be moved and not the Earth as namely because the Sun appeareth small and the Earth bigg Again the Motion of the Sun is not discerned by the eye by reason of his seeming tardity but by ratiocination onely in that after some time it varieth not its proximity to such and such Mountains Therefore it is impossible that Reason unless it be first instructed should frame to it self any other apprehension than that the Earth with Heavens Arch placed over it is as it were a great House in which being immoveable the Sun like a Bird flying in the Air passeth in so small a Species out of one Climate into another Which imagination of all Man-kinde being thus gave the first line in the Sacred Leaves In the beginning saith Moses God created the Heaven and the Earth for that these two are most obvious to the eye As if Moses should have said thus to Man This whole Mundane Fabrick which thou seest lucid above and dark and of a vast extent beneath wherein thou hast thy being and with which thou art covered was created by God In another place Man is questioned Whether he can finde out the height of Heaven above or depth of the Earth beneath for that each of them appeareth to men of ordinary capacity to have equally an infinite extent And yet no man that is in his right mind will by these words circumscribe and bound the diligence of Astronomers whether in demonstrating the most contemptible Minuity of the Earth in comparison of Heaven or in searching out Astronomical Distances Since those words speak not of the Rational but real Dimention which to a Humane Body whilst confin'd to the Earth and breathing in the open Air is altogether impossible Read the whole 38. Chapter of Job and compare it with those Points which are disputed in Astronomy and Physiologie If any one do alledge from Psal. 24. That The Earth is founded upon the Seas to the end that he may thence infer some new Principle in Philosophy absurd to hear as That the Earth doth float upon the Waters may it not truly be told him That he ought not to meddle with the Holy Spirit nor to bring him with contempt into the School of Physiologie For the Psalmist in that place means nothing else but that which men fore-know and daily see by experience namely That the Earth being lifted up after the separation of the Waters doth swim between the Grand Oceans and float about the Sea Nor is it strange that the expression should be the same where the Israelites sing That they sate on the River of Babylon that is by the River side or on the Banks of Euphrates and Tygris If any one receive this Reading without scruple why not the other that so in those same Texts which are wont to be alledged against the Motion of the Earth we may in like manner turn our eyes from Natural Philosophy to the scope and intent of Scripture One Generation passeth away saith Ecclesiastes and another Generation cometh But the Earth abideth for ever As if Solomon did here dispute with Astronomers and not rather put men in minde of their Mutability whenas the Earth Mankindes habitation doth alwaies remain the same The Suns Motion doth continually return into what it was at first The Wind is acted in a Circle and returns in the same manner The Rivers flow from their Fountains into the Sea and return again from thence unto their Fountains To conclude The Men of this Age dying others are born in their room the Fable of Life is ever the same there is nothing new under the Sun Here is no reference to any Physical Opinion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Moral of a thing in it self manifest and seen by the eyes of all but little regarded T is that therefore which Solomon doth inculcate For who knows not that the Earth is alwaies the same Who sees not that the Sun dotharise from the East That the Rivers continually run into the Sea That the vicissitudes of the Windes return into their primitive State That some men succeed others But who considereth that the self-same Scene of Life is ever acting by different persons and that nothing is new in humane affairs Therefore Solomon instancing in those things which all men see doth put men in minde of that which many thorowly know but too slightly consider But the 104. Psalm is thought by some to contain a Discourse altogether Physical in regard it onely concerns Natural Philosophy Now God is there said To have laid the Foundations of the Earth that it should not be removed for ever But here also the Psalmist is far from the Speculation of Physical Causes For he doth wholly acquiesce in the Greatnesse of God who did all these things and sings an Hymne to God the Maker of them in which he runneth over the World in order as it appeared to his eyes And if you well consider this Psalme it is a Paraphrase upon the six dayes work of the Creation For as in it the three first dayes were spent in the Separation of Regions the first of Light from the exteriour Darkness the second of the Waters from the Waters by the interposition of the Firmament the third of the Sea from Land when also the Earth was cloathed with Herbage and Plants And the three last dayes were spent in the filling the Regions thus distinguished the fourth of Heaven the fifth of the Seas and Aire the sixth of the Earth So here in this Psalme there are so many distinct parts proportionable to the Analogy of the six dayes Works For in Verse 2. he cloaths and covereth the Creator with Light the first of Creatures and work of the first day as with a Garment The second part beginneth at Verse 3. and treats of the Waters above the Heavens the extent of Heaven and of Meteors which the Psalmist seemeth to intend by the Waters above as namely of Clouds Winds Whirl-winds Lightnings The third part begins at Verse 6. and doth celebrate the Earth as the foundation of all those things which he here considereth For he referreth all things to the Earth and to those Animals which inhabit it for that in the judgment of Sight the two principal parts of the World are Heaven and Earth He therefore here observeth that the Earth after so many Ages hath not faltered tired or decayed when as notwithstanding no man hath yet discovered upon what it is founded He goeth not about to teach men what they do not know but putteth them in minde of what they neglect to wit the Greatnesse and Power of God in creating so huge a Mass so firm and stedfast If an Astronomer should teach that the Earth is placed among the Planets he overthroweth not what the Psalmist here saith nor doth he contradict Common Experience for it is true notwithstanding that the Earth the Structure of God its Architect doth not decay as our Buildings are wont to do
the Sun it would never behold the Earth of which the dark part would be continually turn'd towards the Moon and therefore invisible But when the Moon is in Quadrature of the Sun that half of the Terrestrial Hemisphere exposed to the sight of the Moon which is towards the Sun is luminous and the other towards the contrary is obscure and therefore the illuminated part of the Earth would represent it self to the Moon in a semi-circular figure SAGR. I clearly perceive all this and understand very well that the Moon departing from its Opposition to the Sun where it saw no part of the illumination of the Terrestrial superficies and approaching day by day nearer the Sun she begins by little and little to discover some part of the face of the illuminated Earth and that which appeareth of it shall resemble a thin sickle in regard the figure of the Earth is round and the Moon thus acquiring by its motion day by day greater proximity to the Sun successively discovers more and more of the Terrestrial Hemisphere enlightned so that at the Quadrature there is just half of it visible insomuch that we may see the other part of her continuing next to proceed towards the Conjunction it successively discovers more and more of its surface to be illuminated and in fine at the time of Conjunction seeth the whole Hemisphere enlightned And in short I very well conceive that what befalls the Inhabitants of the Earth in beholding the changes of the Moon would happen to him that from the Moon should observe the Earth but in a contrary order namely that when the Moon is to us at her full and in Opposition to the Sun then the Earth would be in Conjunction with the Sun and wholly obscure and invisible on the contrary that position which is to us a Conjunction of the Moon with the Sun and for that cause a Moon silent and unseen would be there an Opposition of the Earth to the Sun and to so speak Full Earth to wit all enlightned And lastly look what part of the Lunar surface appears to us from time to time illuminated so much of the Earth in the same time shall you behold from the Moon to be obscured and look how much of the Moon is to us deprived of light so much of the Earth is to the Moon illuminated In one thing yet these mutual operations in my judgment seem to differ and it is that it being supposed and not granted that some one being placed in the Moon to observe the Earth he would every day see the whole Terrestrial superficies by means of the Moons going about the Earth in twenty four or twenty five hours but we never see but half of the Moon since it revolves not in it self as it must do to be seen in every part of it SALV So that this befals not contrarily namely that her revolving in her self is the cause that we see not the other half of her for so it would be necessary it should be if she had the Epicycle But what other difference have you behind to exchange for this which you have named SAGR. Let me see Well for the present I cannot think of any other SALV And what if the Earth as you have well noted seeth no more than half the Moon whereas from the Moon one may see all the Earth and on the contrary all the Earth seeth the Moon and but onely half of it seeth the Earth For the inhabitants to so speak of the superior Hemisphere of the Moon which is to us invisible are deprived of the sight of the Earth and these haply are the Antiâ—thones But here I remember a particular accident newly observed by our Academian in the Moon from whch are gathered two necessary consequences one is that we see somewhat more than half of the Moon and the other is that the motion of the Moon hath exact concentricity with the Earth and thus he finds the Phoenomenon and observation When the Moon hath a correspondence and natural sympathy with the Earth towards which it hath its aspect in such a determinate part it is necessary that the right line which conjoyns their centers do passe ever by the same point of the Moons superficies so that who so shall from the center of the Earth behold the same shall alwayes see the same Discus or Face of the Moon punctually determined by one and the same circumference But if a man be placed upon the Terrestrial surface the ray which from his eye passeth to the centre of the Lunar Globe will not pass by the same point of its superficies by which the line passeth that is drawn from the centre of the Earth to that of the Moon save onely when it is vertical to him but the Moon being placed in the East or in the West the point of incidence of the visual ray is higher than that of the line which conjoyns the centres and therefore the observer may discern some part of the Lunar Hemisphere towards the upper circumference and alike part of the other is invisible they are discernable and undiscernable in respect of the Hemisphere beheld from the true centre of the Earth and because the part of the Moons circumference which is superiour in its rising is nethermost in its setting therefore the difference of the said superiour and inferiour our parts must needs be very observable certain spots and other notable things in those parts being one while discernable and another while not A like variation may also be observed towards the North and South extremities of the same Discus or Surface according as the Moons position is in its greatest North or South Latitude For if it be North some of its parts towards the North are hid and some of those parts towards the South are discovered and so on the contrary Now that these consequences are really true is verified by the Telescope for there be in the Moon two remarkable spots one of which when the Moon is in the meridian is situate to the Northwest and the other is almost diametrically opposite unto it and the first of these is visible even without the Telescope but the other is not That towards the Northwest is a reasonable great spot of oval figure separated from the other great ones the opposite one is lesse and also severed from the biggest and situate in a very cleer field in both these we may manifestly discern the foresaid variations and see them one after another now neer the edge or limb of the Lunar Discus and anon remote with so great difference that the distance betwixt the Northwest and the circumference of the Discus is more than twice as great at one time as at the other and as to the second spot because it is neerer to the circumference such mutation importeth more than twice so much in the former Hence its manifest that the Moon as if it were drawn by a magnetick vertue constantly
my self SALV Well I will make you believe the same presently Tell me a little when the Moon is near the Full so that it may be seen by day and also at midnight at what do you think it more splendid by day or by night SIMPL. By night without all comparison And methinks the Moon resembleth that pillar of Clouds and pillar of Fire which guided the Israelites which at the presence of the Sun appeared like a Cloud but in the night was very glorious Thus I have by day observed the Moon amidst certain small Clouds just as if one of them had been coloured white but by night it shines with much splendor SALV So that if you had never happened to see the Moon save onely in the day time you would not have thought it more shining than one of those Clouds SIMPL. I verily believe I should not SALV Tell me now do you believe that the Moon is really more shining in the night than day or that by some accident it seemeth so SIMPL. I am of opinion that it resplends in it self as much in the day as night but that its light appears greater by night because we behold it in the dark mantle of Heaven and in the day time the whole Atmosphere being very clear so that she little exceedeth it in lustre she seems to us much less bright SALV Now tell me have you ever at midnight seen the Terrestrial Globe illuminated by the Sun SIMPL. This seemeth to me a question not to be ask'd unless in jest or of some person known to be altogether void of sense SALV No no I esteem you to be a very rational man and do ask the question seriously and therefore answer me and if afterwards you shall think that I speak impertinently I will be content to be the senseless man for he is much more a fool who interrogates simply than he to whom the question is put SIMPL. If then you do not think me altogether simple take it for granted that I have answered you already and said that it is impossible that one that is upon the Earth as we are should see by night that part of the Earth where it is day namely that is illuminated by the Sun SALV Therefore you have never seen the Earth enlightned save onely by day but you see the Moon to shine also in the dead of night And this is the cause Simplicius which makes you believe that the Earth doth not shine like the Moon but if you could see the Earth illuminated whilst you were in some dark place like our night you would see it shine brighter than the Moon Now if you desire that the comparison may proceed well you must compare the light of the Earth with that of the Moon seen in the day time and not with the same by night for it is not in our power to see the Earth illuminated save onely in the day Is it not so SIMPL. So it ought to be SALV And forasmuch as you your self have already confessed to have seen the Moon by day among some little white Clouds and very nearly as to its aspect resembling one of them you did thereby grant that those Clouds which yet are Elementary matters are as apt to receive illumination as the Moon yea more if you will but call to mind that you have sometimes seen some Clouds of vast greatness and as perfect white as the Snow and there is no question but that if such a Cloud could be continued so luminous in the deep of night it would illuminate the places near about it more than an hundred Moons If therefore we were assured that the Earth is illuminated by the Sun like one of those Clouds it would be undubitable but that it would be no less shining than the Moon But of this there is no question to be made in regard we see those very Clouds in the absence of the Sun to remain by night as obscure as the Earth and that which is more there is not any one of us but hath seen many times some such Clouds low and far off and questioned whether they were Clouds or Mountains an evident sign that the Mountains are no less luminous than those Clouds SAGR. But what needs more discourse See yonder the Moon is risen and more than half of it illuminated see there that wall on which the Sun shineth retire a little this way so that you see the Moon sideways with the wall look now which of them shews more lucid Do not you see that if there is any advantage the wall hath it The Sun shineth on that wall from thence it is reverberated upon the wall of the Hall from thence it 's reflected upon that chamber so that it falls on it at the third reflection and I am very certain that there is in that place more light than if the Moons light had directly faln upon it SIMPL. But this I cannot believe for the illumination of the Moon especially when it is at the full is very great SAGR. It seemeth great by reason of the circumjacent dark places but absolutely it is not much and is less than that of the twilight half an hour after the Sun is set which is manifest because you see not the shadows of the bodies illuminated by the Moon till then to begin to be distinguished on the Earth Whether again that third reflection upon that chamber illuminates more than the first of the Moon may be known by going thether and reading a Book and afterwards standing there in the night by the Moons light which will shew by which of them lights one may read more or less plainly but I believe without further tryal that one should see less distinctly by this later SALV Now Simplicius if haply you be satisfied you may conceive as you your self know very well that the Earth doth shine no less than the Moon and the only remembring you of some things which you knew of your self and learn'd not of me hath assured you thereof for I taught you not that the Moon shews lighter by night than by day but you understood it of your self as also you could tell me that a little Cloud appeareth as lucid as the Moon you knew also that the illumination of the Earth cannot be seen by night and in a word you knew all this without knowing that you knew it So that you have no reason to be scrupulous of granting that the dark part of the Earth may illuminate the dark part of the Moon with no less a light than that wherewith the Moon illuminates the obscurities of the night yea rather so much the greater inasmuch as the Earth is forty times bigger than the Moon SIMPL. I must confess that I did believe that that secondary light had been the natural light of the Moon SALV And this also you know of your self and perceive not that you know it Tell me do not you know without teaching that the
amongst the Furies but when he is telling merry tales amongst the Meonion Damosels Ah unheard of sordidnesse of servile souls to make themselves willing slaves to other mens opinions to receive them for inviolable Decrees to engage themselves to seem satisfied and convinced by arguments of such efficacy and so manifestly concludent that they themselves cannot certainly resolve whether they were really writ to that purpose or serve to prove that assumption in hand or the contrary But which is a greater madnesse they are at variance amongst themselves whether the Author himself hath held the affirmative part or the negative What is this but to make an Oracle of a Log and to run to that for answers to fear that to reverence and adore that SIMPL. But in case we should recede from Aristotle who have we to be our Guid in Philosophy Name you some Author SALV We need a Guid in unknown and uncouth wayes but in champion places and open plains the blind only stand in need of a Leader and for such it is better that they stay at home But he that hath eyes in his head and in his mind him should a man choose for his Guid. Yet mistake me not thinking that I speak this for that I am against hearing of Aristotle for on the contrary I commend the reading and diligently studying of him and onely blame the servile giving ones self up a slave unto him so as blindly to subscribe to what ever he delivers and without search of any farther reason thereof to receive the same for an inviolable decree Which is an abuse that carrieth with it another great inconvenience to wit that others will no longer take pains to understand the validity of his Demonstrations And what is more shameful than in the middest of publique disputes whilest one person is treating of demonstrable conclusions to hear another interpose with a passage of Aristotle and not seldome writ to quite another purpose and with that to stop the mouth of his opponent But if you will continue to study in this manner I would have you lay aside the name of Philosophers and call your selves either Historians or Doctors of Memory for it is not fit that those who never philosophate should usurp the honourable title of Philosophers But it is best for us to return to shore and not lanch farther into a boundlesse Gulph out of which we shall not be able to get before night Therefore Simplicius come either with arguments and demonstrations of your own or of Aristotle and bring us no more Texts and naked authorities for our disputes are about the Sensible World and not one of Paper And forasmuch as in our discourses yesterday we retriev'd the Earth from darknesse and exposed it to the open skie shewing that the attempt to enumerate it amongst those which we call Coelestial bodies was not a position so foil'd and vanquish't as that it had no life left in it it followeth next that we proceed to examine what probability there is for holding of it fixt and wholly immoveable scilicet as to its entire Globe what likelihood there is for making it moveable with some motion and of what kind that may be And forasmuch as in this same question I am ambiguous and Simplicius is resolute as likewise Aristotle for the opinion of its immobility he shall one by one produce the arguments in favour of their opinion and I will alledge the answers and reasons on the contrary part and next Sagredus shall tell us his thoughts and to which side he finds himself inclined SAGR. Content provided alwayes that I may reserve the liberty to my self of alledging what pure natural reason shall sometimes dictate to me SALV Nay more it is rhat which I particularly beg of you for amongst the more easie and to so speak material considerations I believe there are but few of them that have been omitted by Writers so that onely some of the more subtle and remote can be desired or wanting and to investigate these what other ingenuity can be more fit than that of the most acute and piercing wit of Sagredus SAGR. I am what ever pleaseth Salviatus but I pray you let us not sally out into another kind of digression complemental for at this time I am a Philosopher and in the Schools not in the Court. SALV Let our contemplation begin therefore with this consideration that whatsoever motion may be ascribed to the Earth it is necessary that it be to us as inhabitants upon it and consequently partakers of the same altogether imperceptible and as if it were not at all so long as we have regard onely to terrestrial things but yet it is on the contrary as necessary that the same motion do seem common to all other bodies and visible objects that being separated from the Earth participate not of the same So that the true method to find whether any kind of motion may be ascribed to the Earth and that found to know what it is is to consider and observe if in bodies separated from the Earth one may discover any appearance of motion which equally suiteth to all the rest for a motion that is onely seen v. gr in the Moon and that hath nothing to do with Venus or Jupiter or any other Stars cannot any way belong to the Earth or to any other save the Moon alone Now there is a most general and grand motion above all others and it is that by which the Sun the Moon the other Planets and the Fixed Stars and in a word the whole Universe the Earth onely excepted appeareth in our thinking to move from the East towards the West in the space of twenty four hours and this as to this first appearance hath no obstacle to hinder it that it may not belong to the Earth alone as well as to all the World besides the Earth excepted for the same aspects will appear in the one position as in the other Hence it is that Aristotle and Ptolomy as having hit upon this consideration in going about to prove the Earth to be immoveable argue not against any other than this Diurnal Motion save onely that Aristotle hinteth something in obscure terms against another Motion ascribed to it by an Ancient of which we shall speak in its place SAGR. I very well perceive the necessity of your illation but I meet with a doubt which I know not how to free my self from and this it is That Copernicus assigning to the Earth another motion beside the Diurnal which according to the rule even now laid down ought to be to us as to appearance imperceptible in the Earth but visible in all the rest of the World me thinks I may necessarily infer either that he hath manifestly erred in assigning the Earth a motion to which there appears not a general correspondence in Heaven or else that if there be such a congruity therein Ptolomy on the other
say more touching what relates to the Diurnal motion at large examined by me we have a little time still left to treat thereof SIMP I have no more to say unlesse it be this that the discourses that this day have falne under our debate have appeared to me fraught with very acute and ingenious notions alledged on Copernicus his side in confirmation of the motion of the Earth but yet I find not my self perswaded to believe it for in short the things that have been said conclude no more but this that the reasons for the stability of the Earth are not necessary but all the while no demonstration hath been produced on the other side that doth necessarily convince and prove its mobility SALV I never undertook Simplicius to remove you from that your opinion much less dare I presume to determine definitively in this controversie it onely was and still shall be in the ensuing disputations my intent to make it appear to you that those who have thought that most swift motion of 24 hours doth belong to the Earth alone and not to the Universe the Earth onely excluded were not induced to believe that so it might and ought to do out of any blind perswasion but that they did very well see try and examine the reasons on the contrary side and also not slightly answer them With the same intention if it stand with your liking and that of Sagredus we may passe to the consideration of that other motion first by Aristarchus Samius and afterwards by Nicholaus Copernicus ascribed to the said Terrestrial Globe which is as I believe you have heretofore heard made under the Zodiack within the space of a year about the Sun immoveably placed in the centre of the said Zodiack SIMP The disquisition is so great and so noble that I shall gladly hearken to the discussion thereof perswading my self that I shall hear what ever can be said of that matter And I will afterwards by my self according to my usual custome make more deliberate reflexions upon what hath been and is to be spoken and if I should gain no more but this it will be no small benefit that I shall be able to discourse more Logically SAGR. Therefore that we may no further weary Salviatus we will put a period to the disputations of this day and reassume our conference to morrow in the usual manner with hope to hear very pleasing novelties SIMP I will leave with you the Book De stellis novis and carry back this of the Conclusions to see what is written therein against the Annual motion which are to be the arguments of our discourse to morrow Place this Plate at the end of the Second Dialogue GALILAEUS Galilaeus Lyncaeus HIS SYSTEME OF THE WORLD The Third Dialogue INTERLOCVTORS SALVIATUS SAGREDUS and SIMPLICIUS SAGR. THe great desire wherewith I have expected your coming that I might hear the novel conceits touching the annual conversion of this our Globe hath made me think the houres of the last night and those of this morning very tedious although I spent them not idly but lying awake I imployed a good part thereof in ruminating upon our yesterdayes discourses weighing the reasons alledged by both parties in favour of the two contrary Hypotheses that of Aristotle and Ptolomy and this of Aristarchus and Copernicus And really methinks that which ever of these parties have been deceived they are worthy of excuse so specious and valid in appearance are the reasons that may have perswaded them either way though neverthelesse we do for the most part close with those produced by the grave Authours first above mentioned But albeit that the Peripatetick Hypothesis by reason of its antiquity hath had many followers and fautors and the other very few first for its obscurity and next for its novelty yet methinks I discover amongst those many and particularly amongst the modernes some who for the support of the opinion by them esteemed true have introduced other reasons sufficiently childish I could say ridiculous SALV I have met with the like and so much worse than yours that I blush to rehearse them not so much to spare the fame of their Authours the names of whom might be perpetually concealed as because I am ashamed so much to stain the honour of mankinde In observing of these men I have found that some there are who preposterously reasoning first stablish the conclusion in their fancy and either because it is their own or else belongs to a person whom they much confide in so firmly imprint it in their opinions that it is altogether impossible ever wholly to efface it and those reasons which they themselves stumble upon or which they hear others to alledge in confirmation of the conceit entertained though never so simple and insipid instantly find credit and applause with them but on the contrary those which are brought against their opinion though ingenuous and concluding they receive not only with nauseating but with disdain and bitter indignation yea you shall have one of these so inraged as that he will not be backward to try all wayes to suppress and silence their adversaries and of this I my self have had some experience SAGR. Indeed these men deduce not the conclusion from the premises nor confirme them with reasons but accomodate or to say better discommodate and distort the premises and arguments to make them speak in favour of their pre-assumed and pertinacious conclusions It is not good therefore to contract familiarity with these men and the rather for that their conversation is not only unpleasant but also dangerous Yet let us continue our conference with Simplicius however whom I have known this long while for a man of great ingenuity and altogether void of malice besides he is well verst in the Peripatetick Doctrine so that I may assure my self that what shall not fall within the reach of his reason for the support of the Aristotelian Hypothesis will not easily be found out by others But see yonder he comes quite out of winde whose company we have so long desired we were just now speaking against the small hast you made to come to us SIMP You must not blame me but Neptune for this my long stay which in the ebbe of this mornings tide hath in a manner drain'd away the waters for the Gondola that brought me being entered not far from hence into a certain Channel wanting depth where I was stranded and forced to stay there more than a full hour in expecting the return of the tide and there waiting in this manner without being able to get out of the boat which on a sudden ran a ground I observed a certain accident which to me seemed very strange and it was this that in the waters ebbing I saw it retreat very fast by several small rivolets the ouze being in many places discovered and whilst I stood looking upon this effect I saw this motion in an instant to cease and without
therefore these Planets are superfluous yea more that there are no such things in rerum natura when as oh foolish man I know not so much as to what purpose the arteries the gristles the spleen the gall do serve nay I should not know that I have a gall spleen or kidneys if in many desected Corps they were not shewn unto me and then onely shall I be able to know what the spleen worketh in me when it comes to be taken from me To be able to know what this or that Coelestial body worketh in me seeing you will have it that all their influences direct themselves to us it would be requisite to remove that body for some time and then whatsoever effect I should find wanting in me I would say that it depended on that star Moreover who will presume to say that the space which they call too vast and uselesse between Saturn and the fixed stars is void of other mundane bodies Must it be so because we do not see them Then the four Medicean Planets and the companions of Saturn came first into Heaven when we began to see them and not before And by this rule the innumerable other fixed stars had no existence before that men did look on them and the cloudy constellations called Nebulosae were at first only white flakes but afterwards with the Telescope we made them to become constellations of many lucid and bright stars Oh presumptious rather oh rash ignorance of man SALV It 's to no purpose Sagredus to sally out any more into these unprofitable exaggerations Let us pursue our intended designe of examining the validity of the reasons alledged on either side without determining any thing remitting the judgment thereof when we have done to such as are more knowing Returning therefore to our natural and humane disquisitions I say that great little immense small c. are not absolute but relative terms so that the self same thing compared with divers others may one while be called immense and another while imperceptible not to say small This being so I demand in relation to what the Starry Sphere of Copernicus may be called over vast In my judgment it cannot be compared or said to be such unlesse it be in relation to some other thing of the same kind now let us take the very least of the same kind which shall be the Lunar Orb and if the Starry Orb may be so censured to be too big in respect to that of the Moon every other magnitude that with like or greater proportion exceedeth another of the same kind ought to be adjudged too vast and for the same reason to be denied that they are to be found in the World and thus an Elephant and a Whale shall without more ado be condemned for Chymaera's and Poetical fictions because that the one as being too vast in relation to an Ant which is a Terrestrial animal and the other in respect to the Gudgeon which is a Fish and are certainly seen to be in rerum natura would be too immeasurable for without all dispute the Elephant and Whale exceed the Ant and Gudgeon in a much greater proportion than the Starry Sphere doth that of the Moon although we should fancy the said Sphere to be as big as the Copernican Systeme maketh it Moreover how hugely big is the Sphere of Jupiter or that of Saturn designed for a receptacle but for one single star and that very small in comparison of one of the fixed Certainly if we should assign to every one of the fixed stars for its receptacle so great a part of the Worlds space it would be necessary to make the Orb wherein such innumerable multitudes of them reside very many thousands of times bigger than that which serveth the purpose of Copernicus Besides do not you call a fixed star very small I mean even one of the most apparent and not one of those which shun our sight and do we not call them so in respect of the vast space circumfused Now if the whole Starry Sphere were one entire lucid body who is there that doth not know that in an infinite space there might be assigned a distance so great as that the said lucid Sphere might from thence shew as little yea lesse than a fixed star now appeareth beheld from the Earth From thence therefore we should then judg that self same thing to be little which now from hence we esteem to be immeasurably great SAGR. Great in my judgment is the folly of those who would have had God to have made the World more proportinal to the narrow capacities of their reason than to his immense rather infinite power SIMP All this that you say is very true but that upon which the adversary makes a scruple is to grant that a fixed star should be not onely equal to but so much bigger than the Sun when as they both are particular bodies situate within the Starry Orb And indeed in my opinion this Authour very pertinently questioneth and asketh To what end and for whose sake are such huge machines made Were they produced for the Earth for an inconsiderable point And why so remote To the end they might seem so very small and might have no influence at all upon the Earth To what purpose is such a needlesse monstrous immensity between them and Saturn All those assertions fall to the ground that are not upheld by probable reasons SALV I conceive by the questions which this person asketh that one may collect that in case the Heavens the Stars and the quantity of their distances and magnitudes which he hath hitherto held be let alone although he never certainly fancied to himself any conceivable magnitude thereof he perfectly discerns and comprehends the benefits that flow from thence to the Earth which is no longer an inconsiderable thing nor are they any longer so remote as to appeare so very small but big enough to be able to operate on the Earth and that the distance between them and Saturn is very well proportioned and that he for all these things hath very probable reasons of which I would gladly have heard some one but being that in these few words he confounds and contradicts himself it maketh me think that he is very poor and ill furnished with those probable reasons and that those which he calls reasons are rather fallacies or dreams of an over-weening fancy For I ask of him whether these Celestial bodies truly operate on the Earth and whether for the working of those effects they were produced of such and such magnitudes and disposed at such and such distances or else whether they have nothing at all to do with Terrene mattets If they have nothing to do with the Earth it is a great folly for us that are Earth-born to offer to make our selves arbitrators of their magnitudes and regulators of their local dispositions seeing that we are
scarce kist her Maid yet nevertheless to give you my sudden thoughts I shall tell you That of those effects by you recounted and particularly the last there may in my judgement very sufficient Reasons be given without the Earths mobility by the mobility of the Heavens onely never introducing any novelty more than the inversion of that which you your self propose unto us It hath been received by the Peripatetick Schools that the Element of Fire and also a great part of the Aire is carried about according to the Diurnal conversion from East to West by the contact of the Concave of the Lunar Orb as by the Vessel their container Now without going out of your track I will that we determine the Quantity of the Aire which partaketh of that motion to distend so low as to the Tops of the highest Hills and that likewise they would reach to the Earth if those Mountains did not impede them which agreeth with what you say For as you affirm the Air which is invironed by ledges of Mountains to be carried about by the asperity of the moveable Earth we on the contrary say That the whole Element of Air is carried about by the motion of Heaven that part only excepted which lyeth below those bodies which is hindred by the asperity of the immoveable Earth And whereas you said That in case that asperity should be removed the Air would also cease to be whirld about we may say That the said asperity being removed the whole Aire would continue its motion Whereupon because the surfaces of spacious Seas are smooth and even the Airs motion shall continue upon those alwaies blowing from the East And this is more sensibly perceived in Climates lying under the Line and within the Tropicks where the motion of Heaven is swifter and like as that Celestial motion is able to bear before it all the Air that is at liberty so we may very rationally affirm that it contributeth the same motion to the Water moveable as being fluid and not connected to the immobility of the Earth And with so much the more confidence may we affirm the same in that by your confession that motion ought to be very small in resect of the efficient Cause which begirting in a natural day the whole Terrestrial Globe passeth many hundreds of miles an hour and especially towards the Equinoctial whereas in the currents of the open Sea it moveth but very few miles an hour And thus the voiages towards the West shall come to be commodious and expeditious not onely by reason of the perpetual Eastern Gale but of the course also of the Waters from which course also perhaps the Ebbing and Flowing may come by reason of the different scituation of the Terrestrial Shores against which the Water coming to beat may also return backwards with a contrary motion like as experience sheweth us in the course of Rivers for according as the Water in the unevenness of the Banks meeteth with some parts that stand out or make with their Meanders some Reach or Bay here the Water turneth again and is seen to retreat back a considerable space Upon this I hold That of those effects from which you argue the Earths mobility and alledge it as a cause of them there may be assigned a cause sufficiently valid retaining the Earth stedfast and restoring the mobility of Heaven SALV It cannot be denied but that your discourse is ingenious hath much of probability I mean probability in appearance but not in reality existence It consisteth of two parts In the first it assignes a reason of the continual motion of the Eastern Winde and also of a like motion in the Water In the second It would draw from the same Sourse the cause of the Ebbing and Flowing The first part hath as I have said some appearance of probability but yet extreamly less then that which we take from the Terrestrial motion The second is not onely wholly improbable but altogether impossible and false And coming to the first whereas it is said that the Concave of the Moon carrieth about the element of Fire and the whole Air even to the tops of the higher Mountains I answer first that it is dubious whether there be any element of Fire But suppose there be it is much doubted of the Orbe of the Moon as also of all the rest that is Whether there be any such solid bodies and vast or elss Whether beyond the Air there be extended a continuate expansion of a substance of much more tenuity and purity than our Air up and down which the Planets go wandring as now at last a good part of those very Phylosophers begin to think But be it in this or in that manner there is no reason for which the Fire by a simple contract to a superficies which you your self grant to be smooth and terse should be according to its whole depth carried round in a motion different from its natural inclination as hath been defusely proved and with sensible reasons demonstrated by Il Saggiatore Besides the other improbability of the said motions transfusing it self from the subtilest Fire throughout the Air much more dense and from that also again to the Water But that a body of rugged and mountainous surface by revolving in it self should carry with it the Air contiguous to it and against which its promontaries beat is not onely probable but necessary and experience thereof may be daily seen though without seeing it I believe that there is no judgement that doubts thereof As to the other part supposing that the motion of Heaven did carry round the Air and also the Water yet would that motion for all that have nothing to do with the Ebbing and Flowing For being that from one onely and uniform cause there can follow but one sole and uniform effect that which should be discovered in the Water would be a continuate and uniform course from East to West and in that a Sea onely which running compass environeth the whole Globe But in determinate Seas such as is the Mediterrane shut up in the East there could be no such motion For if its Water might be driven by the course of Heaven towards the West it would have been dry many ages since Besides that our Water runneth not onely towards the West But returneth backwards towards the East and that in ordinal Periods And whereas you say by the example of Rivers that though the course of the Sea were Originally that onely from East to West yet nevertheless the different Position of the Shores may make part of the Water regurgitate and return backwards I grant it you but it is necessary that you take notice my Simplicius that where the Water upon that account returneth backwards it doth so there perpetually and where it runneth straight forwards it runneth there alwayes in the same manner for so the example of the Rivers shewes you But in the case
peculiar to the perfect Sphere onely but belongeth to all Curved Figures 185 In a Moveable Sphere it seemeth more reasonable that its Centre be stable than any of its parts 300 SPHERE of Activity The Sphere of Activity greater in Celestial Bodies than in Elimentary 59 STARRY SPHERE Wearinesse more to be feared in the Starry Sphere than in the Terrestrial Globe 245 By the proportion of Jupiter and of Mars the Starry Sphere is found to be yet more remote 331 Vanity of those mens discourse who argue the Starry Sphere to be too vast in the Copernican Hypothesis 335 The whole Starry Sphere beheld from a great distance might appear as small as one single Star 335 SPHERICAL The Spherical Figure is easier to be made than any other 186 Spherical Figures of sundry Magnitudes may be made with one sole Instrument 187 SPIRIT The Spirit had no intent to teach us whether the Earth moveth or standeth still as nothing concerning our Salvation 436 SOLAR SPOTS Spots generate and dissolve in the face of the Sun 38 Sundry Opinions touching the Solar Spots 39 An Argument that necessarily proveth the Solar Spots to generate and dissolve 40 A conclusive Demonstration to prove that the Spots are contiguous to the Body of the Sun 41 The Motion of the Spots towards the Circumcumference of the Sun appears slow 41 The Figure of the Spots towards the Circumference of the Suns Discus appear narrow and why 41 The Solar Spots are not Spherical but flat like thin plates 41 The History of the proceedings of the Academian for a long time about the Observation of the Solar Spots 312 A conceit that suddenly came into the mind of our Academian concerning the great consequence that followeth upon the Motion of the Solar Spots 314 Extravagant Mutations to be observed in the Motions of the Solar Spots foreseen by the Academick in case the Earth had the Annual Motion 314 The first Accident to be observed in the Motion of the Solar Spots and consequently all the rest explained 315 The events being observed were answerable to the Predictions touching these Spots 318 Though the Annual Motion assigned to the Earth answereth to the Phaenomena of the Solar Spots yet doth it not follow by conversion that from the Phaenomena of the Spots one may inferre the Annual Motion to belong to the Earth 319 The Pure Peripatetick Philosophers will laugh at the Spots and their Phaenomena as the Illusions of the Christals in the Telescope 319 The Solar Spots of Galileo 494 STAR and Stars The Stars infinitely surpasse the rest of Heaven in Density 30 It is no lesse impossible for a Star to corrupt than the whole Terrestrial Globe 37 New Stars discovered in Heaven 38 The small Body of a Star fringed about with Rays appeareth very much bigger than plain naked and in its native Clarity 61 An easie Experiment that sheweth the encrease in the Stars by means of the Adventitious Rays 305 A Star of the Sixth Magnitude supposed by Tycho and Scheiner an hundred and six Millions of times bigger than needs 326 A common errour of all Astronomers touching the Magnitude of the Stars 326 Venus rendereth the Errour of Astronomers in determining the Magnitudes of Stars inexcuseable 326 A way to measure the the apparent Diameter of a Star 327 By depriving Heaven of some Star one might come to know what influence it hath upon us 334 Enquiry is made what Mutations and in what Stars is to be made by means of the Annual Motion of the Earth 342 The Stars neerer to us make greater diversities than the more remote 349 FIXED STARS Great disparity amongst the Motions of the Particular Fixed Stars if their Sphere be moveable 102 The Motions of the Fixed Stars would accelerate and retard in several times if the Starry were moveable 102 The Probable Situation of the Fixed Stars 299 Supposing the Annual Motion of the Earth it followeth that one Fixed Star is bigger than the whole Grand Orbe 324 The apparent diversity of Motion in the Planets is insensible in the Fixed Stars 325 Supposing that a Fixed Star of the First Magnitude is no bigger than the Sun the diversity which is so great in the Planets is almost insensible in the Fixed Stars 325 The Diameter of a Fixed Star of the First Magnitude and one of the Sixth 325 The distance of a Fixed Star of the First Magnitude the Star being supposed to be equal to the Sun 326 In the Fixed Stars the diversity of Aspect caused by the Grand Orb is little more than that caused by the Earth in the Sun 326 The Computation of the Magnitude of the Fixed Stars in respect of the Grand Orbe 326 The Apparent Diameter of a Fixed Star of the First Magnitude not more than five Seconds 328 By another Supposition taken from Astronomers the distance of the Fixed Stars is calculated to be 10800 Semidiameters of the Great Orbe 331 The place assigned to a Fixed Star is much lesse than that of Planet 335 The Mutations of the Fixed Stars ought to be in some greater in others lesser and in others nothing at all 343 The grand Difficulty in Copernicus his Doctrine is that which concerns the Phaenomena of the Sun and Fixed Stars 343 The Fixed Stars in the Ecliptick never Elevate nor Descend on account of the Annual Motion but yet approach and recede 345 The Fixed Stars without the Ecliptick elevate more or lesse according to their distance from the Ecliptick 347 The Epilogue to the Phaenomena of the Fixed Stars caused by the Annual Motion of the Earth 349 A place accommodated for the Observation of the Fixed Stars as to what concerns the Annual Motion of the Earth 352 NEW STAR The greatest and least Elevation of the New Star differ not from each other more than the Polar Altitudes the said Star being in the Firmament 255 STEEL Steel Burnished beheld from one place appears very bright and from another very obscure 64 STONE The Stone falling from the Mast of a Ship lights in the same place whether the Ship move or stands still 126 STRENGTH The Strength diminisheth not were it not employed 244 SUN The Sun more probably in the Centre of the Universe than the Earth 21 Observations from whence it is collected that the Sun and not the Earth is in the Centre of the Celestial Revolutions 295 The Sun and Moon encrease little by Irradiation 305 The Sun it self testifieth the Annual Motion to belong to the Earth 312 If the Earth be immoveable in the Centre of the Zodiack there must be ascribed to the Sun four several Motions as is declared at length 320 The distance of the Sun conteineth twelve hundred and eight Semidiameters of the Earth 325 The Diameter of the Sun half a Degree 325 The Apparent Diameter of the Sun how much it is bigger than that of a Fixed Star 325 An Example of Gods care of Mankind taken from the Sun 333 An exquisite Observation of the approach and departure of
or altogether besides the purpose Nor is it worth while to go about to remove them from it they being incapable of the contrary Reasons that depend upon too exquisite Observations and too subtil Demonstrations grounded upon Abstractions which for the comprehending of them require too strong an Imagination Whereupon although that the Stability of Heaveu and Motion of the Earth should be more than certain and demonstrated to the Wise yet nevertheless it would be necessary for the conservation of credit amongst the Vulgar to affirm the contrary For that of a thousand ordinary men that come to be questioned concerning these particulars its probabâ—e that there will not be found so much as one that will not answer that he thinketh and so certainly he doth that the Sun moveth and the Earth standeth still But yet none ought to take this common Popular Assent to be any Argument of the truth of that which is affirmed For if we should examine these very men touching the grounds and motives by which they are induced to believe in that manner and on the other side should hear what Experiments and Demonstrations perswade those few others to believe the contrary we should finde these latter to be moved by most solid Reasons and the former by simple appearances and vain and ridiculous occurrences That therefore it was necessary to assign Motion to the Sun and Rest to the earth lest the shallow capacity of the Vulgar should be confounded amused and rendred obstinate and contumacious in giving credit to the principal Articles and which are absolutely de fide it is sufficiently obvious And if it was necessary so to do it is not at all to be wondred at that it was with extraordinary Wisdom so done in the Divine Scriptures But I will alledge further That not onely a respect to the Incapacity of the Vulgar but the current Opinion of those times made the Sacred Writers in the points that were not necessary to salvation to accommodate themselves more to the received use than to the true Essence of things Of which S. Hierom treating writeth As if many things were not spoken in the Holy Scriptures according to the judgement of those times in which they were acted and not according to that which truth contained And elsewhere the same Saint It is the custome for the Pen-men of Scripture to deliver their Judgments in many things according to the common received opinion that their times had of them And S. Thomas Aquinas in Job upon those words Qui extendit Aquilonem super vacuum appendit Terram super nihilum Noteth that the Scripture calleth that space Vacuum and Nihilum which imbraceth and invironeth the Earth and which we know not to be empty bat filled with Air Neverthelesse saith he The Scripture to comply with the apprehension of the Vulgar who think that in that same space there is nothing calleth it Vacuum and Nihilum Here the words of S. Thomas Quod de superiori Haemisphaerio Coeli nihil nobis apparet nisi spatium aëre plenum quod vulgares homines reputant Vacuum loquitur enim secundum existimationem vulgarium hominum prout est mos in Sacra Scriptura Now from this Place I think one may very Logically argue That the Sacred Scripture for the same respect had much more reason to phrase the Sun moveable and the Earth immoveable For if we should try the capacity of the Common People we should find them much more unapt to be perswaded of the stability of the Sun and Motion of the Earth than that the space that environeth it is full of Air. Therefore if the sacred Authors in this point which had not so much difficulty to be beat into the capacity of the Vulgar have notwithstanding forborn to attempt perswading them unto it it must needs seem very reasonable that in other Propositions much more abstruse they have observed the same stile Nay Copernicus himself knowing what power an antiquated custome and way of conceiving things become familiar to us from our infancy hath in our Fancy that he might not increase confusion and difficulty in our apprehensions after he had first demonstrated That the Motions which appear to us to belong to the Sun or to the Firmament are really in the Earth in proceeding afterwards to reduce them into Tables and to apply them to use he calleth them the Motions of the Sun and of the Heaven that is above the Planets expresly terming them the Rising and Setting of the Sun and Stars and mutations in the obliquity of the Zodiack and variations in the points of the Equinoxes the Middle Motion Anomalia Prosthaphaeresis of the Sun and such other things which do in reality belong to the Earth But because being joyned to it and consequently having a share in every of its motions we cannot immediately discern them in her but are forced to refer them to the Celestial Bodies in which they appear therefore we call them as if they were made there where they seem to us to be made Whence it is to be noted how nenessary it is to accommodate our discourse to our old and accustomed manner of understanding That in the next place the common consent of Fathers in receiving a Natural Proposition of Scripture all in the same sense ought to Authorize it so far as to make it become a matter of Faith to believe it to be so I should think that it ought at most to be understood of those Conclusions onely which have been by the said Fathers discussed and sifted with all possible diligence and debated on the one side and on the other and all things in the end concurring to disprove the one and prove the other But the Mobility of the Earth and Stability of the Sun are not of this kinde For that the said Opinion was in those times totally buried and never brought amongst the Questions of the Schools and not considered much less followed by any one So that it is to be believed that it never so much as entered into the thought of the Fathers to dispute it the Places of Scripture their own Opinion and the assent of men having all concurred in the same judgement without the contradiction of any one so far as we can finde Besides it is not enough to say that the Fathers all admit the stability of the Earth c. Therefore to believe it is a matter of Faith But its necessary to prove that they have condemned the contrary Opinion For I may affirm and bide by this That their not having occasion to make satisfaction upon the same and to discuss it hath made them to omit and admit it onely as current but not as resolved and proved And I think I have very good Reason for what I say For either the Fathers did make reflection upon this Conclusion as controverted or not If not then they could determin nothing concerning it no not in their private thoughts and their incogitance
not a Supreme or Middle Body And so to come down from Heaven especially the Empyrian to it as it is accepted in the Descent of Christ from Heaven to his Holy Incarnation and from it to go up to Heaven as in Christs return to Heaven in his Glorious Ascention is truly and properly to Descend from the Circumference to the Centre and to ascend from the parts which are nearest to the Centre of the World to its utmost Circumference This Maxim therefore may easily and according to truth explain Theologicall Propositions and this is so much the more confirmed in that as I have observed almost all Texts of Sacred Scripture which oppose the Earth to Heaven are most conveniently and aptly understood of the Empyrial Heaven being the Highest of all the Heavens and Spiritual in respect of its end but not of the inferiour or intermediate Heavens which are a Corporeal and were framed for the benefit of Corporeal Creatures and thus when in the Plural Number Heavens are mentioned then all the Heavens promiscuously and without distinction are to be understood as well the Empyrian it self as the Inferiour Heavens And this Exposition indeed any man that doth but take notice of it may find to be most true And so for this Reason the Third Heaveu into which St. Paul was wrapt up by this Maxim may be taken for the Empyrean if for the the First Heaven we understand that immense Space of Erratick and Moveable Bodies illuminated by the Sun in which are comprehended the Planets as also the Earth moveable and the Sun immoveable Who like a King upon his August Tribunal sits with venerable Majesty immoveable and constant in Centre of all the Sphaeres and with his Divine Beames doth bountifully exhilerate all Coelestial Bodies that stand in need of his vital Light for which they cravingly wander about him and doth liberally and on every side comfort and illustrate the Theatre of the whole World and all its parts even the very least like an immortal and perpetual Lamp of high and unspeakable value The Second Heaven shall be the Starry Heaven commonly called the Eighth Sphaere or the Firmament wherein are all the Fixed Starrs which according to this Opinion of Pythagoras is like as the Sun and Centre void of all Motion the Centre and utmost Circumference mutually agreeing with each other in Immobility And the Third shall be the Empyrean Heaven that is the Seat of the Blessed And in this manner we may come to explain and understand that admirable Secret and profound Mystery aenigmatically revealed by Plato to Dionysius of Syracuse All things are about the King of all things Second things about the second and Third things about the Third For that God being the Centre of Spiritual things the Sun of Corporeal Christ of those that are Mixt or made up of both things do doubtlesse depend of that of these three Centres that is most correspondent and proportionable to them and the Centre is ever adjudged to be the nobler and worthier place and therefore in Animals the Heart in Vegitables the Pith or Kernell wherein the Seed lyeth that conserveth their perpetuity and virtually includes the whole Plant are in the Midst and in the Centre and thus much shall suffice to have hinted at since there may another occasion offer it self for a larger Explication of these things By this Maxim the Authorities and Arguments of the Third Fourth and Fifth Classes are resolved It may be added withall that even the Sun Mercury and Venus that is to say in respect of the Earth are to be thought aboue and not beneath the Earth it self although in respect of the Universe yea and also absolutely they are below The reason is because in respect of the Earth they alwayes appear above its Surface and although they do not environe it yet by the Motion of the said Earth they behold one while one part another while another part of its Circumference Since therefore those things which in a Sphaerical Body are nearer to the Circumference and more remote from the Cenrre are said to be above but those that are next adjoyning to the Centre are said to be below it clearly followeth that whilst the Sun Mercury and Venus are not only turned towards the Surface and Circumference of the said Earth but are at a very great distance without it successively turned about it and every way have a view of it and are very far remote from its Centre they may in respect of the said Earth be said to be above it as also on the other side the Eâ—ath in respect of them may be said to be beneath howbeit on the contrary in respect of the Universe the Earth in reality is much higher than they And thus is salved the Authority of Ecclesiastes in many places expressing those things that are or are done on the Earth in these words Which are done or which are under the Sun And in the same manner those words are reduced to their true Sense wherein it is said That we are under the Sun and under the Moon whereupon Terrene things are expressed by the name of Sublunary The Sixth Classis threatneth a difficulty which is common as well to this of Copernicus as to the Vulgar Opinion so that they are both alike concerned in the solution of it But so far as it opposeth that of Copernicus its answer is easy from the First Maxim But that which is added in the Fourth Classe That it followeth from this Opinion that Hell for that it is included by the Earth as is commonly held doth move circularly about the Sun and in Heaven and that so Hell it self will be found to be in Heaven discovers in my judgment nothing but Ignorance and Calumny that insinuate the belief of their Arguments rather by a corrupt sense of the Words than by solid Reasons taken from the bosome of the Nature of things For in this place Heaven is no wise to be taken for Paradice nor according to the Sense of Common Opinion but as hath been said above according to the Copernican Hypothesis for the subtilest and Purest Aire far more tenuous and rare than this of ours whereupon the Solid Bodies of the Stars Moon and Earth in their Circular and Ordinary Motions do passe thorow it the Sphaere of Fire being by this Opinion taken away And as according to the Common Opinion it was no absurdity to say That Hell being demerged in the Centre of the Earth and of the World it self hath Heaven and Paradice above and below it yea and on all sides of it and that it is in the middle of all the Coelestial Bodies as if it were posited in a more unworthy place so neither in this will it be deemed an Error if from the other System which differeth not much from the Vulgar one those or the like things follow as do in that For both in that of Copernicus and the Vulgar
Christianus ita noverit ut cirtissima ratione vel experientiâ teneat Turpe autem est nimis perniciosum ac maxime cavendum ut Christianum de his rebus quasi secundum Christianas litteras loquentem ita delirare quilibet infidelis audiat ut quem admodum dicitur toto Caelo errare conspiciens risuÌ„tenere vix possit non tam molestum est quod errans homo derideretur sed quod auctores nostri ab tis qui foris sunt talia sensisse creduntur cum magno exitio corim de quorum salute satagimus tanquam indocti reprehenduntur atque respuuntur Cum enim quemquam de numero Christianorum eaiâ—re quam ipsi optime norunt deprehenderint vanam sententiam suam de nostris libris asserent quo pacto illis Libris credituri sunt de Resurrectione Mortuorum de spe vitae eternae Regnoque Celorum quando de his rebus quas jam experiri vel indubitatis rationibus percipere potuerunt fallaciter putaverint esse conscriptos y Quid enim molestiae tristiaeque ingerant prudentibus fratribus tenerarâ—j praesumpiores satis dici non potest cum si quando de falsa prava opinione sua reprehendi convinci caeperint ab iis qui nostrorum librorum auctoritate apertissima falsitate dixerunt eosdnm libros Sanctos unde id probent proferre conantur vel etiam memoriter quae ad testimonium vâ—lere arbitrantur multa inde verba pronunciant non intelligentes neque quae loquuntur neque de quibus affirmant If this passage seem harsh the Reader must remember that I do but Translate * 〈…〉 On it s own Axis * Lux ejus colligit convertitque ad se omnia quae videntur quae moventur quae illustrantur quae calescunt uno nomine ea quae ab ejus splendore continentur Itaque Sol 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicitur quod omnia congreget colligatque dispersa * Si enim Sol hic quem videmus eorum quae sub sensum cadunt essentias qualitates quaeque multa sint ac dissimiles tamen ipse qui unus est aequaliterque lumen fundit renovat alit tuetur perficit dividit conjungit fovet faecunda reddit auget mutat firmat edit movet vitaliaque facit omnia unaquaque res hujus universitatis pro captu suo unius atque ejusdem Solis est particeps causasque multorum quae participent in se aequabiliter anticipatas habet certe majori raticne c. Solem stetisse dum adhuc in Hemisphaerio nostro supra scilicet Horizontem existeret Cajetan in loco * Or Poles * Gen. Chp. 〈◊〉 v. 1. * Psal. 24. 2. * Psal. 137. 1. * Chap. 1. v. 4 to 9. Psal. 104. v. 5. * Shelter * Officium * In vita ejus * Followers of that Learned Kings Hypothesis * That is 5000 miles eight of these making an Italian or English mile of a 1000. paces every pacâ— containing 5. Feet * Chap. 1. v. 4. The Motion of the Earth not against Scripture Faith is more certain than either Sense or Reason * 2 Pet. 1. 19. * Or Primum Mobile * Cardan de rerum vaâ—iet Lib. 1. Cap. 1. * P. Clavius in ultima suor Operum editione The Author first Theologically dâ—fendeâ—h the â—arths Mâ—bility approved by â—ary of the Moderns b Or In Sole posuit tabernaculum suum according to the Translation our Author followeth In Sphericall Bodies Deorsum is the Centre and Sursum the Circumference Hell is in the centre of the Earth not of the World Heaven and Eartâ— are always 〈◊〉 opposed to each other After the day of Judgment the Earth shall stand immoveable * Circa Cardines Coeli Luke 16. Alia sunt notiora nobis alia notiora natura vel secundum se Arist lib. 1. Phys. * Aut ad Umbram Which are really the great Lights in Heaven The Sun Moon and Stars are one the same thing The Earth is another Moon or Star Why the Sunne seemeth to us to move not the Earth Aeneid 3. a Eccles. c. 1. v. ult b Chap. 3. v. 11. c 1 Cor. c. 4. v. 5. d 1 Cor. c. 13. v. 12. e 1 John c. 3. v. 2. f 1 Cor. c. 13. v. 12. g Ecclesiast 15. 3. h 1 Cor. c. 2. v. 2. i Isa. c. 48. v. 17. 1 Thess. 4. Joshua c. 10. ver 12. * expected Isa. c. 38. v. 8. â— Several Motions of the Earth according to Copernicus The Earth Secundum Totum is Immutable though not Immovable The Earth cannot Secundum Totum remove out of its Natural Place The Natural Place of the Earth The Moon is an Aetherial Body The Earths Centre keepeth it in its Natural Place Gravity and Levity of Bodies what it is All Coelestial Bodies have Gravity and Levity Compressive Motion proper to Gravity the Extensive to Levity Heaven is not composed of a fift Essence differing from the matter of inferior Bodies Nor yet a Solid or dense Body but Rare * Delle Macchie solarj * Vnius Corporis simplicis unus est motus simplex et huic dua species Rectus Circularis Rectus duplex à medio ad medium primus levium ut Aeris Ignis secundus gravium ut Aquae Terra Circularis quiest circa medium competit Coelo quod neque est grave neque leve Arist. de Coelo Lib. 1. * Vide Copernicum de Revolutionibus Coelest Simple Motion peculiar to only Simple Bodies Right Motion belongeth to Imperfect Bodies and that are out of their natural Places Right Motion cannot be Simple Right Motion is ever mixt with the Circular * aequabilis * Even Circular Motion is truly Simple and Perpetual Circular Motion belongeth to the Whole Body and the Right to its parts Circular and Right Motion coincedent and may consist together in the same Body The Earth in 〈◊〉 sense it may 〈…〉 be said 〈…〉 the lowest 〈◊〉 of the World Christ in his Incarnation truly descended from Heaven and in his Asceâ—sion truly ascended into Heaven 2 Cor. c. 12. v. 3. Whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell The Sun is King Heart and Lamp of the World himself being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 absolutely independent The Aenigma of Plato a Circa omniâ—m Regem sunt omnia Secunda circa Secundum et Tertia circa Tertium Vide Theodo de Graec. affect curat lib. 2. Sâ—euch lib. de Parennj Philoso Eccles. c. 1. 2. 3. and almost thoout * Quod fiunt vel sunt sub sole Heaven according to Copernicus is the same with the most tenuous Aether but different from Paradice which surpasseth all the Heavens a Exod. 25. 31. b My Authour following the vulgar Translation which hath an Eligance in some things beyond ours cites the words thus Facies Candelabrum ductile de auro mundissimo Hastile ejus Calamos Sphaerulas ac Lilia ex ipso procedentia c verse 12. d or Spheres e Though our Authour speaketh here positively of nine Months c. Fathers are not agreed about the period of this planet nor that of Mercury as you may see at large in Ricciolus Almagest nov Tom. 1. part 1. l. 7. sect 3. cha 11. num 11. page 627. where he maketh Venus to consummate her Revolution in neer 225 dayes or 7 12 Mon. and Mercury in about 88 dayes or 3 Months in which he followeth Kepl. in Epitome Astronom p. 760. f vers 33 34. g 1 Kings c. 7. v. 49. 2 Chron. c. 4. vers 7. h Exod. 28. 33 34 39. v. 24 25 26. i Sap. c. 18. v. 24. k Exod. c. 28. v. 6 9 17 36. l Or totus Orbis Terrarum as the vulgar Translation hath it m Numb c. 20. v. 5. n Joel c. 1. v. 12. o Hagg. c. 2. v. 19. p Deut. c. 8. v. 8. q 1 Kings c 7. v. 20. 2 Kings c. 25. v. 17. 2 Chro. c. 3. v. 15 16. c. 4. v. 12. 13. Jerem. c. 52. v. 21 22. r Gen. c. 1. v. 1. s Psal. 67. v. 6 7. * Psal. 9 v. 5 6. * Institutionum omnium Doctrâ—narum * De Oraculis * De Divinatiâ—-ne artificiosa * De Divinatiâ—-ne Naturali Cosmologica a Nella continuatione dell Nuntio siderio b Lâ—ttera al P. Abbaâ—â— D. B. Castelli D'Aâ—cetro li. 3. Decemb. 16 9. c De Motu Aquanâ— â—ib 2. Prop. 37. p. 191. * And as is at large demonstrated by that most excellent and Honourable personage Mr. Boile in the industrious experiment of his Pneumatical Engine * Artesia * Commentarius beareth many senses but in this place signifieth a certain Register of the quantities of the Waters in the several publique Aquiducts of Rome which word I find frequently used in the Law-books of antient Civilians And by errogation we are to understand the distribution or delivering out of those stores of Water * A Coyn of Pope Julius worth six pence * Or Sluice * In Pregadi a particular Council the Senators of which have great Authority * A Venice Brace is 11 16 of our yard * A River of that name * I. Savii dell ' Acque a particular Council that take care of the Lakes and other Aquatick affairs * He here intends the Demonstrations following at the end of the first Book * Deeper * Lib. 1. * The Countrey or Province lying round the City heretofore called Latium * Or Lordship * The Popes Exchequer * Polesine is a plat of Ground almost surrounded with Bogs or waters like an Island * People of Ferrara * In Chanels made by hand * The inch of these places is somewhat bigger than ours * Of Adriano * Larghezza but misprinted
that Court nor was that Decree Published without Previous Notice given me thereof Therefore it is my resolution in the present case to give Foraign Nations to see that this point is as well understood in Italy and particularly in Rome as Transalpine Diligence can imagine it to be and collecting together all the proper Speculations that concern the Copernican Systeme to let them know that the notice of all preceded the Censure of the Roman Court and that there proceed from this Climate not only Doctrines for the health of the Soul but also ingenious Discoveries for the recreating of the Mind To this end I have personated the Copernican in this Discourse proceeding upon an Hypothesis purely Mathematical striving by all artificial wayes to represent it Superiour not to that of the Immobility of the Earth absolutely but according as it is mentioned by some that retein no more but the name of Peripateticks and are content without going farther to adore Shadows not philosophizing with requisit caution but with the sole remembrance of four Principles but badly understood We shall treat of three principall heads First I will endeavour to shew that all Experiments that can be made upon the Earth are insufficient means to conclude it's Mobility but are indifferently applicable to the Earth moveable or immoveable and I hope that on this occasion we shall discover many observable passages unknown to the Ancients Secondly we will examine the Coelestiall Phoenomena that make for the Copernican Hypothesis as if it were to prove absolutely victorious adding by the way certain new Observations which yet serve only for the Astronomical Facility not for Natural Necessity In the third place I will propose an ingenuous Fancy I remember that I have said many years since that the unknown Probleme of the Tide might receive some light admitting the Earths Motion This Position of mine passing from one to another had found charitable Fathers that adopted it for the Issue of their own wit Now because no stranger may ever appear that defending himself with our armes shall charge us with want of caution in so principal an Accident I have thought good to lay down those probabilities that would render it credible admitting that the Earth did move I hope that by these Considerations the World will come to know that if other Nations have Navigated more than we we have not studied less than they that our returning to assert the Earths Stability and to take the contrary only for a Mathematical Capriccio proceeds not from inadvertency of what others have thought thereof but had we no other inducements from those Reasons that Piâ—ty Religion the Knowledge of the Divine Omnipotency and a consciousness of the incapacity of mans Vnderstanding dictate unto us With all I conceived it very proper to express these conceits by way of Dialogue which as not being bound up to the riggid observance of Mathematical Laws gives place also to Digressions that are sometimes no less curious than the principal Argument I chanced to be several years since at several times in the Stupendious Citty of Venice where I conversed with Signore Giovan Francesco Sagredo of a Noble Extraction and piercing wit There came thither from Florence at the same time Signore Filippo Salviati whose least glory was the Eminence of his Blood and Magnificence of his Estate a sublime Wit that fed not more hungerly upon any pleasure than on elevated Speculations In the company of these two I often discoursed of these matters before a certain Peripatetick Philosopher who seemed to have no geater obstacle in understanding of the Truth than the Fame he had acquired by Aristotelical Interpretations Now seeing that inexorable Death hath deprived Venice and Florence of those two great Lights in the very Meridian of their years I did resolve as far as my poor ability would permit to perpetuate their lives to their honour in these leaves bringing them in as Interlocutors in the present Controversy Nor shall the Honest Peripatetick want his place to whom for his excessive affection towards the Commentaries of Simplicius I thought fit without mentioning his own Name to leave that of the Author he so much respected Let those two great Souls ever venerable to my heart please to accept this publick Monument of my never-dying Love and let the remembrance of their Eloquence assist me in delivering to Posterity the Considerations that I have promised There casually happened as was usuall several discourses at times between these Gentlemen the which had rather inflamed than satisfied in their wits the thirst they had to be learning whereupon they took a discreet resolution to meet together for certain dayes in which all other business set aside they might betake themselves more methodically to contemplate the Wonders of God in Heaven and in the Earth the place appointed for their meeting being in the Palace of the Noble Sagredo after the due but very short complements Signore Salviati began in this manner The CONTENTS of the FIRST TOME PART THE FIRST Treatise I. GALILEUS GALILEUS his SYSTEME of the WORLD in Four DIALOGUES II. HIS EPISTLE to her SERENE HIGHNESSE CHRISTIANA LOTHERINGA GRAND DUTCHESSE of TUSCANY touching the Ancient and Modern DOCTRINE of HOLY FATHERS and JUDICIOUS DIVINES concerning the AUTHORITY of SACRED SCRIPTURE in PHYLOSOPHICAL CONTROVERSIES III. JOHANNES KEPLERUS his RECONCILINGS of TEXTS of SACRED SCRIPTURE that seem to oppose the DOCTRINE of the EARTHS MOBILITY abstracted from his INTRODUCTION unto his LEARNED COMMENTARIES upon the PLANET MARS IV. DIDACUS A STUNICA a learned SPANISH DIVINE his RECONCILINGS of the said DOCTRINE with the TEXTS of SACRED SCRIPTURE abstracted from his COMMENTARIE upon JOB V. PAULUâ— ANTONIUS FOSCARINUS a CARMELITE his EPISTLE to SEBASTIANUS FANTONUS the GENERAL of his ORDER concerning the PYTHAGOREAN and COPERNICAN OPINION of the MOBILITY OF THE EARTH and STABILITY OF THE SUN and of the NEW SYSTEME or CONSTITUTION of the WORLD in which he reconcileth the TEXTS OF SACRED SCRIPTURE and ASSERTIONS of DIVINES commonly alledged against this OPINION A Table of the most observable Persons and Matters mentioned in the First Part. PART THE SECOND I. D. BENEDICTUS CASTELLUS ABBOT OF S. BENEDICTUS ALOYSIUS his DISCOURSE of the MENSURATION OF RUNNING WATERS The First BOOK II. HIS LETTER to GALILEUS representing the state of the Lake of PERUGIA in TUSCANY III. HIS GEOMETRICAL DEMONSTRATIONS of the MEASURE of RUNNING WATERS IV. HIS DISCOURSE of the MENSURATION OF RUNNING WATERS The Second BOOK V. HIS CONSIDERATIONS concerning the LAKE OF VENICE In two DISCOURSES VI. HIS RULE for computing the quantity of MUD and SAND that LAND-FLOODS bring down to and leave in the LAKE of VENICE VII HIS LETTER to Father FRANCESCO DI S. GIVSEPPE wherein at the instance of PRINCE LEOPALDO he delivereth his judgment concerning the turning FIUME MORTO a River near PISA in TUSCANY into the SEA and into the River SEARCHIO VIII HIS second LETTER in answer to certain OBJECTIONS proposed and DIFFICULTIES observed
by SIGNORE BARTOLOTTI in that affair of the DIVERSION of FIUME MORTO IX HIS CONSIDERATION upon the DRAINING of the PONTINE FENNS in CALABRIA X. HIS CONSIDERATION upon the DRAINING of the TERRITORIES of BOLOGNA FERRARA and ROMAGNA XI HIS LETTER to D. FERRANTE CESARINI applying his DOCTRINE to the MENSURATION of the LENGTH and DISTRIBUTION of the QUANTITY of the WATERS of RIVERS SPRINGS AQUEDUCTS c. XII D. CORSINUS SUPERINTENDENT of the GENERAL DRAINS and PRESIDENT of ROMAGNA his RELATION of the state of the VVATERS in the TERRITORIES of BOLOGNA and FERRARA A Table of the most observable Persons and Matters mentioned in the Second Part. The CONTENTS of the SECOND TOME PART THE FIRST Treatise I. GALILEUS GALILEUS his MATHEMATICAL DISCOURSES and DEMONSTRATIOMS touching two NEVV SCIENCES pertaining to the MECHANICKS and LOCAL MOTION with an APPENDIX of the CENTRE of GRAVITY of some SOLIDS in Four DIALOGUES II. HIS MECHANICKS a New PEICE III. RHENATUS DES CARTES his MECHANICKS translated from his FRENCH MANUSCRIPT a New PEICE IV. ARCHIMEDES his Tract DE INSIDENTIBUS HUMIDO with the NOTES and DEMONSTRASIONS of NICOLAUS TARTALEUS in Two BOOKS V. GALILEUS his DISCOURSE of the things that move in or upon the WATER VI. NICOLAUS TARTALEUS his INVENTIONS for DIVING UNDER WATER RAISING OF SHIPS SUNK c. in Two BOOKS PART THE SECOND I. EVANGELISTA TORRICELLIUS his DOCTRINE OF PROJECTS and TABLES of the RANGES of GREAT GUNNS of all sorts wherein he detects sundry ERRORS in GUNNERY An EPITOME II. T. S. his EXPERIMENTS of the COMPARATIVE GRAVITY OF BODIES in the AIRE and WATER III. GALILEUS GALILEUS his LIFE in Five BOOKS BOOK I. Containing Five Chapters Chap. 1. His Country 2. His Parents and Extraction 3. His time of Birth 4. His first Education 5. His Masters II. Containing Three Chapters Chap. 1. His judgment in several Learnings 2. His Opinions and Doctrine 3. His Auditors and Scholars III. Containing Four Chapters Chap. 1. His behaviour in Civil Affairs 2. His manner of Living 3. His morall Virtues 4. His misfortunes and troubles IV. Containing Four Chapters Chap. 1. His person described 2. His Will and Death 3. His Inventions 4. His Writings 5. His Dialogues of the Systeme in particular containing Nine Sections Section 1. Of Astronomy in General its Definition Praise Original 2. Of Astronomers a Chronological Catalogue of the most famous of them 3. Of the Doctrine of the Earths Mobility c. its Antiquity and Progresse from Pythagoras to the time of Copernicus 4. Of the Followers of Copernicus unto the time of Galileus 5. Of the severall Systemes amongst Astronomers 6. Of the Allegations against the Copern Systeme in 77 Arguments taken out of Ricciolo with Answers to them 7. Of the Allegations for the Copern Systeme in 50 Arguments 8. Of the Scriptures Authorities produced against and for the Earths mobility 9. The Conclusion of the whole Chapter V. Containing Four Chapters Chap. 1. His Patrons Friends and Emulators 2. Authors judgments of him 3. Authors that have writ for or against him 4. A Conclusion in certain Reflections upon his whole Life A Table of the whole Second TOME GALILAEUS Galilaeus Lyncaeus HIS SYSTEME OF THE WORLD The First Dialogue INTERLOCVTORS SALVIATUS SAGREDUS and SIMPLICIUS SALVIATUS IT was our yesterdayes resolution and agreement that we should to day discourse the most distinctly and particularly we could possible of the natural reasons and their efficacy that have been hitherto alledged on the one or other part by the maintainers of the Positions Aristotelian and Ptolomaique and by the followers of the Copernican Systeme And because Copernicus placing the Earth among the moveable Bodies of Heaven comes to constitute a Globe for the fame like to a Planet it would be good that we began our disputation with the examination of what and how great the energy of the Peripateticks arguments is when they demonstrate that this Hypothesis is impossible Since that it is necessary to introduce in Nature substances different betwixt themselves that is the Coelestial and Elementary that impassible and immortal this alterable and corruptible Which argument Aristotle handleth in his book De Coelo insinuating it first by some discourses dependent on certain general assumptions and afterwards confirming it with experiments and perticular demonstrations following the same method I will propound and freely speak my judgement submitting my self to your censure and particularly to Simplicius a Stout Champion and contender for the Aristotelian Doctrine And the first Step of the Peripatetick arguments is that where Aristotle proveth the integrity and perfection of the World telling us that it is not a simple line nor a bare superficies but a body adorned with Longitude Latitude and Profundity and because there are no more dimensions but these three The World having them hath all and having all is to be concluded perfect And again that by simple length that magnitude is constituted which is called a Line to which adding breadth there is framed the Superficies and yet further adding the altitude or profoundity there results the Body and after these three dimensions there is no passing farther so that in these three the integrity and to so speak totality is terminated which I might but with justice have required Aristotle to have proved to me by necessary consequences the rather in regard he was able to do it very plainly and speedily SIMPL. What say you to the excellent demonstrations in the 2. 3. and 4. Texts after the definition of Continual have you it not first there proved that there is no more but three dimensions for that those three are all things and that they are every where And is not this confirmed by the Doctrine and Authority of the Pythagorians who say that all things are determined by three beginning middle and end which is the number of All And where leave you that reason namely that as it were by the law of Nature this number is used in the sacrifices of the Gods And why being so dictated by nature do we atribute to those things that are three and not to lesse the title of all why of two is it said both and not all unless they be three And all this Doctrine you have in the second Text. Afterwards in the third Ad pleniorem scientiam we read that All the Whole and Perfect are formally one and the same and that therefore onely the Body amongst magnitudes is perfect because it is determined by three which is All and being divisible three manner of waies it is every way divisible but of the others some are dividible in one manner and some in two because according to the number affixed they have their division and continuity and thus one magnitude is continuate one way another two a third namely the Body every way Moreover in the fourth Text doth he not after some other Doctrines prove it by another demonstration Scilicet That no transition is made but
the case is impossible it being clear by the Demonstrations of Aristotle that the coelestial Bodies are impassible impenetrable unpartable c. I answer that none of the conditions whereby Aristotle distinguisheth the Coelestial Bodies from Elementary hath other foundation than what he deduceth from the diversity of the natural motion of those and these insomuch that it being denied that the circular motion is peculiar to Coelestial Bodies and affirmed that it is agreeable to all Bodies naturally moveable it is behoofull upon necessary consequence to say either that the attributes of generable or ingenerable alterable or unalterable partable or unpartable c. equally and commonly agree with all worldly bodies namely as well to the Coelestial as to the Elementary or that Aristotle hath badly and erroneously deduced those from the circular motion which he hath assigned to Coelestial Bodies SIMPL. This manner of argumentation tends to the subversion of all Natural Philosophy and to the disorder and subversion of Heaven and Earth and the whole Universe but I believe the Fundamentals of the Peripateticks are such that we need not fear that new Sciences can be erected upon their ruines SALV Take no thought in this place for Heaven or the Earth neither fear their subversion or the ruine of Philosophy As to Heaven your fears are vain for that which you your self hold unalterable and impassible as for the Earth we strive to enoble and perfect it whilst we make it like to the Coelestial Bodies and as it were place it in Heaven whence your Philosophers have exiled it Philosophy it self cannot but receive benefit from our Disputes for if our conceptions prove true new Discoveries will be made if false the first Doctrine will be more confirmed Rather bestow your care upon some Philosophers and help and defend them for as to the Science it self it cannot but improve And that we may return to our purpose be pleased freely to produce what presents it self to you in confirmation of that great difference which Aristotle puts between the Coelestial Bodies and the Elementary parts of the World in making those ingenerable incorruptible unalterable c. and this corruptible alterable c. SIMPL. I see not yet any need that Aristotle hath of help standing as he doth stoutly and strongly on his feet yea not being yet assaulted much less foiled by you And what ward will you choose in this combate for this first blow Aristotle writeth that whatever is generated is made out of a contrary in some subject and likewise is corrupted in some certain subject from a contrary into a contrary so that observe corruption and generation is never but onely in contraries If therefore to a Coelestial Body no contrary can be assigned for that to the circular motion no other motion is contrary then Nature hath done very well to make that exempt from contraries which was to be ingenerable and incorruptible This fundamental first confirmed it immediately followeth of consequence that it is inaugmentable inalterable impassible and finally eternal and a proportionate habitation to the immortal Deities conformable to the opinion even of all men that have any conceit of the Gods He afterwards confirmeth the same by sense in regard that in all times past according to memory or tradition we see nothing removed according to the whole outward Heaven nor any of its proper parts Next as to the circular motion that no other is contrary to it Aristotle proveth many ways but without reciting them all it is sufficiently demonstrated since simple motions are but three to the medium from the medium and about the medium of which the two right sursum and deorsum are manifestly contrary and because one onely hath onely one for contrary therefore there rests no other motion which may be contrary to the circular You see the subtle and most concluding discourse of Aristotle whereby he proveth the incorruptibility of Heaven SALV This is nothing more save the pure progress of Aristotle by me hinted before wherein besides that I affirm that the motion which you attribute to the Coelestial Bodies agreeth also to the Earth its illation proves nothing I tell you therefore that that circular motion which you assign to Coelestial Bodies suiteth also to the Earth from which supposing that the rest of your discourse were concludent will follow one of these three things as I told you a little before and shall repeat namely either that the Earth it self is also ingenerable and incorruptible as the Coelestial bodies or that the Coelestial bodies are like as the Elementary generable alterable c. or that this difference of motion hath nothing to do with Generation and Corruption The discourse of Aristotle and yours also contain many Propositions not to be lightly admitted and the better to examine them it will be convenient to reduce them to the most abstracted and distinct that can be possible and excuse me Sagredus if haply with some tediousness you hear me oft repeat the same things and fancie that you see me reassume my argument in the publick circle of Disputations You say Generation and Corruption are onely made where there are contraries contraries are onely amongst simple natural bodies moveable with contrary motions contrary motions are onely those which are made by a right line between contrary terms and these are onely two that is to say from the medium and towards the medium and such motions belong to no other natural bodies but to the Earth the Fire and the other two Elements therefore Generation and Corruption is onely amongst the Elements And because the third simple motion namely the circular about the medium hath no contrary for that the other two are contraries and one onely hath but onely one contrary therefore that natural body with which such motion agreeth wants a contrary and having no contrary is ingenerable and incorruptible c. Because where there is no contrariety there is no generation or corruption c. But such motion agreeth onely with the Coelestial bodies therefore onely these are ingenerable incorruptible c. And to begin I think it a more easie thing and sooner done to resolve whether the Earth a most vast Body and for its vicinity to us most tractable moveth with a speedy motion such as its revolution about its own axis in twenty four hours would be than it is to understand and resolve whether Generation and Corruption ariseth from contrariety or else whether there be such things as generation corruption and contrariety in nature And if you Simplicius can tell me what method Nature observes in working when she in a very short time begets an infinite number of flies from a little vapour of the Must of wine and can shew me which are there the contraries you speak of what it is that corrupteth and how I should think you would do more than I can for I profess I cannot comprehend these things Besides
I would very gladly understand how and why these corruptive contraries are so favourable to Daws and so cruel to Doves so indulgent to Stags and so hasty to Horses that they do grant to them many more years of life that is of incorruptibility than weeks to these Peaches and Olives are planted in the same soil exposed to the same heat and cold to the same wind and rains and in a word to the same contrarieties and yet those decay in a short time and these live many hundred years Furthermore I never was thorowly satisfied about this substantial transmutation still keeping within pure natural bounds whereby a matter becometh so transform'd that it should be necessarily said to be destroy'd so that nothing remaineth of its first being and that another body quite differing there-from should be thence produced and if I fancy to my self a body under one aspect and by and by under another very different I cannot think it impossible but that it may happen by a simple transposition of parts without corrupting or ingendring any thing a-new for we see such kinds of Metamorphoses dayly so that to return to my purpose I answer you that inasmuch as you go about to perswade me that the Earth can not move circularly by way of corruptibility and generability you have undertook a much harder task than I that with arguments more difficult indeed but no less concluding will prove the contrary SAGR. Pardon me Salviatus if I interrupt your discourse which as it delights me much for that I also am gravel'd with the same doubts so I fear that you can never conclude the same without altogether digressing from your chief design therefore if it be permitted to proceed in our first argument I should think that it were convenient to remit this question of generation and corruption to another distinct and single conference as also if it shall please you and Simplicius we may do by other particular questions which may fall in the way of our discourse which I will keep in my mind to propose and exactly discuss them some other time Now as for the present since you say that if Aristotle deny circular motion to the Earth in common with other bodies Coelestial it thence will follow that the same which befalleth the Earth as to its being generable alterable c. will hold also of Heaven let us enquire no further if there be such things in nature as generation and corruption or not but let us return to enquire what the Globe of the Earth doth SIMPL. I cannot suffer my ears to hear it question'd whether generation and corruption be in rerum naturâ it being a thing which we have continually before our eyes and whereof Aristotle hath written two whole Books But if you go about to deny the Principles of Sciences and question things most manifest who knows not but that you may prove what you will and maintain any Paradox And if you do not dayly see herbs plants animals to generate and corrupt what is it that you do see Also do you not continually behold contrarieties contend together and the Earth change into Water the Water turn to Air the Air into Fire and again the Air to condense into Clouds Rains Hails and Storms SAGR. Yes we see these things indeed and therefore will grant you the discourse of Aristotle as to this part of generation and corruption made by contraries but if I shall conclude by virtue of the same propositions which are granted to Aristotle that the Coelestial bodies themselves are also generable and corruptible aswell as the Elementary what will you say then SIMPL. I will say you have done that which is impossible to be done SAGR. Go to tell me Simplicius are not these affections contrary to one another SIMPL. Which SAGR. Why these Alterable unalterable passible impassible generable ingenerable corruptible incorruptible SIMPL. They are most contrary SAGR. Well then if this be true and it be also granted that Coelestial Bodies are ingenerable and incorruptible I prove that of necessity Coelestial Bodies must be generable and corruptible SIMPL. This must needs be a Sophism SAGR. Hear my Argument and then censure and resolve it Coelestial Bodies for that they are ingenerable and incorruptible have in Nature their contraries which are those Bodies that be generable and corruptible but where there is contrariety there is also generation and corruption therefore Coelestial Bodies are generable and corruptible SIMPL. Did I not say it could be no other than a Sophism This is one of those forked Arguments called Soritae like that of the Cretan who said that all Cretans were lyars but he as being a Cretan had told a lye in saying that the Cretans were lyars it followed therefore that the Cretans were no lyars and consequently that he as being a Cretan had spoke truth And yet in saying the Cretans were lyars he had said true and comprehending himself as a Cretan he must consequently be a lyar And thus in these kinds of Sophisms a man may dwell to eternity and never come to any conclusion SAGR. You have hitherto censured it it remaineth now that you answer it shewing the fallacie SIMPL. As to the resolving of it and finding out its fallacie do you not in the first place see a manifest contradiction in it Coelestial Bodies are ingenerable and incorruptible Ergo Coelestial Bodies are generable and corruptible And again the contrariety is not betwixt the Coelestial Bodies but betwixt the Elements which have the contrariety of the Motions sursùm and deorsùm and of levity and gravity But the Heavens which move circularly to which motion no other motion is contrary want contrariety and therefore they are incorruptible SAGR. Fair and softly Simplicius this contrariety whereby you say some simple Bodies become corruptible resides it in the same Body which is corrupted or else hath it relation to some other I say if for example humidity by which a piece of Earth is corrupted resides it in the same Earth or in some other bodie which must either be the Air or Water I believe you will grant that like as the Motions upwards and downwards and gravity and levity which you make the first contraries cannot be in the same Subject so neither can moist and dry hot and cold you must therefore consequently acknowledg that when a bodie corrupteth it is occasioned by some quality residing in another contrary to its own therefore to make the Coelestial Body become corruptible it sufficeth that there are in Nature bodies that have a contrariety to that Coelestial body and such are the Elements if it be true that corruptibility be contrary to incorruptibility SIMPL. This sufficeth not Sir The Elements alter and corrupt because they are intermixed and are joyn'd to one another and so may exercise their contrariety but Coelestial bodies are separated from the Elements by which they are not so much as toucht
move And as to the motion by a right line they must grant us that Nature maketh use of it to reduce the small parts of the Earth Water Air Fire and every other integral Mundane body to their Whole when any of them by chance are separated and so transported out of their proper place if also haply some circular motion might not be found to be more convenient to make this restitution In my judgment this primary position answers much better even according to Aristotles own method to all the other consequences than to attribute the straight motion to be an intrinsick and natural principle of the Elements Which is manifest for that if I aske the Peripatetick if being of opinion that Coelestial bodies are incorruptibe and eternal he believeth that the Terrestial Globe is not so but corruptible and mortal so that there shall come a time when the Sun and Moon and other Stars continuing their beings and operations the Earth shall not be found in the World but shall with the rest of the Elements be destroyed and annihilated I am certain that he would answer me no therefore generation and corruption is in the parts and not in the whole and in the parts very small and superficial which are as it were incensible in comparison of the whole masse And because Aristotle deduceth generation and corruption from the contrariety of streight motions let us remit such motions to the parts which onely change and decay and to the whole Globe and Sphere of the Elements let us ascribe either the circular motion or a perpetual consistance in its proper place the only affections apt for perpetuation and maintaining of perfect order This which is spoken of the Earth may be said with the same reason of Fire and of the greatest part of the Air to which Elements the Peripateticks are forced to ascribe for intrinsical and natural a motion wherewith they were never yet moved nor never shall be and to call that motion preternatural to them wherewith if they move at all they do and ever shall move This I say because they assign to the Air and Fire the motion upwards wherewith those Elements were never moved but only some parts of them and those were so moved onely in order to the recovery of their perfect constitution when they were out of their natural places and on the contrary they call the circular motion preternatural to them though they are thereby incessantly moved forgeting as it seemeth what Aristotle oft inculcateth that nothing violent can be permanent SIMPL. To all these we have very pertinent answers which I for this time omit that we may come to the more particular reasons and sensible experiments which ought in conclusion to be opposed as Aristotle saith well to whatever humane reason can present us with SAGR. What hath been spoken hitherto serves to clear up unto us which of the two general discourses carrieth with it most of probability I mean that of Aristotle which would perswade us that the sublunary bodies are by nature generable and corruptible c. and therefore most different from the essence of Coelestial bodies which are impassible ingenerable incorruptible c. drawn from the diversity of simple motions or else this of Salviatus who supposing the integral parts of the World to be disposed in a perfect constitution excludes by necessary consequence the right or straight motion of simple natural bodies as being of no use in nature and esteems the Earth it self also to be one of the Coelestial bodies adorn'd with all the prerogatives that agree with them which last discourse is hitherto much more likely in my judgment than that other Therefore resolve Simplicius to produce all the particular reasons experiments and observations as well Natural as Astronomical that may serve to perswade us that the Earth differeth from the Coelestial bodies is immoveable and situated in the Centre of the World and what ever else excludes its moving like to the Planets as Jupiter or the Moon c. And Salviatus will be pleased to be so civil as to answer to them one by one SIMPL. See here for a begining two most convincing Arguments to demonstrate the Earth to be most different from the Coelestial bodies First the bodies that are generable corruptible alterable c. are quite different from those that are ingenerable incorruptible unalterable c. But the Earth is generable corruptible alterable c. and the Coelestial bodies ingenerable incorruptible unalterable c. Therefore the Earth is quite different from the Coelestial bodies SAGR. By your first Argument you spread the Table with the same Viands which but just now with much adoe were voided SIMPL. Hold a little Sir and take the rest along with you and then tell me if this be not different from what you had before In the former the Minor was proved à priori now you see it proved à posteriori Judg then if it be the same I prove the Minor therefore the Major being most manifest by sensible experience which 〈…〉 that in the Earth there are made continual generations corruptions alterations c. which neither our senses nor the traditions or memories of our Ancestors ever saw an instance of in Heaven therefore Heaven is unalterable c. and the Earth alterable c. and therefore different from Heaven I take my second Argument from a principal and essential accident and it is this That body which is by its nature obscure and deprived of light is divers from the luminous and shining bodies but the Earth is obscure and void of light and the Coelestial bodies splendid and full of light Ergo c. Answer to these Arguments first that we may not heap up too many and then I will alledge others SALV As to the first the stresse whereof you lay upon experience I desire that you would a little more distinctly produce me the alteration which you see made in the Earth and not in Heaven upon which you call the Earth alterable and the Heavens not so SIMPL. I see in the Earth plants and animals continually generating and decaying winds rains tempests storms arising and in a word the aspect of the Earth to be perpetually metamorphosing none of which mutations are to be discern'd in the Coelestial bodies the constitution and figuration of which is most punctually conformable to that they ever were time out of mind without the generation of any thing that is new or corruption of any thing that was old SALV But if you content your self with these visible or to say better seen experiments you must consequently account China and America Coelestial bodies for doubtlesse you never be held in them these alterations which you see here in Italy and that therefore according to your apprehension they are inalterable SIMPL. Though I never did see these alterations sensibly in those places the relations of them are not to be questioned besides that cum eadem
sit ratio totius partium those Countreys being a part of the Earth as well as ours they must of necessity be alterable as these are SALV And why have you not without being put to believe other mens relations examined and observed those alterations with your own eyes SIMPL. Because those places besides that they are not exposed to our eyes are so remote that our sight cannot reach to comprehend therein such like mutations SALV See now how you have unawares discovered the fallacy of your Argument for if you say that the alterations that are seen on the Earth neer at hand cannot by reason of the too great distance be seen in America much lesse can you see them in the Moon which is so many hundred times more remote And if you believe the alterations in Mexico upon the report of those that come from thence what intelligence have you from the Moon to assure you that there is no such alterations in it Therefore from your not seeing any alterations in Heaven whereas if there were any such you could not see them by reason of their too great distance and from your not having intelligence thereof in regard that it cannot be had you ought not to argue that there are no such alterations howbeit from the seeing and observing of them on Earth you well argue that therein such there are SIMPL. I will shew so great mutations that have befaln on the Earth that if any such had happened in the Moon they might very well have been observed here below We find in very antient records that heretofore at the Streights of Gibraltar the two great Mountains Abila and Calpen were continued together by certain other lesse Mountains which there gave check to the Ocean but those Hills being by some cause or other separated and a way being opened for the Sea to break in it made such an inundation that it gave occasion to the calling of it since the Mid-land Sea the greatness whereof considered and the divers aspects the surfaces of the Water and Earth then made had it been beheld afar off there is no doubt but so great a change might have been discerned by one that was then in the Moon as also to us inhabitants of the Earth the like alterations would be perceived in the Moon but we find not in antiquity that ever there was such a thing seen therefore we have no cause to say that any of the Coelestial bodies are alterable c. SALV That so great alterations have hapned in the Moon I dare not say but for all that I am not yet certain but that such changes might occur and because such a mutation could onely represent unto us some kind of variation between the more clear and more obscure parts of the Moon I know not whether we have had on Earth observant Selenographers who have for any considerable number of years instructed us with so exact Selenography as that we should confidently conclude that there hath no such change hapned in the face of the Moon of the figuration of which I find no more particular description than the saying of some that it represents an humane face of others that it is like the muzle of a Lyon and of others that it is Cain with a bundle of thorns on his back therefore to say Heaven is unalterable because that in the Moon or other Coelestial bodies no such alterations are seen as discover themselves on Earth is a bad illation and concludeth nothing SAGR. And there is another odd kind of scruple in this Argument of Simplicius running in my mind which I would gladly have answered therefore I demand of him whether the Earth before the Mediterranian inundation was generable and corruptible or else began then so to be SIMPL. It was doubtless generable and corruptible also before that time but that was so vast a mutation that it might have been observed as far as the Moon SAGR. Go to if the Earth was generable and corruptible before that Inundation why may not the Moon be so likewise without such a change Or why should that be necessary in the Moon which importeth nothing on Earth SALV It is a shrewd question But I am doubtfull that Simplicius a little altereth the Text of Aristotle and the other Peripateticks who say they hold the Heavens unalterable for that they see therein no one star generate or corrupt which is probably a less part of Heaven than a City is of the Earth and yet innumerable of these have been destroyed so as that no mark of them hath remain'd SAGR. I verily believed otherwise and conceited that Simplicius dissembled this exposition of the Text that he might not charge his Master and Consectators with a notion more absurd than the former And what a folly it is to say the Coelestial part is unalterable because no stars do generate or corrupt therein What then hath any one seen a Terrestrial Globe corrupt and another regenerate in its place And yet is it not on all hands granted by Philosophers that there are very few stars in Heaven less than the Earth but very many that are much bigger So that for a star in Heaven to corrupt would be no less than if the whole Terrestrial Globe should be destroy'd Therefore if for the true proof of generation and corruption in the Universe it be necessary that so vast bodies as a star must corrupt and regenerate you may satisfie your self and cease your opinion for I assure you that you shall never see the Terrestrial Globe or any other integral body of the World to corrupt or decay so that having been beheld by us for so many years past they should so dissolve as not to leave any footsteps of them SALV But to give Simplicius yet fuller satisfaction and to reclaim him if possible from his error I affirm that we have in our age new accidents and observations and such that I question not in the least but if Aristotle were now alive they would make him change his opinion which may be easily collected from the very manner of his discoursing For when he writeth that he esteemeth the Heavens inalterable c. because no new thing was seen to be begot therein or any old to be dissolved he seems implicitely to hint unto us that when he should see any such accident he would hold the contrary and 〈◊〉 as indeed it is meet sensible experiments to natural reason for had he not made any reckoning of the senses he would not then from the not seeing of any sensible mutation have argued immutability SIMPL. Aristotle deduceth his principal Argument à priori shewing the necessity of the inalterability of Heaven by natural manifest and clear principles and then stablisheth the same à posteriori by sense and the traditions of the antients SALV This you speak of is the Method he hath observed in delivering his Doctrine but I do not bethink it yet to be that wherewith he
invisible therefore we may discourse of the Heavens and Sun with more certainty than Aristolte SAGR. I see into the heart of Simplicius and know that he is much moved at the strength of these so convincing Arguments but on the other side when he considereth the great authority which Aristotle hath won with all men and remembreth the great number of famous Interpreters which have made it their business to explain his sense and seeth other Sciences so necessary and profitable to the publick to build a great part of their esteem and reputation on the credit of Aristotle he is much puzzled and perplexed and methinks I hear him say To whom then should we repair for the decision of our controversies if Aristotle were removed from the chair What other Author should we follow in the Schools Academies and Studies What Philosopher hath writ all the parts of Natural Philosophy and that so methodically without omitting so much as one single conclusion Shall we then overthrow that Fabrick under which so many passengers find shelter Shall we destroy that Asylum that Prytaneum wherein so many Students meet with commodious harbour where without exposing themselves to the injuries of the air with the onely turning over of a few leaves one may learn all the secrets of Nature Shall we dismantle that fort in which we are safe from all hostile assaults But I pitie him no more than I do that Gentleman who with great expence of time and treasure and the help of many hundred artists erects a very sumptuous Pallace and afterwards beholds it ready to fall by reason of the bad foundation but being extremely unwilling to see the Walls stript which are adorned with so many beautifull Pictures or to suffer the columns to fall that uphold the stately Galleries or the gilded roofs chimney-pieces the freizes the cornishes of marble with so much cost erected to be ruined goeth about with girders props shoars butterasses to prevent their subversion SALV But alass Simplicius as yet fears no such fall and I would undertake to secure him from that mischief at a far less charge There is no danger that so great a multitude of subtle and wise Philosophers should suffer themselves to be Hector'd by one or two who make a little blustering nay they will rather without ever turning the points of their pens against them by their silence onely render them the object of universal scorn and contempt It is a fond conceit for any one to think to introduce new Philosophy by reproving this or that Author it will be first necessary to new-mold the brains of men and make them apt to distinguish truth from falshood A thing which onely God can do But from one discourse to another whither are we stray'd your memory must help to guide me into the way again SIMPL. I remember very well where we left We were upon the answer of Anti-Tycho to the objections against the immutability of the Heavens among which you inserted this of the Solar spots not spoke of by him and I believe you intended to examine his answer to the instance of the New Stars SALV Now I remember the rest and to proceed Methinks there are some things in the answer to Anti-Tycho worthy of reprehension And first if the two New Stars which he can do no less than place in the uppermost parts of the Heavens and which were of a long duration but finally vanished give him no obstruction in maintaining the inalterability of Heaven in that they were not certain parts thereof nor mutations made in the antient Stars why doth he set himself so vigorously and earnestly against the Comets to banish them by all ways from the Coelestial Regions Was it not enough that he could say of them the same which he spoke of the New stars to wit that in regard they were no certain parts of Heaven nor mutations made in any of the Stars they could no wise prejudice either Heaven or the Doctrine of Aristotle Secondly I am not very well satisfied of his meaning when he saith that the alterations that should be granted to be made in the Stars would be destructive to the prerogative of Heaven namely its incorruptibility c. and this because the Stars are Coelestial substances as is manifest by the consent of every one and yet is nothing troubled that the same alterations should be made without the Stars in the rest of the Coelestial expansion Doth he think that Heaven is no Coelestial substance I for my part did believe that the Stars were called Coelestial bodies by reason that they were in Heaven or for that they were made of the substance of Heaven and yet I thought that Heaven was more Coelestial than they in like sort as nothing can be said to be more Terrestrial or more fiery than the Earth or Fire themselves And again in that he never made any mention of the Solar spots which have been evidently demonstrated to be produced and dissolved and to be neer the Sun and to turn either with or about the same I have reason to think that this Author probably did write more for others pleasure than for his own satisfaction and this I affirm forasmuch as he having shewn himself to be skilful in the Mathematicks it is impossible but that he should have been convinced by Demonstrations that those substances are of necessity contiguous with the body of the Sun and are so great generations and corruptions that none comparable to them ever happen in the Earth And if such so many and so frequent be made in the very Globe of the Sun which may with reason be held one of the noblest parts of Heaven what should make us think that others may not happen in the other Orbs. SAGR. I cannot without great admiration nay more denial of my understanding hear it to be attributed to natural bodies for a great honour and perfection that they are impassible immutable inalterable c. And on the contrary to hear it to be esteemed a great imperfection to be alterable generable mutable c. It is my opinion that the Earth is very noble and admirable by reason of so many and so different alterations mutations generations c. which are incessantly made therein and if without being subject to any alteration it had been all one vast heap of sand or a masse of Jasper or that in the time of the Deluge the waters freezing which covered it it had continued an immense Globe of Christal wherein nothing had ever grown altered or changed I should have esteemed it a lump of no benefit to the World full of idlenesse and in a word superfluous and as if it had never been in nature and should make the same difference in it as between a living and dead creature The like I say of the Moon Jupiter and all the other Globes of the World But the more I dive into the consideration of the vanity
great convenience in travailing that without the least trouble they can go with their Family House and whole Cities to places far remote like as I say I am certain such a person though of never so piercing an imagination could never fancy to himself Fishes the Ocean Ships Fleets Armado's at Sea thus and much more easily may it happn that in the Moon remote from us by so great a space and of a substance perchance very different from the Earth there may be matters and operations not only wide off but altogether beyond all our imaginations as being such as have no resemblance to ours and therefore wholly inexcogitable in regard that what we imagine to our selves must necessarily be either a thing already seen or a composition of things or parts of things seen at another time for such are the Chimaera's Centaurs c. SALV I have very often let my fancy ruminate upon these speculations and in the end have thought that I had found some things that neither are nor can be in the Moon but yet I have not found therein any of those which I believe are and may be there save onely in a very general acceptation namely things that adorn it by operating moving and living and perhaps in a way very different from ours beholding and admiring the greatness and beauty of the World and of its Maker and Ruler and with continual Encomiums singing his prayses and in summe which is that which I intend doing what sacred Writers so frequently affirm to wit all the creatures making it their perpetual imployment to laud God SAGR. These are the things which speaking in general terms may be there but I would gladly hear you instance in such as you believe neither are nor can be there which perchance may be more particularly named SALV Take notice Sagredus that this will be the third time that we have unawares by running from one thing to another lost our principal subject and if we continue these digressions it will be long ere we come to a conclusion of our discourse therefore I should judg it better to remit this as also such other points to be decided on a particular occasion SAGR. Since we are now got into the Moon if you please let us dispatch such things as concern her that so we be not forced to such another tedious journey SALV It shall be as you would have it And to begin with things more general I believe that the Lunar Globe is far different from the Terrestrial though in some things they agree I will recount first their resemblances and next their differences The Moon is manifestly like to the Earth in figure which undoubtedly is spherical as may be necessarily concluded from the aspect of its surface which is perfectly Orbicular and the manner of its receiving the light of the Sun from which if its surface were flat it would come to be all in one and the same time illuminated and likewise again in another instant of time obscured and not those parts first which are situate towards the Sun and the rest successively so that in its opposition and not till then its whole apparent circumference is enlightned which would happen quite contrary if the visible surface were concave namely the illumination would begin from the parts opposite or averse to the Sun Secondly she is as the Earth in her self obscure and opacous by which opacity it is enabled to receive and reflect the light of the Sun which were it not so it could not do Thirdly I hold its matter to be most dense and solid as the Earth is which I clearly argue from the unevenness of its superficies in most places by means of the many eminencies and cavities discovered therein by help of the Telescope of which eminencies there are many all over it directly resembling our most sharp and craggy mountains of which you shall there perceive some extend and run in ledges of an hundred miles long others are contracted into rounder forms and there are also many craggy solitary steep and cliffy rocks But that of which there are frequentest appearances are certain Banks I use this word because I cannot thing of another that better expresseth them pretty high raised which environ and inclose fields of several bignesses and from sundry figures but for the most part circular many of which have in the midst a mount raised pretty high and some few are replenished with a matter somewhat obscure to wit like to the great spots discerned by the bare eye and these are of the greatest magnitude the number moreover of those that are lesser and lesser is very great and yet almost all circular Fourthly like as the surface of our Globe is distinguished into two principal parts namely into the Terrestrial and Aquatick so in the Lunar surface we discern a great distinction of some great fields more resplendant and some less whose aspect makes me believe that that of the Earth would seem very like it beheld by any one from the Moon or any other the like distance to be illuminated by the Sun and the surface of the sea would appear more obscure and that of the Earth more bright Fifthly like as we from the Earth behold the Moon one while all illuminated another while half sometimes more sometimes less sometimes horned sometimes wholly invisibly namely when its just under the Sun beams so that the parts which look towards the Earth are dark Thus in every respect one standing in the Moon would see the illumination of the Earths surface by the Sun with the same periods to an hair and under the same changes of figures Sixtly SAGR. Stay a little Salviatus That the illumination of the Earth as to the several figures would represent it self to a person placed in the Moon like in all things to that which we discover in the Moon I understand very well but yet I cannot conceive how it shall appear to be done in the same period seeing that that which the Suns illumination doth in the Lunar superficies in a month it doth in the Terrestrial in twenty four hours SALV It s true the effect of the Sun about the illuminating these two bodies and replenishing with its splendor their whole surfaces is dispatch'd in the Earth in a Natural day and in the Moon in a Month but the variation of the figures in which the illuminated parts of the Terrestrial superficies appear beheld from the Moon depends not on this alone but on the divers aspects which the Moon is still changing with the Sun so that if for instance the Moon punctually followed the motion of the Sun and stood for example always in a direct line between it and the Earth in that aspect which we call Conjunction it looking always to the same Hemisphere of the Earth which the Sun looks unto she would behold the same all light as on the contrary if it should always stay in Opposition to
beholds the Terrestrial Globe with one and the same aspect never deviating from the same SAGR. Oh! when will there be an end put to the new observations and discoveries of this admirable Instrument SALV If this succeed according to the progresse of other great inventions it is to be hoped that in processe of time one may arrive to the sight of things to us at present not to be imagined But returning to our first discourse I say for the sixth resemblance betwixt the Moon and Earth that as the Moon for a great part of time supplies the want of the Suns light and makes the nights by the reflection of its own reasonable clear so the Earth in recompence affordeth it when it stands in most need by reflecting the Solar rayes a very cleer illumination and so much in my opinion greater than that which cometh from her to us by how much the superficies of the Earth is greater than that of the Moon SAGR. Hold there Salviatus hold there and permit me the pleasure of relating to you how at this first hint I have penetrated the cause of an accident which I have a thousand times thought upon but could never find out You would say that the imperfect light which is seen in the Moon especially when it is horned comes from the reflection of the light of the Sun on the Supersicies of the Earth and Sea and that light is more clear by how much the horns are lesse for then the luminous part of the Earth beheld by the Moon is greater according to that which was a little before proved to wit that the luminous part of the Earth exposed to the Moon is alway as great as the obscure part of the Moon that is visible to the Earth whereupon at such time as the Moon is sharp-forked and consequently its tenebrous part great great also is the illuminated part of the Earth beheld from the Moon and its reflection of light so much the more potent SALV This is exactly the same with what I was about to say In a word it is a great pleasure to speak with persons judicious and apprehensive and the rather to me for that whilest others converse and discourse touching Axiomatical truths I have many times creeping into my brain such arduous Paradoxes that though I have a thousand times rehearsed this which you at the very first have of your self apprehended yet could I never beat it into mens brains SIMPL. If you mean by your not being able to perswade them to it that you could not make them understand the same I much wonder thereat and am very confident that if they did not understand it by your demonstration your way of expression being in my judgment very plain they would very hardly have apprehended it upon the explication of any other man but if you mean you have not perswaded them so as to make them believe it I wonder not in the least at this for I confesse my self to be one of those who understand your discourses but am not satisfied therewith for there are in this and some of the other six congruities or resemblances many difficulties which I shall instance in when you have gone through them all SALV The desire I have to find out any truth in the acquist whereof the objections of intelligent persons such as your self may much assist me will cause me to be very brief in dispatching that which remains For a seventh conformity take their reciprocal responsion as well to injuries as favours whereby the Moon which very often in the height of its illumination by the interposure of the Earth betwixt it and the Sun is deprived of light and eclipsed doth by way of revenge in like manner interpose it self between the Earth and the Sun and with its shadow obscureth the Earth and although the revenge be not answerable to the injury for that the Moon often continueth and that for a reasonable long time wholly immersed in the Earths shadow but never was the Earth wholly nor for any long time eclipsed by the Moon yet neverthelesse having respect to the smalnesse of the body of this in comparision to the magnitude of the other it cannot be denied but that the will and as it were valour of this is very great Thus much for their congruities or resemblances It should next follow that we discourse touching their disparity but because Simplicius will favour us with his objections against the former its necessary that we hear and examine them before we proceed any farther SAGR. And the rather because it is to be supposed that Simplicius will not any wayes oppose the disparities and incongruities betwixt the Earth and Moon since that he accounts their substances extremely different SIMPL. Amongst the resemblances by you recited in the parallel you make betwixt the Earth and Moon I find that I can admit none confidently save onely the first and two others I grant the first namely the spherical figure howbeit even in this there is some kind of difference for that I hold that of the Moon to be very smooth and even as a looking-glasse whereas we find and feel this of the Earth to be extraordinary montuous and rugged but this belonging to the inequality of superficies it shall be anon considered in another of those Resemblances by you alledged I shall therefore reserve what I have to say thereof till I come to the consideration of that Of what you affirm next that the Moon seemeth as you say in your second Resemblance opacous and obscure in its self like the Earth I admit not any more than the first attribute of opacity of which the Eclipses of the Sun assure me For were the Moon transparent the air in the total obscuration of the Sun would not become so duskish as at such a time it is but by means of the transparency of the body of the Moon a refracted light would passe through it as we see it doth through the thickest clouds But as to the obscurity I believe not that the Moon is wholly deprived of light as the Earth nay that clarity which is seen in the remainder ot its Discus over and the above the small crescent enlightened by the Sun I repute to be its proper and natural light and not a reflection of the Earth which I esteem unable by reason of its asperity cragginesse and obscurity to reflect the raies of the Sun In the third Parallel I assent unto you in one part and dissent in another I agree in judging the body of the Moon to be most solid and hard like the Earth yea much more for if from Aristotle we receive that the Heavens are impenetrable and the Stars the most dense parts of Heaven it must necessarily follow that they are most solid and most impenetrable SAGR. What excellent matter would the Heavens afford us for to make Pallaces of if we could procure a substance so hard and so
transparent SALV Rather how improper for being by its transparence wholly invisible a man would not be able without stumbling at the thresholds and breaking his head against the Walls to pass from room to room SAGR. This danger would not befall him if it be true as some Peripateticks say that it is intangible and if one cannot touch it much less can it hurt him SALV This would not serve the turn for though the matter of the Heavens cannot be touch as wanting tangible qualities yet may it easily touch the elementary bodies and to offend us it is as sufficient that it strike us nay worse than if we should strike it But let us leave these Pallaces or to say better these Castles in the air and not interrupt Simplicius SIMPL. The question which you have so casually started is one of the most difficulty that is disputed in Philosophy and I have on that subject most excellent conceits of a very learned Doctor of Padoua but it is not now time to enter upon them Therefore returning to our purpose I say that the Moon in my opinion is much more solid than the Earth but do not infer the same as you do from the cragginess and montuousity of its superficies but rather from the contrary namely from its aptitude to receive as we see it experimented in the hardest stones a polish and lustre exceeding that of the smoothest glass for such necessarily must its superficies be to render it apt to make so lively reflection of the Suns rays And for those appearances which you mention of Mountains Cliffs Hills Valleys c. they are all illusions and I have been present at certain publick disputes where I have heard it strongly maintained against these introducers of novelties that such appearances proceed from nothing else but from the unequal distribution of the opacous and perspicuous parts of which the Moon is inwardly and outwardly composed as we see it often fall out in chrystal amber and many other precious stones of perfect lustre in which by reason of the opacity of some parts and the transparency of others there doth appear several concavities and prominencies In the fourth resemblance I grant that the superficies of Terrestrial Globe beheld from afar would make two different appearances namely one more clear the other more dark but I believe that such diversity would succeed quite contrary to what you say that is I hold that the surface of the water would appear lucid because that it is smooth and transparent and that of the Earth would appear obscure by reason of its opacity and scabrosity ill accommodated for reflecting the light of the Sun Concerning the fifth comparison I grant it wholly and am able in case the Earth did shine as the Moon to show the same to any one that should from thence above behold it represented by figures answerable to those which we see in the Moon I comprehend also how the period of its illumination and variation of figure would be monthly albeit the Sun revolves round about it in twenty four hours and lastly I do not scruple to admit that the half onely of the Moon seeth all the Earth and that all the Earth seeth but onely half of the Moon For what remains I repute it most false that the Moon can receive light from the Earth which is most obscure opacous and utterly unapt to reflect the Suns light as the Moon doth reflect it to us and as I have said I hold that that light which we see in the remainder of the Moons face the splendid crescents subducted by the illumination is the proper and natural light of the Moon and no easie matter would induce me to believe otherwise The seventh touching the mutual Eclipses may be also admitted howbeit that is wont to be called the eclipse of the Sun which you are pleased to phrase the eclipse of the Earth And this is what I have at this time to say in opposition to your seven congruities or resemblances to which objections if you are minded to make any reply I shall willingly hear you SALV If I have well apprehended what you have answered it seems to me that there still remains in controversie between us certain conditions which I made common betwixt the Moon Earth and they are these You esteem the Moon to be smooth and polisht as a Looking-glass and as such able to reflect the Suns light and contrarily the Earth by reason of its montuosity unable to make such reflection You yield the Moon to be solid and hard and that you argue from its being smooth and polite and not from its being montuous and for its appearing montuous you assign as the cause that it consists of parts more and less opacous and perspicuous And lastly you esteem that secondary light to be proper to the Moon and not reflected from the Earth howbeit you seem not to deny the sea as being of a smooth surface some kind of reflection As to the convincing you of that error that the reflection of the Moon is made as it were like that of a Looking-glass I have small hope whilst I see that what hath been read in the Saggiator and in the Solar Letters of our Common Friend hath profited nothing in your judgment if haply you have attentively read what he hath there written on this subject SIMPL. I have perused the same so superficially according to the small time of leasure allowed me from more solid studies therefore if you think you can either by repeating some of those reasons or by alledging others resolve me these doubts I will hearken to them attentively SALV I will tell you what comes into my mind upon the instant and its possible it may be a commixtion of my own conceipts and those which I have sometime read in the fore-said Books by which I well remember that I was then perfectly satisfied although the conclusions at first sight seem'd unto me strange Paradoxes We enquire Simplicius whether to the making a reflection of light like that which we receive from the Moon it be necessary that the superficies from whence the reflection commeth be so smooth and polite as the face of a Looking-Glasse or whether a superficies not smooth or polisht but rough and uneven be more apt for such a purpose Now supposing two reflections should come unto us one more bright the other lesse from two superficies opposite unto us I demand of you which of the two superficies you think would represent it self to our sight to be the clearest and which the obscurest SIMPL. I am very confident that that same which most forcibly reflected the light upon me would shew its self in its aspect the clearer and the other darker SALV Be pleased to take that Glasse which hangs on yonder Wall and let us go out into the Court-yard Come Sagredus Now hang the glasse yonder against that same Wall on which the Sun shines and now
Moon shews it self more bright by night than by day in respect of the obscurity of the space of the ambient and confequently do you not know in genere that every bright body shews the clearer by how much the ambient is obscurer SIMPL. This I know very well SALV When the Moon is horned and that secondary light seemeth to you very bright is it not ever nigh the Sun and consequently in the light of the crepusculum twilight SIMPL. It is so and I have oftentimes wish'd that the Air would grow thicker that I might be able to see that same light more plainly but it ever disappeared before dark night SALV You know then very certainly that in the depth of night that light would be more conspicuous SIMPL. I do so and also more than that if one could but take away the great light of the crescent illuminated by the Sun the presence of which much obscureth the other lesser SALV Why doth it not sometimes come to pass that one may in a very dark night see the whole face of the Moon without being at all illuminated by the Sun SIMPL. I know not whether this ever happeneth save onely in the total Ecclipses of the Moon SALV Why at that time this its light would appear very clear being in a most obscure medium and not darkned by the clarity of the luminous crescents but in that position how light did it appear to you SIMPL. I have sometimes seen it of the colour of brass and a little whitish but at other times it hath been so obscure that I have wholly lost the sight of it SALV How then can that light be so natural which you see so cleer in the close of the twilight notwithstanding the impediment of the great and contiguous splendor of the crescents and which again in the more obscure time of night all other light removed appears not at all SIMPL. I have heard of some that believed that same light to be participated to these crescents from the other Stars and in particular from Venus the Moons neighbour SALV And this likewise is a vanity because in the time of its total obscuration it ought to appear more shining than ever for you cannot say that the shadow of the Earth intercepts the sight of Venus or the other Stars But to say true it is not at that instant wholly deprived thereof for that the Terrestrial Hemisphere which in that time looketh towards the Moon is that where it is night that is an intire privation of the light of the Sun And if you but diligently observe you will very sensibly perceive that like as the Moon when it is sharp-horned doth give very little light to the Earth and according as in her the parts illuminated by the Suns light do encrease so likewise the splendor to our seeming encreaseth which from her is reflected towards us thus the Moon whilst it is sharp-forked and that by being between the Sun and the Earth it discovereth a very great part of the Terrestrial Hemisphere illuminated appeareth very clear and departing from the Sun and passing towards the Quadrature you may see the said light by degrees to grow dim and after the Quadrature the same appears very weak because it continually loseth more and more of the view of the luminous part of the Earth and yet it should succeed quite contrary if that light were its own or communicated to it from the Stars for then we should see it in the depth of night and in so very dark an ambient SIMPL. Stay a little for I just now remember that I have read in a little modern tract full of many novelties That this secondary light is not derived from the Stars nor innate in the Moon and least of all communicated by the Earth but that it is received from the same illumination of the Sun which the substance of the Lunar Globe being somewhat transparent penetrateth thorow all its body but more livelily illuminateth the superficies of the Hemisphere exposed to the rays of the Sun and its profundity imbuing and as I may say swallowing that light after the manner of a cloud or chrystal transmits it and renders it visibly lucid And this if I remember aright he proveth by Authority Experience and Reason citing Cleomedes Vitellion Macrobius and a certain other modern Author and adding That it is seen by experience to shine most in the days nearest the Conjunction that is when it is horned and is chiefly bright about its limb And he farther writes That in the Solar Ecclipses when it is under the Discus of the Sun it may be seen translucid and more especially towards its utmost Circle And in the next place for Arguments as I think he saith That it not being able to derive that light either from the Earth or from the Stars or from it self it necessarily follows that it cometh from the Sun Besides that if you do but grant this supposition one may easily give convenient reasons for all the particulars that occur For the reason why that secundary light shews more lively towards the outmost limb is the shortness of the space that the Suns rays hath to penetrate in regard that of the lines which pass through a circle the greatest is that which passeth through the centre and of the rest those which are farthest from it are always less than those that are nearer From the same principle he saith may be shewn why the said light doth not much diminish And lastly by this way the cause is assigned whence it comes that that same more shining circle about the utmost edge of the Moon is seen at the time of the Solar Ecclipse in that part which lyeth just under the Discus of the Sun but not in that which is beside the Discus which happeneth because the rays of the Sun pass directly to our eye through the parts of the Moon underneath but as for the parts which are besides it they fall besides the eye SALV If this Philosopher had been the first Author of this opinion I would not wonder that he should be so affectionate to it as to have received it for truth but borrowing it from others I cannot find any reason sufficient to excuse him for not perceiving itâ— fallacies and especially after he had heard the true cause of that effect and had it in his power to satisfie himself by a thousand experiments and manifest circumstances that the same proceeded from the reflection of the Earth and from nothing else and the more this speculation makes something to be desired in the judgment of this Author and of all those who give no credit to it so much the more doth their not having understood and remembred it excuse those more recess Antients who I am very certain did they now understand it would without the least repugnance admit thereof And if I may freely tell you what I think I cannot believe but that this Modern doth in his
of our mountains in a thicknesse of one mile onely SALV The very mountains of the Moon themselves are a proof thereof which percussed on one side of the Sun do cast on the contrary side very dark shadows terminate and more distinct by much than the shadows of ours but had these mountains been diaphanous we could never have come to the knowledg of any unevennesse in the superficies of the Moon not have seen those luminous montuosities distinguished by the terms which separate the lucid parts from the dark much lesse should we see this same term so distinct if it were true that the Suns light did penetrate the whole thicknesse of the Moon yea rather according to the Authors own words we should of necessity discern the passage and confine between the part of the Sun seen and the part not seen to be very confused and mixt with light and darknesse for that that matter which admits the passage of the Suns rayes thorow a space of two thousand miles must needs be so transparent that it would very weakly resist them in a hundredth or lesser part of that thicknesse neverthelesse the term which separateth the part illuminated from the obscure is incident and as distinct as white is distinct from black and especially where the Section passeth through the part of the Moon that is naturally more clear and montanous but where the old spots do part which are certain plains that by means of their spherical inclination receive the rayes of the Sun obliquely there the term is not so distinct by reason of the more dimme illumination That lastly which he saith how that the secondary light doth not diminish and languish according as the Moon encreaseth but conserveth it self continually in the same efficacy is most false nay it is hardly seen in the quadrature when on the contrary it should appear more splendid and be visible after the crepusculum in the dark of night Let us conclude therefore that the Earths reflection is very strong upon the Moon and that which you ought more to esteem we may deduce from thence another admirable congruity between the Moon and Earth namely that if it be true the Planets operate upon the Earth by their motion and light the Earth may probably be no lesse potent in operating reciprocally upon them with the same light and peradventure motion also And though it should not move yet may it retain the same operation because as it hath been proved already the action of the light is the self same I mean of the light of the Sun reflected and motion doth nothing save only vary the aspects which fall out in the same manner whether we make the Earth move and the Sun stand still or the contrary SIMPL. None of the Philosophers are found to have said that these inferiour bodies operate on the Coelestial nay Aristotle affirmes the direct contrary SALV Aristotle and the rest who knew not that the Earth and Moon mutually illuminated each other are to be excused but they would justly deserve our censure if whilest they desire that we should grant and believe with them that the Moon operateth upon the Earth with light they should deny to us who have taught them that the Earth illuminates the Moon the operation the Earth hath on the Moon SIMPL. In short I find in my self a great unwillingnesse to admit this commerce which you would perswade me to be betwixt the Earth and Moon placing it as we say amongst the number of the Stars for if there were nothing else the great separation and distance between it and the Coelestial bodies doth in my opinion necessarily conclude a vast disparity between them SALV See Simplicius what an inveterate affection and radicated opinion can do since it is so powerful that it makes you think that those very things favour you which you produce against your self For if separation and distance are accidents sufficient to perswade with you a great diversity of natures it must follow that proximity and contiguity import similitude Now how much more neerer is the Moon to the Earth than to any other of the Coelestial Orbs You must acknowledg therefore according to your own concession and you shall have other Philosophers bear you company that there is a very great affinity betwixt the Earth and Moon Now let us proceed and see whether any thing remains to be considered touching those objections which you made against the resemblances that are between these two bodies SIMPL. It rests that we say something touching the solidity of the Moon which I argued from its being exquisite smooth and polite and you from its montuosity There is another scruple also comes into my mind from an opinion which I have that the Seas reflection ought by the equality of its surface to be rendered stronger than that of the Earth whose superficies is so rough and opacous SALV As to the first objection I say that like as among the parts of the Earth which all by their gravity strive to approach the nearest they can possible to the center some of them alwayes are more remote from it than the rest as the mountains more than the valleys and that by reason of their solidity and firmnesse for if they were of fluid they would be even so the seeing some parts of the Moon to be elevated above the sphericity of the lower parts argueth their hardnesse for it is probable that the matter of the Moon is reduced into a spherical form by the harmonious conspiration of all its parts to the same sentense Touching the second doubt my thinks that the particulars already observed to happen in the Looking-glasses may very well assure us that the reflection of light comming from the Sea is far weaker than that which cometh from Land understanding it alwayes of the universal reflection for as to that particular on which the water being calm casteth upon a determinate place there is no doubt but that he who shall stand in that place shall see a very great reflection in the water but every way else he shall see the surface of the Water more obscure than that of the Land and to prove it to your senses let us go into yonder Hall and power forth a little water upon the Pavement Tell me now doth not this wet brick shew more dull than the other dry ones Doubtlesse it doth and will so appear from what place soever you behold it except one onely and this is that way which the light cometh that entereth in at yonder window go backwards therefore by a little and a little SIMPL. Here I see the west part shine more than all the rest of the pavement and I see that it so hapneth because the reflection of the light which entereth in at the window cometh towards me SALV That moisture hath done no more but filled those little cavities which are in the brick with water and reduced its superficies to an exact evenesse
whereupon the reflex rayes issue unitedly towards one and the same place but the rest of the pavement which is dry hath its protuberances that is an innumerable variety of inclinations in its smallest particles whereupon the reflections of the light scatter towards all parts but more weakly than if they had gone all united together and therefore the same sheweth almost all alike beheld several wayes but far lesse clear than the moistned brick I conclude therefore that the surface of the Sea beheld from the Moon in like manner as it would appear most equal the Islands and Rocks deducted so it would shew lesse clear than that of the Earth which is montanous and uneven And but that I would not seem as the saying is to harp too much on one string I could tell you that I have observed in the Moon that secondary light which I told you came to her from the reflection of the Terrestrial Globe to be notably more clear two or three dayes before the conjunction than after that is when we see it before break of day in the East than when it is seen at night after Sun-set in the West of which difference the cause is that the Terrestrial Hemisphere which looks towards the Eastern Moon hath little Sea and much Land to wit all Asia whereas when it is in the West it beholds very great Seas that is the whole Atlantick Ocean as far as America An Argument sufficiently probable that the surface of the water appears lesse splendid than that of the Earth SIMPL. So that perhaps you believe those great spots discovered in the face of the Moon to be Seas and the other clearer parts to be Land or some such thing SALV This which you ask me is the beginning of those incongruities which I esteem to be between the Moon and the Earth out of which it is time to dis-ingage our selves for we have stayed too long in the Moon I say therefore that if there were in nature but one way onely to make two superficies illustrated by the Sun to appear one more clear than the other and that this were by the being of the one Earth and the other Water it would be necessary to say that the surface of the Moon were part earthy and part aquatick but because we know many wayes to produce the same effect and others there may be which we know not of therefore I dare not affirm the Moon to consist of one thing more than another It hath been seen already that a silver plate boiled being toucht with the Burnisher becometh of white obscure that the moist part of the Earth shews more obscure than the dry that in the tops of Hills the woody parts appear more gloomy than the naked and barren which hapneth because there falleth very much shadow among the Trees but the open places are illuminated all over by the Sun And this mixtion of shadow hath such operation that in tufted velvet the silk which is cut is of a far darker colour than that which is not cut by means of the shadows diffused betwixt thred and thred and a plain velvet shews much blacker than a Taffata made of the same silk So that if there were in the Moon things which should look like great Woods their aspect might represent unto us the spots which we discover alike difference would be occasioned if there were Seas in her and lastly nothing hindreth but that those spots may really be of an obscurer colour than the rest for thus the snow makes the mountains shew brighter That which is plainly observed in the Moon is that its most obscure parts are all plains with few rises and bancks in them though some there be the rest which is of a brighter colour is all full of rocks mountains hillocks of spherical and other figures and in particular round about the spots are very great ledges of mountains That the spots be plain superficies we have assured proof in that we see how that the term which distinguisheth the part illuminated from the obscure in crossing the spots makes the intersection even but in the clear parts it shews all craggy and shagged But I know not as yet whether this evennesse of superficies may be sufficient of it self alone to make the obscurity appear and I rather think not Besides I account the Moon exceeding different from the Earth for although I imagine to my self that those are not idle and dead Regions yet I affirm not that there are in them motion and life much less that there are bred plants animals or other things like to ours but if such there be they should nevertheless be very different and remote from our imagination And I am induced so to think because in the first place I esteem that the matter of the Lunar Globe consists not of Earth and Water and this alone sufficeth to take away the generations and alterations resembling ours but now supposing that there were in the Moon Water and Earth yet would they not produce plants and animals like to ours and this for two principal reasons The first is that unto our productions there are required so many variable aspects of the Sun that without them they would all miscarry now the habitudes of the Sun towards the Earth are far different from those towards the Moon We as to the diurnal illumination have in the greater part of the Earth every twenty four hours part day and part night which effect in the Moon is monethly and that annual declination and elevation of the Sun in the Zodiack by which it produceth diversity of Seasons and inequality of dayes and nights are finished in the Moon in a moneth and whereas the Sun to us riseth and declineth so much that from the greatest to the least altitude there is a difference of almost 47 degrees for so much is the distance from one to the other Tropick this is in the Moon but ten degrees only or little more namely as much as the greatest Latitudes of the Dragon on each side the Ecliptick Now consider what effect the Sun would have in the torrid Zone should it continually for fifteen dayes together beam forth its Rayes upon it which without all question would destroy plants herbs and living creatures and if it should chance that there were any production it would be of herbs plants and creatures very different from those which are now there Secondly I verily believe that in the Moon there are no rains for if Clouds should gather in any part thereof as they do about the Earth they would thereupon hide from our sight some of those things which we with the Telescope behold in the Moon and in a word would some way or other change its Phaenomenon an effect which I could never by long and diligent observations discover but alwayes beheld it in a even and pure serenity SAGR. To this may be answered either that there might be great
then to Egypt Greece France Spain America c. and the like holdeth in the Moon and the rest of the Coelestial Bodies which self same effect falls out exactly in the same manner if without troubling so great a part of the Universe the Terrestrial Globe be made to revolve in it self But we will augment the difficulty by the addition of this other which is a very great one namely that if you will ascribe this Great Motion to Heaven you must of necessity make it contrary to the particular motion of all the Orbs of the Planets each of which without controversie hath its peculiar motion from the West towards the East and this but very easie and moderate and then you make them to be hurried to the contrary part i. e. from East to West by this most furious diurnal motion whereas on the contrary making the Earth to move in it self the contrariety of motions is taken away and the onely motion from West to East is accommodated to all appearances and exactly satisfieth every Phoenomenon SIMPL. As to the contrariety of Motions it would import little for Aristotle demonstrateth that circular motions are not contrary to one another and that theirs cannot be truly called contrariety SALV Doth Aristotle demonstrate this or doth he not rather barely affirm it as serving to some certain design of his If contraries be those things that destroy one another as he himself affirmeth I do not see how two moveables that encounter each other in a circular line should lesse prejudice one another than if they interfered in a right line SAGR. Hold a little I pray you Tell me Simplicius when two Knights encounter each other tilting in open field or when two whole Squadrons or two Fleets at Sea make up to grapple and are broken and sunk do you call these encounters contrary to one another SIMPL. Yes we say they are contrary SAGR. How then is there no contrariety in circular motions These motions being made upon the superficies of the Earth or Water which are as you know spherical come to be circular Can you tell Simplicius which those circular motions be that are not contrary to each other They are if I mistake not those of two circles which touching one another without one thereof being turn'd round naturally maketh the other move the contrary way but if one of them shall be within the other it is impossible that their motion being made towards different points they should not justle one another SALV But be they contrary or not contrary these are but alterations of words and I know that upon the matter it would be far more proper and agreeable with Nature if we could salve all with one motion onely than to introduce two that are if you will not call them contrary opposite yet do I not censure this introduction of contrary motions as impossible nor pretend I from the denial thereof to inferre a necessary Demonstration but onely a greater probability of the other A third reason which maketh the Ptolomaique Hypothesis lesse probable is that it most unreasonably confoundeth the order which we assuredly see to be amongst those Coelestial Bodies the circumgyration of which is not questionable but most certain And that Order is that according as an Orb is greater it finisheth its revolution in a longer time and the lesser in shorter And thus Saturn describing a greater Circle than all the other Planets compleateth the same in thirty yeares Jupiter finisheth his that is lesse in twelve years Mars in two The Moon runneth thorow hers so much lesse than the rest in a Moneth onely Nor do we lesse sensibly see that of the Medicean Stars which is nearest to Jupiter to make its revolution in a very short time that is in four and forty hours or thereabouts the next to that in three dayes and an half the third in seven dayes and the most remote in sixteen And this rate holdeth well enough nor will it at all alter whilest we assign the motion of 24 hours to the Terrestrial Globe for it to move round its own center in that time but if you would have the Earth immoveable it is necessary that when you have past from the short period of the Moon to the others successively bigger until you come to that of Mars in two years and from thence to that of the bigger Sphere of Jupiter in twelve years and from this to the other yet bigger of Saturn whose period is of thirty years it is necessary I say that you passe to another Sphere incomparably greater still than that and make this to accomplish an entire revolution in twenty four hours And this yet is the least disorder that can follow For if any one should passe from the Sphere of Saturn to the Starry Orb and make it so much bigger than that of Saturn as proportion would require in respect of its very slow motion of many thousands of years then it must needs be a Salt much more absurd to skip from this to another bigger and to make it convertible in twenty four hours But the motion of the Earth being granted the order of the periods will be exactly observed and from the very slow Sphere of Saturn we come to the fixed Stars which are wholly immoveable and so avoid a fourth difficulty which we must of necessity admit if the Starry Sphere be supposed moveable and that is the immense disparity between the motions of those stars themselves of which some would come to move most swiftly in most vast circles others most slowly in circles very small according as those or these should be found nearer or more remote from the Poles which still is accompanied with an inconvenience as well because we see those of whose motion there is no question to be made to move all in very immense circles as also because it seems to be an act done with no good consideration to constitute bodies that are designed to move circularly at immense distances from the centre and afterwards to make them move in very small circles And not onely the magnitudes of the circles and consequently the velocity of the motions of these Stars shall be most different from the circles and motions of those others but which shall be the fifth inconvenience the self-same Stars shall successively vary its circles and velocities For that those which two thousand years since were in the Equinoctial and consequently did with their motion describe very vast circles being in our dayes many degrees distant from thence must of necessity become more slow of motion and be reduced to move in lesser circles and it is not altogether impossible but that a time may come in which some of them which in aforetime had continually moved shall be reduced by uniting with the Pole to a state of rest and then after some time of cessation shall return to their motion again whereas the other Stars
any Sophist would disturb and muddy it the more clear would its certainty appear And that on the contrary to make a false position passe for true and to perswade the belief thereof there cannot be any thing produced but fallacies Sophisms Paralogismes Equivocations and Discourses vain inconsistant and full of repugnances and contradictions SAGR. Now if eternal motion and eternal rest be so principal accidents of Nature and so different that there can depend on them only most different consequences and especially when applyed to the Sun and to the Earth so vast and famous bodies of the Universe and it being moreover impossible that one of two contradictory Propositions should not be true and the other false and that for proof of the false one any thing can be produced but fallacies but the true one being perswadeable by all kind of concluding and demonstrative arguments why should you think that he of you two who shall be so fortunate as to maintain the true Proposition ought not to perswade me You must suppose me to be of a stupid wit perverse judgment dull mind and intellect and of a blind reason that I should not be able to distinguish light from darknesse jewels from coals or truth from falshood SIMPL. I tell you now and have told you upon other occasions that the best Master to teach us how to discern Sophismes Paralogismes and other fallacies was Aristotle who in this particular can never be deceived SAGR. You insist upon Aristotle who cannot speak Yet I tell you that if Aristotle were here he would either yield himself to be perswaded by us or refuting our arguments convince us by better of his own And you your self when you heard the experiments of the Suns related did you not acknowledg and admire them and confesse them more concludent than those of Aristotle Yet neverthelesse I cannot perceive that Salviatus who hath produced them examined them and with exquisite care scan'd them doth confesse himself perswaded by them no nor by others of greater force which he intimated that he was about to give us an account of And I know not on what grounds you should censure Nature as one that for many Ages hath been lazie and forgetful to produce speculative wits and that knoweth not how to make more such unlesse they be such kind of men as slavishly giving up their judgments to Aristotle do understand with his brain and resent with his senses But let us hear the residue of those reasons which favour his opinion that we may thereupon proceed to speak to them comparing and weighing them in the ballance of impartiality SALV Before I proceed any farther I must tell Sagredus that in these our Disputations I personate the Copernican and imitate him as if I were his Zany but what hath been effected in my private thoughts by these arguments which I seem to alledg in his favour I would not have you to judg by what I say whil'st I am in the heat of acting my part in the Fable but after I have laid by my disguise for you may chance to find me different from what you see me upon the Stage Now let us go on Ptolomy and his followers produce another experiment like to that of the Projections and it is of things that being separated from the Earth continue a good space of time in the Air such as are the Clouds Birds of flight and as of them it cannot be said that they are rapt or transparted by the Earth having no adhesion thereto it seems not possible that they should be able to keep pace with the velocity thereof nay it should rather seem to us that they all swiftly move towards the West And if being carried about by the Earth passe our parallel in twenty four hours which yet is at least sixteen thousand miles how can Birds follow such a course or revolution Whereas on the contrary we see them fly as well towards the East as towards the West or any other part without any sensible difference Moreover if when we run a Horse at his speed we feel the air beat vehemently against our face what an impetuous blast ought we perpetually to feel from the East being carried with so rapid a course against the wind and yet no such effect is perceived Take another very ingenious argument inferred from the following experiment The circular motion hath a faculty to extrude and dissipate from its Centre the parts of the moving body whensoever either the motion is not very slow or those parts are not very well fastened together and therefore if v. g. we should turn one of those great wheels very fast about wherein one or more men walking crane up very great weights as the huge massie stone used by the Callander for pressing of Cloaths or the fraighted Barks which being haled on shore are hoisted out of one river into another in case the parts of that same Wheel so swiftly turn'd round be not very well joyn'd and pin'd together they would all be shattered to pieces and though many stones or other ponderous substances should be very fast bound to its outward Rimme yet could they not resist the impetuosity which with great violence would hurl them every way far from the Wheel and consequently from its Centre So that if the Earth did move with such and so much greater velocity what gravity what tenacity of lime or plaister would keep together Stones Buildings and whole Cities that they should not be tost into the Air by so precipitous a motion And both men and beasts which are not fastened to the Earth how could they resist so great an impetus Whereas on the other side we see both these and far lesse resistances of pebles sands leaves rest quietly on the Earth and to return to it in falling though with a very slow motion See here Simplicius the most potent arguments taken to so speak from things Terrestrial there remain those of the other kind namely such as have relation to the appearances of Heaven which reasons to confesse the truth tend more to prove the Earth to be in the centre of the Universe and consequently to deprive it of the annual motion about the same ascribed unto it by Copernicus Which arguments as being of somewhat a different nature may be produced after we have examined the strength of these already propounded SAGR. What say you Simplicius do you think that Salviatus is Master of and knoweth how to unfold the Ptolomean and Aristotelian arguments Or do you think that any Peripatetick is equally verst in the Copernican demonstrations SIMPL. Were it not for the high esteem that the past discourses have begot in me of the learning of Salviatus and of the acutenesse of Sagredus I would by their good leave have gone my way without staying for their answers it seeming to me a thing impossible that so palpable experiments should be contradicted and would without hearing them farther confirm
unlesse it be the Primum Mobile and therefore if the Earth did move circularly it ought to have two motions from which alterations would follow in the rising and setting of the Fixed Stars Which effect is not perceived to ensue Therefore c. The most proper and genuine answer to this Allegation is contained in the Argument it self and even Aristotle puts it in our mouths which it is impossible Simplicius that you should not have seen SIMPL. I neither have seen it nor do I yet apprehend it SALV This cannot be sure the thing is so very plain SIMPL. I will with your leave cast an eye upon the Text. SAGR. We will command the Text to be brought forthwith SIMPL. I alwayes carry it about with me See here it is and I know the place perfectly well which is in lib. 2. De Coelo cap. 16. Here it is Text 97. Preterea omnia quae feruntur latione circulari subdeficere videntur ac moveri pluribus una latione praeter primam Sphaeram quare Terram necessariam est sive circa medium sive in medio posita feratur duabus moveri lationibus Si autem hoc acciderit necessariam est fieri mutationes ac conversiones fixorum astrorum Hoc autem non videtur fieri sed semper eadem apud eadem loca ipsius oriuntur occidunt In English thus Furthermore all that are carried with circular motion seem to foreslow and to move with more than one motion except the first Sphere wherefore it is necessary that the Earth move with two motions whether it be carried about the middle or placed in the middle But if it be so there would of necessity be alterations and conversions made amongst the fixed Stars But no such thing is seen to be done but the same Star doth alwayes rise and set in the same place In all this I find not any falacy and my thinks the argument is very forcible SALV And this new reading of the place hath confirmed me in the fallacy of the Sillogisme and moreover discovered another falsity Therefore observe The Positions or if you will Conclusions which Aristotle endeavours to oppose are two one is that of those who placing the Earth in the midst of the World do make it move in it self about its own centre The other is of those who constituting it far from the middle do make it revolve with a circular motion about the middle of the Universe And both these Positions he conjointly impugneth with one and the same argument Now I affirm that he is out in both the one and the other impugnation and that his error against the first Position is an Equivoke or Paralogisme and his mistake touching the second is a false consequence Let us begin with the first Assertion which constituteth the Earth in the midst of the World and maketh it move in it self about its own centre and let us confront it with the objection of Aristotle saying All moveables that move circularly seem to foreslow and more with more than one Byas except the first Sphere that is the primum mobile therefore the Earth moving about its own centre being placed in the middle must of necessity have two byasse and foreslow But if this were so it would follow that there should be a variation in the rising and setting of the fixed Stars which we do not perceive to be done Therefore the Earth doth not move c. Here is the Paralogisme and to discover it I will argue with Aristotle in this manner Thou saist oh Aristotle that the Earth placed in the middle of the World cannot move in it self i. e. upon its own axis for then it would be requisite to allow it two byasses so that if it should not be necessary to allow it more than one Byas onely thou wouldest not then hold it impossible for it to move onely with that one for thou would'st unnecessarily have confined the impossibility to the plurality of byasses if in case it had no more but one yet it could not move with that And because that of all the moveables in the World thou makest but one alone to move with one sole byas and all the rest with more than one and this same moveable thou affirmest to be the first Sphere namely that by which all the fixed and erratick Stars seem harmoniously to move from East to West if in case the Earth may be that first Sphere that by moving with one byas onely may make the Stars appear to move from East to West thou wilt not deny them it But he that affirmeth that the Earth being placed in the midst of the World moveth about its own Axis ascribes unto it no other motion save that by which all the Stars appear to move from East to West and so it cometh to be that first Sphere which thou thy self acknowledgest to move with but one byas onely It is therefore necessary oh Aristotle if thou wilt conclude any thing that thou demonstrate that the Earth being placed in the midst of the World cannot move with so much as one byas onely or else that much lesse can the first Sphere have one sole motion for otherwise thou doest in thy very Sillogisme both commit the falacy and detect it denying and at that very time proving the same thing I come now to the second Position namely of those who placing the Earth far from the midst of the Universe make it moveable about the same that is make it a Planet and erratick Star against which the argument is directed and as to form is concludent but faileth in matter For it being granted that the Earth doth in that manner move and that with two byasses yet doth it not necessarily follow that though it were so it should make alterations in the risings and settings of the fixed Stars as I shall in its proper place declare And here I could gladly excuse Aristotle rather I could highly applaud him for having light upon the most subtil argument that could be produced against the Copernican Hypothesis and if the objection be ingenious and to outward appearance most powerful you may see how much more acute and ingenious the solution must be and not to be found by a wit lesse piercing than that of Copernicus and again from the difficulty in understanding it you may argue the so much greater difficulty in finding it But let us for the present suspend our answer which you shall understand in due time and place after we have repeated the objection of Aristotle and that in his favour much strengthened Now passe we to Aristotles third Argument touching which we need give no farther reply it having been sufficiently answered betwixt the discourses of yesterday and to day In as much as he urgeth that the motion of grave bodies is naturally by a right line to the centre and then enquireth whether to the centre of the Earth or to that of the Universe
contemplations like as Lions are not much moved at the barking of little Dogs We will therefore reserve the instance of birds to the last place and for the present see if we can give Simplicius satisfaction in the others by shewing him in our wonted manner that he himself hath their answers at hand though upon first thoughts he doth not discover them And to begin with the shots made at randome with the self same piece powder and ball the one towards the East the other towards the West if the diurnal conversion belonged to the Earth ought to be much longer than that towards the East SIMP I am moved so to think because in the shot made towards the East the ball whil'st it is out of the piece is followed by the said piece the which being carried round by the Earth runneth also with much velocity towards the same part whereupon the fall of the ball to the ground cometh to be but little distant from the piece On the contrary in the shot towards the West before that the ball falleth to the ground the piece is retired very far towards the East by which means the space between the ball and the piece that is Range will appear longer than the other by how much the piece that is the Earth had run in the time that both the bals were in the air SALV I could wish that we did know some way to make an experiment corresponding to the motion of these projects as that of the ship doth to the motion of things perpendicularly falling from on high and I am thinking how it may be done SAGR. I believe that it would be a very opposite proof to take an open Chariot and to accomodate therein a Stock-bow at half elevation to the end the flight may prove the greatest that my be and whil'st the horses shall run to shoot first towards the part whither you drive and then another backwards towards the contrary part causing some one to mark diligently where the Chariot was in that moment â—f time when the shaft came to the ground as well in the one shot as in the other for thus you may see exactly how much one shaft flew farther than the other SIMP In my thoughts this experiment is very proper and I do not doubt but that the flight that is the space between the shaft and the place where the chariot was at the shafts fall will be less by much when one shooteth towards the chariots course than when one shooteth the contrary way For an example let the flight of it self be three hundred yards and the course of the chariot in the time whilst the shaft stayeth in the air an hundred yards therefore shooting towards the course of the three hundred yards of the flight the chariot will have gone one hundred so then at the shafts coming to the ground the space between it and the chariot shall be but two hundred yards onely but on the contrary in the other shoot the chariot running contrary to the shaft when the shaft shall have passed its three hundred yards and the chariot it s other hundred the contrary way the distance interposing shall be found to be four hundred yards SALV Is there any way to shoot so that these flights may be equal SIMP I know no other way unless by making the chariot to stand still SALV This we know but I mean when the chariot runneth in full carreer SIMP In that case you are to draw the Bow higher in shooting forwards and to slack it in shooting the contrary way SALV Then you see that there is one way more But how much is the bow to be drawn and how much slackened SIMP In our case where we have supposed that the bow carried three hundred yards it would be requisite to draw it so as that it might carry four hundred and in the other to slacken it so as that it might carry no more than two hundred For so each of the flights would be but three hundred in relation to the chariot the which with its course of an hundred yards which it substracts from the shoot of four hundred and addeth to that of two hundred would reduce them both to three hundred SALV But what effect hath the greater or less intensness of the bow upon the shaft SIMP The stiffer bow carrieth it with greater velocity and the weaker with less and the same shaft flieth so much farther at one time than another with how much greater velocity it goeth out of the tiller at one time than another SALV So that to make the shaft shot either way to flie at equal distance from the running chariot it is requisite that if in the first shoot of the precedent example it goeth out of the tiller with v. g. four degrees of velocity that then in the other shoot it depart but with two onely but if the same bow be used it always receiveth thence three degrees SIMP It doth so and for this reason shooting with the same bow in the chariots course the shoots cannot be equal SALV I had forgot to ask with what velocity it is supposed in this particular experiment that the chariot runneth SIMP The velocity of the chariot must be supposed to be one degree in comparison to that of the bow which is three SALV Very right for so computation gives it But tell me when the chariot moveth doth not all things in the same move with the same velocity SIMP Yes doubtless SALV Then so doth the shaft also and the bow and the string upon which the shaft is nock't SIMP They do so SALV Why then in discharging the shaft towards the course of the chariot the bow impresseth its three degrees of velocity on a shaft that had one degree of velocity before by means of the chariot which transported it so fast towards that part so that in its going off it hath four degrees of velocity On the contrary in the other shoot the same bow conferreth its same three degrees of velocity on a shaft that moveth the contrary way with one degree so that in its departing from the bow-string it hath no more left but onely two degrees of velocity But you your self have already said that the way to make the shoots equal is to cause that the shaft be let flie the first time with four degrees of velocity and the second time with two Therefore without changing the bow the very course of the chariot is that which adjusteth the flights and the experiment doth so represent them to any one who is not either wilfully or naturally incapable of reason Now apply this discourse to Gunnery and you shall find that whether the Earth move or stand still the shots made with the same force will always curry equal ranges to what part soever aimed The error of Aristotle Ptolomey Tycho your self and all the rest is grounded upon that fixed and strong persuasion that the Earth standeth still which you
mean of their flight hath nothing to do with the universal motion to which it is neither an help nor an hinderance and that which maintaineth the said motion unaltered in the birds is the Air it self thorough which they flie which naturally follovving the Vertigo of the Earth like as it carrieth the clouds along with it so it transporteth birds and every thing else which is pendent in the same in so much that as to the businesse of keeping pace vvith the Earth the birds need take no care thereof but for that work might sleep perpetually SAGR. That the Air can carry the clouds along with it as being matters easie for their lightnesse to be moved and deprived of all other contrary inclination yea more as being matters that partake also of the conditions and properties of the Earth I comprehend without any difficulty but that birds which as having life may move with a motion quite contrary to the diurnal once having surceased the said motion the Air should restore them to it seems to me a little strange and the rather for that they are solid and weighty bodies and withal we see as hath been said stones and other grave bodies to lie unmoved against the impetus of the air and when they suffer themselves to be overcome thereby they never acquire so much velocity as the wind which carrieth them SALV We ascribe not so little force Sagredus to the moved Air which is able to move and bear before it ships full fraught to tear up trees by the roots and overthrow Towers when it moveth swiftly and yet we cannot say that the motion of the Air in these violent operations is neer so violent as that of the diurnal revolution SIMP You see then that the moved Air may also cotinue the motion of projects according to the Doctrine of Aristotle and it seemed to me very strange that he should have erred in this particular SALV It may without doubt in case it could continue it self but lik as when the wind ceasing neither ships go on nor trees are blown down so the motion in the Air not continuing after the stone is gone out of the hand and the Air ceasing to move it followeth that it must be something else besides the Air that maketh the projects to move SIMP But how upon the winds being laid doth the ship cease to move Nay you may see that when the wind is down and the sails furl'd the vessel continueth to run whole miles SALV But this maketh against your self Simplicius for that the wind being laid that filling the sails drove on the ship yet neverthelesse doth it without help of the medium continue its course SIMP It might be said that the water was the medium which carried forward the ship and maintain'd it in motion SALV It might indeed be so affirmed if you would speak quite contrary to truth for the truth is that the water by reason of its great resistance to the division made by the hull of the ship doth with great noise resist the same nor doth it permit it of a great while to acquire that velocity which the wind would confer upon it were the obstacle of the water removed Perhaps Simplicius you have never considered with what fury the water besets a bark whil'st it forceth its way through a standing water by help of Oars or Sails for if you had ever minded that effect you would not now have produced such an absurdity And I am thinking that you have hitherto been one of those who to find out how such things succeed and to come to the knowledg of natural effects do not betake themselves to a Ship a Crosse-bow or a piece of Ordinance but retire into their studies and turn over Indexes and Tables to see whether Aristotle hath spoken any thing thereof and being assured of the true sense of the Text neither desire nor care for knowing any more SAGR. This is a great felicity and they are to be much envied for it For if knowledg be desired by all and if to be wise be to think ones self so they enjoy a very great happinesse for that they may perswade themselves that they know and understand all things in soorn of those who knowing that they understand not what these think they understand and consequently seeking that they know not the very least particle of what is knowable kill themselves with waking and studying and consume their days in experiments and observations But pray you let us return to our birds touching which you have said that the Air being moved with great velocity might restore unto them that part of the diurnal motion which amongst the windings of their flight they might have lost to which I reply that the agitated Air seemeth unable to confer on a solid and grave body so great a velocity as its own And because that of the Air is as great as that of the Earth I cannot think that the Air is able to make good the losse of the birds retardation in flight SALV Your discourse hath in it much of probability and to stick at trivial doubts is not for an acute wit yet neverthelesse the probability being removed I believed that it hath not a jot more force than the others already considered and resolved SAGR. It is most certain that if it be not necessarily concludent its efficacy must needs be just nothing at all for it is onely when the conclusion is necessary that the opponent hath nothing to alledg on the contrary SALV Your making a greater scruple of this than of the other instances dependeth if I mistake not upon the birds being animated and thereby enabled to use their strength at pleasure against the primary motion in-bred in terrene bodies like as for example we see them whil'st they are alive to fly upwards a thing altogether impossible for them to do as they are grave bodies whereas being dead they can onely fall downwards and therefore you hold that the reasons that are of force in all the kinds of projects above named cannot take place in birds Now this is very true and because it is so Sagredus that doth not appear to be done in those projects which we see the birds to do For if from the top of a Tower you let fall a dead bird and a live one the dead bird shall do the same that a stone doth that is it shall first follow the general motion diurnal and then the motion of descent as grave but if the bird let fall be a live what shall hinder it there ever remaining in it the diurnal motion from soaring by help of its wings to what place of the Horizon it shall please and this new motion as being peculiar to the bird and not participated by us must of necessity be visible to us and if it be moved by help of its wings towards the West what shall hinder it from returning with a like help of its wings unto the Tower
actuate it at the same instant with different and as it were of contrary motions I cannot believe that any one would say such a thing unlesse he had undertook to maintain this position right or wrong SALV Stay a little and find me out this place in the Book Fingamus modo cum Copernico terram aliqua suâ vi ab indito principio impelli ab Occasu ad Ortum in Eclipticae plano tum rursus revolvi ab indito etiam principio circa suimet centrum ab Ortu in Occasum tertio deflecti rursus suopte nutu à septentrione in Austrum vicissim I had thought Simplicius that you might have erred in reciting the words of the Author but now I see that he and that very grossely deceiveth himself and to my grief I find that he hath set himself to oppose a position which he hath not well understood for these are not the motions which Copernicus assignes to the Earth Where doth he find that Copernicus maketh the annual motion by the Ecliptick contrary to the motion about its own centre It must needs be that he never read his Book which in an hundred places and in the very first Chapters affirmeth those motions to be both towards the same parts that is from West to East But without others telling him ought he not of himself to comprehend that attributing to the Earth the motions that are taken one of them from the Sun and the other from the primum mobile they must of necessity both move one and the same way SIMP Take heed that you do not erre your self and Copernicus also The Diurnal motion of the primum mobile is it not from East to West And the annual motion of the Sun through the Ecliptick is it not on the contrary from West to East How then can you make these motions being conferred on the Earth of contraries to become consistents SAGR. Certainly Simplicius hath discovered to us the original cause of error of this Philosopher and in all probability he would have said the very same SALV Now if it be in our power let us at least recover Simplicius from this errour who seeing the Stars in their rising to appear above the Oriental Horizon will make it no difficult thing to understand that in case that motion should not belong to the Stars it would be necessary to confesse that the Horizon with a contrary motion would go down and that consequently the Earth would reoolve in it self a contrary way to that wherewith the Stars seem to move that is from West to East which is according to the order of the Signes of the Zodiack As in the next place to the other motion the Sun being fixed in the centre of the Zodiack and the Earth moveable about its circumference to make the Sun seem unto us to move about the said Zodiack according to the order of the Signes it is necessary that the Earth move according to the same order to the end that the Sun may seem to us to possesse alwayes that degree in the Zodiack that is opposite to the degree in which we find the Earth and thus the Earth running verbi gratia through Aries the Sun will appear to run thorow Libra and the Earth passing thorow the signe Taurus the Sun will passe thorow Scorpio and so the Earth going thorow Gemini the Sun seemeth to go thorow Sagittarius but this is moving both the same way that is according to the order of the signes as also was the revolution of the Earth about its own centre SIMP I understand you very well and know not what to alledge in excuse of so grosse an error SALV And yet Simplicius there is one yet worse then this and it is that he makes the Earth move by the diurnal motion about its own centre from East to West and perceives not that if this were so the motion of twenty four hours appropriated by him to the Universe would in our seeming proceed from West to East the quite contrary to that which we behold SIMP Oh strange Why I that have scarce seen the first elements of the Sphere would not I am confident have erred so horribly SALV Judg now what pains this Antagonist may be thought to have taken in the Books of Copernicus if he absolutely invert the sense of this grand and principal Hypothesis upon which is founded the whole summe of those things wherein Copernicus SAGR. I have twice or thrice observed in the discourses of this Authour that to prove that a thing is so or so he still alledgeth that in that manner it is conformable with our understanding or that otherwise we should never be able to conceive of it or that the Criterium of Philosophy would be overthrown As if that nature had first made mens brains and then disposed all things in conformity to the capacity of their intellects But I incline rather to think that Nature first made the things themselves as she best liked and afterwards framed the reason of men capable of conceiving though not without great pains some part of her secrets SALV I am of the same opinion But tell me Simplicius which are these different natures to which contrary to experience and reason Copernicus assignes the same motions and operations SIMP They are these The Water the Air which doubtlesse are Natures different from the Earth and all things that are in those elements comprised shall each of them have those three motions which Copernicus pretends to be in the Terrestriall Globe and my Authour proceedeth to demonstrate Geometrically that according to the Copernican Doctrine a cloud that is suspended in the Air and that hangeth a long time over our heads without changing place must of necessity have all those three motions that belong to the Terrestrial Globe The demonstration is this which you may read your self for I cannot repeat it without book SALV I shall not stand reading of it nay I think it an impertinency in him to have inserted it for I am certain that no Copernican will deny the same Therefore admitting him what he would demonstrate let us speak to the objection which in my judgment hath no great strength to conclude any thing contrary to the Copernican Hypothesis seeing that it derogates nothing from those motions and those operations whereby we come to the knowledge of the natures c. Answer me I pray you Simplicius Those accidents wherein some things exactly concur can they serve to inform us of the different natures of those things SIMP No Sir nay rather the contrary for from the idendity of operations and of accidents nothing can be inferred but an idendity of natures SALV So that the different natures of the Water Earth Air and other things conteined in these Elements is not by you argued from those operations wherein all these Elements and their affixes agree but from other operations is it so SIMP The very same SALV So
that he who should leave in the Elements all those motions operations and other accidents by which their natures are distinguished would not deprive us of the power of coming to the knowledge of them although he should remove those operations in which they unitedly concur and which for that reason are of no use for the distinguishing of those natures SIMP I think your dissertation to be very good SALV But that the Earth Water Air are of a nature equally constituted immoveable about the centre is it not the opinion of your self Aristotle Prolomy and all their sectators SIMP It s on all hands granted as an undeniable truth SALV Then from this common natural condition of quiescence about the centre there is no argument drawn of the different natures of these Elements and things elementary but that knowledge must be collected from other qualities not common and therefore whoso should deprive the Elements of this common rest only and should leave unto them all their other operations would not in the least block up the way that leadeth to the knowledge of their essences But Copernicus depriveth them onely of this common rest and changeth the same into a common motion leaving them gravity levity the motions upwards downwards slower faster rarity density the qualities of hot cold dry moist and in a word all things besides Therefore such an absurdity as this Authour imagineth to himself is no Copernican position nor doth the concurrence in an identity of motion import any more or less than the concurrence in an identity of rest about the diversifying or not diversifying of natures Now tell us if there be any argument to the contrary SIMP There followeth a fourth objection taken from a natural observation which is That bodies of the same kind have motions that agree in kinde or else they agree in rest But by the Copernican Hypothesis bodies that agree in kinde and are most semblable to one another would be very discrepant yea diametrically repugnant as to motion for that Stars so like to one another would be neverthelesse so unlike in motion as that six Planets would perpetually turn round but the Sun and all the fixeed Stars would stand perpetually immoveable SALV The forme of the argument appeareth good but yet I believe that the application or matter is defective and if the Authour will but persist in his assumption the consequence shall make directly against him The Argument runs thus Amongst mundane bodies six there are that do perpetually move and they are the six Planets of the rest that is of the Earth Sun and fixed Stars it is disputable which of them moveth and which stands still it being necessary that if the Earth stand still the Sun and fixed Stars do move and it being also possible that the Sun and fixed Stars may stand immoveable in case the Earth should move the matter of fact in dispute is to which of them we may with most convenience ascribe motion and to which rest Natural reason dictates that motion ought to be assigned to the bodies which in kind and essence most agree with those bodies which do undoubtedly move and rest to those which most dissent from them and in regard that an eternal rest and perpetual motion are most different it is manifest that the nature of the body always moveable ought to be most different from the body alwayes stable Therefore in regard that we are dubious of motion and rest let us enquire whether by the help of some other eminent affection we may discover which most agreeth with the bodies certainly moveable either the Earth or the Sun and fixed Stars But see how Nature in favour of our necessity and desire presents us with two eminent qualities and no less different than motion and rest and they are light and darkness to wit the being by nature most bright and the being obscure and wholly deprived of light the bodies therefore adorned with an internal and eternal splendour are most different in essence from those deprived of light The Earth is deprived of light the Sun is most splendid in it self and so are the fixed Stars The six Planets do absolutely want light as the Earth therefore their essence agreeth with the Earth and differeth from the Sun and fixed Stars Therefore is the Earth moveable immoveable the Sunne and Starry Sphere SIMP But the Authour will not grant that the six Planets are tenebrose and by that negative will he abide Or he will argue the great conformity of nature between the six Planets and the Sun and Fixed Stars and the disparity between them and the Earth from other conditions than from tenebrosity and light yea now I remember in the fifth objection which followeth he layeth down the vast difference between the Earth and the Coelestial Bodies in which he writeth That the Copernican Hypothesis would make great confusion and perturbation in the Systeme of the Vniverse and amongst its parts As for instance amongst Coebodies that are immutable and incorruptible according to Aristotle Tycho and others amongst bodies I say of such nobility by the confession of every one and Copernicus himself who affirmeth them to be ordinate and disposed in a perfect constitution and removeth from them all inconstancy of vertue amongst these bodies I say once more so pure that is to say amongst Venus Mars c. to place the very sink of all corruptible matters to wit the Earth Water Air and all mixt bodies But how much properer a distribution and more with nature yea with God himself the Architect is it to sequester the pure from the impute the mortal from the immortal as other Schools teach which tell us that these impure and frail matters are contained within the angust concave of the Lunar Orb above which with uninterrupted Series the things Celestial distend themselves SALV It 's true that the Copernican Systeme introduceth distraction in the universe of Aristotle but we speak of our own Universe that is true and real Again if this Author will infer the disparity of essence between the Earth and Celestial bodies from the incorruptibility of them and the corruptibility of it in the method of Aristotle from which disparity he concludeth motion to belong to the Sun and fixed Stars and the immobility of the Earth he will flatter himself with a Paralogisme supposing that which is in question for Aristotle inferreth the incorruptibility of Celestial bodies from motion which is in dispute whether it belongeth to them or to the Earth Of the vanity of these Rhetorical Illations enough hath been spoken And what can be more fond than to say that the Earth and Elements are banished and sequestred from the Celestial Spheres and confined within the Lunar Orb Is not then the Moons Orb one of the Celestial Spheres and according to consent comprised in the middle of all the rest It s a new way to separate the pure from the impure and
are perswaded Aristotle himself would do in the case SIMP To tell you the truth I know not how to resolve which of the two inconveniences is to be esteemed the lesser SALV Apply not I pray you this term of inconvenience to a thing which possibly may of necessity be so It was an inconvenience to place the Earth in the centre of the Coelestial revolutions but seeing you know not to which part he would incline I esteeming him to be a man of great judgment let us examine which of the two choices is the more rational and that we will hold that Aristotle would have received Reassuming therefore our discourse from the beginning we suppose with the good liking of Aristotle that the World of the magnitude of which we have no sensible notice beyond the fixed stars as being of a spherical figure and moveth circularly hath necessarily and in respect of its figure a centre and we being moreover certain that within the starry Sphere there are many Orbs the one within another with their stars which likewise do move circulary it is in dispute whether it is most reasonable to believe and to say that these conteined Orbs do move round the said centre of the World or else about some other centre far remote from that Tell me now Simplicius what you think concerning this particular SIMP If we could stay upon this onely supposition and that we were sure that we might encounter nothing else that might disturb us I would say that it were much more reasonable to affirm that the Orb containing and the parts contained do all move about one common centre than about divers SALV Now if it were true that the centre of the World is the same about which the Orbs of mundane bodies that is to say of the Planets move it is most certain that it is not the Earth but the Sun rather that is fixed in the centre of the World So that as to this first simple and general apprehension the middle place belongeth to the Sun and the Earth is as far remote from the centre as it is from that same Sun SIMP But from whence do you argue that not the Earth but the Sun is in the centre of the Planetary revolutions SALV I infer the same from most evident and therefore necessarily concludent observations of which the most palpable to exclude the Earth from the said centre and to place the Sun therein are the seeing all the Planets one while neerer and another while farther off from the Earth with so great differences that for example Venus when it is at the farthest is six times more remote from us than when it is neerest and Mars riseth almost eight times as high at one time as at another See therefore whether Aristotle was not somewhat mistaken in thinking that it was at all times equidistant from us SIMP What in the next place are the tokens that their motions are about the Sun SALV It is argued in the three superiour planets Mars Jupiter and Saturn in that we find them alwayes neerest to the Earth when they are in opposition to the Sun and farthest off when they are towards the conjunction and this approximatian and recession importeth thus much that Mars neer at hand appeareth very neer 60 times greater than when it is remote As to Venus in the next place and to Mercury we are certain that they revolve about the Sun in that they never move far from him and in that we see them one while above and another while below it as the mutations of figure in Venus necessarily argueth Toâ—ching the Moon it is certain that she cannot in any way seperate from the Earth for the reasons that shall be more distinctly alledged hereafter SAGR. I expect that I shall hear more admirable things that depend upon this annual motion of the Earth than were those dependant upon the diurnal revolution SALV You do not therein erre For as to the operation of the diurnal motion upon the Celestial bodies it neither was nor can be other than to make the Universe seem to run precipitately the contrary way but this annual motion intermixing with the particular motions of all the planets produceth very many extravagancies which have disarmed and non-plust all the greatest Scholars in the World But returning to our first general apprehensions I reply that the centre of the Celestial conversions of the â—ive planets Saturn Jupiter Mars Venus and Mercury is the Sun and shall be likewise the centre of the motion of the Earth if we do but succeed in our attempt of placing it in Heaven And as for the Moon this hath a circular motion about the Earth from which as I said before it can by no means alienate it self but yet doth it not cease to go about the Sun together with the Earâ—h in an annual motion SIMP I do not as yet very well apprehend this structure but it may be that with making a few draughts thereof one may better and more easily discourse concerning the same SALV T is very true yea for your greater satisfaction and admiration together I desire you that you would take the pains to draw the same and to see that although you think you do not apprehend it yet you very perfectly understand it And onely by answering to my interrogations you shall designe it punctually Take therefore a sheet of paper and Compasses And let this white paper be the immense expansion of the Universe in which you are to distribute and dispose its parts in order according as reason shall direct you And first in regard that without my instruction you verily believe that the Earth is placed in this Universe therefore note a point at pleasure about which you intend it to to be placed and mark it with some characters SIMP Let this mark A be the place of the Terrestrial Globe SALV Very well I know secondly that you understand perfectly that the said Earth is not within the body of the Sun nor so much as contiguous to it but distant for some space from the same and therefore assign to the Sun what other place you best like as remote from the Earth as you please and mark this in like manner SIMP Here it is done Let the place of the Solar body be O. SALV These two being constituted I desire that we may think of accomodating the body of Venus in such a manner that its state and motion may agree with what sensible experiments do shew us and therefore recall to mind that which either by the past discourses or your own observations you have learnt to befal that star and afterwards assign unto it that state which you think agreeth with the same SIMP Supposing those Phaenomena expressed by you and which I have likewise read in the little treatise of Conclusions to be true namely that that star never recedes from the Sun beyond such a determinate space of 40 degrees or
thereabouts so as that it never cometh either to apposition with the Sun or so much as to quadrature or yet to the sextile aspect and more than that supposing that it sheweth at one time almost 40 times greater than at another namely very great when being retrograde it goeth to the vespertine conjnnction of the Sun and very small when with a motion straight forwards it goeth to the matutine conjunction and moreover it being true that when it appeareth bigge it shews with a corniculate figure and when it appeareth little it seems perfectly round these appearances I say being true I do not see how one can choose but affirm the said star to revolve in a circle about the Sun for that the said circle cannot in any wise be said to encompasse or to contain the Earth within it nor to be inferiour to the Sun that is between it and the Earth nor yet superiour to the Sun That circle cannot incompasse the Earth because Venus would then sometimes come to opposition with the Sun it cannot be inferiour for then Venus in both its conjunctions with the Sun would seem horned nor can it be superiour for then it would alwayes appear round and never cornicular and therefore for receit of it I will draw the circle CH about the Sun without encompassing the Earth SALV Having placed Venus it is requisite that you think of Mercury which as you know alwayes keeping about the Sun doth recede lesse distance from it than Venus therefore consider with your self what place is most convenient to assign it SIMP It is not to be questioned but that this Planet imitating Venus the most commodious place for it will be a lesser circle within this of Venus in like manner about the Sun being that of its greatest vicinity to the Sun an argument an evidence sufficiently proving the vigour of its illumination above that of Venus and of the other Planets we may therefore upon these considerations draw its Circle marking it with the Characters BG SALV But Mars Where shall we place it SIMP Mars Because it comes to an opposition with the Sun its Circle must of necessity encompass the Earth But I see that it must necessarily encompass the Sun also for coming to conjunction with the Sun if it did not move over it but were below it it would appear horned as Venus and the Moon but it shews alwayes round and therefore it is necessary that it no less includeth the Sun within its circle than the Earth And because I remember that you did say that when it is in opposition with the Sun it seems 60 times bigger than when it is in the conjunction me thinks that a Circle about the Centre of the Sun and that taketh in the earth will very well agree with these Phaenomena which I do note and mark DI where Mars in the point D is near to the earth and opposite to the Sun but when it is in the point I it is at Conjuction with the Sun but very far from the Earth And because the same appearances are observed in Jupiter and Saturn although with much lesser difference in Jupiter than in Mars and with yet lesse in Saturn than in Jupiter me thinks I understand that we should very commodiously salve all the Phaenomena of these two Planets with two Circles in like manner drawn about the Sun and this first for Jupiter marking it EL and another above that for Saturn marked FM SALV You have behaved your self bravely hitherto And because as you see the approach and recession of the three Superiour Planets is measured with double the distance between the Earth and Sun this maketh greater difference in Mars than in Jupiter the Circle DI of Mars being lesser than the Circle EL of Jupiter and likewise because this EL is lesse than this Circle FM of Saturn the said difference is also yet lesser in Saturn than in Jupiter and that punctually answereth the Phaenomena It remains now that you assign a place to the Moon SIMP Following the same Method which seems to me very conclusive in regard we see that the Moon cometh to conjunction and opposition with the Sun it is necessary to say that its circle encompasseth the Earth but yet doth it not follow that it must environ the Sun for then at that time towards its conjunction it would not seem horned but alwayes round and full of Light Moreover it could never make as it often doth the Eclipse of the Sun by interposing betwixt it and us It is necessary therefore to assign it a circle about the Earth which should be this NP so that being constituted in P it will appear from the Earth A to be in conjunction with the Sun and placed in N it appeareth opposite to the Sun and in that position it may fall under the Earths shadow and be obscured SALV Now Simplicius what shall we do with the fixed stars Shall we suppose them scattered through the immense abisses of the Universe at different distances from any one determinate point or else placed in a superficies spherically distended about a centre of its own so that each of them may be equidistant from the said centre SIMP I would rather take a middle way and would assign them an Orb described about a determinate centre and comprized within two spherical superficies to wit one very high and concave and the other lower and convex betwixt which I would constitute the innumerable multitude of stars but yet at divers altitudes and this might be called the Sphere of the Universe conteining within it the Orbs of the planets already by us described SALV But now we have all this while Simplicius disposed the mundane bodies exactly according to the order of Copernicus and we have done it with your hand and moreover to each of them you have assigned peculiar motions of their own except to the Sun the Earth and starry Sphere and to Mercury with Venus you have ascribed the circular motion about the Sun without encompassing the Earth about the same Sun you make the three superiour Planets Mars Jupiter and Saturn to move comprehending the Earth within their circles The Moon in the next place can move in no other manner than about the Earth without taking in the Sun and in all these motions you agree also with the same Copernicus There remains now three things to be decided between the Sun the Earth and fixed stars namely Rest which seemeth to belong to the Earth the annual motion under the Zodiack which appeareth to pertain to the Sun and the diurnal motion which seems to belong to the Starry Sphere and to be by that imparted to all the rest of the Universe the Earth excepted And it being true that all the Orbs of the Planets I mean of Mercury Venus Mars Jupiter and Saturn do move about the Sun as their centre rest seemeth with so much more reason
the left side of the Solar Discus and going to hide themselves and to set in the right side the Oriental termes that is of their first appearings for six moneths shall be lower than the opposite termes of their occultations and for other six moneths it shall happen contrarily to wit that the said spots rising from more elevated points and from them descending they shall in their courses go and hide themselves in lower points and onely for two dayes in all the year shall those termes of risings and settings be equilibrated after which freely beginning by small degrees the inclination of the courses of the spots and day by day growing bigger in three moneths it shall arrive at its greatest obliquity and from thence beginning to diminish in such another time it shall reduce it self to the other Aequilibrium It shall happen for a fourth wonder that the course of the greatest obliquity shall be the same with the course made by the right line and in the day of the Libration the arch of the course shall seem more than ever incurvated Again in the other times according as the pendency shall successively diminish and make it approach towards the Aequilibrium the incurvation of the arches of the courses on the contrary shall by degrees increase SAGR. I confesse Salviatus that to interrupt you in your Discourse is ill manners but I esteem it no lesse rudeness to permit you to run on any farther in words whilst they are as the saying is cast into the air for to speak freely I know not how to form any distinct conceit of so much as one of these conclusions that you have pronounced but because as I thus generally and confusedly apprehend them they hold forth things of admirable consequence I would gladly some way or other be made to understand the same SALV The same that befalls you befell me also whilst my Guest transported me with bare words who afterwards assisted my capacity by describing the businesse upon a material Instrument which was no other than a simple Sphere making use of some of its circles but to a different purpose from that to which they are commonly applied Now I will supply the defect of the Sphere by drawing the same upon a piece of paper as need shall require And to represent the first accident by me propounded which was that the courses or journeys of the spots twice a year and no more might be seen to be made in right lines let us suppose this point O in Fig. 4. to be the centre of the grand Orb or if you will of the Ecliptick and likewise also of the Globe of the Sun it self of which by reason of the great distance that is between it and the Earth we that live upon the Earth may suppose that we see the one half we will therefore describe this circle ABCD about the said centre O which representeth unto us the extream term that divideth and separates the Hemisphere of the Sun that is apparent to us from the other that is occult And because that our eye no lesse than the centre of the Earth is understood to be in the plane of the Ecliptick in which is likewise the centre of the Sun therefore if we should fancy to our selves the body of the Sun to be cut thorow by the said plane the section will appear to our eye a right line which let be BOD and upon that a perpendicular being let fall AOC it shall be the Axis of the said Ecliptick and of the annual motion of the Terrestrial Globe Let us next suppose the Solar body without changing centre to revolve in it self not about the Axis AOC which is the erect Axis upon the plane of the Ecliptick but about one somewhat inclined which let be this EOI the which fixed and unchangeable Axis maintaineth it self perpetually in the same inclination and direction towards the same points of the Firmament and of the Universe And because in the revolutions of the Solar Globe each point of its superficies the Poles excepted describeth the circumference of a circle either bigger or lesser according as it is more or lesse remote from the said Poles let us take the point F equally distant from them and draw the diameter FOG which shall be perpendicular to the Axis EI and shall be the diameter of the grand circle described about the Poles EI. Supposing not that the Earth and we with her be in such a place of the Ecliptick that the Hemisphere of the Sun to us apparent is determin'd or bounded by the circle ABCD which passing as it alwayes doth by the Poles AC passeth also by EI. It is manifest that the grand circle whose diameter is FG shall be erect to the circle ABCD to which the ray that from our eye falleth upon the centre O is perpendicular so that the said ray falleth upon the plane of the circle whose diameter is FG and therefore its circumference will appear to us a right line and the self same with FG whereupon if there should be in the point F a spot it comming afterwards to be carried about by the Solar conversion would upon the surface of the Sun trace out the circumference of that circle which seems to us a right line It s course or passage will therefore seem straight And straight also will the motion of the other spots appear which in the said revolution shall describe lesser circles as being all parallel to the greater and to our eye placed at an immense distance from them Now if you do but consider how that after the Earth shall in six moneths have run thorow half the grand Orb and shall be situate opposite to that Hemisphere of the Sun which is now occult unto us so as that the boundary of the part that then shall be seen may be the self same ABCD which also shall passe by the Poles EI you shall understand that the same will evene in the courses of the spots as before to wit that all will appear to be made by right lines But because that that accident takes not place save onely when the teminator or boundary passeth by the Poles EI and the said terminator from moment to moment by meanes of the Earths annual motion continually altereth therefore its passage by the fixed Poles EI shall be momentary and consequently momentary shall be the time in which the motions of those spots shall appear straight From what hath been hitherto spoken one may comprehend also how that the apparition and beginning of the motion of the spots from the part F proceeding towards G their passages or courses are from the left hand ascending towards the right but the Earth being placed in the part diametrically opposite the appearance of the spots about G shall still be to the left hand of the beholder but the passage shall be descending towards the right hand F. Let us now describe the Earth to be situate one fourth part farther distant
from its present state and let us draw as in the other figure the terminator ABCD as in Fig. 5. and the Axis as before AC by which the plane of our Meridian would passe in which plane should also be the Axis of the Suns revolution with its Poles one towards us that is in the apparent Hemisphere which Pole we will represent by the point E and the other shall fall in the occult Hemisphere and I mark it I. Inclining therefore the Axis EI with the superiour part E towards us the great circle described by the Suns conversion shall be this BFDG whose half by us seen namely BFD shall no longer seem unto us a right line by reason the Poles EI are not in the circumference ABCD but shall appear incurvated and with its convexity towards the inferiour part C. And it is manifest that the same will appear in all the lesser circles parallel to the same BFD It is to be understood also that when the Earth shall be diametrically opposite to this state so that it seeth the other Hemisphere of the Sun which now is hid it shall of the said great circle behold the part DGB incurved with its convexity towards the superiour part A and the courses of the spots in these constitutions shall be first by the arch BFD and afterwards by the other DGB and the first apparitions and ultimate occultations made about the points B and D shall be equilibrated and not those that are more or lesse elevated than these But if we constitute the Earth in such a place of the Ecliptick that neither the boundary ABCD nor the Meridian AC passeth by the Poles of the Axis EI as I will shew you anon drawing this other Figure viz. Fig. 6. wherein the apparent or visible Pole E falleth between the arch of the terminator AB and the section of the Meridian AC the diameter of the great circle shall be FOG and the apparent semicircle FNG and the occult semicircle GSF the one incurvated with its convexity N towards the inferiour part and the other also bending with its convexity S towards the upper part of the Sun The ingressions and exitions of the spots that is the termes F and G shall not be librated as the two others B and D but F shall be lower and G higher but yet with lesser difference than in the first Figure The arch also FNG shall be incurvated but not so much as the precedent BFD so that in this position the passages or motions of the spots shall be ascendent from the left side F towards the right G and shall be made by curved lines And imagining the Earth to be constituted in the position diametrically opposite so that the Hemisphere of the Sun which was before the occult may be the apparent and terminated by the same boundary ABCD it will be manifestly discerned that the course of the spots shall be by the arch GSF beginning from the upper point G which shall then be likewise from the left hand of the beholder and going to determine descending towards the right in the point F. What I have hitherto said being understood I believe that there remains no difficulty in conceiving how from the passing of the terminator of the Solar Hemispheres by the Poles of the Suns conversion or neer or far from the same do arise all the differences in the apparent courses of the spots so that by how much the more those Poles shall be remote from the said terminator by so much the more shall those courses be incurvated and lesse oblique whereupon at the same distance that is when those Poles are in the section of the Meridian the incurvation is reduced to the greatest but the obliquity to the least that is to Aequilibrium as the second of these three last figures viz. Fig. 5. demonstrateth On the contrary when the Poles are in the terminator as the first of these three figures viz. Fig. 4. sheweth the inclination is at the greatest but the incurvation at the least and reduced to rectitude The terminator departing from the Poles the curvity begins to grow sensible the obliquity all the way encreasing and the inclination growing lesser These are those admirable and extravagant mutations that my Guest told me would from time to time appear in the progresses of the Solar spots if so be it should be true that the annual motion belonged to the Earth and that the Sun being constituted in the centre of the Ecliptick were revolved in it self upon an Axis not erect but inclined to the Plane of the said Ecliptick SAGR. I do now very well apprehend these consequences and believe that they will be better imprinted in my fancy when I shall come to reflect upon them accommodating a Globe to those inclinations and then beholding them from several places It now remains that you tell us what followed afterwards touching the event of these imaginary consequences SALV It came to passe thereupon that continuing many several moneths to make most accurate observations noting down with great exactnesse the courses or transitions of sundry spots at divers times of the year we found the events punctually to correspond to the predictions SAGR. Simplicius if this which Salviatus saith be true nor can we distrust him upon his word the Ptolomeans and Aristoteleans had need of solid arguments strong conjectures and well grounded experiments to counterpoise an objection of so much weight and to support their opinion from its final overthrow SIMP Fair and softly good Sir for haply you may not yet be got so far as you perswade your self you are gone And though I am not an absolute master of the subject of that narration given us by Salviatus yet do I not find that my Logick whilst I have a regard to form teacheth me that that kind of argumentation affords me any necessary reason to conclude in favour of the Copernican Hypothesis that is of the stability of the Sun in the centre of the Zodiack and of the mobility of the Earth under its circumference For although it be true that the said conversion of the Sun and cirnition of the Earth being granted there be a necessity of discerning such and such strange extravagancies as these in the spots of the Sun yet doth it not follow that arguing per conversum from finding such like unusual accidents in the Sun one must of necssity conclude the Earth to move by the circumference and the Sun to be placed in the centre of the Zodiack For who shall assertain me that the like irregularities may not as well be visible in the Sun it being moveable by the Ecliptick to the inhabitants of the Earth it being also immoveable in the centre of the same Unlesse you demonstrate to me that there can be no reason given for that appearance when the Sun is made moveable and the Earth stable I will not alter my opinion and belief that the Sun moveth and the Earth
each other all which it would be necessary to assign to the self same body of the Sun may be reduced to one sole and simple motion assigned the Sun upon an Axis that never changeth position and that without innovating any thing in the motions for so many other causes assigned to the Terrestrial Globe may so easily salve so many extravagant appearances in the motions of the Solar spots it seemeth really that such an Hypothesis ought not to be rejected This Simplicius is all that came into the minds of our friend and my self that could be alledged in explanation of this Phaenomenon by the Copernicans and by the Ptolomaeans in defence of their opinions Do you inferre from thence what your judgment perswades you SIMP I acknowledge my self unable to interpose in so important a decision And as to my particular thoughts I will stand neutral and yet neverthelesse I hope that a time will come when our minds being illumin'd by more lofty contemplations than these our humane reasonings we shall be awakened and freed from that mist which now is so great an hinderance to our sight SAGR. Excellent and pious is the counsel taken by Simplicius and worthy to be entertained and followed by all as that which being derived from the highest wisdome and supreamest authority may onely with security be received But yet so far as humane reason is permitted to penetrate confining my self within the bounds of conjectures and probable reasons I will say a little more resolutely than Simplicius doth that amongst all the ingenuous subtilties I ever heard I have never met with any thing of greater admiration to my intellect nor that hath more absolutely captivated my judgment alwayes excepting pure Geometrical and Arithmetical Demonstrations than these two conjectures taken the one from the stations and retrogradations of the five Planets and the other from these irregularities of the motions of the Solar spots and because they seem to me so easily and clearly to assign the true reason of so extravagant appearances shewing as if they were but one sole simple motion mixed with so many others simple likewise but different from each other without introducing any difficulty rather with obviating those that accompany the other Hypothesis I am thinking that I may rationally conclude that those who contumaciously withstand this Doctrine either never heard or never understood these so convincing arguments SALV I will not ascribe unto them the title either of convincing or non-convincing in regard my intention is not as I have several times told you to resolve any thing upon so high a question but onely to propose those natural and Astronomicall reasons which for the one and other Systeme may be produced by me leaving the determination to others which determination cannot at last but be very manifest for one of the two positions being of necessity to be true and the other of necessity to be false it is a thing impossible that alwayes confining our selves within the limits of humane doctrine the reasons alledged for the true Hypothesis should not manifest themselves as concludent as those for the contrary vain and ineffectual SAGR. It will be time therefore that we hear the objections of the little Book of Conclusions or Disquisitions which Simplicius did bring with him SIMP Here is the Book and this is the place where the Author first briefly describeth the Systeme of the world according to the Hypothesis of Copernicus saying Terram igitur unà cum Luna totoque hoc elementari mundo Copernicus c. SALV Forbear a little Simplicius for methinks that this Authour in this first entrance shews himself to be but very ill verst in the Hypothesis which he goeth about to confute in regard he saith that Copernicus maketh the Earth together with the Moon to describe the grand Orb in a year moving from East to West a thing that as it is false and impossible so was it never affirmed by Copernicus who rather maketh it to move the contrary way I mean from West to East that is according to the order of the Signes whereupon we come to think the same to be the annual motion of the Sun constituted immoveable in the centre of the Zodiack See the too adventurous confidence of this man to undertake the confutation of anothers Doctrine and yet to be ignorant of the primary fundamentals upon which his adversary layeth the greatest and most important part of all the Fabrick This is a bad beginning to gain himself credit with his Reader but let us go on SIMP Having explained the Universal Systeme he beginneth to propound his objections against this annual motion and the first are these which he citeth Ironically and in derision of Copernicus and of his followers writing that in this phantastical Hypothesis of the World one must necessarily maintain very grosse absurdities namely that the Sun Venus and Mercury are below the Earth and that grave matters go naturally upwards and the light downwards and that Christ our Lord and Redeemer ascended into Hell and descended into Heaven when he approached towards the Sun and that when Joshuah commanded the Sun to stand still the Earth stood still or the Sun moved a contrary way to that of the Earth and that when the Sun is in Cancer the Earth runneth through Capricorn and that the Hyemal or Winter Signes make the Summer and the Aestival Winter and that the Stars do not rise and set to the Earth but the Earth to the Stars and that the East beginneth in the West and the West in the East and in a word that almost the whole course of the World is inverted SALV Every thing pleaseth me except it be his having intermixed places out of the sacred Scriptures alwayes venerable and to be rever'd amongst these but two scurrilous fooleries and attempting to wound with holy Weapons those who Philosophating in jest and for divertisement neither affirm nor deny but some presupposals and positions being assumed do familiarly argue SIMP Truth is he hath displeased me also and that not a little and especially by adding presently after that howbeit the Copernichists answer though but very impertinently to these and such like other reasons yet can they not reconcile nor answer those things that follow SALV This is worse than all the rest for he pretendeth to have things more efficacious and concludent than the Authorities of the sacred Leaves But I pray you let us reverence them and passe on to natural and humane reasons and yet if he give us amongst his natural arguments things of no more solidity than those hitherto alleadged we may wholly decline this undertaking for I as to my own parricular do not think it fit to spend words in answering such trifling impertinencies And as to what he saith that the Copernicans answer to these objections it is most false nor may it be thought that any man should set him self to wast his time so unprofitably SIMP I concur with
you in the same judgement therefore let us hear the other instances that he brings as much stronger And observe here how he with very exact computations concludeth that if the grand Orb of the Earth or the ecliptick in which Copernicus maketh it to run in a year round the Sun should be as it were insensible in respect of the immensitie of the Starry Sphaere according as the said Copernicus saith it is to be supposed it would be necessary to grant and confirm that the fixed Stars were remote from us an unconceivable distance and that the lesser of them were bigger than the whole grand Orb aforesaid and some other much bigger than the whole Sphaere of Saturn Masses certainly too excessively vast unimaginable and incredible SALV I have heretofore seen such another objection brought by Tycho against Copernicus and this is not the first time that I have discovered the fallacy or to say better the fallacies of this Argumemtation founded upon a most false Hypothesis and upon a Proposition of the said Copernicus understood by his adversaries with too punctual a nicity according to the practise of those pleaders who finding the flaw to be in the very merit of their cause keep to some one word fallen unawares from the contrary partie and fly out into loud and tedious descants upon that But for your better information Copernicus having declared those admirable consequences which are derived from the Earths annual motion to the other Planets that is to say of the directions and retrogradations of the three uppermost in particular he subjoyneth that this apparent mutation which is discerned more in Mars than in Jupiter by reason Jupiter is more remote and yet lesse in Saturn by reason it is more remote than Jupiter in the fixed Stars did remain imperceptible by reason of their immense remotenesse from us in comparison of the distances of Jupiter or Saturn Here the Adversaries of this opinion rise up and supposing that fore-named imperceptibility of Copernicus as if it had been taken by him for a real and absolute thing of nothing and adding that a fixed Star of one of the lesser magnitudes is notwithstanding perceptible seeing that it cometh under the sence of seeing they go on to calculate with the intervention of other false assumptions and concluding that it is necessary by the Copernican Doctrine to admit that a fixed Star is much bigger than the whole grand Orb. Now to discover the vanity of this their whole proceeding I shall shew that a fixed Star of the sixth magnitude being supposed to be no bigger than the Sun one may thence conclude with true demonstrations that the distance of the said fixed Stars from us cometh to be so great that the annual motion of the Earth which causeth so great and notable variations in the Planets appears scarce observable in them and at the same time I will distinctly shew the gross fallacies in the assumptions of Copernicus his Adversaries And first of all I suppose with the said Copernicus and also with his opposers that the Semidiameter of the grand Orb which is the distance of the Earth from the Sun containeth 1208 Semidiameters of the said Earth Secondly I premise with the allowance aforesaid and of truth that the apparent diameter of the Sun in its mean distance to be about half a degree that is 30. min. prim which are 1800. seconds that is 108000. thirds And because the apparent Diameter of a fixed Star of the first magnitude is no more than 5. seconds that is 300. thirds and the Diameter of a fixed Star of the sixth magnitude 50. thirds and herein is the greatest errour of the Anti-Copernicans Therefore the Diameter of the Sun containeth the Diameter of a fixed Star of the sixth magnitude 2160. times And therefore if a fixed Star of the sixth magnitude were supposed to be really equal to the Sun and not bigger which is the same as to say if the Sun were so far removed that its Diameter should seem to be one of the 2160. parts of what it now appeareth its distance ought of necessity to be 2160. times greater than now in effect it is which is as much as to say that the distance of the fixed Stars of the sixth magnitude is 2160. Semidiameters of the grand Orb. And because the distance of the Sun from the Earth contains by common consent 1208. Semidiameters of the said Earth and the distance of the fixed Stars as hath been said 2160. Semediameters of the grand Orb therefore the Semidiameter of the Earth is much greater that is almost double in comparison of the grand Orb than the Semidiameter of the grand Orb in relation to the distance of the Starry Sphaere and therefore the variation of aspect in the fixed Stars caused by the Diameter of the grand Orb can be but little more observable than that which is observed in the Sun occasioned by the Semidiameter of the Earth SAGR. This is a great fall for the first step SALV It is doubtlesse an errour for a fixed Star of the sixth magnitude which by the computation of this Authour ought for the upholding the proposition of Copernicus to be as big as the whole grand Orb onely by supposing it equal to the Sun which Sun is lesse by far than the hundred and six millionth part of the said grand Orb maketh the starry Sphaere so great and high as sufficeth to overthrow the instance brought against the said Copernicus SAGR. Favour me with this computation SALV The supputation is easie and short The Diameter of the Sun is eleven semidiameters of the Earth and the Diameter of the grand Orb contains 2416. of those same semidiameters by the ascent of both parties so that the Diameter of the said Orb contains the Suns Diameter 220. times very near And because the Spheres are to one another as the Cubes of their Diameters let us make the Cube of 220. which is 106480000. and we shall have the grand Orb an hundred and six millions four hundred and eighty thousand times bigger than the Sun to which grand Orb a star of the sixth magnitude ought to be equal according to the assertion of this Authour SAGR. The errour then of these men consisteth in being extreamly mistaken in taking the apparent Diameter of the fixed Stars SALV This is one but not the onely errour of them and indeed I do very much admire how so many Astronomers and those very famous as are Alfagranus Albategnus Tebizius and much more modernly the Tycho's and Clavins's and in sum all the predecessors of our Academian should have been so grosly mistaken in determining the magnitudes of all the Stars as well fixed as moveable the two Luminaries excepted out of that number and that they have not taken any heed to the adventitious irradiations that deceitfully represent them an hundred and more times bigger than when they are beheld
altogether ignorant of their whole businesse and concerns but if he shall say that they do operate and that they are directed to this end he doth affirm the same thing which a little before he denied and praiseth that which even now he condemned in that he said that the Celestial bodies situate so far remote as that they appear very small cannot have any influence at all upon the Earth But good Sir in the Starry Sphere pre-established at its present distance and which you did acknowledg to be in your judgment well proportioned to have an influence upon these Terrene bodies many stars appear very small and an hundred times as many more are wholly invisible unto us which is an appearing yet lesse than very small therefore it is necessary that contradicting your self you do now deny their operation upon the Earth or else that still contradicting your self you grant that their appearing very small doth not in the least lessen their influence or else that and this shall be a more sincere and modest concession you acknowledg and freely confesse that our passing judgment upon their magnitudes and distances is a vanity not to say presumption or rashnesse SIMP Truth is I my self did also in reading this passage perceive the manifest contradiction in saying that the Stars if one may so speak of Copernicus appearing so very small could not operate on the Earth and not perceiving that he had granted an influence upon the Earth to those of Ptolomy and his sectators which appear not only very small but are for the most part very invisible SALV But I proceed to another consideration What is the reason doth he say why the stars appear so little Is it haply because they seem so to us Doth not he know that this commeth from the Instrument that we imploy in beholding them to wit from our eye And that this is true by changing Instrument we shall see them bigger and bigger as much as we will And who knows but that to the Earth which beholdeth them without eyes they may not shew very great and such as in reality they are But it 's time that omitting these trifles we come to things of more moment and therefore I having already demonstrated these two things First how far off the Firmament ought to be placed to make that the grand Orb causeth no greater difference than that which the Terrestrial Orb occasioneth in the remotenesse of the Sun And next how likewise to make that a star of the Firmament appear to us of the same bignesse as now we see it it is not necessary to suppose it bigger than the Sun I would know whether Tycho or any of his adherents hath ever attempted to find out by any means whether any appearance be to be discovered in the starry Sphere upon which one may the more resolutely deny or admit the annual motion of the Earth SAGR. I would answer for them that there is not no nor is there any need there should seeing that it is Copernicus himself that saith that no such diversity is there and they arguing ad hominem admit him the same and upon this assumption they demonstrate the improbability that followeth thereupon namely that it would be necessary to make the Sphere so immense that a fixed star to appear unto us as great as it now seems ought of necessity to be of so immense a magnitude as that it would exceed the bignesse of the whole grand Orb a thing which notwithstanding as they say is altogether incredible SALV I am of the same judgment and verily believe that they argue contra hominem studying more to defend another man than desiring to come to the knowledge of the truth And I do not only believe that none of them ever applied themselves to make any such observation but I am also uncertain whether any of them do know what alteration the Earths annual motion ought to produce in the fixed stars in case the starry Sphere were not so far distant as that in them the said diversity by reason of its minuity dis-appeareth for their surceasing that inquisition and referring themselves to the meer assertion of Copernicus may very well serve to convict a man but not to acquit him of the fact For its possible that such a diversity may be and yet not have been sought for or that either by reason of its minuity or for want of exact Instruments it was not discovered by Copernicus for though it were so this would not be the first thing that he either for want of Instruments or for some other defect hath not known and yet he proceeding upon other solid and rational conjectures affirmeth that which the things by him not discovered do seem to contradict for as hath been said already without the Telescope neither could Mars be discerned to increase 60. times nor Venus 40. more in that than in this position yea their differences appear much lesse than really they are and yet neverthelesse it is certainly discovered at length that those mutations are the same to an hair that the Copernican Systeme required Now it would be very well if with the greatest accuratenesse possible one should enquire whether such a mutation as ought to be discoverable in the fixed stars supposing the annual motion of the Earth would be observed really and in effect a thing which I verily believe hath never as yet been done by any done said I no nor haply as I said before by many well understood how it ought to be done Nor speak I this at randome for I have heretofore seen a certain Manuscript of one of these Anti-Copernicans which said that there would necessarily follow in case that opinion were true a continual rising and falling of the Pole from six moneths to six moneths according as the Earth in such a time by such a space as is the diameter of the grand Orb retireth one while towards the North and another while towards the South and yet it seemed to him reasonable yea necessary that we following the Earth when we were towards the North should have the Pole more elevated than when we are towards the South In this very error did one fall that was otherwise a very skilful Mathematician a follower of Copernic as Tycho relateth in his Progymnasma pag. 684. which said that he had observed the Polar altitude to vary and to differ in Summer from what it is in Winter and because Tycho denieth the merit of the cause but findeth no fault with the method of it that is denieth that there is any mutation to be seen in the altitude of the Pole but doth not blame the inquisition for not being adapted to the finding of what is sought he thereby sheweth that he also esteeemed the Polar altitude varied or not varied every six moneths to be a good testimony to disprove or inferre the annual motion of the Earth SIMP In truth Salviatus my opinion also tells me
that the same must necessarily ensue for I do not think that you will deny me but that if we walk only 60. miles towards the North the Pole will rise unto us a degree higher and that if we move 60. miles farther Northwards the Pole will be elevated to us a degree more c. Now if the approaching or receding 60. miles onely make so notable a change in the Polar altitudes what alteration would follow if the Earth and we with it should be transported I will not say 60. miles but 60. thousand miles that way SALV It would follow if it should proceed in the same proportion that the Pole shall be elevated a thousand degrees See Simplicius what a long rooted opinion can do Yea by reason you have fixed it in your mind for so many years that it is Heaven that revolveth in twenty four hours and not the Earth and that consequently the Poles of that Revolution are in Heaven and not in the Terrestrial Globe cannot now in an hours time shake off this habituated conceipt and take up the contrary fancying to your self that the Earth is that which moveth only for so long time as may suffice to conceive of what would follow thereupon should that lye be a truth If the Earth Simplicius be that which moveth in its self in twenty four hours in it are the Poles in it is the Axis in it is the Equinoctial that is the grand Circle described by the point equidistant from the Poles in it are the infinite Parallels bigger and lesser described by the points of the superficies more and lesse distant from the Poles in it are all these things and not in the starry Sphere which as being immoveable wants them all and can only by the imagination be conceived to be therein prolonging the Axis of the Earth so far till that determining it shall mark out two points placed right over our Poles and the plane of the Equinoctial being extended it shall describe in Heaven a circle like it self Now if the true Axis the true Poles the true Equinoctial do not change in the Earth so long as you continue in the same place of the Earth and though the Earth be transported as you do please yet you shall not change your habitude either to the Poles or to the circles or to any other Earthly thing and this because that that transposition being common to you and to all Terrestrial things and that motion where it is common is as if it never were and as you change not habitude to the Terrestrial Poles habitude I say whether that they rise or descend so neither shall you change position to the Poles imagined in Heaven alwayes provided that by Celestial Poles we understand as hath been already defined those two points that come to be marked out by the prolongation of the Terrestrial Axis unto that length T is true those points in Heaven do change when the Earths transportment is made after such a manner that its Axis cometh to passe by other and other points of the immoveable Celestial Sphere but our habitude thereunto changeth not so as that the second should be more elevated to us than the first If any one will have one of the points of the Firmament which do answer to the Poles of the Earth to ascend and the other to descend he must walk along the Earth towards the one receding from the other for the transportment of the Earth and with it us our selves as I told you before operates nothing at all SAGR. Permit me I beseech you Salviatus to make this a little more clear by an example which although grosse is acommodated to this purpose Suppose your self Simplicius to be aboard a Ship and that standing in the Poope or Hin-deck you have directed a Quadrant or some other Astronomical Instrument towards the top of the Top-gallant-Mast as if you would take its height which suppose it were v. gr 40. degrees there is no doubt but that if you walk along the Hatches towards the Mast 25. or 30. paces and then again direct the said Instrument to the same Top-Gallant-Top You shall find its elevation to be greater and to be encreased v. gr 10. degrees but if instead of walking those 25. or 30. paces towards the Mast you stand still at the Sterne and make the whole Ship to move thitherwards do you believe that by reason of the 25. or 30. paces that it had past the elevation of the Top-Gallant-Top would shew 10. degrees encreased SIMP I believe and know that it would not gain an hairs breadth in the passing of 30. paces nor of a thousand no nor of an hundred thousand miles but yet I believe withal that looking through the sights at the Top and Top-Gallant if I should find a fixed Star that was in the same elevation I believe I say that holding still the Quadrant after I had sailed towards the star 60. miles the eye would meet with the top of the said Mast as before but not with the star which would be elevated to me one degree SAGR. Then you do not think that the sight would fall upon that point of the Starry Sphere that answereth to the direction of the Top-Gallant Top SIMP No For the point would be changed and would be beneath the star first observed SAGR. You are in the right Now like as that which in this example answereth to the elevation of the Top-Gallant-Top is not the star but the point of the Firmament that lyeth in a right line with the eye and the said top of the Mast so in the case exemplified that which in the Firmament answers to the Pole of the Earth is not a star or other fixed thing in the Firmament but is that point in which the Axis of the Earth continued streight out till it cometh thither doth determine which point is not fixed but obeyeth the mutations that the Pole of the Earth doth make And therefore Tycho or who ever else that did alledg this objection ought to have said that upon that same motion of the Earth were it true one might observe some difference in the elevation and depression not of the Pole but of some fixed star toward that part which answereth to our Pole SIMP I already very well understand the mistake by them committed but yet therefore which to me seems very great of the argument brought on the contrary is not lessened supposing relation to be had to the variation of the stars and not of the Pole for if the moving of the Ship but 60. miles make a fixed star rise to me one degree shall I not find alike yea and very much greater mutation if the Ship should sail towards the said star for so much space as is the Diameter of the Grand Orb which you affirm to be double the distance that is between the Earth and Sun SAGR. Herein Simplicius there is another fallacy which truth is you understand but do
confession of its obscurity as also by his at two several times taking two different wayes to make it out And I ingenuously confesse that I understood not his explanation till such time as another method more plain and manifest had rendred it intelligible and yet neither was that done without a long and laborious application of my thoughts to the same SIMP Aristotle saw the same scruple and makes use thereof to oppose certain of the Ancients who held that the Earth was a Planet against whom he argueth that if it were so it would follow that it also as the rest of the Planets should have a plurality of motions from whence would follow these variations in the risings and settings of the fixed stars and likewise in the Meridian Altitudes And in regard that he propoundeth the difficulty and doth not answer it it must needs be if not impossible at least very difficult to be resolved SALV The stresse and strength of the knot rendereth the solution thereof more commendable and admirable but I do not promise you the same at this time and pray you to dispense with me therein till too morrow and for the present we will go considering and explaining those mutations and differences that by means of the annual motion ought to be discerned in the fixed stars like as even now we said for the explication whereof certain preparatory points offer themselves which may facilitate the answer to the grand objection Now reassuming the two motions ascribed to the Earth two I say for the third is no motion as in its place I will declare that is the annual and diurnal the first is to be understood to be made by the centre of the Earth in or about the circumference of the grand Orb that is of a very great circle described in the plain of the fixed and immutable Ecliptick the other namely the diurnal is made by the Globe of the Earth in it self about its own centre and own Axis not erect but inclined to the Plane of the Ecliptick with the inclination of 23. degrees and an half or thereabouts the which inclination is maintained all the year about and that which ought especially to be observed is alwayes situate towards the same point of Heaven in so much that the Axis of the diurnal motion doth alwayes remain parallel to it self so that if we imagine that same Axis to be continued out until it reach the fixed stars whilst the centre of the Earth is encircling the whole Ecliptick in a year the said Axis describeth the superficies of an oblique Cylinder which hath for one of its bases the said annual circle and for the other a like circle imaginarily described by its extremity or if you will Pole amongst the fixed stars And this same cylinder is oblique to the Plane of the Ecliptick according to the inclination of the Axis that describeth it which we have said to be 23 degrees and an half the which continuing perpetually the same save onely that in many thousands of years it maketh some very small mutation which nothing importeth in our present businesse causeth that the Terrestrial Globe doth never more incline or elevate but still conserveth the same state without mutation From whence ensueth that as to what pertaineth to the mutations to be observed in the fixed stars dependant on the sole annual motion the same shall happen to any point whatsoever of the Earths surface as befalleth unto the centre of the Earth it self and therefore in the present explanations we will make use of the centre as if it were any whatsoever point of the superficies And for a more facile understanding of the whole let us design the same in lineal figures And first of all let us describe in the Plane of the Ecliptick the circle ANBO in Fig. 7. and let us understand the points A and B to be the extreams towards the North and South that is the beginning of or entrance into Cancer or Capricorn and let us prolong the Diameter AB indeterminately by D and C towards the Starry Sphere I say now in the first place that none of the fixed stars placed in the Ecliptick shall ever vary elevation by reason of any whatsoever mutation made by the Earth along the said Plane of the Ecliptick but shall alwayes appear in the same superficies although the Earth shall approach and recede as great a space as is that of the diameter of the Grand Orb as may plainly be seen in the said figure For whether the Earth be in the point A or in B the star C alwayes appeareth in the same line ABC although the distance BC be lesse than AC by the whole diameter AB The most therefore that can be discovered in the star C and in any other placed in the Ecliptick is the augmented or diminished apparent magnitude by reason of the approximation or recession of the Earth SAGR. Stay a while I pray you for I meet with a certain scruple which much troubleth me and it is this That the star C may be seen by the same line ABC as wel when the Earth is in A as when it is in B I understand very well as also furthermore I apprehend that the same would happen in all the points of the line AB so long as the Earth should passe from A to B by the said line but it passing thither as is to be supposed by the arch ANB it is manifest that when it shall be in the point N and in any other except those two A and B the said star shall no longer be observed in the line AB but in others So that if the appearing under several lines ought to cause apparent mutations some difference must needs appear in this case Nay more I will speak it with that Philosophical freedom which ought to be allowed amongst Philosophick friends methinks that you contradicting your self deny that now which but even now to our admiration you proved to be really true and considerable I mean that which happeneth in the Planets and particularly in the three superiour ones that being constantly in the Ecliptick or very near unto it do not onely shew themselves one while near unto us and another while remote but so deformed in their regular motions that they seem sometimes immoveable and sometimes many degrees retrograde and all upon no other occasion than the annual motion of the Earth SALV Though by a thousand accidents I have been heretofore assured of the wittinesse of Sagredus yet I had a desire by this one experiment more to ascertain me of what I may expect from his ingenuity and all this for my own interest for in case my Propositions stand but proof against the hammer and furnace of his judgment I shall be confident that they will abide the test of all Touch-stones I say therefore that I had purposely dissembled this objection but yet not with any intent to deceive you and
to put any falshood upon you as it might have happened if the objection by me disguised and by you over-lookt had been the same in effect as it seemed to be in appearance that is really valid and conclusive but it is not so nay I rather suspect that to try me you make as if you did not see its nullity But I will herein be too hard for you and force from your tongue that which you would so artificially conceal and therefore tell me what that thing should be whereby you come to know the station and retrogradation of the Planets which is derived from the annual motion aud which is so great that at least some foot-steps of such an effect ought to appear in the stars of the Ecliptick SAGR. This demand of yours containeth two questions to which it is necessary that I make reply the first relates to the imputation which you lay upon me of a Dissembler the other concerneth that which may appear in the stars c. As to the first I will say with your permission that it is not true that I have dissembled my knowing the nullity of that objection and to assure you of the same I now tell you that I very well understand the nullity thereof SALV But yet I do not understand how it can be that you spake not friendly when you said you did not know that same fallacy which you now confesse that you know very well SAGR. The very confession of knowing it may assure you that I did not dissemble when I said that I did not understand it for if I had had a mind and would dissemble who could hinder me from continuing in the same simulation and denying still that I understand the fallacy I say therefore that I understood not the same at that time but that I do now at this present apprehend it for that you have prompted my intellect first by telling me resolutely that it is null and then by beginning to question me so at large what thing that might be whereby I might come to know the station and retrogradation of the Planets and because this is known by comparing them with the fixed stars in relation to which they are seen to vary their motions one while towards the West and another towards the East and sometimes to abide immoveable and because there is not any thing above the Starry Sphere immensely more remote from us and visible unto us wherewith we may compare our fixed stars therefore we cannot discover in the fixed stars any foot-steps of what appeareth to us in the Planets This I believe is the substance of that which you would force from me SALV It is so with the addition moreover of your admirable ingenuity and if with half a word I did open your eyes you by the like have remembred me that it is not altogether impossible but that sometime or other something observable may be found amongst the fixed stars by which it may be gathered wherein the annual conversion resides so as that they also no lesse than the Planets and Sun it self may appear in judgment to bear witnesse of that motion in favour of the Earth for I do not think that the staâ—s are spread in a spherical superficies equally remote from a common centre but hold that their distances from us are so various that some of them may be twice and thrice as remote as others so that if with the Telescope one should observe a very small star neer to one of the bigger and which therefore was very exceeding high it might happen that some sensible mutation might fall out between them correspondent to that of the superiour Planets And so much shall serve to have spoken at this time touching the stars placed in the Ecliptick Let us now come to the fixed stars placed out of the Ecliptick and let us suppose a great circle erect upon i. e. at right angles to the Plane of the same and let it for example be a circle that in the Starry Sphere answers to the Solstitial Colure and let us mark it CEH in Fig. 8. which shall happen to be withal a Meridian and in it we will take a star without the Ecliptick which let be E. Now this star will indeed vary its elevation upon the Earths motion for from the Earth in A it shall be seen according to the ray AE with the elevation of the angle EAC but from the Earth placed in B it shall be seen according to the ray BE with the elevation of the angle EBC bigger than the other EAC that being extern and this intern and opposite in the triangle EAB the distance therefore of the star E from the Ecliptick shall appear changed and likewise its altitude in the Meridian shall become greater in the position B than in the place A according as the angle EBC exceeds the angle EAC which excesse is the quantity of the angle AEB For in the triangle EAB the side AB being continued to C the exteriour angle EBC as being equal to the two interiour and opposite E and A exceedeth the said angle A by the quantity of the angle E. And if we should take another star in the same Meridian more remote from the Ecliptick as for instance the star H the diversity in it shall be greater by being observed from the two stations A and B according as the angle AHB is greater than the other E which angle shall encrease continually according as the observed star shall be farther and farther from the Ecliptick till that at last the greatest mutation will appear in that star that should be placed in the very Pole of the Ecliptick As for a full understanding thereof we thus demonstrate Suppose the diameter of the Grand Orb to be AB whose centre in the same Figure is G and let it be supposed to be continued out as far as the Starry Sphere in the points D and C and from the centre G let there be erected the Axis of the Ecliptick GF prolonged till it arrive at the said Sphere in which a Meridian DFC is supposed to be described that shall be perpendicular to the Plane of the Ecliptick and in the arch FC any points H and E are imagined to be taken as places of fixed stars Let the lines FA FB AH HG HB AE GE BE be conjoyned And let the angle of difference or if you will the Parallax of the star placed in the Pole F be AFB and let that of the star placed in H be the angle AHB and let that of the star in E be the angle AEB I say that the angle of difference of the Polar star F is the greatest and that of the rest those that are nearer to the greatest are bigger than the more remote that is to say that the angle F is bigger than the angle H and this bigger than the angle E. Now about the triangle FAB let us suppose a circle to be described And
because the angle F is acute by reason that its base AB is lesse than the diameter DC of the semicircle DFC it shall be placed in the greater portion of the circumscribed circle cut by the base AB And because the said AB is divided in the midst and at right angles by FG the centre of the circumscribed circle shall be in the line FG which let be the point I and because that of such lines as are drawn from the point G which is not the centre unto the circumference of the circumscribed circle the biggest is that which passeth by the centre GF shall be bigger than any other that is drawn from the point G to the circumference of the said circle and therefore that circumference will cut the line GH which is equal to the line GF and cutting GH it will also cut AH Let it cut it in L and conjoyn the line LB These two angles therefore AFB and ALB shall be equal as being in the same portion of the circle circumscribed But ALB external is bigger than the internal H therefore the angle F is bigger than the angle H. And by the same method we might demonstrate the angle H to be bigger than the angle E because that of the circle described about the triangle AHB the centre is in the perpendicular GF to which the line GH is nearer than the line GE and therefore the circumference of it cutteth GE and also AE whereupon the proposition is manifest We will conclude from hence that the difference of appearance which with the proper term of art we might call the Parallax of the fixed stars is greater or lesse according as the Stars observed are more or lesse adjacent to the Pole of the Ecliptick so that in conclusion of those Stars that are in the Ecliptick it self the said diversity is reduced to nothing In the next place as to the Earths accession by that motion to or recession from the Stars it appeareth to and recedeth from those that are in the Ecliptick the quantity of the whole diameter of the grand Orb as we did see even now but that accession or recession to or from the stars about the Pole of the Ecliptick is almost nothing and in going to and from others this difference groweth greater according as they are neerer to the Ecliptick We may in the third place know that the said difference of Aspect groweth greater or lesser according as the Star observed shall be neerer to us or farther from us For if we draw another Meridian lesse distant from the Earth as for example this DFI in Fig. 7. a Star placed in F and seen by the same ray AFE the Earth being in A would in case it should be observed from the Earth in B appear according to the ray BF and would make the angle of difference namely BFA bigger than the former AEB being the exteriour angle of the triangle BFE SAGR. With great delight and also benefit have I heard your discourse and that I may be certain whether I have rightly understood the same I shall give you the summe of the Conclusions in a few words As I take it you have explained to us the different appearances that by means of the Earths annual motion may be by us observed in the fixed stars to be of two kinds The one is that of their apparent magnitudes varied according as we transported by the Earth approach or recede from the same The other which likewise dependeth on the same accession and recession their appearing unto us in the same Meridian one while more elevated and another while lesse Moreover you tell us and I understand it very well that the one and other of these mutations are not made alike in all the stars but in some greater and in others lesser and in others not at all The accession and recession whereby the same star ought to appear one while bigger and another while lesser is insensible and almost nothing in the stars neer unto the pole of the Ecliptick but is greatest in the stars placed in the Ecliptick it self and indifferent in the intermediate the contrary happens in the other difference that is the elevation or depression of the stars placed in the Ecliptick is nothing at all greatest in those neerest to the Pole of the said Ecliptick and indifferent in the intermediate Besides both these differences are more sensible in the Stars neerest to us in the more remote lesse sensible and in those that are very far distant wholly disappear This is as to what concerns my self it remaineth now as I conceive that something be said for the satisfaction of Simplicius who as I believe will not easily be made to over-passe those differences as insensible that are derived from a motion of the Earth so vast and from a mutation that transports the Earth into places twice as far distant from us as the Sun SIMP Truth is to speak freely I am very loth to confesse that the distance of the fixed Stars ought to be such that in them the fore-mentioned differences should be wholly imperceptible SALV Do not throw your self into absolute despair Simplicius for there may perhaps yet some qualification be found for your difficulties And first that the apparent magnitude of the stars is not seen to make any sensible alteration ought not to be judged by you a thing improbable in regard you see the guesses of men in this particular to be so grossely erroneous especially in looking upon splendid objects and you your self beholding v. g. a lighted Torch at the distance of 200 paces if it approach nearer to you 3. or 4. yards do you think that it will shew any whit encreased in magnitude I for my part should not perceive it certainly although it should approach 20. or 30. yards nearer nay it hath sometimes happened that in seeing such a light at that distance I know not how to resolve whether it came towards me or retreated from me when as it did in reality approach nearer to me But what need I speak of this If the self same accession and recession I speak of a distance twice as great as that from the Sun to us in the star of Saturn is almost totally imperceptible and in Jupiter not very observable what shall we think of the fixed stars which I believe you will not scruple to place twice as far off as Saturn In Mars which for that it is nearer to us SIMP Pray Sir put your self to no farther trouble in this particular for I already conceive that what hath been spoken touching the unaltered apparent magnitude of the fixed stars may very well come to passe but what shall we say of the other difficulty that proceeds from not perceiving any variation in the mutation of aspect SALV We will say that which peradventure may satisfie you also in this particular And to make short would you not be satisfied if there should be discovered in the stars
so between them both compose this our Globe writeth that the seeing the small * particles of water shape themselves into rotundity as in the drops and in the dew daily apparent upon the leaves of several herbs is a strong argument and because according to the trite Axiome there is the same reason for the whole as for the parts the parts affecting that same figure it is necessary that the same is proper to the whole Element and truth is methinks it is a great oversight that these men should not perceive so apparent a vanity and consider that if their argument had run right it would have followed that not only the small drops but that any whatsoever greater quantity of water separated from the whole Element should be reduced into a Globe Which is not seen to happen though indeed the Senses may see and the Understanding perceive that the Element of Water loving to form it self into a Spherical Figure about the common centre of gravity to which all grave bodies tend that is the centre of the Terrestrial Globe it therein is followed by all its parts according to the Axiome so that all the surfaces of Seas Lakes Pools and in a word of all the parts of Waters conteined in vessels distend themselves into a Spherical Figure but that Figure is an arch of that Sphere that hath for its centre the centre of the Terrestrial Globe and do not make particular Spheres of themselves SALV The errour indeed is childish and if it had been onely the single mistake of Sacrobosco I would easily have allowed him in it but to pardon it also to his Commentators and to other famous men and even to Ptolomy himselfe this I cannot do without blushing for their reputation But it is high time to take leave it now being very late and we being to meet again to morrow at the usual hour to bring all the foregoing Discourses to a final conclusion Place this Plate at the end of the third Dialogue GALILAEUS Gailaeus Lyncaeus HIS SYSTEME OF THE WORLD The Fourth Dialogue INTERLOCVTORS SALVIATUS SAGREDUS SIMPLICIUS SAGR. I know not whether your return to our accustomed conferences hath really been later than usual or whether the desire of hearing the thoughts of Salviatus touching a matter so curious hath made me think it so But I have tarried a long hour at this window expecting every moment when the Gondola would appear that I sent to fetch you SALV I verily believe that your imagination more than our tarriance hath prolonged the time and to make no longer demurre it would be well if without interposing more words we came to the matter it self and did shew that nature hath permitted whether the business in rei veritate be so or else to play and sport with our Fancies hath I say hath permitted that the motions for every other respect except to resolve the ebbing and flowing of the Sea assigned long since to the earth should be found now at last to answer exactly to the cause thereof and as it were with mutual a emulation the said ebbing and flowing to appear in confirmation of the Terrestrial motion the judices whereof have hitherto been taken from the coelestial Phaenomena in regard that of those things that happen on Earth not any one was of force to prove one opinion more than another as we already have at large proved by shewing that all the terrene occurrences upon which the stability of the Earth and mobility of the Sun and Firmament is commonly inferred are to seem to us performed in the same manner though we supposed the mobility of the Earth and the immobility of them The Element of Water onely as being most vast and which is not annexed and concatenated to the Terrestrial Globe as all its other solid parts are yea rather which by reason of its fluidity remaineth apart sui juris and free is to be ranked amongst those sublunary things from which we may collect some hinte and intimation of what the Earth doth in relation to motion and rest After I had many and many a time examined with my self the effects and accidents partly seen and partly understood from others that are to be observed in the motions of waters and moreover read and heard the great vanities produced by many as the causes of those accidents I have been induced upon no slight reasons to omit these two conclusions having made withal the necessary presupposals that in case the terrestrial Globe be immoveable the flux and reflux of the Sea cannot be natural and that in case those motions be conferred upon the said Globe which have been long since assigned to it it is necessary that the Sea be subject to ebbing and flowing according to all that which we observe to happen in the same SAGR. The Proposition is very considerable as well for it self as for what followeth upon the same by way of consequence so that I shall the more intensly hearken to the explanation and confirmation of it SALV Because in natural questions of which number this which we have in hand is one the knowledge of the effects is a means to guide us to the investigation and discovery of the causes and without which we should walk in the dark nay with more uncertainty for that we know not whither we would go whereas the blind at least know where they desire to arrive therefore first of all it is necessary to know the effects whereof we enquire the causes of which effects you Sagredus ought more abundantly and more certainly to be informed than I am as one that besides your being born and having for a long time dwelt in Venice where the Tides are very notable for their greatnesse have also sailed into Syria and as an ingenuous and apprehensive wit must needs have made many Observations upon this subject whereas I that could onely for a time and that very short observe what happened in these extream parts of the Adriatick Gulph and in our Seas below about the Tyrrhene shores must needs take many things upon the relation of others who for the most part not very well agreeing and consequently being very uncertain contribute more of confusion than confirmation to our speculations Neverthelesse from those that we are sure of and which are the principal I think I am able to attain to the true and primary causes not that I pretend to be able to produce all the proper and adequate reasons of those effects that are new unto me and which consequently I could never have thought upon And that which I have to say I propose only as a key that openeth the door to a path never yet trodden by any in certain hope that some wits more speculative than mine will make a further progresse herin and penetrate much farther than I shall have done in this my first Discovery And although that in other Seas remote from us there may â—appen several accidents which
for a long tract or distance from West to East that is according to the course of the fluxes and refluxes therefore in this the agitations are very great and would be much more violent between Hercules Pillars in case the Straight of Gibraltar did open lesse and those of the Straight of Magellanes are reported to be extraordinary violent This is what for the present cometh into my mind to say unto you about the causes of this first period diurnal of the Tide and its various accidents touching which if you have any thing to offer you may let us hear it that so we may afterwards proceed to the other two periods monethly and annual SIMP In my opinion it cannot be denied but that your discourse carrieth with it much of probability arguing as we say ex suppositione namely granting that the Earth moveth with the two motions assigned it by Copernicus but if that motion be disproved all that you have said is vain and insignificant and for the disproval of that Hypothesis it is very manifestly hinted by your Discourse it self You with the supposition of the two Terrestrial motions give a reason of the ebbing and flowing and then again arguing circularly from the ebbing and flowing draw the reason and confirmation of those very motions and so proceeding to a more specious Discourse you say that the Water as being a fluid body and not tenaciously annexed to the Earth is not constrained punctually to obey every of its motions from which you afterwards infer its ebbing and flowing Now I according to your own method argue the quite contrary and say the Air is much more tenuous and fluid than the Water and lesse annexed to the Earths superficies to which the Water if it be for nothing else yet by reason of its gravity that presseth down upon the same more than the light Air adhereth therefore the Air is much obliged to follow the motions of the Earth and therefore were it so that the Earth did move in that manner we the inhabitants of it and carried round with like velocity by it ought perpetually to feel a Winde from the East that beateth upon us with intolerable force And that so it ought to fall out quotidian experience assureth us for if with onely riding post at the speed of eight or ten miles an hour in the tranquil Air the incountering of it with our face seemeth to us a Winde that doth not lightly blow upon us what should we expect from our rapid course of 800. or a thousand miles an hour against the Air that is free from that motion And yet notwithstanding we cannot perceive any thing of that nature SALV To this objection that hath much of likelihood in it I reply that its true the Air is of greater tenuity and levity and by reason of its levity lesse adherent to the Earth than Water so much more grave and bulky but yet the consequence is false that you infer from these qualities namely that upon account of that its levity tenuity and lesse adherence to the Earth it should be more exempt than the Water from following the Terrestrial Motions so as that to us who absolutely pertake of of them the said exemption should be sensible and manifest nay it happeneth quite contrary for if you well remember the cause of the ebbing and flowing of the Water assigned by us consisteth in the Waters not following the unevennesse of the motion of its Vessel but retaining the impetus conceived before without diminishing or increasing it according to the precise rate of its diminishing or increasing in its Vessel Because therefore that in the conservation and retention of the impetus before conceived the disobedience to a new augmentation or diminution of motion consisteth that moveable that shall be most apt for such a retention shall be also most commodious to demonstrate the effect that followeth in consequence of that retention Now how much the Water is disposed to maintain such a conceived agitation though the causes cease that impress the same the experience of the Seas extreamly disturbed by impetuous Winds sheweth us the Billows of which though the Air be grown calm and the Wind laid for a long time after continue in motion As the Sacred Poet pleasantly sings Qual l'alto Egeo c. And that long continuing rough after a storm dependeth on the gravity of the water For as I have elsewhere said light bodies are much easier to be moved than the more grave but yet are so much the less apt to conserve the motion imparted when once the moving cause ceaseth Whence it comes that the Aire as being of it self very light and thin is easily mov'd by any very small force yet it is withall very unable to hold on its motion the Mover once ceasing Therefore as to the Aire which environs the Terrestrial Globe I would fay that by reason of its adherence it is no lesse carried about therewith then the Water and especially that part which is contained in its vessels which vessels are the valleys enclosed with Mountains And we may with much more reason affirm that this same part of the Air is carried round and born forwards by the rugged parts of the Earth than that the higher is whirl'd about by the motion of the Heavens as ye Peripateticks maintain What hath been hitherto spoken seems to me a sufficient answer to the allegation of Simplitius yet nevertheless with a new instance and solution founded upon an admirable experiment I will superabundantly satisfie him and confirm to Sagredus the mobility of the Earth I have told you that the Air and in particular that part of it which ascendeth not above the tops of the highest Mountains is carried round by the uneven parts of the Earths surface from whence it should seem that it must of consequence come to passe that in case the superficies of the Earth were not uneven but smooth and plain no cause would remain for drawing the Air along with it or at least for revolving it with so much uniformity Now the surface of this our Globe is not all craggy and rugged but there are exceeding great tracts very even to wit the surfaces of very vast Seas which being also far remote from the continuate ledges of Mountains which environ it seem to have no faculty of carrying the super-ambient Air along therewith and not carrying it about we may perceive what will of consequence ensue in those places SIMP I was about to propose the very same difficulty which I think is of great validity SALV You say very well Simplicius for from the not finding in the Air that which of consequence would follow did this our Globe move round you argue its immoveablenesse But in case that this which you think ought of necessary consequence to be found be indeed by experience proved to be so will you accept it for a sufficient testimony and an argument for the mobility of
haply many others also undiscovered It is to be supposed that the first observers of Heaven knew no more but one motion common to all the Stars as is this diurnal one yet I believe that in few dayes they perceived that the Moon was inconstant in keeping company with the other Stars but yet withal that many years past before that they distinguished all the Planets And in particular I conceit that Saturn by its slowness and Mercury by reason of its seldom appearing were the last that were observed to be wandring and errant It is to be thought that many more years run out before the statioâ—s and retrogradations of the three superiour Planets were known as also their approximations and recessions from the Earth necessary occasions of introducing the Eccentrix and Epicicles things unknown even to Aristotle for that he makes no mention thereof Mercury and Venus with their admirable apparitions how long did they keep Astronomers in suspence before that they could resolve not to speak of any other of their qualities upon their situation Insomuch that the very order onely of the Mundane bodies and the integral structure of the parts of the Universe by us known hath been doubted of untill the time of Copernicus who hath at last given us notice of the true constitution and real systeme according to which those parts are disposed so that at length we are certain that Mercury Venus and the other Planets do revolve about the Sun and that the Moon revolveth about the Earth But how each Planet governeth it self in its particular revolution and how precisely the structure of its Orb is framed which is that which is vulgarly called the Theory of the Planets we cannot as yet undoubtedly resolve Mars that hath so much puzled our Modern Astronomers is a proof of this And to the Moon her self there have been assigned several Theories after that the said Copernicus had much altered it from that of Ptolomy And to descend to our particular case that is to say to the apparent motion of the Sun and Moon touching the former there hath been observed a certain great irregularity whereby it passeth the two semicircles of the Ecliptick divided by the points of the Equinoxes in very different times in passing one of which it spendeth about nine dayes more than in passing the other a difference as you see very great and notable But if in passing small arches such for example as are the twelve Signs he maintain a most regular motion or else proceed with paces one while a little more swift and another more slow as it is necessary that it do in case the annual motion belong to the Sun onely in appearance but in reality to the Earth in company with the Moon it is what hath not hitherto been observed nor it may be sought Touching the Moon in the next place whose restitutions have been principally lookt into an account of the Eclipses for which it is sufficient to have an exact knowledge of its motion about the Earth it hath not been likewise with a perfect curiosity inquired what itâ— course is thorow the particular arches of the Zodiack That therefore the Earth and Moon in running through the Zodiack that is round the Grand Orb do somewhat accellerate at the Moons change and retard at its full ought not to be doubted for that the said difference is not manifest which cometh to be unobserved upon two accounts First Because it hath not been lookt for Secondly Because that its possible it may not be very great Nor is there any need that it should be great for the producing the effect that we see in the alteration of the greatness of ebbings and flowings For not onely those alterations but the Tides themselves are but small matters in respect of the grandure of the subjects on which they work albeit that to us and to our littleness they seem great For the addition or subduction of one degree of velocity where there are naturally 700 or 1000 can be called no great alteration either in that which conferreth it or in that Which receiveth it the Water of our Mediterrane carried about by the diurnal revolution maketh about 700 miles an hour which is the motion common to the Earth and to it and therefore not perceptible to us that which we sensibly discern to be made in the streams or currents is not at the rate of full one mile an hour I speak of the main Seas and not of the Straights and this is that which altereth the first naturall and grand motion and this motion is very great in respect of us and of Ships for a Vessel that in a standing Water by the help of Oares can make v. g. three miles an hour in that same current will row twice as far with the stream as against it A notable difference in the motion of the Boat though but very small in the motion of the Sea which is altered but its seven hundredth part The like I say of its rising and falling one two or three feet and scarcely four or five in the utmost bounds of a streight two thousand or more miles long and where there are depths of hundreds of feet this alteration is much less than if in one of the Boats that bring us fresh Water the said Water upon the arrest of the Boat should rise at the Prow the thickness of a leaf I conclude therefore that very small alterations in respect of the immense greatness and extraordinary velocity of the Seas is sufficient to make therein great mutations in relation to our smallness and to our accidents SAGR. I am fully satisfied as to this particular it remains to declare unto us how those additions and substractions derived from the diurnal Vertigo are made one while greater and another while lesser from which alterations you hinted that the annual period of the augmentations and diminutions of the ebbings and flowings did depend SALV I will use my utmost endeavours to render my self intelligible but the difficulty of the accident it self and the great attention of mind requisite for the comprehending of it constrains me to be obscure The unequalities of the additions and substractions that the diurnal motion maketh to or from the annual dependeth upon the inclination of the Axis of the diurnal motion upon the plane of the Grand Orb or if you please of the Ecliptick by means of which inclination the Equinoctial intersecteth the said Ecliptick remaining inclined and oblique upon the same according to the said inclination of Axis And the quantity of the additions importeth as much as the whole diameter of the said Equinoctial the Earths centre being at the same time in the Solstitial points but being out of them it importeth lesse and lesse according as the said centre successively approacheth to the points of the Equinoxes where those additions are lesser than in any other places This is the whole businesse but wrapt up in the
for the grandure of the Subject as also finally because I do not nor have pretended to that assent from others which I my self do not give to this conceit which I could very easily grant to be a Chymaera and a meer paradox and you Sagredus although in the Discourses past you have many times with great applause declared that you were pleased with some of my conjectures yet do I believe that that was in part more occasioned by the novelty than by the certainty of them but much more by your courtesie which did think and desire by its assent to procure me that content which we naturally use to take in the approbation and applause of our own matters and as your civility hath obliged me to you so am I also pleased with the ingenuity of Simplicius Nay his constancy in maintaining the Doctrine of his Master with so much strength undauntedness hath made me much to love him And as I am to give you thanks Sagredus for your courteous affection so of Simplicius I ask pardon if I have sometimes moved him with my too bold and resolute speaking and let him be assured that I have not done the same out of any inducement of sinister affection but onely to give him occasion to set before us more lofty fancies that might make me the more knowing SIMP There is no reason why you should make all these excuses that are needlesse and especially to me that being accustomed to be at Conferences and publique Disputes have an hundred times seen the Disputants not onely to grow hot and angry at one another but likewise to break forth into injurious words and sometimes to come very neer to blows As for the past Discourses and particulatly in this last of the reason of the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea I do not to speak the truth very well apprehend the same but by that slight Idea what ever it be that I have formed thereof to my self I confesse that your conceit seemeth to me far more ingenuous than any of all those that I ever heard besides but yet neverthelesse I esteem it not true and concluding but keeping alwayes before the eyes of my mind a solid Doctrine that I have learn't from a most learned and ingenuous person and with which it is necessary to sit down I know that both you being asked Whether God by his infinite Power and Wisdome might confer upon the Element of Water the reciprocal motion which we observe in the same in any other way than by making the containing Vessel to move I know I say that you will answer that he might and knew how to have done the same many wayes and those unimaginable to our shallow understanding upon which I forthwith conclude that this being granted it would be an extravagant boldnesse for any one to goe about to limit and confine the Divine Power and Wisdome to some one particular conjecture of his own SALV This of yours is admirable and truly Angelical Doctrine to which very exactly that other accords in like manner divine which whilst it giveth us leave to dispute touching the constitution of the World addeth withall perhaps to the end that the exercise of the minds of men might neither be discouraged nor made bold that we cannot find out the works made by his hands Let therefore the Disquisition permitted and ordain'd us by God assist us in the knowing and so much more admiring his greatnesse by how much lesse we finde our selves too dull to penetrate the profound Abysses of his infinite Wisdome SAGR. And this may serve for a final close of our four dayes Disputations after which if it seem good to Salviatus to take some time to rest himself our curiosity must of necessity grant him the same yet upon condition that when it is lesse incommodious for him he will return and satisfie my desire in particular concerning the Problemes that remain to be discust and that I have set down to be propounded at one or two other Conferences according to our agreement and above all I shall very impatiently wait to hear the Elements of the new Science of our Academick about the natural and violent local Motions And in the mean time we may according to our custome spend an hour in taking the Air in the Gondola that waiteth for us FINIS Place this Plate at the end of the fourth Dialogue A TABLE Of the most Observable PERSONS and MATTERS Mentioned in the FIRST PART of The First Tome A ABSTACT THings are exactly the same in Abstract as in Concrete 185 AIRE The part of the Aire inferiour to the Higher Mountains doth follow the Motion of the Earth 124 The motion of the Aire apt to carry with it light things but not heavy 124 The Aire alwayes touching us with the same part of it cannot make us feel it 228 It is more reasonable that the Aire be commoved by the rugged surface of the Earth than by the Celestial Motion 400 It is demonstrated inverting the Argument that the perpetual Motion of the Aire from East to West commeth from the Motion of Heaven 403 ANIMALS Animals Vide The Motion of Animals The cause of the Wearinesse that attends the Motion of Animals 244 APOLLONIUS Apollonius and Copernicus demonstrate the Retrogradations of Venus and Mercury 311 Arguing Arguments Argumentations Some in Arguing fix in their minds the Conclusion believed by them and then adapt their Reasons to that 250 One single Experiment or sound Demonstration overthroweth all Arguments meerly probable 105 A pleasant Example shewing the invalidity of some Phisical Argumentations 363 ARISTARCHUS Reason and Discourse in Aristarchus and Copernicus prevailed over manifest Sense 301 ARISTOTLE Aristotle maketh the World perfect because it hath the Threefold Dimension 2 Arist. his Demonstrations to prove the Worlds Dimensions to be three and no more 2 Aristotle his Definition of Nature either imperfect or unseasonable 7 Aristotle accomodates the Rules of Architecture to the Frame of the World and not the Frame to the Rules 8 Aristotle cannot equivocate being the Inventer of Logick 23 Aristotle his Paralogisme in proving the Earth to be in the centre of the World 24 Arist. Paralogisme another way discovered 24 Aristotle his Discourse to prove the Incorruptibility of Heaven 26 Aristotle proveth that Circular Motion hath no Contrary 26 Aristotle defective in assigning the Causes why the Elements are Generable and Corruptible 31 Aristotle would change his opinion did he see the Novelties of our Age. 37 Arist. preferres Sense before Ratiocination 42 Aristotle affirmeth the Heavens alterable rather then otherwise by his Doctrine 42 Requisites to fit a man to Philosophate well in the way of Aristotle 92 Some of Aristotles Sectators impaire his Reputation in going about to enhanse it 93 The servile Spirit of some of Arist. followers 95 Too close an adherence to Aristotle is blameable 95 Aristotle and Ptolomy argue against the Diurnal Motion ascribed to the Earth 97 A Proposition that Aristotle
not moved through ignorance of the Arguments on the Adverse part 110 Copernicans were all first against that Opinion but the Peripateticks were never on the other side 110 Copernicans too freely admit certain Propositions for true which are doubtful 159 He that will be a Copernican must deny his Senses 228 A Great Mathematician made a Copernican by looking into that Doctrine with a purpose to confute it 443 COPERNICUS Copernicus esteemeth the Earth a Globe like to a Planet 1 Objections of two Moderne Authours Scheiner and Claramontius against Copernicus 195 Copernicus his Opinion overthrows the Criterium of Phylosophers 223 A grosse Errour in the Opposer of Copernicus and wherein it appears 234 235 236 A subtle and withal simple Argument against Copernicus 234 Copernicus his Opponent had but little studied him as appears by another grosse Errour 235 It s questioned whither he understood the third Motion assigned to the Earth by Copern 236 Copernicus erroneously assignes the same Operations to different Natures 238 A declaration of the improbability of Copernicus his Opinion 301 Reason and Discourse in Copernicus and Aristarchus prevailed over Sense 301 Copernicus speaketh nothing of the small Variation of Bignesse in Venus and Mars 302 Copernicus perswaded by Reasons contrary to Sensible Experiments 306 Copernicus restored Astronomy upon the Suppositions of Ptolomy 308 What moved Copernicus to establish his Systeme 308 It s a great argument in favour of Copernicus that he obviates the Stations and Retrogradations of the Motions of the Planets 309 Instances Ironically propounded by Scheiner against Copernicus 323 Copernicus understood not some things for want of Instruments 338 The grand difficulty in Copernicus his Doctrine is that which concerns the Phaenomena of the Sun and fixed Stars 343 Copernicus the Restorer of the Pythagorean Hypothesis and the Occasion of it 429 Copernicus founded not his Doctrine on Reasons depending on Scripture wherein he might have mistaken their Sense but upon Natural Conclusions and Astronomical and Geometrical Demonstrations 431 CORRUPTIBLE and Corruptibility The perfection of Figure operates in Corruptible Bodies but not in Eternal 69 The Disparagers of Corruptibility ought to be turned into Statua's 37 Corruptibility admits of more and lesse so doth not Incorruptibility 69 COUNCILS The Councils refuse to impose Natural Conclusions as matters of Faith 450 D DIAMONDS Diamonds ground to divers sides and why 63 DIDACUS Didacus à Stunica reconcileth Texts of Scripture with the Copernican Hypothesis 468 DEFINITIONS Definitions contain virtually all the Passions of the things defined 87 E EARTH The Earth Spherical by the Conspiration of its parts to go to its Centre 21 It is easier to prove the Earth to move than that Corruptibility is made by Contraries 27 The Earth very Noble by reason of the Mutations made therein 45 The Earth unprofitable and full of Idlenesse its Alterations being taken away 45 The Earth more Noble than Gold and Jewels 45 The Celestial Bodies designed to serve the Earth need no more but Motion and Light 45 The Generations and Mutations that are in the Earth are all for the Good of Man 47 From the Earth we see more than half the Lunar Globe 51 Seven Resemblances between the Earth and Moon 48 to 53 The Earth unable to reflect the Suns Rays 54 The Earth may reciprocally operate on Celestial Bodies with its Light 80 Affinity between the Earth and Moon by reason of their Vicinity 81 The Motions of the Earth imperceptible to its Inhabitants 97 The Earth can have no other Motions than those which to us appear commune to all the rest of the Vniverse the Earth excepted 97 The Diurnal Motion seemeth commune to all the Vniverse the Earth onely excepted 97 Aristotle and Ptolomy argue against the Earths Diurnal Motion 97 The Diurnal Motion of the Earth Vide Diurnal Motion Seven Arguments to prove the Diurnal Motion On to belong to the Earth 99 to 103 The Earth a pendent Body and equilibrated in a fluid Medium seems unable to resist the Rapture of the Diurnal Motion 103 Two kinds of Arguments against the Earths Motion 108 Arguments of Aristotle Ptolomy Tycho and other persons against the Earths Motion 107 108 The first Argument against the Earths Motion taken from Grave Bodies falling from on high to the Ground 108 Which Argument is confirmed by the Experiment of a Body let fall from the Round-top of a Ships Mast. 108 The second Argument taken from a Project shot very high 108 The third Argument taken from the Shot of a Canon towards the East and towards the West 108 This Argument is confirmed by two Shots towards the North and South and two others towards the 〈…〉 West 109 The fourth Argument taken from the Clouds and from Birds 113 A fifth Argument taken from the Aire which we feel beat upon us when we run an Horse at full speed 114 A sixth Argument taken from the whirling of Circular Bodies which hath a faculty to extrude and dissipate 114 The Answer to Aristotles first Argument 115 The Answer to the second Argument 117 The Answer to the third Argument 120 to 150 An Instance of the Diurnal Motion of the Earth taken from the Shot of a Piece of Ordinance perpendicularly and the Answers to the same shewing the Equivoke 153 154 The Answer to the Argument of the Shots of Canons made towards the North and South 158 The Answer to the Argument taken from the Shots at point blank towards the East and West 159 The Answer to the Argument of the flying of Birds contrary to the Motion of the Earth 165 An Experiment by which alone is shewn the Nullity of all the Arguments produced against the Motion of the Earth 165 The Stupidity of some that think the Earth began to move when Pythagoras began to affirme that it did so 167 A Geometrical Demonstration to prove the Impossibility of Extrusion by means of the Earths Vertigo in Answer to the sixth Argument 176 Granting the Diurnal Vertigo of the Earth and that by some sudden Stop or Obstacle it were Arrested Houses Mountains themselves and perhaps the whole Globe would be shaken in pieces 190 Other Argument of two Modern Authours Scheiner and. Claramontius against the Copernican Hypothesis of the Earths Motion 195 The first Objection of the Modern Authour Scheiner in his Book of Conclusions 195 The Argument of Claramontius against the Earths Motion taken from things falling perpendicularly another way answered 223 The Earths Motion collected from the Stars 229 Argumeuts against the Earths Motion taken ex rerum natura 230 A Simple Body as the Earth cannot move with three several Motions 231 The Earth cannot move with any of the Motions assigned it by Copernicus 231 Answers to the Arguments against the Earths Motion token ex rerum natura 231 Four Axiomes against the Motion of the Earth 230 to 232 One onely Principle might cause a Plurality of Motions in the Earth 233 The same Argument against the Plurality of Motions in the
Earth answered by Examples of the like Motions in other Celestial Bodies 236 A fourth Argument of Claramontius against the Copernican Hypothesis of the Earths Mobility 239 From the Earths obscurity and the splendor of the fixed Stars it is argued that it is moveable and they immoveable 239 A fifth Argument of Claramontius against the Copernican Hypothesis of the Earths Mobility 240 Another difference between the Earth and Celestial Bodies taken from Purity and impurity 240 It seems a Solecisme to affirme that the Earth is not in Heaven 241 Granting to the Earth the Annual it must of necessity also have the Diurnal Motion assigned to it 300 Discourses more than childish that serve to keep Fools in the Opinion of the Earths Stability 301 The Difficulties removed that arise from the Earths moving about the Sun not solitarily but in consort with the Moon 307 The Axis of the Earth continueth alwayes parallel to it self and describeth a Cylindraical Superficies inclining to the Orb. 344 The Orb of the Earth never inclineth but is immutably the same 345 The Earth approacheth or recedeth from the fixed Stars of the Ecliptick the quantity of the Grand Orb. 349 If in the fixed Stars one should discover any Mutation the Motion of the Earth would be undeniable 351 Necessary Propositions for the better conceiving of the Consequences of the Earths Motion 354 An admirable Accident depending on the not-inclining of the Earths Axis 358 Four several Motions assigned to the Earth 362 The third Motion ascribed to the Earth is rather a resting immoveable 363 An admirable interne vertue or faculty of the Earths Globe to behold alwayes the same part of Heaven 363 Nature as iâ— sport maketh the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea to prove the Earths Mobility 379 All Terrene Effects indifferently confirm the Motion or Rest of the Earth except the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea 380 The Cavities of the Earth cannot approach or recede from the Centre of the same 387 The Hypothesis of the Earths Mobility taken in favour of the Ebbing and Flowing opposed 399 The Answers to those Objections made against the Earths Motion 399 The Revolution of the Earth confirmed by a new Argument taken from the Aire 400 The vaporous parts of the Earth partake of its Motions 400 Another observation taken from the Ayr in confirmation of the motion of the Earth 402 A Reason of the continual Motion of the Air and Water may be given by making the Earth moveable rather then by making it immoveable 405 The Earths Mobility held by sundry great Philosophers amongst the Antients 437 468 The Fathers agree not in expounding the Texts of Scripture that are alledged against the Earths Mobility 450 The Earth Mobility defended by many amongst the Modern Writers 478 The Earth shall stand still after the Day of Judgement 480 The Earth is another Moon or Star 486 The Earths several Motions according to Copernicus 491 The Earth secundum totum is Immutable though not Immoveable 491 The Earths Natural Place 492 The Earths Centre keepeth her in her Natural Place 493 The Earth in what Sense it may absolutely be said to be in the lowest part of the World 496 EBBING and Ebbings The first general Conclusion of the impossibility of Ebbing and Flowing the Immobility of the Terrestrial Globe being granted 380 The Periods of Ebbings and Flowings Diurnal Monethly and Annual 381 Varieties that happen in the Diurnal Period of the Ebbings and Flowings 382 The Causes of Ebbings and Flowings alledged by a Modern Phylosopher 382 The Cause of the Ebbing and Flowing ascribed to the Moon by a certain Prelate 383 The Cause of the Ebbing c. referred by Hyeronimus Borrius and other Peripateticks to the temperate heat of the Moon 383 Answers to the Vanities alledged as Causes of the Ebbing and Flowing 383 It s proved impossible that there should naturally be any Ebbing and Flowing the Earth being immoveable 386 The most potent and primary Cause of the Ebbing and Flowing 390 Sundry accidents that happen in the Ebbings and Flowings 391 Reasons renewed of the particular Accidents observed in the Ebbings and Flowings 393 Second Causes why in several Seas and Lakes there are no Ebbings and Flowings 394 The Reason why the Ebbings and Flowings for the most part are every Six Hours 395 The Cause why some Seas though very long suffer no Ebbing and Flowing 395 Ebbings and Flowings why greatest in the Extremities of Gulphs and least in the middle parts 396 A Discussion of some more Abstruce Accidents observed in the Ebbing and Flowing 396 The Ebbing and Flowing may depend on the Diurnal Motion of Heaven 404 The Ebbing and Flowing cannot depend on the Motion of Heaven 405 The Causes of the Periods of the Ebbings and Flowings Monethly and Annual at large assigned 407 The Monethly and Annual alterations of the Ebbings and Flowings can depend on nothing save on the alteration of the Additions and Subtractions of the Diurnal Period from the Annual 408 Three wayes of altering the proportion of the Additions of the Diurnal Revolution to the Annual Motion of the Ebbing and Flowing 409 Ebbings and Flowings are petty things in comparison of the vastnesse of the Seas and the Velocity of the Motion of the Terrestrial Globe 417 EFFECT and Effects Of a new Effect its necessary that the Cause be likewise new 370 The Knowledge of the Effects contribute to the investigation of the Causes 380 True and Natural Effects follow without difficulty 387 Alterations in the Effects argue alteration in the Cause 407 ELEMENTS and their Motions Vide MOTION ENCYCLOPEDIA Subtilties sufficiently insipid ironically spoken and taken from a certain Encyclopedia 153 EXPERIMENTS Sensible Experiments are to be preferred before Humane Argumentations 21 33 42. It is good to be very cautious in admitting Experiments for true to those that never tryed them 162 Experiments and Arguments against the Earths Motion seem so far concluding as they lye under Equivokes 162 The Authority of Sensible Experiments and necessary Demonstrations in deciding of Physical Controversies 436 EYE The Circle of the Pupil of the Eye contracteth and enlargeth 329 How to finde the distance of the Rays Concourse from the Pupil of the Eye 329 F FAITH Faith more infallible than either Sense or Reason 475 FIRE Fire moveth directly upwards by Nature and round about by Participation according to Aristotle 122 It is improbable that the Element of Fire should be carried round by the Concave of the Moon 405 FIGURE and Figures Figure is not the Cause of Incorruptibility but of Longer Duration 66 The perfection of Figure appeareth in Corruptible Bodies but not in the Eternal 69 If the Spherical Figure conferred Eternity all things would be Eternal 69 It is more difficult to finde Figures that touch in a part of their Surface then in one sole point 185 The Circular Figure placed amongst the Postulata of Mathematicians 186 Irregular Figures and Formes difficult to be introduced 187 Superficial figures increase in proportion
double to their Lines 304 FLEXURES The necessity and use of Flexures in Animals for varying of their Motions 232 FOSCARINI Foscarini his Reconciling of Scripture Texts with the Copernican Hypothesis 473 G GENERABILITY Generability and Corruptibility are onely amongst Contraries according to Arist. 26 Generability and Alterability are greater perfections in Mundane Bodies then the Contrary Qualities 44 GEOMETRICAL and Geometry Geometrical Demonstrations of the Triple Dimension 4 Geometrical Exactnesse needlesse in Physical Proofs 6 Aristotle taxeth Plato for being too studious of Geometry 334 Peripatetick Phylosophers condemne the Study of Geometry and why 461 GILBERT The Magnetick Phylosophy of Will-Gilbert 364 The Method of Gilbert in his Philosophy 367 GLOBE Our Globe would have been called Stone instead of Earth if that name had been given it in the beginning 367 GOD. God and Nature do employ themselves in caring for Men as if they minded nothing else 333 An Example of Gods care of Man-kind taken from the Sun 333 God hath given all things an inviolable Law to observe 4â— GREAT Great and Small Immense c. are Relative Terms 334 GRAVITY Grave Vide Body Gravity and Levity Rarity and Density are contrary qualities 30 Things Grave had being before the Common Centre of Gravity 221 Gravity and Levity of Bodies defined 493 GUN and Gunnery The Reason why a Gun should seem to carry farther towards the West than towards the East 148 The Revolution of the Earth supposed the Ball in the Gun erected perpendicularly doth not move by a perpendicular but an inclined Line 155 It is ingenuously demonstrated that the Earths Motion supposed the Shot of Great Guns ought to vary no more than in its Rest. 161 The Experiment of a Running Chariot to find out the difference of Ranges in Gunnery 148 A Computation in Gunnery how much the Ranges of Great Shot ought to vary from the Mark the Earths Motion being Granted 160 H HEAVEN Heaven an Habitation for the Immortal Gods 26 Heavens Immutability evident to Sense 26 Heaven Immutable because there never was any Mutation seen in it 34 One cannot saith Aristotle speak confidently of Heaven by reason of its great distance 42 The substance of the Heavens impenetrable according to Aristotle 54 The Substance of Heaven Intangible 55 Many things may be in Heaven that are Invisible to us 334 There are more Documents in the Open Book of Heaven than Vulgar Wits are able to Penetrate 444 Heaven and Earth ever mutually opposed to each other 480 Which are really the Greater Lights in Heaven and which the lesser 484 Heaven is not composed of a fifth Essence differing from the Matter of inferiour Bodies 494 Heaven is no Solid or Dense Body but Rare 494 Christ at his Incarnation truly descended from Heaven and at his Ascension truly ascended into Heaven 496 Of the First Second and Third Heaven 497 Heaven in the Sense of Copernicus is the same with the most tenuous Aether but different from Paradice which excells all the Heavens 499 HELL Hell is in the Centre of the Earth not of the World 480 HELIX The Helix about the Cylinder may be said to be a Simple Line 7 HYPOTHESIS The true Hypothesis may dispatch its Revolutions in a shorter time in lesser Circles than in greater the which is proved by two Examples 410 I JEST A Jest put upon one that offered to sell a certain Secret of holding Correspondence at a Thousand Miles distance 79 A Jest of a certain Statuary 94 IMPOSSIBILITY and Impossibilities Nature attempts not Impossibilities 10 To seek what would follow upon an Impossibility is Folly 22 INCORRUPTIBILITY Incorruptibility esteemed by the Vulgar out of their fear of Death 45 INFINITY Of Infinity the Parts are not one greater than another although they are comparatively unequal 106 INSTRUMENT and Instruments Instruments Astronomical very subject to Errour 262 Copernicus understood not some things for want of Instruments 338 A proof of the small credit that is to be given to Astronomical Instruments in Minute Observations 351 Ptolomy did not confide in an Instrument made by Archimedes 352 Instruments of Tycho made with great Expence 352 What Instruments are most apt for exact Observations 352 INVENTORS The First Inventors and Observers of things ought to be admired 370 JOSHUAH The Miracle of Joshuah in commanding the Sun to stand still contradicts the Ptolomaick System 456 Joshuahs Miracle admirably agreeth with the Pythagorick Systeme 457 IRON It s proved that Iron consists of parts more subtil pure and compact than the Magnet 370 JUPITER Jupiter and Saturn do encompasse the Earth and the Sun 258 Jupiter augments lesse by Irradiation than the Dog-Star 305 K KEPLER The Argument of Kepler in favour of Copernicus 242 An Explanation of the true Sense of Kepler and his Defence 243 The feigned Answer of Kepler couched in an Artificial Irony 244 Kepler is with respect blamed 422 Keplers reconciling of Scripture Texts whith the Copernican Hypothesis 461 KNOW c. The having a perfect Knowledge of nothing maketh some beleeve they understand all things 84 Gods manner of Knowing different from that of Man 87 The great Felicity for which they are to be envied who perswade themselves that they Know every thing 164 Our Knowledge is a kind of Reminiscence according to Plato 169 L LIGHT Light reflected from the Earth into the Moon 52 The Reflex Light of uneven Bodies is more universal than that of the smooth and why 62 The more rough Superficies make greater Reflection of Light than the lesse rough 65 Perpendicular Rays of Light illuminate more than the Oblique and why 65 The more Oblique Rays of Light illuminate lesse and why 65 Light or Luminous Bodies appear the brighter in an Obscure Ambient 74 LINE The Right Line and Circumference of an infinite Circle are the same thing 342 LAWYERS Contentious Lawyers that are retained in an ill Cause keep close to some expression fallen from the adverse party at unawares 324 LOOKING-GLASSES Flat Looking-Glasses cast forth their Reflection towards but one place but the Spherical every way 39 LYNCEAN The Lyncean Academick the first Discoverer of the Solar spots and all the other Celestial Novelties 312 The History of his proceedings for a long time about the Observation of the Solar Spots 312 M MAGNET Many properties in the Magnet 367 The Magnet armed takes up more Iron than when unarmed 369 The true cause of the Multiplication of Vertue in the Magnet by means of the Arming 370 A sensible proof of the Impurity of the Magnet 371 The several Natural Motions of the Magnet 374 Philosophers are forced to confesse that the Magnet is compounded of Celestial Substances and of Elementary 375 The Error of those who call the Magnet a mixt Body and the Terrestrial Globe a simple Body 375 An improbable Effect admired by Gilbertus in the Magnet 376 MAGNETICK Philosophy The Magnetick Philosophy of William Gilbert 364 MAGNITUDE The Magnitude of the Orbs and the Velocity of the Motions of Planets
the Receptacles of the Imagination of the Memory and of the Understanding So that which represents it self to the meer sight is as nothing in comparison and proportion to the strange Wonders that by help of long and accurate Observations the Wit of Learned Men discovereth in Heaven And this is the substance of what I had to consider touching this particular In the next place as to those that adde That those Natural Propositions of which the Scripture still speaks in one constant tenour and which the Fathers all unanimously receive in the same sense ought to be accepted according to the naked and literal sense of the Words without glosses and interpretations and received and held for most certain and true and that consequently the Mobility of the Sun and Stability of the Earth as being such are de Fide to be held for true and the contrary opinion to be deemed Heretical I shall propose to consideration in the first place That of Natural Propositions some there are of which all humane Science and Discourse can furnish us only with some plausible opinion and probable conjecture rather than with any certain and demonstrative knowledge as for example whether the Stars be animated Others there are of which we have or may confidently believe that we may have by Experiments long Observations and Necessary Demonstrations an undubitable assurance as for instance whether the Earth and Heavens move or not whether the Heavens are Spherical or otherwise As to the first sort I doubt not in the least that if humane Ratiocinations cannot reach them and that consequently there is no Science to be had of them but only an Opinion or Belief we ought fully and absolutely to comply with the meer Verbal Sense of the Scripture But as to the other Positions I should think as hath been said above That we are first to ascertain our selves of the fact it self which will assist us in finding out the true senses of the Scriptures which shall most certainly be found to accord with the fact demonstrated for two truths can never contradict each other And this I take to be a Doctrine orthodox and undoubted for that I finde it written in Saint Augustine who speaking to our point of the Figure of Heaven and what it is to be believed to be in regard that which Astronomers affirm concerning it seemeth to be contrary to the Scripture they holding it to be rotund and the Scripture calling it as it were a Curtain determineth that we are not at all to regard that the Scripture contradicts Astronomers but to believe its Authority if that which they say shall be false and founded only on the conjectures of humane infirmity but if that which which they affirm be proved by indubitable Reasons this Holy Father doth not say that the Astronomers are to be enjoyned that they themselves resolving and renouncing their Demonstrations do declare their Conclusion to be false but saith that it ought to be demonstrated That what is said in Scripture of a Curtain is not contrary to their true Demonstrations These are his words But some object How doth it appear that the saying in our Bibles Who stretcheth out the Heaven as a Curtain maketh not against those who maintain the Heavens to be in figure of a Sphere Let it be so if that be false which they affirme For that is truth which is spoke by Divine Authority rather than that which proceeds from Humane Infirmity But if peradventure they should be able to prove their Position by such Experiments as puts it out of question it is to be proved that vvhat is said in Scripture concerning a Curtain doth in no vvise contradict their manifest Reasons He proceedeth afterwards to admonish us that we ought to be no less careful and observant in reconciling a Text of Scripture with a demonstrated Natural Proposition than wâ—th another Text of Scripture which should sound to a contrary Sense Nay methinks that the circumspection of this Saint is worthy to be admired and imitated who even in obscure Conclusions and of which we may assure our selves that we can have no knowledge or Science by humane demonstration is very reserved in determining what is to be believed as we see by that which he writeth in the end of his second Book de Genesi ad Litteram speaking whether the Stars are to be believed animate Which particular although at present it cannot easily be comprehended yet I suppose in our farther Progress of handling the Scriptures we may meet with some more pertinent places upon which it will be permitted us if not to determin any thing for certain yet to suggest somewhat concerning this matter according to the dictates of Sacred Authority But novv the moderation of pious gravity being alwaies observed vve ought to receive nothing rashly in a doubtful point least perhaps vve reject that out of respect to our Errour vvhich hereafter Truth may discover to be in no vvise repugnant to the Sacred Volumes of the Old and Nevv Testament By this and other places if I deceive not my self the intent of the Holy Fathers appeareth to be That in Natural questions and which are not de Fide it is first to be considered whether they be indubitably demonstrated or by sensible Experiments known or whether such a knowledge and demonstration is to be had which having obtained and it being the gift of God it ought to be applyed to find out the true Sences of the Sacred Pages in those places which in appearance might seem to speak to a contrary meaning Which will unquestionably be pierced into by Prudent Divines together with the occasions that moved the Holy Ghost for our exercise or for some other reason to me unknown to veil it self sometimes under words of different significations As to the other point Of our regarding the Primary Scope of those Sacred Volumes I cannot think that their having spoken alwaies in the same tenour doth any thing at all disturb this Rule For if it hath been the Scope of the Scripture by way of condescention to the capacity of the Vulgar at any time to express a Proposition in words that bear a sense different from the Essence of the said Proposition why might it not have observed the same and for the same respect as often as it had occasion to speak of the same thing Nay I conceive that to have done otherwise would but have encreased the confusion and diminished the credit that these Sacred Records ought to have amongst the Common People Again that touching the Rest and Motion of the Sun and Earth it was necessary for accommodation to Popular Capacity to assert that which the Litteral sense of the Scripture importeth experience plainly proveth For that even to our dayes people far less rude do continue in the same Opinion upon Reasons that if they were well weighed and examined would be found to be extream trivial and upon Experiments either wholly false
would have that which is our own to be the sense of Scriptures vvhen as vve should rather desire the Scriptures meaning to be ours He goeth on and a little after teacheth us that no Proposition can be against the Faith unlesse first it be demonstrated false saying T is not all the while contrary to Faith until it be disproved by most certain Truth which if it should so be the Holy Scripture affirm'd it not but Humane Ignorance supposed it Whereby we see that the senses which we impose on Texts of Scripture would be false when ever they should disagree with Truths demonstrated And therefore we ought by help of demonstrated Truth to seek the undoubted sense of Scripture and not according to the sound of the words that may seem true to our weaknesse to go about as it were to force Nature and to deny Experiments and Necessary Demonstrations Let Your Highnesse be pleased to observe farther with how great circumspection this Holy Man proceedeth before he affirmeth any Interpretation of Scripture to be sure and in such wise certain as that it need not fear the encounter of any difficulty that may procure it disturbance for not contenting himself that some sense of Scripture agreeth with some Demonstration he subjoynes But if right Reason shall demonstrate this to be true yet is it questionable whether in these words of Sacred Scripture the Pen-man would have this to be understood or somewhat else no lesse true And in case the Context of his Words shall prove that he intended not this yet will not that which he would have to be understood be therefore false but most true aad that which is more profitable to be knovvn But that which increaseth our wonder concerning the circumspection wherewith this Pious Author proceedeth is that not trusting to his observing that both Demonstrative Reasons and the sense that the words of Scripture and the rest of the Context both precedent and subsequent do conspire to prove the same thing he addeth the following words But if the Context do not hold forth any thing that may disprove this to be the Authors Sense it yet remains to enquire Whether the other may not be intended also And not yet resolving to accept of one Sense or reject another but thinking that he could never use sufficient caution he proceedeth But if so be we finde that the other may be also meant it vvill be doubted which of them he would have to stand or which in probability he may be thought to aim at if the true circumstances on both sides be weighed And lastly intending to render a Reason of this his Rule by shewing us to what perils those men expose the Scriptures and the Church who more respecting the support of their own errours than the Scriptures Dignity would stretch its Authority beyond the Bounds which it prescribeth to it self he subjoyns the ensuing words which of themselves alone might suffice to repress and moderate the excessive liberty which some think that they may assume to themselves For it many times falls out that a Christian may not so fully understand a Point concerning the Earth Heaven and the rest of this Worlds Elements the Motion Conversion Magnitude and Distances of the Stars the certain defects of the Sun and Moon the Revolutions of Years and Times the Nature of Animals Fruits Stones and other things of like nature as to defend the same by right Reason or make it out by Experiments But it s too great an absurdity yea most pernicious and chiefly to be avoided to let an Infidel finde a Christian so stupid that he should argue these matters as if they were according to Christian Doctrine and make him as the Proverb saith scarce able to contain his laughter seeing him so far from the Mark. Nor is the matter so much that one in an errour should be laught at but that our Authors should be thought by them that are without to be of the same Opinion and to the great prejudice of those whose salvation we wait for sensured and rejected as unlearned For when they shal confute any one of the Christians in that matter vvhich they themselvs thorovvly understand and shall thereupon express their light esteem of our Books hovv shall these Volumes be believed touching the Resurrection of the Dead the Hope of eternal Life and the Kingdom of Heaven vvhen as to these Points vvhich admit of present Demonstration or undoubted Reasons they conceive them to be falsly vvritten And how much the truly Wise and Prudent Fathers are displeased with these men who in defence of Propositions which they do not understand do apply and in a certain sense pawn Texts of Scripture and afterwards go on to encrease their first Errour by producing other places less understood than the former The same Saint declareth in the expressions following What trouble and sorrow weak undertakers bring upon their knowing Brethren is not to be expressed since vvhen they begin to be told and convinced of their false and unsound Opinion by those vvho have no respect for the Authority of our Scriptures in defence of vvhat through a fond Temerity and most manifest falsity they have urged they fall to citing the said Sacred Books for proof of it or else repeat many vvords by heart out of them vvhich they conceive to make for their purpose not knovving either what they say or vvhereof they affirm In the number of these we may as I conceive account those who being either unwilling or unable to understand the Demonstrations and Experiments wherewith the Author and followers of this Opinion do confirm it run upon all occasions to the Scriptures not considering that the more they cite them and the more they persist in affirming that they are very clear and do admit no other senses save those which they force upon them the greater injury they do to the Dignity of them if we allowed that their judgments were of any great Authority in case that the Truth coming to be manifestly known to the contrary should occasion any confusion at least to those who are separated from the Holy Church of whom yet she is very solicitous and like a tender Mother desirous to recover them again into her Lap Your Highness therefore may see how praeposterously those Persons proceed who in Natural Disputations do range Texts of Scripture in the Front for their Arguments and such Texts too many times as are but superficially understood by them But if these men do verily think absolutely believe that they have the true sence of Such a particular place of Scripture it must needs follow of consequence that they do likewise hold for certain that they have found the absolute truth of that Natural Conclusion which they intend to dispute And that withal they do know that they have a great advantage of their Adversary whose Lot it is to defend the part that is false in regard that he
of Venerable Antiquity and proved many of their greattest and weightiest Opinions to be vain and false The Doctrine of the Antipodes by many of the Antients of approved Wisdome and Learning was held a Paradox no less absurd than this Our Opinion of the Earths Motion may seem to be as likewise that of the Habitablenesse of the Torrid Zone Of these Opinions the first was accounted unpossible by many but the latter was absolutely denyed by the unanimous consent of all But later Authors to the great felicity and perpetual Glory of their Age have not so much by Authority as by accurate diligence and indefatigable study to finde out the truth proved them both to be undoubtedly true Thus I affirm that the Antients were deceived and that in too lightly challenging Credid and Authority for their Inventions they discovered too much folly Here for brevities sake I pass by many Dreams lately detected both of Aristotle and other of the antient Philosophers who in all likelihood if they had dived into the Observations of Modern Writers and understood their Reasons would by changing their judgements have given them the precedency and would have subscribed to their manifest Truth Hereby we see that we are not to have so high a respect for the Aâ—tiens that whatever they assert should be taken upon trust and that Faith should be given to their sayings as if they were Oracles and Truths sent down from Heaven But yet which indeed is chiefly to be regarded in these matters if any thing be found out that is repugnant to Divine Authority or to the Sacred Leaves that were dictated by the Holy Ghost and by His Inspiration expounded by the Holy Doctors of the Church in this case not onely Humane reason but even Sense it self is to submitt which though by all manner of weighty Conditions and circumstances it should hold forth any thing contrary to Divine Authority which indeed is so plain that there is no way left to evade the right understanding of it yet is it to be rejected and we must conclude our selves deceived by it and believe that that is not true which Sense and Reason represents unto us For however we judge of things we have both in this and all other cases a more certain knowledge which proceeds from Divine Faith as S. Peter hath most excellently exprest it Who though with his Senses he saw and perceived the Glory of our Lord in his Transfiguration and heard his words manifesting his great Power yet nevertheless all these things compared with the Light of Faith he adds We have also a more sure word of Prophecy c. Wherefore since this Opinion of Pythagoras and Copernicus hath entred upon the Stage of the World in so strange a Dress and at the first appearance besides the rest doth seem to oppose sundry Authorities of Sacred Scripture it hath this being granted been justly rejected of all men as a meer absurdity But yet because the common Systeme of the World devised by Ptolomy hath hitherto satisfied none of the Learned hereupon a suspition is risen up amongst all even Ptolemy's followers themselves that there must be some other Systeme which is more true than this of Ptolemy For although the Phaenomena of Celestial Bodys may seem to be generally resolved by this Hypothesis yet they are found to be involved with many difficulties and referred to many devices as namely of Orbes of sundry Forms and Figures Epicicles Equations Differences Excentricks and innumerable such like fancies and Chymaera's which savour of the Ens Rationis of Logicians rather than of any Realem Essentiam Of which kinde is that of the Rapid Motion than which I finde not any thing that can be more weakly grounded and more easily controverted and disproved And such is that conceit of the Heaven void of Stars moving the inferior Heavens or Orbes All which are introduced upon occasion of the variety of the Motions of Celestial Bodyes which seemed impossible by any other way to be reduced to any certain and determinate Rule So that the Assertors of that common Opinion freely confess that in describing the Worlds Systeme they cannot as yet discover or teach the true Hypothesis thereof But that their endeavours are onely to finde out amongst many things what is most agreeable with truth and may upon better and more accomodate Reasons answer the Celestial Phaenomena Since that the Telescope an Optick Invention hath been found out by help of which many remarkable things in the Heavens most worthy to be known and till then unthought of were discovered by manifest sensation as for instance That the Moon is Mountainous Venus and Saturn Tricorporeal and Jupiter Quadricorporeal Likewise that in the Via Lactea in the Pleiades and in the Stars called Nobulosae there are many Stars and those of the greatest Magnitude which are by turns adjacent to one another and in the end it hath discovered to us new fixed Stars new planets and new Worlds And by this same Instrument it appears very probable that Venus and Mercury do not move properly about the Earth but rather about the Sun and that the Moon alone moveth about the Earth What therefore can be inferred from hence but that the Sun doth stand immovable in the Centre and that the Earth with the other Celestial Orbes is circumvolved about it Wherefore by this and many other Reasons it appears That the Opinion of Pythagoras and Copernicus doth not disagree with Astronomical and Cosmographical Principles yea that it carryeth with it a great likelihood and probability of Truth Whereas amongst the so many several Opinions that deviate from the common Systeme and devise others such as were those of Plato Calippus Eudoxus and since them of Averroe Cardanus Fracastorius and others both Antient and Modern there is not one found that is more facile more regularly ahd determinately accommodated to the Phaenomena and Motions of the Heavens without Epicycles Excentrix Homocentricks Deferents and the supputation of the Rapid Motion And this Hypothesis hath been asserted for true not onely by Pythagoras and after him by Copernicus but by many famous men as namely Heraclitus and Ecphantus Pythagoreans all the Disciples of that Sect Miceta of Syracuse Martianus Capella and many more Amongst whom those as we have said that have attempted the finding out of New Systemes for they refused both this of Pythagoras and that of Ptolemy are numberless who yet notwithstanding allowed this Opinion of Pythagoras to carry with it much probability and indirectly confirmed it inasmuch as that they rejected the common one as imperfect defective and attended with many contradictions and difficulties Amongst these may be numbered Father Clavius a most learned Jesuite who although he refutes the Systeme of Pythagoras yet acknowledgeth the Levity of the common Systeme and he ingeniously confesseth that for the removal of difficulties in which the common Systeme will not serve the turn Astronomers are forced to enquire
after another Systeme to the discovery of which he doth very earnestly exhort them Now can there a better or more commodious Hypothesis be devised than this of Copernicus For this Cause many Modern Authors are induced to approve of and follow it but with much haesitancy and fear in regard that it seemeth in their Opinion so to contradict the Holy Scriptures as that it cannot possibly be reconciled to them Which is the Reason that this Opinion hath been long supprest and is now entertained by men in a modest manner ad as it were with a veiled Face according to that advice of the Poet Judicium populi nunquam contempseris unus Ne nullis placeas dum vis contemnere multos Upon consideration of which out of my very great love towards the Sciences and my ardent desire to see the encrease and perfection of them and the Light of Truth freed from all Errours and Obscurities I began to argue with my self touching this Point after this manner This Opinion of the Pythagoreans is either true or false If false it ought not to be mentioned and deserves not to be divulged If true it matters not though it contradict all as well Philosophers as Astronomers And though for its establishment and reducement to use a new Philosophy and Astronomy founded upon new Principles and Hypothese should be constituted For the Authority of Sacred Scripture will not oppose it neither doth one Truth contradict another If therefore the Opinion of Pythagoras be true without doubt God hath disposed and dictated the words of of Holy Writ in such a manner that they may admit an apt sense and reconciliation with that Hypothesis Being moved by these Reasons and the probability of the said Opinion I thought good to try whether Texts of Sacred Scripture might be expounded according to Theological and Physical Principles and might be reconciled to it so that in regard that hitherto it hath been held probable it may in after times coming without scruple to be acknowledged for true advance it self and appear in publick with an uncovered Face without any mans prohibition and may lawfully and freely hold a Sacred intelligence with Holy Truth so earnestly coveâ—ed and commended by good Men. Which designe having hitherto been undertaken by none that I know wil I am perswaded be very acceptable to the Studious of these Learnings especially to the most Learned Galilaeo Galilaei chief Mathematician to the most Serene Grand Duke of Tuscany and John Kepler chief Mathematician to his Sacred and invincible Majesty the Emperour and to all that Illustrious and much to be commended Accademy of the Lynceans whom if I mistake not are all of this Opinion Although I doubt not but they and many other Learned Men might easily have found out these or the like Reconciliations of Scriptural expressions to whom nevertheless I have thought fit in respect of that profession which I have undertaken upon the faith of my soul and the propensity that I have towards Truth to offer that of the Poet Nullius addictus jurare in verba Magistri And in testimony of my esteem to them and all the Learned to communicate these my thoughts confidently assuring my self that they will accept them with a Candor equal to that wherewith I have written them Therefore to come to the business All Authorities of Divine Writ which seem to oppose this Opinion are reducible to six Classes The first is of those that affirm the Earth to stand still and not to move as Psal. 92. He framed the round World so sure that it cannot be moved Also Psal. 104. Who laid the Foundations of the Earth that it should not be removed for ever And Ecclesiastes 1. But the Earth abideth for ever And others of the like sense The second is of those which attest the Sun to move and Revolve about the Earth as Psal. 19. In them hath he set a Tabernacle for the Sun which cometh forth as a Bridegroom out of his chamber and rejoyceth as a Gyant to run his Course It cometh forth from the uttermost part of the Heaven and runneth about unto the end of it again and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof And Ecclesiast 1. The Sun riseth and the Sun goeth down and hasteth to the place where he arose it goeth towards the South and turneth about unto the North. Whereupon the Suns Retrogradation is mentioned as a Miracle Isaiah 38. The Sun returned ten degrees And Ecclesiasticus 48. In his time the Sun went backward and lengthened the life of the King And for this reason it is related for a Miracle in the Book of Joshuah that at the Prayers of that great Captain the Sun stood still its motion being forbidden it by him Josh. 10. Sun stand thou still upon Gibeon Now if the Sun should stand still and the Earth move about it its station at that time was no Miracle and if Joshuah had intended that the light of the day should have been prolonged by the Suns splendour he would not have said Sun stand thou still but rather Earth stand thou still The third Classis is of those Authorities which say that Heaven is above and the Earth beneath of which sort is that place of Joel chap. 2. cited by S. Peter in Acts. 2. I will shew wonders in Heaven above and signes in the Earth beneath with others of the like purport Hereupon Christ at his Incarnation is said to come down from Heaven and after his Resurrection to have ascended up into heaven But if the Earth should move about the Sun it would be as one may say in Heaven and consequently would rather be above Heaven than beneath it And this is confirmed For that the Opinion which placeth the Sun in the Centre doth likewise place Mercury above the Sun and Venus above Mercury and the Earth above Venus together with the Moon which revolves about the Earth and therefore the Earth together with the Moon is placed in the third Heaven If therefore in Spherical Bodies as in the World beneath signifies no more than to be neer to the centre and above than to approach the Circumference it must needs follow that for making good of Theological Positions concerning the Ascension and Descension of Christ the Earth is to be placed in the centre and the Sun with the other Heavens in the Circumference and not according to Copernicus whose Hypothesis inverts this Order with which one cannot see how the true Ascension and Descension can be consistent The fourth Classis is of those Authorities which make Hell to be in the Centre of the World which is the Common Opinion of Divines and confirmed by this Reason That since Hell taken in its strict denomination ought to be in the lowest part of the World and since that in a Sphere there is no part lower then the Centre Hell shall be as it were in the Centre of the World which being of a Spherical Figure it must
follow that Hell is either in the Sun forasmuch as it is supposed by this Hypothesis to be in the Centre of the World or else supposing that Hell is in the Centre of the Earth if the Earth should move about the Sun it would necessarily ensue that Hell together with the Earth is in Heaven and with it revolveth about the third Heaven than which nothing more absurd can be said or imagined The fifth Classis is of those Authorities which alwayes oppose Heaven to the Earth and so again the Earth to Heaven as if there were the same relation betwixt them with that of the Centre to the Circumference and of the Circumference to the Centre But if the Earth were in Heaven it should be on one side thereof and would not stand in the Middle and consequently there would be no such relation betwixt them which nevertheless do not only in Sacred Writ but even in Common Speech ever and every where answer to each other with a mutual Opposition Whence that of Genes 1. In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth and Psal. 115. The Heaven even the Heavens are the Lords but the Earth hath he given to the Children of menâ— and our Saviour in that Prayer which he prescribeth to us Matth. 6. Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven and S. Paul 1 Corinth 15. The first man is of the Earth earthy the second man is of Heaven heavenly and Coloss. 1. By him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth and again Having made peace through the Blood of his Crosse for all things whether they be things in Earth or things in Heaven and Chap. 3. Set your affections on things above not on things on the Earth with innumerable other such like places Since therefore these two Bodies are alwayes mutually opposed to each other and Heaven without all doubt referreth to the Circumference it must of necessity follow that the Earth is to be adjudged the place of the Centre The sixth and last Classis is of those Authorities which being rather of Fathers and Divines than of the Sacred Scripture say That the Sun after the day of Judgment shall stand immoveable in the East and the Moon in the West Which Station if the Pythagorick Opinion hold true ought rather to be ascribed to the Earth than to the Sun for if it be true that the Earth doth now move about the Sun it is necessary that after the day of Judgment it should stand immoveable And truth is if it must subsist without motion in one constant place there is no reason why it should rather stand in one site of that Place than in another or why it should rather turn one part of it than another to the Sun if so be that every of its parts without distinction which iâ— destitute of the Suns light cannot choose but be dismal and much worse affected than that part which is illuminated Hence also would arise many other absurdities besides these These are the Classes c. from which great assaults are made against the structure of the Pythagorick Systeme yet by that time I shall have first laid down six Maximes or Principles as impregnable Bulwarks erected against them it will be easie to batter them and to defend the Hypothesis of Pythagoras from being attaqued by them Which before I propound I do proâ—ess with that Humility and Modesty which becometh a Christian and a person in Religious Orders that I do with reverence submit what I am about to speak to the Judgment of Holy Church Nor have I undertaken to write these things out of any inducements of Temerity or Ambition but out of Charity and a Desire to be auxiliary to my neighbour in his inquisition after Truth And there is nothing in all this Controversie maintained by me that expect to be better instructed by those who profess these Studies which I shall not retract if any persons shall by solid Reasons reiterated Experiments prove some other Hypothesis to be more probable but yet until such time as they shall decide the Point I shall labour all I can for its support My first and chiefest Maxime is this When any thing is attributed in Holy Writ to God or to a Creature that 's not beseeming to or incommensurate with them it must of necessity be received and expounded one or more of the four following wayes First it may be said to agree with them Metaphorically and Proportionally or by Similitude Secondly According to our manner of Considering Apprehending Conceiving Vnderstanding Knowing c. Thirdly according to the Opinion of the Vulgar and the Common way of Speaking to which Vulgar Speech the Holy Ghost doth very often with much study accomodate it self Fourthly In respect of our selves and for that he makes himself like unto us Of each of these wayes there are these examples God doth not walk since he is Infinite and Immoveable He hath no Bodily Members since he is a Pure Act and consequently is void of all Passion of Minde and yet in Sacred Scripture Gen. 3. vers 8. it is said He walked in the cool of the day and Job 22. vers 14. it is said He walketh in the Circuit of Heaven and in many other places coming departing making hast is ascribed to God and likewise Bodily parts as Eyes Ears Lips Face Voice Countenance Hands Feet Bowâ—â— Garments Arms as also many Passions such as Anger Sorrow Repentance and the like What shall we say therefore Without doubt such like Attributes agree with God to use the Schoolmens words Metaphorically Proportionally and by Similitude And touching Passions it may be said that God condescendeth to represent himself after that manner as for instance The Lord is angry i. e. He revealeth himself as one that is angry He grieved i. e. He revealeth himself as one that is sorrowful It repented him that he had made man i. e. He seemed as one that repented And indeed all these things are Comparativè ad nos and in respect of us So God is said to be in Heaven to move in time to shew himself to hide himself to observe and mark our steps to seek us to stand at the door to knock at the door not that he can be contained in a bodily place nor that he is really moved nor in time nor that humane manners or customes can agree with him save only according to our manner of Apprehension This Conception of ours orderly distinguisheth these Attributes in him one from another when notwithstanding they are one and the same with him This Apprehension of ours divideth also his actions into several times which neverthelesse for the most part are produced in one and the same instant And this to conclude alwayes apprehendeth those things with some defect which notwithstanding are in God most perfect For this reasâ—n doth the Sacred Scripture express it self according to the Vulgar Opinion whilst it
Magnitude such as Canopus otherwise called Arcanar in the end of a River or the Little Dog in the mouth of the Great Dog or the Foot of Orion called Rigel or his Right shoulder or any other of that Magnitude Therefore the two great Lights are to be understood in respect of us and according to vulgar estimation and not according to the true and reall existence of such Bodies Secondly in the specification of the Proposition it is said The greater Light to rule the Day hereby denoting the Sun in which the verbal sense of Scripture agreeth with the Truth of the Thing For that the Sun is the Greatest of all Luminaries and Globes But that which followeth immediately after And the lesser Light to rule the Night meaning the Moon cannot be taken in the true and real sense of the words For the Moon is not the lesser Light but Mercury which is not only much lesser than the Moon but also than any other Star And if again it be said That the Holy Text doth not speak of the Stars but onely of the Luminaries for that presently after they are mentioned apart And the Stars and that what we say is true touching the comparison of the Stars amongst themselves but not in respect of the Luminaries namely the Sun and Moon This reply doth discover a man to be utterly ignorant in these Studies and such who having not the least smattering in them doth conceive an absurd and erroneous Opinion of the Coelestial Bodies For the Moon and Sun considered in themselves and as they appear to us if they should be a far greater distance from us than indeed they are would be no other nor would appear to us otherwise than Stars as the rest do in the Firmament But Great Luminaries they neither are nor seem to be save only in respect of us And so on the other side the Stars as to themselves are no other than so many Suns and so many Moons yet are so far remote from us that by reason of their distance they appear thus small and dim of light as we behold them For the greater and lesser distance of heavenly Bodies caeteris paribus doth augment and diminish their appearance both as to Magnitude and Light And therefore the words which follow in that place of Genesis And the Stars as distinguishing the Stars from the Sun and Moon are to be taken in no other acceptation than that which we have spoken of namely according to the sense of the Vulgar and the common manner of speech For indeed according to the truth of the matter all Coelestial Bodies being shining Globes are of a vast bigness to which if we should be so neer as we are to the Moon they would seem to us of as great yea a greater magnitude than the Moon As likewise on the contrary if we were as far distant from the Sun and Moon as we are from them both Moon and Sun would shew but as stars to us And yet the splendor of the Sun would doubtless be greater intensivè than that of any other star For although it should be granted that some stars as those of the Fixed that twinkle do shine of themselves aud by their own nature as the Sun that derives not its light from others which yet remains undecided and doubtful and borrow not their light from the Sun Nevertheless since the brightness of none of the stars may be compared with the Suns splendour which was created by God first and before all other Luminaries in the highest kind of Light it would therefore notwithstanding follow that none of those stars although placed in the same proximity to us with the Sun and therefore appearing to us of the same Magnitude as the Sun can bestow upon us so much Light as we receive from the Sun As on the contrary the Sun at the same remotenesse from us as they are would indeed as to its Magnitude appear to us as one of those stars but of a splendour much more intense than that of theirs So that now the Earth is nothing else but another Moon or star and so would it appear to us if we should behold it from a convenient distance on high And in it might be observed in that variety of Light and Darkness which the Sun produceth in it by making Day and Night the same difference of Aspects that are seen in the Moon and such as are observed in tricorporate Venus in like manner also 't is very probable that the same might be discerned in other Planets which shine by no light of their own but by one borrowed from the Sun What ever therefore may touching these matters be delivered in the sacred Leaves or the common speech of men dissenting from the real truth it ought as we have said before absolutely to be received and understood secundum vulgi sententiam communem loquendi concipiendi stylum And so to return to our purpose if all this considered the Pythagorian opinion be true it will be easie according to the same Rule to reconcile the authority of sacred Scriptures with it however they seem to oppose it and in particular those of the first and second Classis scilicet by my first Maxime For that in those places the holy Records speak according to our manner of understanding and according to that which appeareth in respect of us For thus it is with those Bodies in comparison of us and as they are described by the vulgar and commune way of humane Discourse So that the Earth appears as if it were standing still and immoveable and the Sun as if it were circumambient about her And so the Holy Scripture is used in the Commune and Vulgar way of speaking because in respect of our sight the Earth seems rather to stand fixed in the Centre and the Sun to circumvolve about it than otherwise as it happens to those that are putting off from the Banks of a River to whom the shore seems to move backwards and go from them but they do not perceive which yet is the truth that they themselves go forwards Which fallacy of our sight is noted and the Reason thereof assigned by the Opticks upon wich as being strange to and besides my purpose I will not stay and on this account is Aeneas brought in by Virgil saying Provehimur portu terraeque urbesque recedunt But it will not be amiss to consider why the sacred Scripture doth so studiously comply with the opinions of the Vulgar and why it doth not rather accurately instruct men in the truth of the matters and the secrets of Nature The Reason is first the benignity of Divine Wisdome whereby it sweetly accomodates it self to all things in proportion to their Capacity and Nature Whence in Natural Sciences it useth natural and necessary causes but in Liberal Arts it worketh liberally upon Generous Persons after a sublime and lofty manner upon the Common People familiarly and humbly upon the Skilful
from him as the Agent to the Earth as the Subject doth sensibly glide forwards by reason of the Orbicular motion of the Earth and doth alwayes betake it self to some new place of her surface upon which ground he is truly said secundum vulgarem sermonem to move above and revolve about the Earth Not that the Sun doth move for by this Opinion we affirm the Earth to move that it may receive the Sun one while in one another while in another part of it but that at the motion of the Earth her self a contrary way the Quality diffused into her and impressed upon her by the Sun namely the Light of the Day is moved which riseth in one part of her and sets in another contrary to that according to the nature and condition of her motion And for this reason the Sun it self by consequence is said to rise and set which notwithstanding ex Hypothesi stands immoveable and that no otherwise then per donominationem extrinsecam as hath been said After this manner the command of Joshuah Sun stand thou still and the Miracle of the Suns cessation of Motion wrought by him may be so understood as that not the Solar Body properly but the Suns splendour upon the Earth stood still so that not the Sun it self being of it self before that time immoveable but the Earth that receiveth its splendour stayed her Motion which as she incessantly pursuing her ordinary Motion towards the East called up the Light of the Sun in the West so standing still the Suns light imprest upon it likewise stood still After the same manner proportionally is that Text of Isaiah explained touching the Suns going ten degrees backward upon the Dial of Ahaz So which may serve for another Example the Hand being moved about the flame of a burning Candle that stand◠still the Light moveth on the Hand that is to say the said Hand is illustrated now in one part anon in another when as the Candle it self all the while removes not out of its place whereupon per denominationem extrinsecam the said Light may be affirmed to rise and set upon the Hand namely by the sole motion of the said Hand the Candle it self never moving all the while And let this suffice for the explanation of my first Principle or Maxime which by reason of its difficulty and extraordinary weight required some prolixity in the handling of it My second Maxime is this Things both Spiritual and Corporeal Durable and Corruptible Moveable and Immoveable have received from God a perpetual unchangeable and inviolable Law constituting the Essence and Nature of every one of them according to which Law all of them in their own Nature persisting in a certain Order and Constancy and observing the same perpetual Course may deservedly be stiled most Stable and Determinate Thus Fortune than which there is nothing in the World more inconstant or fickle is said to be constant and unalterable in her continual volubility vicissitude and inconstancy which was the occasion of that Verse Et semper constans in levitate sua est And thus the motion of Heaven which by the constan Law of Nature ought to be perpetual may be said to be immutable and immoveable and the Heavens themselves to be immoveably moved and Terrene things to be immutably changed because those never cease moving nor these changing By this Principle or Maxime all difficulties belonging to the first Classis are cleared by which the Earth is said to be stable and immoveable that is by understanding this one thing That the Earth as to its own Nature though it include in it self a local Motion and that threefold according to the opinion of Copernicus scilicet Diurnal with which it revolveth about its own Centre Annual by which it moveth through the twelve Signes of the Zodiack and the motion of Inclination by which its Axis is alwayes opposed to the same part of the World as also other Species of Mutation such as Generation and Corruption Accretion and Diminution and Alteration of divers kinds yet in all these she is stable constant never deviating from that Order which God hath appointed her but moveth continually constantly and immutably according to the six before named Species of Motion My third Maxime shall be this When a thing is moved according to some part of it and not according to its whole it cannot be said to be simply absolutely moved but only per accidens for that stability taken simply absolutly do rather accord with the same As for example if a Barrel or other measure of Water be taken out of the Sea and transferred to another place the Sea may not therefore absolutely simply be said to be removed from place to place but only per accidens and secundum quid that is according to a part of it but rather to speak simply we should say that the Sea cannot be carried or moved out of its proper place though as to its parts it be moved and transferred to again This Maxime is manifest of it self and by it may the Authorities be explained which seem to make for the immobility of the Earth in this manner namely The Earth per se absolutè considered as to its Whole is not mutable seeing it is neither generated nor corrupted neither increased nor diminished neither is it altered secundum totum but only secundum partes Now it plainly appears that this is the genuine and true Sense of what is ascribed to it out of Ecclesiastes cap. 1. v. 4. One Generation passeth away and another Generation cometh but the Earth abideth for ever as if he should say although the Earth according to its parts doth generate and corrupt and is liable to the vicissitudes of Generation and corruption yet in reference to its Whole it never generateth nor Corrupteth but abideth immutable for ever Like as a Ship which though it be mended one while in the Sail-yard another while in the Stern and afterwards in other parts it yet remains the same Ship as it was at first But t is to be advertized that that Scripture doth not speak of a Local Motion but of Mutations of another nature as in the very substance quantity or quality of the Earth it self But if it be said that it is to be understood of a Local Motion then it may be explained by the insuing Maxime that is to say a respect being had to the natural Place assigned it in the Universe as shall be shewed by and by The fourth Axiome is this That every Corporeal thing moveable or immoveable from its very first Creation is alotted its proper and natural place and being drawn or removed from thence its motion is violent and it hath a natural tendency to move back thither again also that nothing can be moved from its natural place secundum Totum For most great and dreadful mischiefs would follow from that perturbation of things in the Universe
Therefore neither the whole Earth nor the whole Water nor the whole Air can secundum totum be driuen or forced out of their proper place site or Systeme in the Universe in respect of the order and disposition of other mundane Bodies And thus there is no Star though Erratick Orb or Sphere that can desert its natural place although it may otherwise have some kind of motion Therefore all things how moveable soever are notwithstanding said to be stable and immoveable in their proper place according to the foresaid sense i.e. secundum totum For nothing hinders but that secundum partes they may some waymove which motion shall not be natural but violent Therefore the Earth although it should be moveable yet it might be said to be immoveable according to the precedent Maxime for that its neither moved in a right Motion nor out of the Course assigned it in its Creation for the standing Rule of its motion but keep within its own site being placed in that which is called the Grand Orb above Venus and beneath Mars and being in the middle betwixt these which according to the common opinion is the Suns place it equally and continually moveth about the Sun and the two other intermediate Planets namely Venus and Mercury and hath the Moon which is another Earth but Aetherial as Macrobius after some of the ancient Philosophers will have it about it self From whence inasmuch as she persisteth uniformly in her Course and never at any time departeth from it she may be said to be stable and immoveable and in the same sense Heaven likewise with all the Elements may be said to be immoveable The fifth Maxime followeth being little different from the former Amongst the things created by God some are of such a nature that their parts may be ab invicem or by turns separated from themselves and dis-joyned from their Whole others may not at least taken collectively now those are perishable but these perpetual The Earth therefore since it is reckoned amongst those things that are permanent as hath been said already hath its parts not dissipable nor ab invicem separable from its Centre whereby its true and proper place is assigned it and from its whole taken collectively because according to its whole it is always preserved compact united and cohaerent in it self nor can its parts be seperated from the Centre or from one another unless it may so fall out per accidens and violently in some of its parts which afterwards the obstacle being removed return to their Natural Station spontaneously and without any impulse In this Sense therefore the Earth is said to be Immoveable and Immutable yea even the Sea Aire Heaven and any other thing although otherwise moveable so long as its parts are not dissipable and seperable may be said to be Immoveable at last taken collectively This Principle or Maxim differeth from the precedent only in that this referrs to the parts in order to Place and this in order to the Whole From this Speculation another Secret is discovered For hence it is manifest wherein the proper and genuine formality of the Gravity aad Levity of Bodyes consisteth a point which is not so clearly held forth nor so undeniably explained by the Peripatetick Phylosophy Gravity therefore is nothing else according to the Principles of this new Opinion than a certain power and appetite of the Parts to rejoyn with their Whole and there to rest as in their proper place Which Faculty or Disposition is by Divine Providence bestowed not only on the Earth and Terrene Bodies but as is believed on Coelestial Bodies also namely the Sun Moon and Stars all whose parts are by this Impulsion connected and conserved together cleaving closely to each other and on all sides pressing towards their Centre until they come to rest there From which Concourse and Compression a Sphaerical and Orbicular Figure of the Caelestial Orbes is produced wherein by this occult Quality naturally incident to each of them they of themselves subsist and are alwayes preserved But Levity is the Extrusion and Exclusion of a more tenuose and thin Body from the Commerce of one more Solid and dense that is Heterogeneal to it by vertue of Heat Whereupon as the Motion of Grave Bodies is Compressive so the Motion of Light Bodies is Extensive For it s the propperty of Heat to dilate and rarify those things to which it doth apply conjoine and communicate it self And for this reason we find Levity and Gravity not only in respect of this our Terestrial Globe and the Bodies adjacent to it but also in respect of those Bodies which are said to be in the Heavens in which those parts which by reason of their proclivity make towards their Centre are Grave and those that incline to the Circumference Light And so in the Sun Moon and Starrs there are parts as well Grave as Light And consequently Heaven it self that so Noble Body and of a fifth Essence shall not be constituted of a Matter different from that of the Elements being free from all Mutation in it's Substance Quantity and Quality Nor so admirable and excellent as Aristotle would make us to believe nor yet a solid Body and impermeable and much lesse as the generality of men verily believe of an impenetrable and most obdurate Density but in it as this Opinion will have it Comets may be generated and the Sun it self as t is probable exhaling or attracting sundry vapours to the surface of its Body may perhaps produce those Spots which were observed to be so various and irregular in its Discus of which Galilaeus in a perticular Treatise hath most excellently and most accurately spoken insomuch that though it were not besides my present purpose yet it is convenient that I forbear to speak any thing touching those matters least I should seem to do that which he hath done before me But now if there be found in the Sacred Scriptures any Authority contrary to these things it may be salved by the foresaid Arguments Analogically applyed And furthermore it may be said that that Solidity is to be so understood as that it admits of no vacuum cleft or penetration from whence the least vacuity might proceed For the truth is as that cannot be admitted in bodily Creatures so it is likewise repugnant to Heaven it self being indeed a Body of its own Nature the most Rare of all others and tenuose beyond all Humane Conception and happly hath the same proportion to the Aire as the Aire to the Water It is clear also from these Principles how false these words of Aristotle are that Of one simple Body there is one simple Motion and this is of two kindes Right and Circular the Right is twofold from the medium and to the medium the first of Light Bodyes as the Aire and Fire the second of Grave Bodyes as the Water and Earth the Circular which is about the
medium belongeth to Heaven which is neither Grave nor Light For all this Philosophy is now forsaken and of it self grown into dis-esteem for though it be received for an unquestionable truth in this new Opinion that to a simple body appertains one only simple Motion yet it granteth no Motion but what is Circular by which alone a simple body is conserved in its naturall Place and subsists in its Unity and is properly said to move in loco in a place whereby it comes to pass that a Body for this reason doth continue to move in it self or about its own axis and although it have a Motion yet it abideth still in the same place as if it were perpetually immoveable But right Motion which is properly ad locum to a place can be ascribed only to those things which are out of their naturall place being far from union with one another and from unity with their whole yea that are seperated and divided from it Which being that it is contrary to the Nature and forme of the Universe it necessarily followeth that right Motion doth in short sute with those things which are destitute of that perfection that according to their proper Nature belongeth to them and which by this same right Motion they labour to obtaine untill they are redintigrated with their Whole and with one another and restored to their Naturall place in which at the length having obtained their perfection they settle and remaine immoveable Therefore in right Motions there can be no Uniformity nor simplicity for that they vary by reason of the uncertaine Levity or Gravity of their respective Bodyes for which cause they do not persevere in the same Velocity or Tardity to the end which they had in the beginning Hence we see that those things whose weight maketh them tend downwards do descend at first with a slow Motion but afterwards as they approach neerer and neerer to the Centre they precipitate more and more swiftly And on the otherside those things which by reason of their lightness are carryed upwards as this our Terrestriall fire which is nothing else but a smoak that burneth and is inkindled into a flame are no sooner ascended on high but in almost the self-same moment they fly and vanish out of sight by reason of the rare-faction and extension that they as soon as they acquire are freed from those bonds which violently and against their own Nature kept them under and deteined them here below For which reason it is very apparent that no Right Motion can be called Simple not only in regard that as hath been said it is not even and uniforme but also because it is mixt with the Circular which lurketh in the Right by an occult consent scilicet by reason of the Natural affection of the Parts to conforme unto their Whole For when the Whole moveth Circularly it is requisite likewith that the Parts to the end that they may be united to their Whole howbeit per accidens they are sometimes moved with a Right Motion do move though not so apparently with a Circular Motion as doth their Whole And thus at length we have envinced that Circular Motion only is Simple Uniform and Aequable and of the same tenor or rate for that it is never destitute of its interne Cause whereas on the contrary Right Motion which pertains to things both Heavy and Light hath a Cause that is imperfect and deficient yea that ariseth from Defect it self and that tendeth to and seeketh after nothing else but the end and termination of it self in regard that Grave and Light Bodies when once they have attained their proper and Natural Place do desist from that Motion to which they were incited by Levity and Gravity Therefore since Circular Motion is proper to the Whole and Right Motion to the Parts these differences are not rightly referred to Motion so as to call one Motion Right another Circular as if they were not consistent with one another For they may be both together and that Naturally in the same Body no lesse than it is equally Natural for a Man to participate of Sense and Reason seeing that these differences are not directly opposite to one another Hereupon Rest and Immobility only are opposed to Motion and not one Species of Motion to another And for the other differences à medio ad medium and circa medium they are distinguished not really but only formally as the Point Line and Superficies none of which can be without the other two or without a Body Hence it appears that in as much as this Phylosophy differs from that of Aristotle so in like manner doth this New Cosmographical System vary from the Common one that hath been hitherto received But this by the way upon occasion of explaining the Fifth Maxim For as to the truth or falshood of these foregoing Positions although I conceive them very probable I am resolved to determine nothing at present neither shall I make any farther enquiry into them The Sixth and Last Maxim is this Every thing is Simply denominated such as it is in comparison of all things or of many things which make the greater number of that kinde but not in respect of a few which make but the lesser part of them As for instance a Vessel shall not be called absolutely Great because it is so whilst it is compared with two or three others but it shall be said to be great absolutely and will be so if it exceed in magnitude all indivials or the greater part of them Nor again shall a Man be said to be absolutely Big because he is bigger than a Pigmey nor yet absolutely Little because lesse than a Gyant but he shall be termed absolutely Big or Little in comparison of the ordinary Stature of the greater part of Men. Thus the Earth cannot absolutely be said to be High or Low for that it is found to be so in respect of some small part of the Universe nor again shall it be absolutely affirmed to be High being compared to the Centre of the World or some few parts of the Universe more near to the said Centre as is the Sun Mercury or Venus but it shall receive its absolute denomination according as it shall be found to be in comparison of the greater number of the Spheres and Bodies of the Universe The Earth therefore in comparison of the whole Circuit of the Eighth Sphaere which includeth all Corporeal Creatures and in comparison of Jupiter Mars and Saturn together with the Moon and much more in comparison of other Bodies if any such there be above the Eighth Sphere and especially the Empyrial Heaven may be truly said to be in the lowest place of the World and almost in the Centre of it nor can it he said to be above any of them except the Sun Mercury and Venus So that one may apply unto it the name of an Infime and Low but
velocity convenient to the circular motion Betwixt rest and any assigned degree of velocity infinite degrees of less velocity interpose Nature doth not immediately confer a determinate degree of velocity howbeit she could The moveable departing from rest passeth thorow all degrees of velocity without staying in any The ponderous mover descending acquireth impetus sufficient to recarry it to the like height The impetuosity of moveables equally approaching to the centre are equal Vpon an horizontall plane the moveable lieth still The velocity by the inclining plane equal to the velocity by the perpendicular and the motion by the perpendicular swifter than by the inclination Velocities are said to be equal when the spaces passed are proportionate to their time The circular motion is never acquired naturally without right motion precede it Circular motion perpetually uniform The magnitude of the Orbs and the velocity of the motion of the Planets answer proportionably as if descended from the same place Finite and terminate circular motions disorder not the parts of the World In the circular motion every point in the circumference is the begining and end Circular motion onely is uniform Circular motion may be continued perpetually Right motion cannot naturally be perpetual Right motion assigned to natural bodies to reduce them to perfect order when removed from their places Rest onely and circular motion are apt to conserve order Sensible experiments are to be preferred before humane argumentations He who denies sense deserves to be deprived of it Sense sheweth that things grave move to the medium and the light to the concave It is questionable whether descending weights move in a right line The Earth sperical by the conspiration of its parts to its Centre The Sun more probably in the centre of the Vniverse than the Earth Natural inclination of the parts of all the globes of the World to go to their centre The right motion of grave bodies manifest to sense Arguments of Aristotle to prove that grave bodies move with an inclination to arrive at the centre of the Vniverse Heavie bodies move towards the centre of the Earth per accidens To seek what would follow upon an impossibility is folly Coelestial bodies neither heavie nor light according to Aristotle Aristotle cannot equivocate being the inventer of Logick * A famous Italian Painter Paralogism of Aristotle in proving the Earth to be in the Centre of the World The Paralogisme of Aristotle another way discovered Grave bodies may more rationally be affirmed to tend to the Centre of the Earth than of the Vniverse The conditions and attributes which differ the coelestial bodies from Elementary depend on the motions assigned them by Arist. The disputes and contradictions of Philosophers may conduce to the benefit of Philosophy Aristotles discourse to prove the incorruptibility of Heaven Generation corruption is onely amongst contraries according to Arist. To the circular motion no other motion is contrary Heaven an habitation for the immortal Gods Immutability of Heaven evident to sense He proveth that the circular motion hath no contrary It s easier to prove the Earth to move than that corruption is made by contraries Bare transposition of parts may represent bodies under diverse aspâ—cts By denying Principles in the Sciences any Paradox may be maintained * Or Impatible Coelestial Bodies are generable and corruptible because they are ingenerable and incorruptible The forked Syllogism cal'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Amongst Coelestial Bodies there is no contrariety Contraries which are the causes of corruption reside not in the same body that corrupteth Coelestial Bodies touch but are not touched by the Elements Gravity levity rarity and density are contrary qualities The stars infinitely surpass the substance of the rest of Heaven in density Rarity density in Coelestial bodies is different from the rarity density of the elements Aristotle defective in assigning the causes why the elements are generable corruptible Arist. Ptolomey make the Terrestrial Globe immoveable It is better to say that the Terrestrial Globe naturally resteth than that it moveth directly downwards * The word is all' ingiù which the Latine version rendreth sursùm which is quite contrary to the Authors sense Right Motion with more reason attributed to the parts than to the whole Elements The Peripateticks improperly assign those motions to the Elements for Natural with which they never were moved and those for Preternatural with which they alwayes are moved Sensible experiments to be preferred to humane Arguments Heaven immutable because there never was any mutation seen in it Bodies naturally lucid are different from those which are by nature obscure The Mediterranian Sea made by the separation of Abila and Calpen It s no less impossible for a star to corrupt than for the whole Terrestrial Globe Aristotle would change his opinion did he see the novelties of our age The certainty of the conclusion helpeth by a resolutive method to find the demonstration Pythagoras offered an Hecatomb for a Geometrical demonstration which he found New stars discovered in Heaven Spots generate and dissolve in the face of the Sun Solar spots are bigger than all Asia and Affrick * Astronomers confuted by Anti-Tycho Anti-Tycho wresteth Astronomical observations to his own purpose Sundry opinions touching the Solar spots * The Original saith tempestata si muove which the Latine Translation mistaking Tempestata a word in Heraldry for Tempestato rendereth incitata movetur which signifieth a violent transportmeut as in a storm that of a Ship In natural Sciences the art of Oratory is of no force An Argument that necessarily proveth the Solar spots to generate and dissolve A conclusive demonstration that the spots are contiguous to the body of the Sun The motion of the spots towards the circumference of the Sun appears slow The figure of the spots appears narrow towards the circumference of the Suns discus why * Under this word Friend as also that of Academick Common Friend Galilaeus modestly conceals himself throughout these Dialogues The Solar spots are not spherical but flat like thin plates One cannot saith Aristotle speak confidently of Heaven by reason of its great distance Aristotle prefers sense before ratiocination It s a doctrine more agreeing with Aristotle to say the Heavens are alterable than that which affirms them inalterable We may by help of the Telescope discourse better of coelestical matters than Aristot. himself The Declamationâ— of Simplicius Peripatetick Philosophy unchangeable * Extra Stellas Generability and alteration is a greater perfection in the Worlds bodies than the contrary qualities * Impatible The Earth very noble by reason of the many mutations made therein The Earth unprofitable and full of idlenesse its alterations taken away The Earth more noble than Gold and Jewels Scarcity and plenty enhanse and debase the price of things Incorruptibility esteemed by the vulgar out of their fear of death The disparagers of corruptibility deserve to be turned into Statua's The Coelestial bodies designed to serve
the Earth need no more but motion and light Celestial bodies want an interchangeable operation upon each other Alterability c. are not in the whole Terrestrial Globe but in some of its parts Coelestial bodies alterable in their outward parts The generations mutations happening in the Earth are all for the good of Man The Moon hath no generatings of things like as we have nor is it inhabited by men In the Moon may be a generation of things different from ours He that had not heard of the Element of Water could never fancy to himself Ships and Fishes There may be substances in the Moon very different from ours The First resemblance between the Moon and Earth which is that of figure is proved by the manner of being illuminated by the Sun The Second conformity is the Moons being opacous as the Earth 〈…〉 Moon is 〈◊〉 and 〈…〉 as the Earth Fourthly The Moon is distinguished into two different parts for clarity and obscurity as the Terrestrial Globe into Sea and Land The surface of the Sea would shew at a distance more obscure than that of the Earth Fiftly Mutation of figures in the Earth like to those of the Moon and made with the same periods All the Earth seeth half onely of the Moon the half onely of the Moon seeth all the Earth From the Earth we see more than half the Lunar Globe Two spots in the Moon by which it is perceived that she hath respect to the centre of the Earth in her motion Sixthly The Earth and Moon interchangeably do illuminate Light reflected from the Earth into the Moon Seventhly The Earth and Moon do mutually eclipse The second clarity of the Moon esteemed to be its native light The Earth unable to reflect the Suns raies The substance of the Heavens impenetrable according to Aristotle The substance of Heaven intangible The superficies of the Moon more sleek than any Looking-glass The eminencies and cavities in the Moon are illusions of its opacous and perspicuous parts * Il Saggiatore Lettere Solari two Treatises of Galilaeus It is proved at large that the Moons surface is sharp Flat Looking-glasses cast forth the reflection towards but one place but the spherical every way The sphere of Activity greater in the Coelestial bodies than in Elementary The Moon if it were smooth like a spherical glasse would be invisible The small body of the stars fringed round about with rays appeareth very much bigger than plain and naked and in its native clarity The reflex light of uneven bodies is more universal than that of the smooth why The Moon if it were smooth and sleâ—k would be invisible Some write what they understand not and therefore understand not what they write Diamonds ground to divers sides why Silver 〈◊〉 wished appears maâ—e obscuâ—e 〈◊〉 the not burnished why Burnish'd Steel 〈◊〉 from one 〈…〉 very 〈…〉 from 〈◊〉 very obscure The more rough superficies make greater reflection of light than the less rough Perpendicular rays illuminate more than the oblique and why The more oblique Rayes illuminate less and why Perfect 〈◊〉 why ascribed is Coelestial bodies by the Peripateticks The Figure is not the cause of incorruptibiliâ—r but of longer duration Corruptibility admits of more or lesse so doth not incorruptibiliâ—y The perfection of figure operateth in corruptible bodies but not in the eternal If the spherical figure conferreth eternity all bodies would be eternal Mother of Pearl accommodated to imitate the apparent unevennesses of the Moons surface The apparent unevennesses of the Moon cannot be imitated by way of more and less opacity perspicuity The various aspects of the Moon imitable with any opacous matter Various appearances from which the Moons montuosity is argued The Moon appears brighter by night than by day The Moon beheld in the day time is like to a little cloud Clouds are no less apt than the Moon to be illuminated by the Sun A wall illuminated by the Sun compared to the Moon shineth no less than it The third reflection of a Wall illuminates more than the first of the Moon The light of the Moon weaker than that of the twilight Lum nous bodies appear the brighter in an obscurer ambient * By the Moons two Quadratures you are to understand its first and last quarters as Astrologers call them The secondary light of the Moon caused by the Sun according to some * Tendono le parete al commune It s all one whether opinions be new to men or men new to opinions * Contestare falsly rendered in the Latine Translation contentare The secondary light of the Moâ—n appears in form of a Ring that is to say bright in the extreme circumference and not â—n the midst and why The way to observe the secondary light of the Moon The Moons Discus in a solar Eclipse can be seen onely by privation The Author of the Book of conclusions accommodates the things to his purposes and not his purposes to the things A jest put upon one that would sell a certain secret for holding correspondency with a person a thousand miles off The Earth may reciprocally operate upon Coelestial bodies with its light Affinity between the Earth Moon in respect of their vicinity Solidity of the Lunar Globe argued from its being montainous The Seas reflection of light much weaker than that of the Earth An experimenâ— to prove the reflection of the Water lesse clear than that of the Land The secondary light of the Moon clearer before the conjunction than after The obscurer parts of the Moon are plains and the more bright mountainous Long ledges of mountains about the spots of the Moon There are not generated in the Moon things like to ours but if there be any productions they are very different The Moon not composed of Water and Earth Those aspects of the Sun necessary for our generations are not so in the Moon Natural dayes in the Moon are of a Moneth long To the Moon the Sun ascendeth and declineth with a difference of ten degrees and to the Earth of forty seven degrees There are no rains in the Moon The having a perfect knowledg of nothing maketh some believe they understand all things The answer of the Oracle true in judging Socrates the wisest of his time Divine Wisdom infinitely infinite Buonarruotti a statuary of admirable ingenitity Man understandeth very well intensivè but little extensivè Gâ—ds manner of knowing different from that of men Humane understanding done by raciocination Definitions contein virtually all the passions of the things defined Infinite Passions are perhaps but one onely The discourses which humane reason makes in a certain time the Divine Wisdom resolveth in a moment that is hath them alwayes present The wit of man admirably acute The invention of writing stupendious above all others * For of so many only the Italian Alphabet consists The original of the Nerves according to Aristotle and according to Phisicians The ridiculous answer of
a Philosopher determining the original of the Nerves Requisites to fit a man to philosophate well after the manner of Aristotle A cunning way to gather Philosophy out of any book whatsoever * A word signifying works composed of many fragments of verses collected out of the Poets Invention of the Telescope taken from Aristotle Chymists interpret the Fables of the Poets to be secrets for making of Gold Some of Aristotles Sectators impare the reputation of their Master in going about to enhanse it A ridiculous passage of a certain Statuary A brave resolution of a certain Peripatetick Philosopher The servile spirit of some of Aristotles followers Too close adhering to Aristotle is blameable It is not just that those who never philosophate should â—surp the title of Philosophers The Sensible World The motions of the Earth are imperceptible to its inhabitants The Earth can have no other motions than those which to us appear commune to all the rest of the Vniverse the Earth excepted The Diurnal Motion seemeth commune to all the Vniverse save onely the Earth excepted Aristotle and Ptolomy argue against the Diurnal Motion attributed to the Earth Why the diurnal motion more probably should belong to the Earth than to the rest of the Vniverse Motion as to the things that equally move thereby is as if it never were so far operates as it hath relation to things deprived of motion A proposition taken by Aristotle from the Antients but somewhat altered by him The first discourse to prove that the diurnal motion belongs to the Earth Nature never doth that by many things which may be done by a few The diurnal motion causeth no mutation amongst the Coelestial Bodies but all changes have relation to the Earth A second confirmation that the diurnal motion belongs to the Earth Circular motions are not contrary according to Aristotle * As you see in a Mill wherein the implicated cogs set the wheels on moving A third confirmation of the same Doctrine The greater Orbs make their conversions in greater times The times of the Medicean Planets conversions The motion of 24 hours ascribed to the highest Sphere disorders the period of the inferiour The fourth Confirmation Great disparity amongst the motions of the particular fixed stars if their Sphere be moveable The fifth Confirmation The motions of the fixed stars would accelerate and grow slow in divers times if the starry Sphere were moueable The sixth Confirmation The Seventh Confirmation The Earth a pendent Body and equilibrated in a fluid Medium seems unable to resist the rapture of the Diurnal Motion A single moveable hath but onely one natural motion and all the rest are by participation Motion cannot be made without its moveable subject One single experiment or sound demonstration batereth down all arguments meerly probable Of an infinite power one would think a greater part should rather be imploy'd than a lesse Of infinity one part is no bigger than another although they are comparatively unequal In the Axiome Frustra fit per plura c. the addition of aeque benè is superfluous Aristotles Arguments for the Earths quiessence * Restiâ— indietzâ— which is meant here of that motion which a bowl makes when is born by its by as to one side or other and so hindered in its direct motion â— Two kindes of Arguments touching the Earths motion or rest Arguments of Ptolomy and Tycho and other persons over and above those of Aristotle The first argument taken from grave bodies falling from on high to the ground Which is confirmed by the experiment of a body let fall from the round top of a Ship * That is at the foot of the Mast upon the upper deck The second argument taken from a Projection shot very high The third argument taken from the shots of a Cannon towards the East and towards the West This argument is confirmed by two shots towards the South and towards the North. And it is likewise confirmed by two shots towards the East and towards the West Copernicus his followers are not moved through ignorance of the arguments on the other part Christianus Vurstitius read certain Lectures touching the opinion of Copernicus what ensued thereupon The followers of Copernicus were all first against that opinion but the Sectators of Aristotle Ptolomy were never of the other side Motion and rest principal accidents in nature Vntruths cannot be demonstrated as Truths are For proof of true conclusions many solid arguments may be produced but to prove a falsity none Aristotle would either refute his adversaries arguments or would alter his opinion An argument taken from the Clouds and from Birds An argument taken from the air which we feel to beat upon us when we run a Horse at full speed An argument taken from the whirling of circular motion which hath a faculty to extrude and dissipate True and fair are one and the same as also false and deformed The answer tâ— Aristotles first argument That which is violent cannot be eternal and that which cannot be eternal cannot be natural Two things requisite to the end a motion may perpetuate it self an unlimited space and an incorruptible moveable Right motion cannot be eternal and consequently cannot be natural to the Earth * Terminatissimo * By this expression he every where means the preceding Dialogue or Giornata The answer to the second argument * Subdeficere * Or Centre Aristotles argument against the Earthâ— motion is defective in two things * The same word which a little aâ—â—ve I tendred stay behind as a bowle when it meets with â—ulâ—s The answer to the third argument The answer to the fourth argument Thâ— Paralogism of Aristotle and Ptolomey in supposing that for known which is in question Aristotle admitteth that the Fire moveth directly upwards by nature and round abent by participation The disparity between the fall of a stone from the round top of a ship and from the top of a tower * That you may not suspect my translation or wonder what Oars have to do with a ship you are to know that the Author intends the Gallies used in the Mediterrane The part of the Air inferiour to the higher mountains doth follow the motion of the Earth The motion of the Air apt to carry with it light things but not heavy The stone falling from the Mast of a ship lights in the same place whether the ship doth move or ly still The project according to Aristotle is not moved by vertue impressed but by the medium Operation of the medium in continuing the motion of the project Many experiments and reasons against the cause of the motion of projects assigned by Aristotle The medium doth impede and not confer the motion of projects An admirable accident in the motion of projects * By the length of the mast he means the distance between the upperdeck and Round-top * La palla Sundry curious Problems touching the motions of projects * Vertâ—gine *
in Italian weights and measures And 100 pounds Haverdupoise make 1â—1 l. Florentine And 100 Englâ—◠〈◊〉 makes 150◠〈◊〉 Florent so that the brace or yard of our Author is 1 4 of our yard * The Italian measure which I commonly translâ—te yards †The Italian mâ—le is 〈◊〉 of our mile The falling moveable if it move with a degree of velocity acquired in a like time with an uniform motion it shall pass a space double to that passed with the accelerated motion The motion of grave penduli might be perpetuated impediments being removed If the Terrestrial Globe were perforated a grave body descending by that bore would pass and ascend as far beyond the centre as it did descend The acceleration of grave bodies naturally descendent increaseth from moment to moment In natural Sciences it is not necessary to seek Mathematicall evidence The pendulum hanging at a longer thâ—eed maketh its vibrations more seldome than the pendulum hanging at a shorter threed The vibrations of the same pendulum are made with the same frequency whether they be small or great The cause which impedeth the pendulum and reduceth it to rest The thread or chain to which a pendulum is fastned maketh an arch and doth not stretch it selfe streight out in its vibrations * Pesci armai or armati * Not Sagredus as the Latine hath it We know 〈◊〉 more who moveth grave bâ—dus downwards than who moveth the Stars round nor knâ—w we any thing of these causeâ— more than the names imposed on them by us The vertue which carrieth grave projects upwards is no lesse natural to them than the gravity which moveth them downwards Contrary principles cannot naturally reside in the same subject The natural motion changeth it selfe into that which is called preternatural and violent The propension of elementary bodies to follow the Earth hath a limited Sphere of activity Of the mixt motion we see not the part that is circular because we partake thereof Things grave are before the centre of gravity The great maâ— of grave bodies being transfeâ—red cut of their place the separated parts would follow that 〈◊〉 It is not impoâ—sible with the circumference of a small 〈◊〉 for times â—â—volved to measure and describâ—◠〈…〉 great circle whatsoever * Goâ—dâ— la. * The â—ame of the Author is Scipio Claramontius The opinion of Copernicus overthrows the Criterium of Philosophy Common motion is as if it never were The argument taken from things falling perpendicularly another way confuted Where â—e motion of 〈◊〉 body is collected The motion of the eye argueth the motion of the obâ—ect looked on An experiment that 〈◊〉 how the common motion is impercâ—ptible An ingenuous consideration about the possibility of using the Telescope with as much facility on the round top of the Mast of a ship as on the Deck * I deviate here from the strict Sea Diallect which denominates all distances by Leagues Different motions depending on the fluctuation of the Ship * Greco which the Latine Translator according to his usual carelessenesse to call it no worse translates Corum Ventum the Northwest Wind for Ventum Libanotum Two mutations made in the Telescope depending on the agitation of the Ship * This is a Castle six Italian miles from Venice Northwards * Vn nero d' ugna the black or paring of a nail The annual motion of the 〈…〉 a perpetual and strong winde The air alwayes touching us with the same part of it cannot make us feel it He that will follow Copernicus must deny his senses Our motion may be either 〈…〉 or externâ— and yet we never perceive or feel it The motion of a Boat insensible to those that are with in it as to the sense of feeling The boats motion is perceptible to the sight joyn'd with reason The terrestrial motion collected from the stars Arguments against the Earths motion taken ex rerum natura Three Axioms that are supposed manifest A simple body at the Earth cannot move with three several motions The Earth cannot move with any of the motions assigned it by Copernicus Answers to the arguments contrary to the Earths motion taken ex rerum natura A fourth Axiome against the motion of the Earth Flexures necessary in animals for the diversity of their motions Another argument against the threefold motion of the Earth The Flexures in animals are not made for the diversity of motions The motions of animals are of one sort The ends of the bones are all rotund It is demonstrated that the ends of the bones are of necessity to be rotund The motions of animals are all circular Secondary motions of animals dependent on the first The Terrestriall Globe hath noe need of flexures * Without joynts It is desired to know by means of what flexures and joynts the Terrestrial Globe might move with three diverse motions One only principle may cause a plurality of motions in the Earth A grosse error of the opposer of Copernicus A subtil and withal simple argument against Copernicus 〈…〉 By another 〈◊〉 error it is seen that the Autagonist had but little studied Copernicus Never first 〈…〉 of them Copernicus erroneously assigneth the same operations to different natures From commune accidents one cannot know different natures The concurrence of the Elements in a common motion importeth no more or lesse than their concurrence in a common rest A fourth argument against Copernicus Bodies of the same kinde have motions that agree in kinde From the Earths obscurity and the splendour of the Sun and fixed Stars is argued that it is moveable and they immoveable A fifth argument against Copernicus Another difference between the Earth and the Coelestial bodies taken from purity impurity Copernicus introduceth confusion in the Universe of Aristotle The Paralogisme of the Author of Anti-Tycho It seemeth a folly to affirm the Earth to be without the Heavens * Lazeretto * Intrecciare to twine flowers in a garland A sixth argument against Copernicus taken from animals who have need of rest though their motion be natural An argument from Kepler in favour of Copernicus The Author of the Anti-Tycho opposeth Kepler The velocity of the circular motion increaseth according to the encrease of the diameter of the circle An explanation of the true sense of Kepler and his â—â—fence The greatnesse and smalnesse of the body make a differeuce in motion and not in rest The order of nature is to make the lesser Orbs to circulate in shorter times and the bigger in longer times The feigned answer of Kepler covered with an artificial Irony Animals would not grow weary of their motion proceeding as that which is assigned to the terrestrial Globe The cause of the wearinesse of animals The motion of an animal is rather to be called violent than natural The strength diminisheth not where it is not imployed The argument of Chramontius 〈◊〉 upon himself True Propositions meet with many conclusive arguments so do not the false * Cinque 〈◊〉 seâ— braccia
Litigious Lawyers that are extertained in an ill cause keep close to sâ—me exâ—ression fallen from the adverse party at unawares * Or progressions The apparent diversity of motion in the Planets is insensible in the fixed Stars Supposing that a fixed Star of the sixth magnitude is no bigger than the Sun the diversitie which is so great in the Planets in the fixed Stars is almost insensible The distance of the Sun containeth 1208 Semid of the Earth * The Diameter of the Sun half a degree The Diameter of a fixed Star of the first magnitude and of one of the sixth The apparent Diameter of the Sun how much it is bigger than that of a fixed star The distance of a fixed star of the sixth magnitude how much it is the star being supposed to be equal to the Sun In the fixed stars the diversitie of aspect caused by the grand Orb is little more then that caused by the Earth in the Sun A star of the sixth magnitude supposed by Tycho and the Authour of the Book of Conclusions an hundred and six milions of times bigger than needs The computation of the magnitude of the fixed Stars in respect to the grand Orb. A common errour of all the Astronomers touching the magnitude of the stars Venus renders the errour of Astronomers in determining the magnitudes of stars inexcusable A way to measure the apparent diameter of a star * Rendred in Latine Corum that is to say North-west * i. e. Is subtended by The diameter of a fixed star of the first magnitude not more than five sec. min. The circle of the pupil of the eye enlargeth and contracteth * Panicum a small grain like to Mill I take it to be the same with that called Bird Seed * Strisce How to find the distance of the rays concourse from the pupil All Astronomers agree that the greater magnitudes of the Orbes is the cause of the tardity of the conversions By another supposition taken from Astronomers the distance of the fixed Stars is calculated to be 10800 semidiameters of the grand Orb. By the proportion of Jupiter and of Mars the starry Sphere is found to be yet more remoâ—e Immeâ—se magnitudes and numbers are incomprehensible by our understanding God Nature do imploy themselves in caring for men as if they minded nothing else An example of Gods care of mankind taken from the Sun It is great rashnesse to censure that to be superfluous in hâ—ll verse which we do not perceive to be made for us By depriving Heaven of some star one might come to know what influence it hath upon us Many things may be in Heaven that are invisible to us Great small immense c. are relative terms Vanity of those mens discourse who judg the starry sphere too vast in the Copernican Hypothesis * Spelloncola which is here put for the lâ—ast of Fishes The space assigned to a fixed star is much lesse than that of a Planet A star is called in respect of the space that environs it The whole starry sphere behold from a great distance might appear as small as one single star Instances of the Authour of the Conclusions by way of interogation * Or Gulph Answers to the interrogatories of the said Authour The Authour of the Conclusions confound and contradicts himself in his interrogations Interrogatories put to the Authour of the Conclusions by which the weaknesse of his is made appear That remote objects appeare so small is the defect of the eye as is demonstrated Tycho nor his followers ever attempted to see whether there are any appearances in the Firmament for or against the annual mâ—tion Astronomers perhaps have not known what appearances ought to follow upon the annual motion of the Earth Copernicus understood not some things for want of Instruments Tycho and others argue against the annual motion from the invariable elevation of the Pole * Christophorus Rothmannus Motion 〈◊〉 it is common is as if it never were An example fitted to prove that the altitude of the Pole ought not to vary by means of the Earths annual motion * Corsia the bank or bench on which slaves sit in a Gally Upon the annual motion of the Earth alteration may ensue in some fixed star not in the Pole The equivoke of those who believe that in the annual motion great mutations are to be made about the elevation of a fixed star is confuted The right line and circumference of an infinite circle are the same thing Enquiry is made what mutations in what stars are to be discovered by means of the annual motion of the Earth Astronomers having omitted to instance what alterations those are that may be derived from the annual motion of the Earth do thereby testifie that they never rightly understood the same The mutations of the fixed stars ought to be in some greater in others lesser and in others nothing at all * Bandola that end of a skeen wherewith housewives fasten their hankes of yarn thread or silk The grand difficulty in Copernicus his Doctrine is that which concerns the Phaenomena of the Sun and fixed stars * Pettine it is the stay in a Weavets Loom that permitteth no knot or snarle to passe it called by them the Combe of the Loom Aristotles argument against the Ancients who held that the Earth was a Planet The annual motion made by the centre of the Earth under the Ecliptick and the diurnal motion made by the Earth about its own centre The axis of the Earth continueth alwayes parallel to it self and describeth a Cylindraical superficies inclining to the grand Orb. The Orb of the Earth never inclineth but is immutably the same The fixed stars placed in the Ecliptick never elevate nor descend on account of the annual motion but yet approach and recede Objections against the Earths annual motion taken from the fixed stars placed in the Ecliptick * Or will prove of good alloy The station direction and retrogradation of the Planets is known in relation to the fixed stars An Indice is the fixed stars like to that which is 〈◊〉 in the Planeâ—s is an argument of the Earths annual motion The fixed stars without the Ecliptick elevate and descend more or lesse according to their distance from the said Ecliptick * i. e. of the Ecliptick The Earth approacheth or recedeth from the fixed stars of the Ecliptick the quantity of the Diameter of the Grand Orb. The stars nearer to us make greater differences than the more remote The Epilogue of the Phaenomena of the fixed stars caused by the annual motion of the Earth In objects far remote and luminous a small approach or recession is imperceptible If in the fixed stars one should discover any annual mutation the motion of the Earth would be undeniable It is proved what small credit is to be given to Astronomical Instruments in minute observations * Braccia Italian * Or Miâ— Ptolomy did not trust to an Instrument made by Archimedes Instruments
of Tycho made with great expence What Instruments are apt for most exact observation * Italian braces An exquisite observation of the approach and departure of the Sun from the Summer Solstice A place accommodated for the observation of the fixed stars as to what concers the annual motion of the Earth The Copernican Systeme difficult to be understood but easie to be effected Necessary prepositions for the better conceiving of the consequences of the Earths motion A plain Scheme representing the Copernican Hypothesis and its consequences Axiomes commonly admitted by all Philosophers Aristotle taxeth Plato for being too studious of Geometry Peripatetick Philosophers condemn the Study of Geometry and why Four several motions assigned to the Earth The motion of descent belongs not to the terrestrial Globe but to its parts The annual and diurnal motion are compatible in the Earth Every pensil and librated body carryed round in the circumference of a circle acquireth of it self a motion in it self contrary to that An Experiment which sensibly shews that two contrary motions may naturally agree in the same moveable The third motion ascribed to the Earth is rather a resting immoveable An admirable intern vertue of the terrestrial Globe of alwayes beholding the same part of Heaven The terrestrial Globe made of Loade-stone * An eminent Doctor of Physick our Countreyman born at Colchester and famous for this his learned Treatise published about 60 years since at London The Magnetick Philosophy of William Gilbert The Pusillanimity of Popular Wits The Terrestrial Globe composed of sundry matters The interne parts of the terrestrial Globe must of necessity be solid * Or MOULD * Of which with the Latin translatour I must once more professe my self ignorant Our Globe would have been called stone in stead of Earth of that name had been giuen it in the beginning The method of Gilbert in his Philosophy Many properties in the Magnet 〈…〉 The Magnet armed takes up much more Iron than when armed * Or Closet of rarities The first observers and inventers of things ought to be admired The true cause of the multiplication of vertue in the Magnet by means of the arming Of a new effect its necessary that the cause be likewise new It is proved that Iron consists of parts more subtil pure and compact than the magnet A sensible proof of the impurity of the Magnet * The Author hereby meaneth that the stone doth not all consist of magnetick matter but that the whiter specks being weak those other parts of the Loadstone of a more dark constant colour contain all that vertue wherewith bodies are attracted * A common sewing needle Sympathy and Antipathy terms used by Philosophers to give a reason easily of many natural effests A pleasant example declaring the invalidity of some Phylosophical argumentations The several natural motions of the Magnet Aristole grants a compound motion to mixt bodies The motion of mixt bodies ought to be such as may result from the composition of the motions of the simple bodies compounding With two right motions one cannot compose circular motions Philosophers are forced to confesse that the Magnet is compounded of coelestial substances and of elementary The errour of those who call the Magnet a mixt body and the terrestrial Globe a simble body * Ogliopotrida a Spanish dish of many ingredients boild together The Discourses of Peripateticks full of errours and contradictions An improbable effect admired by Gilbertus in the Loadstone The vain argumentation of some to prove the Element of Water to be of a Spherical superficies Nature in sport maketh the ebbing and flowing of the Sea to approve the Earthâ— mobility The tide and mobility of the Earth mutually confirm each other All terrene effects indifferently confirm the motion or rest of the Earth except the ebbing and flowing of the Sea The first general conclusion of the impossibility of the ebbing and flowing the immobility of the terrestrial Globe being granted The knowledge of the effests contributes to the investigation of the causes Three Periods of ebbings and flowings diurnal monethly and annual Varieties that â—appen in the diurâ—â—â— period * A Strair so called * Or Ilva * Or Crets The cause of the ebbing and flowing alledged by a certain modern Philosopher The cause of the ebbing and flowing ascribed to the Moon by a certain Prelate Hieronymus Borrius and other Peripateticks refer it to the temperate heat of the Moon Answers to the vanities alledged as causes of the ebbing and flowing * Or rather smooth The Isles are tokens of the unevennesse of the bottomes of Seas Poetick wits of two kinds Truth hath not so little light as not to be discovered amidst the umbrages of falshoods Aristotle holdeth those effects to be miraculous of which the causes are unknown It is proved impossible that there should naturally be any ebbing and flowing the Earth being immoveable * Palms †Lio is a fair Port in the Venetian Gulph lying N. E. from the City True and natural effects follow without difficulty Two sorts of motions of the containing Vessel may make the contained water to rise and fall The Cavities of the Earth cannot approach or go farther from the centre of the same The progpessive and uneven motion may make the water contained in a Vessel to run to and fro * A Town lying S. E. of Venice The parts of the terrestrial Globe accelerate and regard in their motion Demonstrations how the parts of the terrestriall Globe accelerate and retard The parts of a Circle regularly moved about its own centre move in divers times with contrary motions The mixture of the two motions annnal and diurnal causeth the inequality in the motion of the parts of the terrestrial Globe The most potent and primary cause of the ebbing and flowing Sundry accidents that happen in the ebbings flowings The first accident The Water raised in one end of the Vessel returneth of its self to Aequilibrium In the shorter Vessels the undulations of waters are more frequent The greater profundity maketh the undulations of waters more frequent Water riseth falleth in the extream parts of the Vessel and runneth to and fro in the midst An accident of the Earths motions impossible to be reduced to practice by art Reasons renewed of the particnlar accidents observed in the ebbings and flowings Second causes why in small Seas and in Lakes there are no ebbings and flowings The reason given why the ebbings and flowings for the most part are every six hours The cause why some Seas though very long suffer no ebbing and flowing Ebbings and flowings why greatest in the extremities of Gulphs and least in the middle parts Why in narrow places the course of the waters is more swift than in larger A discussion of 〈…〉 â—abstruce 〈…〉 obseâ—ved 〈…〉 ebbing and â—â—â—wing The cause why in some narrow Channels we see the Sea-waters run alwayes one way * Or current The Hypothesis of the Earths mobility taken in favour of the
Tide opposed The answer to the objections made against the motion of the Terrestrial Globe * Corpulenta The Water more apt to conserve an impetus conceived then the Air. Light bodies easier to be moved than heavy but less apt to conserve the motion It s more rational that the Air be commoved by the rugged surface of the Earth than by the Celestial motion The revolution of the Earth confirmed by a new argument taken from the Air. The vaporous parts of the earth partake of its motions Constant gales within the Tropicks blow towards the VVest The course to the VVest India's easie the return difficult Winds from Land make rough the Seas Another observation taken from the Air in confirmation of the motion of the Earth * Which Wind with our English Mariners is called the Trade-wind The voiages in the Mediterrane from East to West are made in shorter times than from West to East It is demonstrated inverting the argument that the perpetual motion of the Air from East to West cometh from the motion of Heaven It is demonstrated inverting the argument that the perpetual motion of the Air from East to VVest cometh from the motion of Heaven The motion of the VVater dependeth on the motion of Heaven The flux and reflux may depend on the diurnal motion of Heaven A reason of the continual motion of the Air and VVater may be given making the Earth moveable then by making it immoveable It s improbable that the element of Fire should be carried round by the Concave of the Moon †A Treatise of our Author formerly cited The Ebbing and Flowing cannot depend on the motion of Heaven The alterations in the effects argue alteration in the cause The causes as large assigned of the Periods Monethly and Annual of the ebbings and flowings The monethly and annual alterations of the tide can depend upon nothing save on the alteration of the additions substractions of the diurnal period from the annual Three wayes of altering the proportion of the additions of the diurnal Revolution to the annual motion That which to us is hard to be understood is with Nature easie to be effected If the Diurnal motion should not alter the annual Period would cease The true Hypothesis may dispatch its revolutions in a shorter time in lesser circles than in greater the which is proved by two examples The first example The second example Two particular notable accidents in the penduli and their vibrations Admirable Problems of moveables descending by the Quadrant of a Circle and of those descending by all the cords of the whole Circle The Earths annual motion by the Ecliptick unequal by means of the Moons motion Many things may remain as yet unobserved in Astronomy Saturn for its slowness and Mercury for its rareness of appearing were amongst those that were last observed Particular structures of the Orbs of the Planets not yet well resolved The Sun passeth one half of the Zodiack nine days sooner than the other The Moons motion principally sought in the account of Eclipses Ebbings and flowings are petty things in comparison of the vastness of Seas and of the velocity of the motion of the Terrestrial Globe The causes of the inequality of the additions and substractions of the diurnal conversion from the annual motion One single motion of the terrestrial Globe sufficeth not to produce the Ebbing Flowing The opinion of Seleucus the Mathematician censured Kepler is with respect blamed Sig. Caesare Marsilius observeth the Meridian to be moveable a Nunc autem servatâ semper moderatione praegravitatis nihil credere de re observá temerè debemus 〈◊〉 forie quod postea veritas pâ—â—efecerit quamvis Libris Sanctis sive Testamenâ— Vetris sive Novi nullo modó esse possit adversum tamen propter amorem nostri erroris oderimus Lib. 2. Genesi ad Literam in fine c Si fortasscerunt Mataeologi qui cum omnum Mathematicum ignari sint tamen de â—is judicium assumunt propter aliquem locum Scripturae malè ad suum propositum detortum ausi fuerint hoc meum institutum repreâ—endere ac insectari illos nihil moror adeò ut etiam illorum judicium tanquam temerarium contemnam Non enim obscurum est Lactantium celelebrem alioqui Scriptorem sed Mathematicum parvum admodum pueriliter de forma Terrae loqui cùm deridet eos qui Terram Globâ— formam habere prodiderunt Itaque non debet mirum videri studiosis si qui tales nos etiam ridebunt Mathemata Mathematicis scribuntur quibus hi nostri labores si me non fallit opinio videbuntur etiam Reipublicae Ecclesiasticae conducere aliquid cujus Principatum Tua Sanctitas nunc tenâ—â— c Not definimus Deum primò Nâ—tura cognoscendum Deinde Doctrina recognescendum Natura ex operibus Doctrina ex pâ—aedicationibus Tertul. adver Marcion lib. 1. cap. 18. c Quaeri etiam solet quae forma figura Caeli credenda sit secundum Scripturas nostras Multi enim multum disputant de iis ribus quas majori prudentia nostri Autores omiserunt ad beatam vitam non profuturas discentibus occupaentes quod prius est multum prolixaâ— rebus salubribus impendenda temporum spatiae Quid enim ad â—e pertinet utrum Caelum sicut Sphaera undique concludat Terram in media Mundi â—ole libratam an eam ex una parte desuper velut discus operiat Sed quiaâ— de Fide agitur Scripturarum propter illam causam quam non semel commemoravimus Ne scilicet quisquam eloquia divina non intelligens cum de his rebus tale aliquid vel invenerit in Libris Nostris vel ex illis audiverit quod perceptis assertionibus adversari videatur nullo modo eis cetera utilia monentibus vel narrantibus vel praeâ—â—â—ntiantibus credat Breviter discendum est de figura Caeli hoc scisse Autores nostros quod veritas habet Sed Spiritum Dei qui per ipsos loquebatur noluisse ista docere homines nulli ad salutem profutura D. August Lib. 2. De Gen. ad literam Cap. 9. Idem etiam legitur apud Petrum Lombardum Magistrum Sententiarum d De Moitâ— etiam Caeli nonnulli fraâ—tres quaestionem movent utrum stet an moveatur quiaâ— si â—â—â—vetur inquiunt quomodo Firmamentum est Si autem stat quomodo Sydera quae in ipso fixa creduntur ab Oriente in Occidentem circuÌ„eunt Septentrionalibus breviores gyros juxta cardinem peragentibus ut Caelum si est alius nobis occulius cardo ex alio vertice sicut Sphaera si autem nullus alius cardo est vel uti discus rotari videatur Quibus respondeo Multum subtilibus laboriosis rationibus ista perquiri ut vere percipiaetur utrum ita an non ita sit quibus ineundis atque tractandis nec mihi jam tempus est nec illis esse debet quos ad salutem suam è Sanctae
therefore be 25. times so much and lastly the four inches of hair or fringe added to a small circle of an inch in diameter the same would be increased 81. times and so continually the augmentations are made with a proportion greater and greater according as the real objects that increase are lesser and lesser SAGR. The doubt which puzzled Simplicius never troubled me but certain other things indeed there are of which I desire a more distinct understanding and in particular I would know upon what ground you affirm that the said agrandizement is alwayes equal in all visible objects SALV I have already declared the same in part when I said that onely lucid objects so increased and not the obscure now I adde what remaines that of the resplendent objects those that are of a more bright light make the reflection greater and more resplendent upon our pupil whereupon they seem to augment much more than the lesse lucid and that I may no more inlarge my self upon this particular come we to that which the true Mistris of Astronomy Experience teacheth us Let us this evening when the air is very obscure observe the star of Jupiter we shall see it very glittering and very great let us afterwards look through a tube or else through a small trunk which clutching the hand close and accosting it to the eye we lean between the palm of the hands and the fingers or else by an hole made with a small needle in a paper and we shall see the said star divested of its beams but so small that we shall judge it lesse even than a sixtieth part of its great glittering light seen with the eye at liberty we may afterwards behold the Dog-stars beautiful and bigger than any of the other fixed stars which seemeth to the bare eye no great matter lesse than Jupiter but taking from it as before the irradiation its Discus will shew so little that it will not be thought the twentieth part of that of Jupiter nay he that hath not very good eyes will very hardly discern it from whence it may be rationally inferred that the said star as having a much more lively light than Jupiter maketh its irradiation greater than Jupiter doth his In the next place as to the irradiation of the Sun and Moon it is as nothing by means of their magnitude which possesseth of it self alone so great a space in our eye that it leaveth no place for the adventitious rayes so that their faces seem close clipt and terminate We may assure our selves of the same truth by another experiment which I have often made triall of we may assure ourselves I say that bodies shining with most lively light do irradiate or beam forth rayes more by far than those that are of a more languishing light I have many times seen Jupiter and Venus together twenty or thirty degrees distant from the Sun and the air being very dark Venus appeared eight or ten times bigger than Jupiter being both beheld by the eye at liberty but being beheld afterwards with the Telescope the Discus of Jupiter discovered it self to be four or more times greater than that of Venus but the vivacity of the splendour of Venus was incomparably bigger than the languishing light of Jupiter which was only because of Jupiters being far from the Sun and from us and Venus neer to us and to the Sun These things premised it will not be difficult to comprehend how Mars when it is in opposition to the Sun and therefore neerer to the Earth by seven times and more than it is towards the conjunction cometh to appear scarce four or five times bigger in that state than in this when as it should appear more than fifty times so much of which the only irradiation is the cause for if we divest it of the adventitious rayes we shall find it exactly augmented with the due proportion but to take away the capillitious border the Telescope is the best and only means which inlarging its Discus nine hundred or a thousand times makes it to be seen naked and terminate as that of the Moon and different from it self in the two positions according to its due proportions to an hair Again as to Venus that in its vespertine conjunction when it is below the Sun ought to shew almost fourty times bigger than in the other matutine conjunction and yet doth not appear so much as doubled it happeneth besides the effect of the irradiation that it is horned and its crescents besides that they are sharp they do receive the Suns light obliquely and therefore emit but a faint splendour so that as being little and weak its irradiation becometh the lesse ample and vivacious than when it appeareth to us with its Hemisphere all shining but now the Telescope manifestly shews its hornes to have been as terminate and distinct as those of the Moon and appear as it were with a great circle and in a proportion those well neer fourty times greater than its same Discus at such time as it is superiour to the Sun in its ultimate matutine apparition SAGR. Oh Nicholas Copernicus how great would have been thy joy to have seen this part of thy Systeme confirmed with so manifest experiments SALV T is true But how much lesse the fame of his sublime wit amongst the intelligent when as it is seen as I also said before that he did constantly continue to affirm being perswaded thereto by reason that which sensible experiments seemed to contradict for I cannot cease to wonder that he should constantly persist in saying that Venus revolveth about the Sun and is more than six times farther from us at one time than at another and also seemeth to be alwayes of an equal bigness although it ought to shew forty times bigger when nearest to us than when farthest off SAGR. But in Jupiter Saturn and Mercury I believe that the differences of their apparent magnitudes should seem punctually to answer to their different distances SALV In the two Superiour ones I have made precise observation yearly for this twenty two years last past In Mercury there can be no observation of moment made by reason it suffers not it self to be seen save onely in its greatest digâ—ssieons from the Sun in which its distances from the earth are insensibly unequal and those differences consequently not to be observed as also its mutations of figures which must absolutely happen in it as in Venus And if we do see it it must of necessity appear in form of a Semicircle as Venus likewise doth in her greatest digressions but its discns is so very small and its splendor so very great by reason of its vicinity to the Sun that the virtue of the Telescope doth not suffice to clip its tresses or adventitious rayes so as to make them appear shaved round about It remains that we remove that which seemed a great inconvenience in the
motion of the Earth namely that all the Planets moving about the Sun it alone not solitary as the rest but in company with the Moon and the whole Elementary Sphear should move round about the Sun in a year and that the said Moon withal should move every moneth about the earth Here it is necessary once again to exclaim and extol the admirable perspicacity of Copernicus and withal to condole his misfortune in that he is not now alive in our dayes when for removing of the seeming absurdity of the Earth and Moons motion in consort we see Jupiter as if it were another Earth not in consort with the Moon but accompanied by four Moons to rovolve about the Sun in 12. years together with what ever things the Orbs of the four Medicaean Stars can contain within them SALV Why do you call the four jovial Planets Moons SAGR. Such they would seem to be to one that standing in Jupiter should behold them for they are of themselves dark and receive their light from the Sun which is manifest from their being eclipsed when they enter into the cone of Jupiters shadow and because onely those their Hemispheres that look towards the Sun are illuminated to us that are without their Orbs and nearer to the Sun they seem alwayes lucid but to one that should be in Jupiter they would shew all illuminated at such time as they were in the upper parts of their circles but in the parts inferiour that is between Jupiter and the Sun they would from Jupiter be observed to be horned and in a word they would to the observators standing in Jupiter make the self same changes of Figure that to us upon the Earth the Moon doth make You see now how these three things which at first seemed dissonant do admirably accord with the Copernican Systeme Here also by the way may Simplicius see with what probability one may conclude that the Sun and not the Earth is in the Centre of the Planetary conversions And since the Earth is now placed amongst mundane Bodies that undoubtedly move about the Sun to wit above Mercury and Venus and below Saturn Jupiter and Mars shall it not be in like manner probable and perhaps necessary to grant that it also moveth round SIMP These accidents are so notable and conspicuous that it is not possible but that Ptolomy and others his Sectators should have had knowledge of them and having so it is likewise necessary that they have found a way to render reasons of such and so sensible appearances that were sufficient and also congruous and probable seeing that they have for so long a time been received by such numbers of learned men SALV You argue very well but you know that the principal scope of Astronomers is to render only reason for the appearances in the Caelestial Bodies and to them and to the motions of the Stars to accomodate such structures and compositions of Circles that the motions following those calculations answer to the said appearances little scrupling to admit of some exorbitances that indeed upon other accounts they would much stick at And Copernicus himself writes that he had in his first studies restored the Science of Astronomy upon the very suppositions of Ptolomy and in such manner corrected the motions of the Planets that the computations did very exactly agree with the Phaenomena and the Phaenomena with the supputations in case that he took the Planets severally one by one But he addeth that in going about to put together all the structures of the particular Fabricks there resulted thence a Monster and Chimaera composed of members most disproportionate to one another and altogether incompatible So that although it satisfied an Astronomer meerly Arithmetical yet did it not afford satisfaction or content to the Astronomer Phylosophical And because he very well understood that if one might salve the Caelestial appearances with false assumptions in nature it might with much more ease be done by true suppositions he set himself diligently to search whether any amongst the antient men of fame had ascribed to the World any other structure than that commonly received by Ptolomy and finding that some Pythagoreans had in particular assigned the Diurnal conversion to the Earth and others the annual motion also he began to compare the appearances and particularities of the Planets motions with these two new suppositions all which things jumpt exactly with his purpose and seeing the whole correspond with admirable facility to its parts he imbraced this new Systeme and it took up his rest SIMP But what great exorbitancies are there in the Ptolomaick Systeme for which there are not greater to be found in this of Copernicus SALV In the Ptolomaick Hypothesis there are diseases and in the Copernican their cures And first will not all the Sects of Phylosophers account it a great inconvenience that a body naturally moveable in circumgyration should move irregularly upon its own Centre and regularly upon another point And yet there are such deformed motions as these in the Ptolomaean Hypothesis but in the Copernican all move evenly about their own Centres In the Ptolomaick it is necessary to assign to the Caelestial bodies contrary motions and to make them all to move from East to West and at the same time from West to East But in the Copernican all the Caelestial revolutions are towards one onely way from West to East But what shall we say of the apparent motion of the Planets so irregular that they not only go one while swift and another while slow but sometimes wholly seace to move and then after a long time return back again To salve which appearances Ptolomie introduceth very great Epicicles accommodating them one by one to each Planet with some rules of incongruous motions which are all with one single motion of the Earth taken away And would not you Simplicius call it a great absurditie if in the Ptolomaick Hypothesis in which the particular Planets have their peculiar Orbs assigned them one above another one must be frequently forced to say that Mars constituted above the Sphaere of the Sun doth so descend that breaking the Solar Orb it goeth under it and approacheth nearer to the Earth than to the Body of the Sun and by and by immeasurably ascendeth above the same And yet this and other exorbitancies are remedied by the sole and single annual motion of the Earth SAGR. I would gladly be bettter informed how these stations and retrograde and direct motions which did ever seem to me great improbalities do accord in this Copernican Systeme SALV You see Gentlemen with what facility and simplicity the annual motion were it appertaining to the Earth is accommodated to render a reason of the apparent exorbitances that are observed in the motions of the five Planets Saturn Jupiter Mars Venus and Mercury taking them all away and reducing them to equal and regular motions And of this admirable effect Nicholas