Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	east_n	motion_n	west_n	1,864	5	9.5519	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39871	A plurality of worlds written in French by the author of the Dialogues of the dead ; translated into English by Mr. Glanvill.; Entretiens sur la pluralités des mondes. English	Fontenelle, M. de (Bernard Le Bovier), 1657-1757.; Glanvill, John, 1664?-1735.	1688 (1688)	Wing F1416; ESTC R26138	59,689	166

yet I knew not where to begin for to a Person who understood nothing of Natural Philosophy you must go a great way about to prove that the Earth may be a Planet the Planets so many Earths and all the Stars worlds however to give her a general Notion of Philosophy I at last resolv'd on this Method All Philososophy said I Madam is founded upon two things either that we are too short sighted or that we are too curious for if our eyes were better than they are we should soon see whether the Stars were worlds or not and if on the other side we were less curious we should not care whether the Stars are Worlds or not which I think is much to the same purpose But the business is we have a mind to know more than we see And again if we could discern well what we do see it would be so much known to us But we see things quite otherwise than they are So that your true Philosopher will not believe what he doth see and is alwaies conjecturing at what he doth not which is a Life I think not much to be envy'd Upon this I fancy to my self that Nature very much resembleth an Opera where you stand you do not see the Stage as really it is but it is plac'd with advantage and all the Wheels and Movements are hid to make the Representation the more agreeable Nor do you trouble your self how or by what means the Machines are moved tho' certainly an Engineer in the Pit is affected with what doth not touch you he is pleas'd with the motion and is demonstrating to himself on what it depends and how it comes to pass This Engineer then is like a Philosopher tho' the difficulty is greater on the Philosophers part the Machines of the Theatre being nothing so curious as those of Nature which disposeth her Wheels and Springs so out of sight that we have been long a guessing at the movement of the Universe Suppose then the Sages at an Opera the Pithagoras's the Plato's the Aristotles and all the Wise Men who have made such a noise in the World for these many Ages We will suppose 'em at the Representation of Phaeton where they see the aspiring Youth lifted up by the Winds but do not discover the Wires by which he mounts nor know they any thing of what is done behind the Scenes Would you have all these Philosophers own themselves to be stark Fools and confess ingenuously they know not how it comes to pass No no they are not called Wise Men for nothing tho' let me tell you most of their Wisdom depends upon the ignorance of their Neighbours Every man presently gives his Opinion and how improbable so ever there are Fools enough of all sorts to believe 'em One tells you Phaeton is drawn up by a hidden Magnetick Vertue no matter where it lies and perhaps the grave Gentleman will take pet if you ask him the Question Another says Phaeton is compos'd of certain Numbers that make him mount and after all the Philosopher knows no more of those numbers than a sucking Child of Algebra A third tells you Phaeton hath a secret love for the top of the Theatre and like a true Lover cannot be at rest out of his Mistresses Company with an hundred such extravagant fancies that a Man must conclude the Old Sages were very good Banterers But now comes Monsieur Descartes with some of the Moderns and they tell you Phaeton ascends because a greater weight than he descends so that now we do not believe a Body can move without it is push'd and forc'd by another body and as it were drawn by Cords so that nothing can rise or fall but by the means of a Counterpoise he then that will see Nature really as she is must stand behind the Scenes at the Opera I perceive said the Countess Philosophy is now become very Mechanical So mechanical said I that I fear we shall quickly be asham'd of it they will have the World to be in great what a Watch is in little which is very regular and depends only upon the just disposing of the several parts of the movement But pray tell me Madam had you not formerly a more sublime Idea of the Universe Do you not think you did then honour it more than it deserv'd For most have the less esteem of it since they have pretended to know it I am not of their opinion said she I value it the more since I know it resembles a Watch and the whole order of Nature the more plain and easie it is to me it appears the more admirable I know not said I who hath inspir'd you with these solid Notions but I am certain there are few that have them besides your self People generally admire what they do not comprehend they have a Veneration for Obscurity and look upon Nature while they do not understand her as a kind of Magick and despise her below Legerdemain when once they are acquainted with her but I find you Madam so much better dispos'd that I have nothing to do but to draw the Curtain and shew you the World. That then which appears farthest from the Earth where we reside is call'd the Heavens that Azure Firmament where the Stars are fastned like so many Nails and are call'd fix'd because they seem to have no other Motion than that of their Heaven which carries them with it self from East to West Between the Earth and this great Vault as I may call it hang at different heights the Sun and the Moon with the other Stars Mercury Venus Mars Jupiter and Saturn which we call the Planets these Planets not being fastned to the same Heaven and having very unequal Motions have divers Aspects and Positions Whereas the fix'd Stars in respect to one another are always in the same Situation for Example Charles's Wain which is compos'd of those seven Stars hath been and ever will be as it now is tho' the Moon is sometimes nearer to the Sun and sometimes farther from it and so it is with the rest of the Planets Thus things appear'd to the old Caldoean Shepherds whose great leisure did produce these first Observations which have since been the foundation of Astronomy for Astronomy had its Birth in Caldoea as Geometry was born in Egypt where the Inundation of the Nile confounding the bounds of their Fields was an occasion of their inventing exacter Measures to distinguish every ones Land from that of his Neighbour So that Astronomy was the Daughter of Idleness Geometry the Daughter of Interest and if we did but examine Poetry we should certainly find her the Daughter of Love. I am glad said the Lady I have learnt the Genealogie of the Sciences and am convinc'd I must stick to Astronomy my Soul is not mercenary enough for Geometry nor is it tender enough for Poetry but I have as much time to spare as Astronomy requires beside we are now in the Countrey and