relate somewhat thereof for the sake of those that desire to know such things The Comet appeard from the end of November to the middle of January and because it rose in the morning therefore the Tayl thereof was seen turning upward some dayes before the Head appeared The Head was a Star somewhat pale as big as the fixed Stars of the first magnitude but twinckled not as they do round on that side which was towards the Sun and crisped on the other end The Tayl or Hair was a thinner radiation and more white as long at first as an eighth part of the Heaven and broad at the end which did for the first day turn a little towards the South as much as came to a sixth part of its length The first appearance of its Head was there where Scorpio contracts its claws Its dis-appearance or ending was where the Dragon parting the Baars doth unfold the end of its tayl For besides the daily motion whereby this Comet did rise and set as the other Stars it went by its own

proper motion from South to North But so as if it had begun at the middle of Scorpio and had there cut the Ecliptick inclining to the West near 63. Degrees And whereas at first this motion was every day two Degrees and an eighth part it became about the Nones of December swifter by an whole Degree and afterwards which makes for my purpose and proves it but an Exhalation it did so decrease that at length it languished and also its Tayl which at the beginning was so long became by little and little so shortned that at last it vanished and became undistinguishable from the Head Insomuch that Kepler and he who were loath to confess it an Earthly Exhalation yet must needs say what is as bad that it was a Concretion of the liquid Heavens Touching the direction of the Tail of the Comet towards the quarter which was opposite to the Sun I need say nothing saith the Learned Gassendus especially seeing it belongs not to this place to shew the reason why it kept not a direct opposition but turned sometimes to the right hand and sometimes to the left by an unequal kind of deflection ☞ Nor need I speak of what it presaged seeing it is not the least argument of humane weakness to be afraid of those things which have nothing to doe with this world wherein we live At least it is a wonder as that learned man goeth on that Men will not believe God himself who commands that we should not be afraid of the signs of Heaven for as much as he makes not signs of those things as being unexpounded can give no warning and unless God makes a Comet to be the sign of Calamities ensuing how can the Comet either have knowledge of future things or a desire to discover them Doth not the Comet take its own course as all other natural being little concerned what a stirr the Nations of Mankind make one with another But this Comet was said to foreshew the Wars and Slaughters which followed as if before there had been no Wars Pestilence nor dearh of Kings As if no Tragedies were now in action twenty years since They referr all to the Comet and by the same reason they may referr all the Troubles that shall arise hereafter till a new Comet appear and make the former forgotten though it should not appear till an hundred years hence Thus farr Gassendus most pertinently as well to the Occasion as to this Discourse it self But this was a high Point and therefore I suddenly slipped out of it to a controversie about the times of its appearance of which it was said that as in the Spring there is too much moisture and too little heat to gather a Comet in Summer there is too much heat which will disperse and consume the matter that it cannot be joyned together which is the reason why no Comets can be seen on the other side of the Tropicks or within the Zodiack where the extreme heat dissolves the matter that should compose them So this season is clean contrary to the nature of a Comet which is hot and dry Winter being cold and moist But be it remembered what a moderate Winter this is and how extraordinary hot the last Summer and Autumn hath been in France where they were afraid of their Vintage and in Spain where they are in danger of Famine by reason of the extraordinary Drought and it will be confessed a greater wonder to the Learned that there had been no Comet this year at this time than it is to the ignorant that there is one You will wonder all this while that we discoursed not of the effects and influence of this strange exhalation you must know that was the thing in every bodies mouth But I avoided the resolution of that point as long as I durst either safely or civilly until at last being overprest by the ingenuous Mrs. T. whose knowledge is above most Womens and curiosity above most Mens who owns a Masculine Spirit and is the great argument I use to prove there is no sexe in the Soul I began my Lecture very gravely That the effects of these Comets 1. such as they had by their own influence and 2. such as they had by the influence of the Planets they lie under A Comet by its own operation and nature betokeneth three things 1. Drought 2. Barrenness 3. Pestilence 1. Drought because such an exhalation as a Comet cannot be generated without great heat and much moysture is consumed in the burning of it 2. Barrenness because the fatness of the Earth is drawn up whereof the Comet consisteth 3. Pestilence for so much as that kind of exhalation which maketh a Comet corrupteth the Air which infecteth the bodies of Men and Beasts To which I may add Tempests Inundations which the dispersion of these vapours round this wide world is so apt to produce that Manilius had good reason for his Verse Nunquam futilibus excanduit ignibus aether Claudian for his In Coelo nunquam spectatum impune Cometam and Camerarius for his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non sit Cometa quin malum secum adferat Which are all true in respect of the natural effects these Comets have upon the inanimate part of the World Though 2. Those political effects that are ascribed them by those that would amuse and deceive the World I find in reason no ground and nature no cohaerence for since if the dependence of mens bodies whether in publick or private capacities upon the Elements should be certain which yet is variable and the dependence of the Elements upon the Configurations of the Heavens should be constant which yet is alterable yet that of mens Souls upon their Bodies is so mutable by Grace exalting them as in Christ by Education altering them as in Socrates by occasions by assing them as in common Experience that there can be no more said of alterations in France or Great Britain where this Comet is seen than this All this time this Comet doth appear The Effects of this Comet no doubt but there are many dry and hot Exhalations in the Air which in dry men kindle heat whereby they are provoked to anger Of anger cometh brawling of brawling fighting and warr of warr victory of victory alteration in Common-wealths and now also the Air may be more infectious and Princes living as they have reason more delicately than other men may be more subject to infection than other men and so it may be dye too upon which account we may reason form this Accident all the Contingents of our Age. But then for those direful effects this Comet may pretend to from the present state of Heaven and the Configuration of the Planets First All our Astrologers confess the aspect of Heaven at this time most propitious to us Mars Culminant bespeaking our Undertakings in all humane probability happy Mercury our Counsells prosperous Saturn and Jupiter our Trade improved yea and Taurus to which