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
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
3. or 4. Comets that their tails did stream or extend out directly contrary to the Sun as if it were by him inlightned But others do rather conceive from hence that these are Meteors whose matter is drawn together and set on fire by some Star or Planet which it follows and turns unto it by some attractive power and their bodies not round but dilated according to the matter Some do think that these Stars were not new but from the creation although unvisible to the world before as that observed by Hipparchus or that in the brest of the Swan in the year 1600. or that which appeared in the year 1604. in Sagittarius and these observed without parallaxes in the year of Christianity 1625. towards the latter end of August a bright Star did appear at noon-day to the admiration of the people in the City of Antworpe which Star many Astronomers did behold and affirmed that it was the Planet Venus From the Nativity of our Lord and Saviour Anno 1630. May the 29. being the birth-day of Prince Charls there was a bright Star appeared at mid-day the decrees of just Heaven I dare not presume for to enter into So here I will end this discourse of blazing Stars the cause and their effects not being certainly known unto mortal man And thus writes St. Damascene lib. 2. cap. 7. Fidei Ortho. Cometae Dei imperio certis temporibus conflantur rursusque dilabuntur The middle Region of Air contains watry Meteors as Hail Snow and Rain but some conceives that those clouds which causeth rain to be the bounds unto the middle and lowest Region of the Air the midlemost is thought not to exceed four miles in depth and that the lowest is but so high as the Sun can reflect from the superficies of the terrestrial Globe so one of these regions must decrease by the increasing of the other and yet the lowest region when highest not to exceed two miles and when least or the lowest clouds not above an Italian mile for there be hills whose heads are perpetually covered with Snow and yet their perpendiculars are found by the observations of able Geometricians not to exceed a mile and a half that is 12. Stadiums or 1500. Geometrical Pases as was said before But some do urge that Tenariffe is higher then Pliny fains the Aspes to be others do affirm that 't is visible at Sea 4. degrees or 240. miles from whence Snellius would seem to demonstrate the perpendicular height for to be miles 9½ and others 4. miles There is a mountain in Pera called Periacqca by the Indians which hill Josephus Acostae in his History of the Indies doth advance so high in the description of it as he makes the Aspes in Italy for to seem but like mole-hills unto it and that the Air was so subtile on the tops of them that it was unapt to breath in and that he had almost vomited up his life And some erroneously do conceive the heads or tops of these mountains for to be exalted above the middle region of Air. Cradanus in his 17. Book De Subtilitatibus affirmeth the highest clouds not to exceed two miles and the lowest not above half a mile from the superficies of the terrestrial Globe being by common experience found to be under the tops of ordinary mountains Some would seem to prove it by thunder and lightning in this manner observe when a cloud breaks over your head the space of time between the flash of lightning and the clap of thunder for to be equal unto the firing of a Cannon and the report it gives at a miles distance neither is it heard much further then great Ordnances are as it hath been often observed in great tempests both of thunder and lightning that in 30. or 40. miles distance nothing hath been heard or seen but a fair day and tranquil Sky Some men do think the matter which causes this thunder and lightning to have an affinity with Gun-powder one being compounded by Nature and the other imitated by Art which opinions are various both in Philosophers and Chymists for Paracelsus and most of his disciples do affirm that it is caused by Sulphur and Salt-peter commixed with a great contrariety of Mercury unto either and these three they alledge to be the chief causes of Meteors Others do say that they are sulphurious exhalations confused in the clouds and by opposition of the vapours and coldnesse of the place it gets into a body where taking fire by antiparistasis it violently forces a passage through the condensed clouds with a roaring noise to the astonishment of mortalls Others do think that tempests are caused by the wicked condemned spirits and for this cause bells are hallowed and rung probable it is that it may be often times so permitted by the Creator as Psal 77. ver 49. and in the 7. of the Revelation yet all is in the power of God as Jer. 10.13 Psal 134.7 Qui producit ventos de thesauris suis Nothing in this world is certain or permanent opinions of men have their births periods coursees and revolutions as you may read in all ages where the opinions of Philosophers have been buried and again revived from their funerals armed with new demonstrations and fortified with arguments yet besieged and overthrown at last by the offspring of others which shews these are but disputations nothing being certain but the greatnesse of the Creator yet useful conclusions are derived from hence and necessary observations may be selected from humane conceptions although the essential part cannot be comprehended by us And here I will end this Introduction Ecclesiastes cap. 3. ver 11. Cuncta fecit bona in tempore suo mundum tradidit disputationi eorum ut non inveniat homo opus quod operatus est Deus ab initio usque ad finem The second Part. A brief discourse of Meteors imperfect mixt bodies and their causes FIrst you ought to observe that the Fire Air Water and Earth which here we have for our use cannot be called pure Elements but rather Elementarie bodies for Fire and Water Air and Earth are oppugnant and irreconcileable one to another as they are contrary in their own natures and can neither generate nor corrupt simply of themselves but as mixt they doe for if these were pure Elements which here we have the Fire would be immoderate for our use the Air to subtile and not fit for living Creatures to breath in the Water would be without taste and not good to drink the Earth would be sterile and could neither bring forth nor cherish and we being all mixt bodies compounded of the four Elements could not be nourished or sustained with Simples Of the severall divisions and dispositions of the Air. THe Element of Air is divided into three several regions or distinguished in three several parts variously qualified in which are generated many imperfect and mixt bodies and these divisions are thus nominated the Vpper Middle and
Brooks and those united making Rivers running along in fruitful Valleys cooling the superficies of the Earth and supplying what the fervour of the Sun exhales this office being performed and living creatures in it nourished by the streams the rest falls into the Ocean and from thence returns into the veins of the Earth again one water still following of another and this is confirmed by the undeniable authority of the sacred Scriptures Eccles cap. 1. Yet many exhalations and vapours are by the Sun extracted from the waters and those converted by the vertue of his rays into several Meteors as moist and windy exhalations which the Air gratefully does repay again unto the waters as in a continual course of amity and inseparable league between them the Air which is included within the pores of the Earth is by nature subtile and gets into all the corners and hollow places whereby to avoid a vacuum which Nature does abhor the Air here with cold that in the Earth does abound is easily condensed and turned into drops of water which falls from their heads into little channels and so discends into the valleys for these sometimes are observed at the bottoms or sides of hills to bubble forth and the bigger mountains do afford the greater Springs and the more plenty of water especially such as are pregnant with Minerals The higher and greater that the mountains be the vaster are their caverns and hollow places in them to receive the Air and as it turns into water it is supplied with more And besides hills being more exposed to the Sun beams must of necessity be fuller of pores then the lower grounds and plain places and yet it does not follow that all high places must have Springs because the soyl may differ and the Earth not pory there will want receptacles for the Air whereby the water should be generated For a demonstration of this you may see in the Winter time or against wet weather the stones do become moist with a Dew hanging upon them and in close and cold rooms drops of water will hang upon the walls observe then but the alterations and fluxibility of the Air the condensed coldnesse of the Earth and this will easily be credited which makes Springs generally lowest in Autumn as from hence and being exhausted with the Sommers heat The wonderful vertues and effects of Waters FOuntains there be which naturally have marvelous qualities of which I will briefly relate some of their strange operations As a Fountain in Baeotia which being drunk of does stupifie the senses and causeth forgetfulnesse And one in Cilicia which quickens the wits as M. Varro writes Ovid. Metam lib. 15. writeth the River Lyncestus will inebriate and the water of the Stygian Lake in Arcadia will cat through any mettal and is held deadly poyson In Dedons the Fountain of Jupiter will extinguish a torch that is lighted and being immediately put in again it will illuminate it So writes S. Augustine of a Well in Aegypt in some waters nothing will easily sinck as Mare mortuum in Judaea Here be waters in England that will turn wood into stone but one of the most remarkable stories is recorded by Albertus Magnus neer Lubeck in Saxony where birds in a nest being touched with a stick taken out of the Sea metamorphosed the young ones into stone There is a River in Hungary that will give Iron a tincture of Copper Theophrastus writeth of waters that will change the colour of birds or beasts if they do drink of it as from black to white The waters of Peutasium as Solinus writes is good and wholesome for men to drink of but deadly poyson to venomous serpents In Libiu there is a Spring that at the Sun rising and setting is temperately warm at noon-day exceeding cold and at midnight excessive hot Some Springs do rise and fall every six hours as the Seas do ebbe and flow As for the taste colour and temperature of waters they are according to the veins and minerals through which they pass whereof some are hot and drying as the Bathes having a taste of Brimstone coming through some sulphurious minerals famous they are for curing of aches in the bones and all cold diseases Those that turn wood into stone or other materials into mettal do participate much of their natures and the mines from whence they run some being hot others cold some salt others fresh some wholesome to drink others hurtful and unpleasant with divers other strange operations retaining more or lesse of the nature and qualities from whence they are derived Yet as we said before all waters are not conceived for to run through the hollow veins of the Earth but some are generated there in the caverns of hills and all hollow subterranian places by the condensed Air and this is not oppugnant to the sacred Scriptures Eccle. cap. 1. ver 7. for that is the general course of all rivers and the other but particular which is demonstrable in man the little world for by learned Physitians it is observed that such bodies as are inclined to a Dropsie or any phlegmatick disease their Urine will be more in quantity and weight then all that they do eat and drink and this observed not only for a few days but many months together and the reason which they give is that not only their meat and drink converts to water by reason of the coldnesse of those phlegmatick stomachs but the very Air in those bodies does turn to water and those parts supplied with more Air as it converts to the other element and such cold causes and waterish effects may be in the Earth and likewise in discolouring of water as by making it black pale green high-coloured or the like but howsoever these are but peculiar and from accidental causes for the general course of waters is from the Springs unto the Sea and so to those heads again Thus wonderful are the works of the Omnipotent God every thing magnifying His Greatnesse Daniel 3. Benedicite fontes Domino Conjectures of the Seas saltnesse with the Ebbs and Flouds THe Seas are conceived to be made salt and brackish by the fervour of the Sun's rays with the permixion of burnt exhalations and chafed with the violent and perpetual motion of the flux and reflux of the waters for by experience we find that liquid things if hot and burnt their tafte will be bitter and with commotion will prove brackish but it is very likely that the Seas were brackish from the creation and by this means continued so but some does object that if the rain-water were exhaled from the Seas and that the Springs did flow from thence the waters would retain a saltnesse in their taste but as for that it appears evidently that the Rain is refined by vertue of the Sun and the Spring-waters by their Meanders in passing through the Earth and this you may try by distilling of Salt-water or putting it into Earth so as it may drain forth
time of day when the Sun beams and wind meet it may cause the same effect by vertue of his rays 72. When the clouds seem piled upon heaps like fleeces of wool it presages wet weather and neer at hand 73. If the clouds fly low in Sommer it is a sign of rain and in Winter it prenotes cold weather to ensue quickly after 74. When the clouds seem white and jagged as if rent asunder gathering together in a body their forces united do foretel a storm the nature of the exhalation is apparently turbulent by the form and colour 75. Hollow and murmuring winds do presage stormy weather for it shews the Air is moist and dilated so cannot find an easie passage but is opposed or hindred in the motion by hills trees and hollow places which it gets into and makes a noise 76. The Air being a subtile body infuses it self into the pores of timber boards c. and against rain being converted into water or a moisture which makes boards to swell and is the cause that Wainscot and Joyners work doth crack against wet weather doors will not easily shut or open c. 77. Paper against wet weather will grow weak damp and swell the reason is the same with the last but in writing paper it will sooner be perceived and more certainly predict the weather because it is done over with a thin substance of a gummy nature which with the waterishnesse of the Air dissolves and grows moist giving way for the Incke to soke into the paper which the Gum in dry weather will not permit 78. When the clouds seem overcharged and white withal like towers expect then hail or snow according to the season of the year 79. After a storm of hail expect a frost to follow the next day after 80. When Spiders webs poplare and thistledoune and such light things do fly in the Air up and down as it were to make nature sport or a type of Fortunes favours these are signs of the weathers changing and speedy mutability for these things of lenity are easily moved by the first insurrection of any exhalation precursor of the weathers change and oftentimes wind 81. Mists descending from the tops of hills and settling in the valleys is a sign of a fair day especially in Sommer time and then an argument of heat for they were exhalations raised by the ferver of the Sun and by the Air in the evening which in hot weather is coldest it is converted into mists and dews as a necessary provision of Nature to cool the Earth and refresh her fruits whereby to enable them that they may endure the next days heat White mists are the same but more waterish and inclining to rain and if they do ascend it presages rain and argues the middle Region of the Air not for to be very cold the lowest waterâ—sh and the vapour warm 82. If in calm and serene weather you do observe the rack to ride a pace expect winds from that quarter for it is evident that the exhalation above in the clouds converts into a wind or rain and will descend but if clouds do ascend any day it presages the storm is past But neither this nor some of the other observations are conceived general diversity of climates producing several and various effects and besides the season of the year ought to be considered the weather having peculiar properties in several Countries and places as the nights in Africa are dewy in Winter clouds in Aegypt so heavy as if the Air were unable to support them and in such tumults as if they threatned the world with a deluge yet march all away without any drop of rain Locri and the lake Velinus in Italy have no day but there is a Rain-bow appears in Syracusa and Rhodes no day in all the year so cloudy but that the Sun is seen to those places most hot Countrys neer the torrid Zone have frequent flashes of lightning and in their Winter often without rain with many other observations purposely here omitted By Water and Earth 83. THe water of the Fens and standing pools growing warm without heat of the Sun more then usually is a sign of much rain the Element of water being rarisied as appears by the parts 84. The rain falling in small drops argues those clouds were high from whence it fell and a sign of much wet 85. If the rain be whitish and falling into water riseth up in bubbles it shews the rain will continue and that the water is then full of windy exhalations and if the showre does cease the wind will succeed it 86. The rain falling upon the Earth or floods if soon drunk up are signs of more 87. Linnen or woollen cloth dipped in the water and exposed to the Air if it soon freezes it is a sign of much or violent frost 88. Drops of water after rain falling from the eves of houses slowly one after another is a sign of frost for the Air works easily upon small parcels foreshewing in those parts an inclination of the greater 89. If the Sea at low water within the harbour be calm and yet makes a rumbling noise it presages wind and if so by fits expect both cold weather and rain 90. If the Sea or Sea-bancks in calm weather make much noise or the billows seem to heave and rise up it presages a tempest neer at hand 91. If the Seas be very rough and boisterous the wind not great the waves have been disturbed either with a tempest past or else at one approaching and if the billows do make a noise as with a refracted Air like the murmuring sound of woods the storm is neer at hand 92. When the tops of high hills are clear and free from clouds or mists it is a sign of fair weather 93. If a murmuring sound be heard in valleys or from hollow caves within the Earth or rivers make a rumbling noise more then usual running with troubled streams any of these do presage a storm Presages of Earth quakes 94 The extraordinary swelling and rising up of the Seas when there is neither wind nor flood to cause it foreshews an Earth quake observed by Posidonius 95. When the waters in wells fountains or deep pits are much troubled and have an evil savour and a taste of sulphure that were pleasant before it does argue an Earth-quake 96. A roaring noise under the earth resembling thunder is the forerunner of an Earth-quake 97. When the Air for a long time wants motion and is still that birds can scarcely fly for want of wind it foreshews an Earth-quake 98. Aristotle with some others do say that a black and narrow streak or line right under the Sun stretched out to a great length and remaining or continuing long does presage an Earthquake but this doth rather signifie a great tranquillity of the Air and so a second cause but not the immediate A Paraphrase THe reason of these and the former signs of tempests by Water and
same account If Saint Paul 's day be fair and clear It does betide a happy year But if it chance to snow or rain Then will be dear all kind of grain If clouds or mists do dark the Skie Great store of birds and beasts shall die And if the winds do fly aloft Then wars shall vex that Kingdome oft A Conclusion with a Paraphrase upon the presages by sensitive Creatures in general SIgns both of the weather and the seasons I have hewn you yet have omitted many but such as are best known to those who are sensible of them and of these there be some who supprest with the heavy burden of many years are forced to stoop and strike sail to time their bodies almost worn out with old decrepit age scarcely tenentable to the vital parts which Nature can hardly inable for to keep possession being dayly in danger to be ejected by rigid Death who admits no bail such as these are sensible of the Airs alteration like an old ruined tenement that lies open unto the assaults of every little storm and may unhappily know the weather and seasons of the year Others there be in the glory and prime of their youth that do know all this and more certainly then can the dictates of old age deliver it having in every joynt a Calender that shews them the weather with the Spring and Fall as a Memorandum of their fond and licentious youth wherein they have incurred the displeasure of just Heaven and rewarded with the fruits of sin Yet in this I do not censure all for some knows it through the crimes of others and many by casualties fractures of bones bruises old sores aches cramps gouts corns of their feet agues and almost innumerable diseases and imperfections of Nature incident to frail man for excepting such like accidents or signs derived from experience or grounded upon some reason to be held weather-wise is an argument of folly The cause why Ideots can so well fore-know the weathers alteration is partly they being defective in their understandings as wanting the use of reason Nature does the more assist them or they being cold and phlegmatick as appears by their slavering they are the more sensible of the Airs change as it is agreeable or oppugnant to the temperature and constitution of their bodies whereas Man endowed with the use of reason and discourse contemplates of the cause and nature of things which so implies the senses that the Air infused into the poars of such bodies cannot have any powerful operation and besides their constitutions are composed with a better concord of the 4 Elements so that the Airs alteration cannot so soon and sensibly work those effects in such bodies being perfectly in health and reason of their counsel For 't is Natures care to provide best for those things which are in most danger of shortest life or can least help or shift for themselves as to some she gives strength in arms to others swiftnesse of feet or wings agility of body and the like some little creatures are made a prey by others or their lives but short to these she gives a fruitful offspring as for example what multitudes of little Birds more then Eagles or fowls of prey Herrings in number exceeding Whales with comparison behold also the providence of the immense Creator that all these several kinds do subsist and in such Springs or Sommers whose temperatures of heat shall produce cold Winters there Nature does commonly provide plenty before hand as Akorns Hipps Hawes and divers other sorts of Berries for the subsistance of sundry sorts of little birds animals that otherwise would have perished with cold and for want of meat which is armour of proof against the weather By Natures instinct from these Man as in a Calender may read the weather and the seasons of the year every body having small poars into which the Air does continually infuse it self and as it is rarified or condensed it alters the disposition of the body but more or lesse according to the constitution and as it is agreeable or oppugnant to the natural temperature thereof as for an instance Bees and Emmots being of a fiery nature as appears by their choler and industry the Air infused into their little members towards rain being moist and opposite to their natures stupifies their senses and makes them heavy and not apt to labour or go abroad This is the cause that Bees keep in their hives or will not go far from thence when the Air grows moist and the weather inclining to rain from hence is the motive that the laborious Emmots desire rest and withdraw themselves into the caverns of the earth carrying their eggs with them as by a natural instinct whereby to preserve their progeny for by the fervour of the Sun they must be disclosed and by a storm of rain they would be chill and perish the reason is generally the same in other sensitive creatures whose corps are sensible of the Airs change that alters them according to the natural temperature and disposition of their bodies some creatures requiring heat others moisture what pleases one distasts some other and so of all living things Salamanders love Fire Birds Air Fishes Water and Beasts Earth So these Elements as they are mixt and predominating do offend or please the natural disposition of the creature This Monarchy and Common-wealth I choose as for an explanation of the rest they being the most industrious the most sensible and most subject for to be prejudiced by the incursions or suddain assaults of the weather and so here I will conclude with Virgil Geor. lib. 1. Haud equidem credo quia sit divinitus illis Jngenium aut rerum fato prudentia major Verum ubi tempestas coeli mobilis humor Mutavere vias Jupiter humidas austris Densat erant quae rara modo quae densa relaxant Vertuntur species animorum pectora motus Nunc alios alios dum nubila ventus agebat Concipiunt Hinc ille avium concentus in agris Et laetae pecudes ovantes gutture corvi The Weather Glass or perpetual Kalender Bâ— this artificial means you may at any time â—ither in the day or night discover certainly the Airs alteration as it does condense or rarifie and â—o from thence presage the future weather which the better and the more sensible to effect I will prescribe a proportion for the Glass the manner how to devide it and make a water that will not freez much more beautiful and conspicuous then ordinary water First provide a Bolts head of a cleer transparent Glasse in form as you see the figure the end at A like a Globe in content to the whole ¾ or â…˜ let the shanke be in circumference ¼ or â…• of the head at A then 1 ½ or 1 ¾ of the Globes circle the length unto B where must be a Glasse in content about half of the bolts head as for a cestern to
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
Lower Region of the Air the first and uppermost is close adjoyning to the Element of Fire and hath a circular motion with it from East to West carried about by the Primum Mobile this Region of Air is perpetually hot and dry by the reason of its violent motion and proximity to the Fire In this Region there are no clouds because of the heat and remotenesse of the Earth from whence they are extracted their matters being grosse and moist but to this place are lifted up exhalations being by nature hot and dry which do easily ascend to that heighth by reason of their heat and levity these imperfect bodies by the heat of the Sun and influence of the Stars are conceived to be exhaled from the Earth or out of lakes rivers seas and other watery places and this Meteor as it does ascend it leaves the grosser part in the lowest and the middle region and as it rarifies it elevates it self unto the upper region like a subtile and thin fume These exhalations having penetrated the middle region and attained unto the height of the Elements and circumvolved with a slimy matter oylie and apt to be inflamed thus having assumed a body is violently carried about with the Air until with the motion and vicinity of the Fire it is inflamed and then nourished with more exhalations continually drawn unto it that it burns and converts it self into divers forms according to the disposition of the matter as resembling Dragons Lances Torches Comets or Blazing Stars c. And some again that seems to fall and slide through the Air the lightest part being consumed extracted or drawn away by some other means or the levity of it unable to support the grosser part lets it descend which gliding through the Air and enlightned appears like a falling Star some conceives that these ascend not so high being of a grosse body yet hot and striving to ascend is repulsed by the coldnesse of the middle Region or the moistnesse of the clouds and so by the reason of its own weight and opposition of the Element it is thrown down again the substance of them is like a gelly transparent and apt to be illuminated Comets and all fiery Meteors are usually moved with the Region they are in and from East to West according to the raptile motion of the Spheres but Seneca affirms that he did see one which moved parallel to the Horizon from the North by the West into the South and so by the East into the North again and the contrary likewise may be so the exhalations moving as the Air and according to the matter which does nourish it as you may see fire in a stubble and others have been seen to remove suddenly from one place to another casting forth sparkles like fire these by some are called Goats and some have seemed as fixt both in respect of their Latitudes and Longitudes They may be also generated in any part of the Heavens and at all times of the year but in cold Countries rarely but in Autumn for then the heat is sufficient to raise up the matter and the temperature of the Air is apt to suffer the exhalation to draw to it a slimy substance which cannot be in the Spring time the heat being not sufficient to elevate them and in the Sommer season the exhalations are not so grosse by reason of the Sun's heat dissipating those vapours and rarifying the Air and if it could be got together the middle Region is so cold that it cannot ascend to the uppers and the Winter quarter is cold and moist oppugnant to all such exhalations and so consequently quite unapt for those generations or any other of that kind as Philosophers affirm though experience proves the contrary many times The middle Region of Air and what is there generated THis Region or middle part of the Air is generally conceived to be vehemently cold and moist by Antiperistasis and the effects do also prove the same and this we see in all things that are oppugnant inclosed and comprehended by their contraries being of greater force doth cause the contrary inclosed not being able to break forth and withall repulsed by its opposite to contract and fortifie it self as by experience you may see in all living and sensitive Creatures that their inward parts are much hotter in Winter then in Sommer and their stomachs apter and abler to digest and the cause is for that the heat is then repulsive to the inward parts by the opposition and coldnesse of the outward air and besides you may see that the fire and all combustible things will burn more violently in Winter then in Sommer and the colder the weather is the more it scorches the reason is the same in these for the fire grows more violent by how much the more it is opposed with the contrary quality of the subdued cold The case is the same in the middle Region of the Air for the upper part is made hot by the violent motion of it and the neernesse unto the Element of fire and the lower Region is made hot by reflection of the Sun-beams and so the cold included between them is the more violent by how much the lower Region is inflamed with the Suns reflection and so by that means is colder in the heat of Sommer then in Winter But these divisions or portions of the Air have no determined bounds nor hath the Water in respect of quantity for by the motion of the celestial bodies cold and moisture getting together the Element of Water will increase and the Air of necessity must then diminish and with the coniunction of heat and moisture the Sphere of the Water will be diminished and the Air as much increased so by this means the Air does more abound in Sommer then in Winter and the Water more in Winter then in Sommer and thus the middle Region is greater at one time then at another By the heat of the Sun-beams and influence of the Stars Meteors are elevated to the middle Region of the Air those which by nature are temperately hot and moist are extracted from wet and waterish places yet have so much heat as is sufficient to elevate them unto the height of the middle Region where by reason of the coldnesse of that place they are condensed and do generate there several kinds of mixt imperfect bodies the clouds thus incorporated are with the cold turned into Snow congealed many times before it does ingender Water And to prove this assertion you may observe that Snow if compacted or beaten together is not so soon dissolved into water as Ice will be by the Sun or any other means which argues had it been water first it would have been the sooner reduced These vapours or thick exhalations drawn up into the middle Region are often digested and turned into water from thence distilling down like mists or in very small drops for the greatest rain is thought not to fall far through the
is inlightned in manner of a misty circle which equally will appear about the Sun Moon or Stars but these are rarely under any of the fixed Stars but common under any of the Planets yet not so usual under the Sun for by reason of his fervour and heat the exhalation cannot so easily get directly under it and being got together it cannot long subsist but the matter will be disperst by vigour of his beams which the Moon cannot effect for want of heat and so the oftner she hath those circles about her they continue longer the same reason it is with the other Stars yet the circles made about them are conceived to be weak and sterile exhalations neither so apt to beget wind or rain as the former are for in thick and waterish exhalations the rays of the Stars are unable to illuminate them but will be observed by those and such like spissous and dark clouds Impressions in the Clouds representing the Sun or Moon THe cause of these apparitions doth proceed from thick clouds regular and uniform as were the former from whence are caused circles about the Sun or Moon yet these exhalations are more condensed then be the others and not situated under the Sun or Moon as be the last but placed obliquely on either side which clouds are apt to be converted into rain and by refraction of the Sun beams it does expresse the form or image of it as you may see in a mirrour of glasse or polished steel these clouds must be condensed for the beams of the Sun to reflection and not under the Sun for then his refracted rays will not be visible unto us and if it be not regular and uniform in all the parts the cloud cannot portrait and expresse the whole and perfect image of it and in this manner there may be represented in clouds the figure of the Moon but those are much more rare to be seen because her rays are weaker and there may be many Suns or Moons appear at once upon these former alledged reasons Of the Rain-Bow and the causes thereof RAin-Bows are generated in waterish clouds ready to be dissolved into rain these are observed to be always directly opposite to the Sun or Moon as if the ☉ be in the South the Rain-bow will be in the North and when the ☉ is in the East the Rain-bow will appear in the West and the contrary so in any part of the Hemisphere and the lower or neerer the Horizon that the Sun is the Rain-bow will appear the greater but never can exceed a semicircle but lesse according to the height of the Sun above in any Sphere which is the reason at noon day we rarely see any especially the ☉ being in the Sommer Solstice or nigh the Tropick of ♋ excepting all places far Northward or toward the pole Antartick where for some weeks there is continual day but the ☉ in Winter neer ♑ may cause a Rain-bow at noon day in these our climates for they are formed by the light rays of the Sun falling upon vapours and waterish exhalations opposite unto him and but little elevated above the earth and by reason of the great distance or remotenesse of the Sun the illuminated beams describe his form after an obscure and imperfect manner portraiting only an arch of a circle adorned usually with three colours viz. Red Green and Purple or inclining unto a Blewish colour the distinction of these proceeds from the Radius of the Sun reflecting upon these vapours for those colours are lightest in it which are neerest to the Sun and those which are remotest do tend more to obscurity As for a demonstration you may behold in the commixture of such like colours and the form of the Rain-bow you may experimentally try by casting water in a circular manner against the Sun when he shines But some doe think the red colour to be only made by his rays the second by reflection and the third by the second all contained within some condensed hollow cloud commixed with Aiery and waterish exhalations for if more Rain-bows do appear then one at any time it is conceived that they are made by reflection of one another but the colours in the second will be weaker then those in the first and the third Rainbow more pallid then the second If there happens to be three which is very seldome seen then the colours in the first will be counterchanged in the second and the third again like the first These arches in the clouds or Rain-bows do continue longer then do the circles about the Sun because the distance in these is so great that his beams cannot so soon dissipate the exhalation which caused them Rain-bows in the night time are exceeding rare because they are made by the Moon whose beams are usually too weak to cause such a reflection upon any cloud at so great a distance and are so rarely seen that I will cease to describe them any further The causes and diversities of Winds WInds by the vertue of the Sun are generated of hot and dry exhalations evaporated from the Earth and striving to ascend are repulsed by the obvious coldnesse of the Air and forced collaterally about and upon the superficies of this terrestrial Globe moving as they are compelled by the cold and do receive names as from whence they blow and are divided into 32. distinct winds according to the divisions or points of the Mariners Compass The four chief are these East and West opposite and so the North and South point which four do divide the Horizon into four equal parts and are compared by some to the nature and temperature of the four seasons But as for these exhalations they are naturally dry resolved into Air by vertue of the Sun as the moist vapours are into rain sometimes these exhalations are mixed with moist vapours which the Sun convers at one time both into rain and wind the more these windy exhalations are restrained by so much they will rage and the more violent they are by how much they are repulsed and stricken down with the coldnesse of the Air which makes them often times rebound upon the Earth which commonly are called whirl-winds from revolving and throwing up all light things that are in the way where they move these are also caused by the meeting of two contraries Winds are the greatest in open weather in Frosts exhalations are inclosed within the pores of the Earth and so likewise by excessive heat The generation of Waters THere is undoubtedly a continual flux and reflux of waters both upon the superficies of the Earth and in the channels within it as you may see by the veins in the bodies of men a Microcosmus in it self for the Earth being by nature extream dry without water would be sterile and quite unapt to produce any vegetables or Minerals within her now pregnant womb and so the waters to supply this defect do continually move as from their Springs to little
they are observed to shroud themselves in warm places expect then quickly for to follow either Hail told storms of Rain or very much wet weather and if those little creatures are noted early in Autumn to repair unto their Winter quarters it presages frosty mornings cold storms with the approach of hoary Winter 134. Atomes or little flies swarming together and sporting themselves in the Sun beams is a good omen of fair weather And so here I will end the predictions by sensitive creatures upon the Land and turn to the Seas to behold the wonders of the deep By Fishes 135. POrpaises or Sea-Hogs when observed to sport and chase one another about ships expect then some stormy weather 136. Dolphines in fair and calm weather persuing one another as one of their waterish pastimes foreshews wind and from that part whence they fetch their frisks but if they play thus when the Seas are rough and troubled it is a sign of fair and calm weather to ensue 137. Cuttles with their many legs swimming on the top of the water and striving to be above the waves do presage a storm offended with the Meteor and the disturbed waters in the deep 138. Sea Vrchins thrusting themselves into the mud or striving to cover their bodies with sand foreshews a storm for the windy exhalations disturb the lowest waters first in the bottome of the Sea which makes the other fishes rise and trust in their swimming and the Vrchin unapt for that and fearing to be hurried away with the tumultuous waves gets neer the shoare and there stays it self by creeping into the earth 139. Cockles and most shell fish are observed against a tempest to have gravil sticking hard unto their shells as a providence of Nature to stay or poise themselves and to help weigh them down if raised from the bottome by the surges 140. Fishes in general both in salt and fresh waters are observed to sport most and bite more eagerly against rain then at any other time as agreeing best with their flegmatick constitutions many other observations there be of these creatures as concerning winds tides floods and seasons of the year well known unto Fisher-men but not to me By Vegetables 141. Trefoile or Clavergrasse against stormy and tempestuous weather will seem rough and the leaves of it stare and rise up as if it were afraid of an assault 142. Tezils or Fullers Thistle being gathered and hanged up in the house where the Air may come freely to it upon the alteration of cold and windy weather will grow smoother and against rain will close up his prickles 143. Heliotropes and Marigolds do not only presage stormy weather by closing or contracting together their leaves but turn towards the Sun's rays all the day and in the evening shut up shop 144. Pine apples hanging up in the house where they freely may enjoy the Air will close themselves against wet and cold weather and open against hot and dry times 145. The leaves of trees and plants in general will shake and tremble against a tempest more then ordinary 146. All tender buds blossoms and delicate flowers against the incursion of a storm do contract and withdraw themselves within their husks and leaves whereby each may preserve it self from the injury of the weather A Paraphrase IN these vegetables there be certain strings or nerves which by the alteration of the outward Air distilled into them like a thin fume do display or open their leaves or contract them like convulsion fits according to that thin vapours disposition infused into their veins being grateful or oppugnant to the natural temperature of the vegetable c. these vapours do make them smell more fragrantly as forerunners of dew or rain especially all odoriferous flowers to whom such dews are a comfort By Minerals 147. MEttals in general against much wet or rainy weather will seem to have a dew hang upon them and be much apter to sully or foul any thing that is rubbed with the mettal as you may see in Pewter dishes against rain as if they did sweat leaving a smutch upon the table-cloaths with this Pliny concludes as a sign of tempests approaching 148. Stones against rain will have a dew hang upon them but the sweating of stones is from several causes and sometimes are signs of much drought and the reason from hence is derived the inflamation of the Air over-heating the superficies of the Earth attracts vapours from below whereby to cool it according to the nature of all things that are dry and one part still supplies another which makes our wells and fountains low and tides high at or about Michaelmas the Sommer past the Sun having exhausted so many vapours and exhalations from the treasury of the Earth the sign of wet in Mettals as is in stones proceeds from the moistnesse of the outward Air turned into water by the coldnesse of the Earth Mettal or Stone the Air being waterish and apt unto it and this it does most usually presage 149. Glasses of all foots will have a dew upon them in moist weather Glasse windows will also shew a frost by turning the Air that touches them into water and then congealing of it for the Air within the house being warmer then that without is by opposition and the coldnesse of the glasse between them quickly converted from Air into water and so to Ice within-side the outward being predominant by an Antiperistasis 150. Salt extracted out of the Earth Water or any Mineral hath these properties to foreshew the weather for if well kept in fair weather it will be dry and apt to dissolve against wet into its proper Element boards that it hath lain upon and got into the pores of the wood it will be dry in fair and serene weather but when the Air inclines to wet it will dissolve and that you shall see by the board venting his brackish tears and Salt-sellers will have a dew hang upon them and those made of mettal look dim against rainy weather But some here doe question me for deserting my former intended tract and method as in placing Salt with Minerals being imperfectly mixt and composed of fire and water oppugnant to their natural qualities as if I intended for to delude men with words or blind their fights with casting Salt into their eyes or dust raised with a whirl wind against an approaching storm No this was not my intention but being this could not well stand with the first signs of the weather it made me leane or incline to the Chymick Philosophers which make this a Principle both in Vegetables and Minerals and my conclusion whereby to relish all the rest being general in all according to the Adage Sal sapit omnia Natural signs of the four Seasons A Stronomers do divide the year into four quarters or seasons with certain and prefixed times the Sun entering four cardinal points as was said already in the Worlds Epitomy others again do divide it into two parts
is that the Air in Water-cranes and pumps being sucked out the waters from profound springs are forced to rise contrary to their course and gravity and as the Air is sucked up the Water ascends whereby to avoid a Vacuum so repugnant to Nature the reason is the same in this for the outward Air being condensed with cold that contained in the globe of the glasse must also contract it self being a member or part of the whole Element and so consequently the water in the glasse must ascend to avoid a vacuum which it readily will doe having a vent below to supply the defect of water in the lower vessel This is the sole cause that glasses break in frosty weather being close stopp'd and not full of liquor for the Air contracting and having no pores or passage for a supply of more the vessel of necessity must crack and by rarifaction the same may be effected as common experience proves in glasse Alembicks or other close and concave vessels which are burst by restraint of the rarified inclosed Air and if these bodies could extend themselves like bladders the included air might be dilated unto an irruption at last with a noyse like Meteors swell'd to Tympanies in the wombs of pregnant clouds from rarifaction of Air proceeds this experiment Take a globe or round glasse luted up close and having rarified the confined air by natural or artificial heat you may throw the glasse against a stone 't will bound and not break by any violence that exceeds not the extension of the dilated imprison'd air And here in these small things I have briefly prov'd how active this Element is in avoiding either excess or defect superfluity or a vacuum and in an instant contracts or rarifies as Nature sees aptest or most facile to be effected and thus avoids vacuity in all bodies for if any place be empty 't will be found in some extravagant defendants or in orbicular heads enemies to order emblemes of a Chaos Natures abortives or false conceptions but lest this discourse should be so much dilated for to make some break into choller I will return to the Weather glass my former subject not so fragile as they The falling of this inclosed Water is according to the natural property and course of all ponderous bodies inclining towards the center and seat of gravity if not hindred by some greater force or natural affection to attract them so this tends downwards accordingly as the inclosed Air can dilate it self for the Element rarifying as against rain or hot weather that contained above the water in the glass must imitate it in the same proportion which appears by this for to be â…• or â…™ part more in the extreme heat of Sommer then in the greatest cold of Winter but not to be understood as general for the extreams of heat and cold in the Winter and Sommer-Season in every year nor Country is alike as regions under the Torrid Zone admits of no frost and parts neer either Pole receives but little heat some places enjoy a mean and divers in excess of both extreams The divisions of this glass are intended chiefly for England or such Countries as are neer this temperature of Air yet they may be made for any other Climate but the observations must not be in all points the same for the former reason delivered The temper of your body you may try by laying your hand upon the head of the glass for the hotter you are the more the water will fall and take your hand off the water will presently rise recovering its former place or temper and for a demonstration let this suffice I have presented to your view as in a glass both natural and artificial presages of the weather for all knowledge meerly humane is but as a shadow of Science or a superficial learning reflecting upon mans imagination as objects represented on a mirrour and not substantially comprehending the least thing created so expect not from me the meanest of men infallible predictions but conjectures and most of those collected from the observations of others bound up in this little Volume and order'd in the best form I could devise as for better reasons in these natural causes and effects of Metcors I will refer them unto your calm and serene censure for to paraphrase upon and explain the obscure and hidden mysteries of Natures secrets and yet She not absolute of her self but strictly tyed to the precepts of the Immense Creator to whose Sacred name be all Honour Praise and Glory These and all other being under the command of His Omnipotent word And thus it is recorded in the Regal Psalmist cap. 148.8 Ignis grando nix glacies spiritus procellarum quae faciunt verbum ejus AN INTRODUCTION TO The Fourth PART Shewing The direful effects of some prodigious Meteors Epidemical diseases and Memorable accidents with brief Historical observations of their events and final causes as just motives to the love and fear of God Benevolent Reader THe formal and material cause of Meteors I have compendiously delivered you already according to my ability selected from the ablest Astronomers and Philosophers amongst whom I will not rashly presume to give a verdict in such stupendious conceptions but willingly do attend their Dictates and Hypotheses which in many things do not concur a common vice in humane learning to vary many men having many minds with opinions so oppugnant as not to be reconcil'd Some affirming Comets to be of a Celestial nature other sublunary and extracted from the Elements Some denie their motions to be equal about their center but sometimes high and at other times low according to the matter that feeds them so moving up and down in the Air like an Ignis fatuus And thus by refractions deceive humane sight and frustrate these seeming demonstrations But leaving their ambiguous arguments and dubious opinions of men prone unto errour since the matter and form of them is undoubtedly held natural their effects portentious and observed as the forerunners of great calamities to be inflicted upon whole Kingdoms and parts of the habitable World And thus the Poet Silius Lib. 8. Non unus crine corusco Regnorum eversor rubuit lethale Cometes Pliny in his natural History makes a series or catalogue of these fiery apparitions which he divides into Ten kinds but my intention in this little treatise is to comprehend them under the title of Comets Blazing-Stars or fiery Impressions in general They are the hidden and secret mysteries of Nature portentious in their heights magnitudes courses and periods various and manifold in their colours and form but are generally observed representative lights and figures of Stars and their effects according to the opinion of Philosophers are to purge the Air by consuming those Meteors whether exhaled or ingendred in the Skies But these combustions inflame that Element by which we draw our vital breath and so begetteth Choler and makes us prone unto dissentions and civil broiles if
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
which argues by their sweetnesse that they are extracted from thence These Honey-Dews do afford plenty unto the ware-houses of the industrious Bees with quick returns their purveyers are going for to seek provant nor their labourers much trouble to get their loading These Honey-Dews as they are good for Bees so they are as destructive to divers kind of beasts as Sheep Goats c. and in general to all fruits and blooming flowers especially to Hops and Grapes they are also obnoxious to Corn and often blasts it in the blooming For diverting these sad effects Numa one of the Roman Kings superstitiously instituted a Feast called Rubigalia and Floralia in the year from the building of Rome 516. Pliny lib. 18. cap. 29. which Feast was observed upon the 28. day of April 3. Kalend. Moy He was advised so to do by the Oracles of Sybilla This Heathenish Feast the Catholique Church did alter into Ascention Week calling it Rogation from asking a blessing upon the fruits of the Earth The nature of Rain water RAin Water is much more insipide at one time then at another and hath very often a brackish and unpleasant taste yet comfortable to vigetables and by reason of the warmth it does nourish them much better and more natural for them then spring-spring-water or out of wells being cold and too earthly whereas the other participates of the Air which is hot and moist but by reason of this commixture of the Elements it is apt to form divers bodies especially in calm times the Air wanting motion may corrupt and so consequently generates many things according to the undigested matter exhaled from the earth as Frogs falling upon the tops of houses and Churches immediately after a storm and there they will perish in a short time for want of sustenance which argues they were not there produced Corn I have seen that was after a showre found upon the leads of Churches and on the ground in divers places it had the form of Wheat but small and without taste the colour of it pure white both within and without The lowest Meteor in the Air is the burning candle or as some call it Ignis Fatuus This is a hot and moist vapour which striving to ascend is repulsed by the cold and fiered by Antiperistasis movâ—s close by the earth caried along with the vapours that feed it keeping in low or moist places the light is of an exceeding pale colour very unwholsome to meet withal by reason of the evil vapours it attracts unto it which nourishes the pallide flame and will often ascend as those exhalations do and as suddainly fall again from whence the name is derived Thunder and Lightning and the causes from whence they proceed THese are conceived to be vapours hot and moist commixed with exhalations that be hot and dry involved thus within one another they do ascend by vertue of their heat unto the middle region of the Air where the exhalation by Antiperistasis grows inflam'd and strives to get forth of the cloud in which is involved and the upper part of the cloud where the heat would passe by opposition grows the strongest and the exhalation grown over-hot by being constrained with violence breaks forth of the weakest place against the weather that is in the lowest part and by reason of the cold above it the heat and subtilenesse of the exhalation with its own violence in breaking forth it glances down upon the earth without doing any harm if unresisted as consuming a Sword without hurting the Scabbard and many other things of this kind unnecessary and too long for to relate The clap of Thunder is first but the Lightning soonest appears by reason our sense of seeing is much quicker then our hearing As you may perceive at a distance a Man driving a Stake or felling of Timber you may behold him ready to strike again before you hear the former blow and in shooting or discharging of a Gun you may see the fire before the report With the conjunction of these compound vapours and exhalations stones are generated in the Air as other Minerals are in the Earth but more fiery by nature and these are called thunder-bolts in their formes perfect cones like the flame of fire which did generate them out of the terrene exhalation it strikes not above five feet into the earth as some do affirm The remedies against Thunder and Lightning all hard things will preserve whas is soft and liquid as Iron laid upon Vessels will keep the Liquor from sowring by the former alledged reasons besides this it is naturally resisted by a cover made of Seals skins and preserving that on which 't is pâ—aced upon any creature and the like does the Laurell tree which caused many of the Roman Emperors in time of Thunder and Lightning to wear a garment made of Laurel boughs The pale lightning is most unwholsome but the red aptest to burn the best and most assured remedy against these tempests is the protection of Heaven A fulgure tempestate libera nos Domine But note there may be Thunder without Lightning and Lightning without Thunder for when these hot and dry exhalations are inflam'd and the cloud weak in which they are involv'd the incensed exhalation breaks forth without violence in not being restrained but the coldnesse of the middle Region strikes the falshes downwards upon us but not always upon the earth but glittering and reflecting on the watry clouds makes it seem close by as you may see by the Sun beams or any other suddain light falling upon the water will reverberate the lustre and dazle your eyes especially if the water be moved with any wind these coruscations are usual in hot Countries or in the heat of Sommer Thunder without Lightning does happen when these hot and dry exhalations break violently through the clouds in which they are circumvolved but not inflamed yet making a roaring noise in the burst of the cloud which restrained it as you may see little bladders filled with wind will give a crack or report at the suddain and violent breaking of them sometimes Thunder will happen and yet no Lightning appear by reciprocal winds the clouds violently breaking themselves in meeting with one another and this may often happen with insurrections of several mutinous exhalations disturbing the Air with several commotions these usually proceed after much calm weather but are very wholsome to purge the Air lest with too much quietnesse it should corrupt Apparitions in the Air made by reflections of the Sun Moon fixed Stars or Planets upon condensed Clouds Of Circles about the Sun Moon or Stars SUndry apparitions in the Air are made by the Stars reflecting upon waterish exhalations for when they happen uniform in all the parts equally rarified and supposited under the Sun Moon or Stars that their beams cannot penetrate the cloud in any part by which means the rayes are refracted and the cloud being uniform and round the extreams or outward part
and in time it will lose its saltnesse being but accidental As for the ebbing and flowing of the Seas the cause is assigned unto the Moon her influence having power over all waterish bodies and besides the Tides are observed to alter as she does in her course if not hindered or furthered by accidental causes as winds land flouds or the like She coming later every day unto the Meridian by 48. minutes or very neer and those Seas which flows when she is above the Horizon of that place will cause greater Tides then when she is depressed in the opposite Hemisphere and when she hath latitude and declination towards the pole elevated the force of her influence is the greater and the waters will flow the higher and rage the more violently in all indraughts especially at the new Moon or ful which are usually called Spring-Tides but the full Moon and three Tides after are much the greater her power then predominating most over all waterish and phlegmatick bodies and requires time to bring in greater supplies of water into the Land Of Earth-quakes and their causes from whence they do proceed THe causes of these are exhalations hot and dry generated by the vertue of the Sun and Stars inclosed within the concaves and hollow places of the Earth yet they cannot break forth by reason of the vapours grosnesse and the close compactednesse of the Earth which involves them and there increasing till it cannot be contained and not finding a passage out it strives to force one and so violently shakes the Earth that it causes a trembling which often hath swell'd up mountains and overturned others and ruinated many Cities making mens houses their sepulchres and whole Towns involved in a grave overwhelmed with their ruines the continuance of Earth-quakes is uncertain from a minute to a day and a longer time according to the greatnesse of the vapour inclosed and the firmnesse and solidity of the Earth which contained it Here I have shewed you the weak and supposed reasons of men in the wonderful and stupendious frame of Heaven and Earth all which are subjected and do obey the commands of the Immense Creator Eternal God and Author of Nature to whom be all Honour Praise and Glory world without end Amen AN INTRODUCTION TO The Third Part. Predictions of the Weather TO Prognosticate or foretel the alteration of the Weather there hath been in all Ages diligent observers of Nature who have prescribed rules and prenotations of the Airs mutability grounded on judicial signs collected from the Stars and the four Elements the principles of all sublunary bodies Of these Predictions there be several kinds both general and particular established by humane reason some derived meerly from old experience yet many of them true divers observations are ascribed to some particular Place Country Province or lesse proportion of this our habitable world being oftentimes confined within the precincts of a parish as by fogs or mists ascending from some meer or morish grounds or descending from the tops of hills high exalted places and low depressed dales some men do observe domestick and particular beasts as the story of the Herds-man c. But as for all such presages as are not general or warranted by some seeming reason I will quiâ—e reject and leave them at home for to observe the smoak of their own chimneys for it is my real intention at least my desire to direct my serene instructions to the benefit of the tender vigilant or distressed travellers whereby they may avoid the danger or inconvenience of foul and tempestious weather by presaging the Airs alteration and the inundation of the lower Regions menacing the Earth with their over-charged exhalations and vapours in tumults ready to descend to avoid these ensuing storms is the scope of my intentions in this Treatise and the better to enable you to do it I have prostrated to your view The Worlds Eprtomy and the several risings settings apparitions and occultations of the Stars with the natures of those celestrial Orbs the four Elements and all Meteors in general the secondary causes under God of heat cold wet and dry weather from whose excesse proceeds want disâ—â—â—d all corporal distempers and from their â—â—â—cord plenty crowned by the blessing of Hâ—â—ven with health and happinesse That the Stars have their influences upon sublunary bodies it is not denied by any learned men and affirmed undoublably by many of the most famous Philosophers Astronomers and Divines as witnesse Aristotle Ptolomaeus and St. Augustine lib. 13. Cap. 4. de Trin. and multitudes more which I have omitted fearing to incumber this volume with testimonies and approbations of that which seems demonstrated unto reason and confirmed by experience and according to Hippocrates with the consent of many others Thunder Lightning Hail Snow Rain Storms and all alterations of the weather may be predicted by the rising and setting of the fixed Stars with the aspects of Planets their natures and qualities considered with the climate region and season of the year The Stars being supposed of several natures and each constellation mixt their influencies may cause diversity of effects as heat cold moisture or drought which are the four qualities of the Element and as for the Planets they do alter according to their aspects which many learned Phisitians do diligently observe in administring Physick and in the time of their Patients falling sick calling the 7. day critical the 14. c. Their reasons are the Moon having dominion over all humors and waterish bodies and in her motion swift doth passe in 7. days and a little more from one sign into another of a contrary nature and quality as from ♎ hot and moist into ♑ cold and dry and the like of others from whence the Doctors do judge of the malignity of the disease with the hopes of life or danger of death and of this you may read in Gallen lib. 3. de diebus Criticis rather then in me And in prognostication of the Weather these judicial days would be observed in the beginning of drought Rain Snow Frost or the like and there would be considered the latitude and aspects of the Planets the nature of the signs they are in passing under the fixed Stars especially where they are mixt with the nature of those Planets Consider the season of the year as Hale or Rain in the Spring or Autumn Thunder and Lightning in Sommer Frost and Snow in Winter Ponder also the rising and setting of the fixed Stars with the Planets the Eclipses Comets and all fiery Meteors and such as these accompanied by nature are justifiable for God hath given man knowledge and understanding in the course of natural things and signs in the Heavens whereby to avoid inconveniencies not with a certain but a conjectural science by the Asterisms or celestial configurations and the four Elements from whence may be presaged distempers of the Air causing contagious diseases sterility and the like as Aristotle writeth of Thaletes