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
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
invented it for I do believe for certain that he first procured by help of the senses such experiments and observations as he could to assure him as much as it was possible of the conclusion and that he afterwards sought out the means how to demonstrate it For this is the usual course in demonstrative Sciences and the reason thereof is because when the conclusion is true by help of resolutive Method one may hit upon some proposition before demonstrated or come to some principle known per se but if the conclusion be false a man may proceed in infinitum and never meet with any truth already known but very oft he shall meet with some impossibility or manifest absurdity Nor need you question but that Pythagoras along time before he found the demonstration for which he offered the Hecatomb had been certain that the square of the side subtending the right angle in a rectangle triangle was equal to the square of the other two sides and the certainty of the conclusion conduced not a little to the investigating of the demonstration understanding me alwayes to mean in demonstrative Sciences But what ever was the method of Aristotle and whether his arguing à priori preceded sense à posteriori or the contrary it sufficeth that the same Aristotle preferreth as hath been oft said sensible experiments before all discourses besides as to the Arguments à priori their force hath been already examined Now returning to my purposed matter I say that the things in our times discovered in the Heavens are and have been such that they may give absolute satisfaction to all Philosophers forasmuch as in the particular bodies and in the universal expansion of Heaven there have been and are continually seen just such accidents as we call generations and corruptions being that excellent Astronomers have observed many Comets generated and dissolved in parts higher than the Lunar Orb besides the two new Stars Anno 1572 and Anno 1604 without contradiction much higher than all the Planets and in the face of the Sun it self by help of the Telescope certain dense and obscure substances in semblance very like to the foggs about the Earth are seen to be produced and dissolved and many of these are so vast that they far exceed not only the Mediterranian Streight but all Affrica and Asia also Now if Aristotle had seen these things what think you he would have said and done Simplicius SIMPL. I know not what Aristotle would have done or said that was the great Master of all the Sciences but yet I know in part what his Sectators do and say and ought to do and say unlesse they would deprive themselves of their guide leader and Prince in Philosophy As to the Comets are not those Modern Astronomers who would make them Coelestial convinced by the Anti-Tycho yea and overcome with their own weapons I mean by way of Paralaxes and Calculations every way tryed concluding at the last in favour of Aristotle that they are all Elementary And this being overthrown which was as it were their foundation have these Novellists any thing more wherewith to maintain their assertion SALV Hold a little good Simplicius this modern Author what saith he to the new Stars Anno 1572 and 1604 and to the Solar spots for as to the Comets I for my own particular little care to make them generated under or above the Moon nor did I ever put much stresse on the loquacity of Tycho nor am I hard to believe that their matter is Elementary and that they may elevate sublimate themselves at their pleasure without meeting with any obstacle from the impenetrability of the Peripatetick Heaven which I hold to be far more thin yielding and subtil than our Air and as to the calculations of the Parallaxes first the uncertainty whether Comets are subject to such accidents and next the inconstancy of the observations upon which the computations are made make me equally suspect both those opinions and the rather for that I see him you call Anti-Tycho sometimes stretch to his purpose or else reject those observations which interfere with his design SIMPL. As to the new Stars Anti-Tycho extricates himself finely in three or four words saying That those modern new Stars are no certain parts of the Coelestial bodies and that the adversaries if they will prove alteration and generation in those superior bodies must shew some mutations that have been made in the Stars described so many ages past of which there is no doubt but that they be Coelestial bodies which they can never be able to do Next as to those matters which some affirm to generate and dissipate in the face of the Sun he makes no mention thereof wherefore I conclude that he believed them fictious or the illusions of the Tube or at most some petty effects caused by the Air and in brief any thing rather than matters Coelestial SALV But you Simplicius what answer could you give to the opposition of these importunate spots which are started up to disturb the Heavens and more than that the Peripatetick Philosophy It cannot be but that you who are so resolute a Champion of it have found some reply or solution for the same of which you ought not to deprive us SIMPL. I have heard sundry opinions about this particular One saith They are Stars which in their proper Orbs like as Venus and Mercury revolve about the Sun and in passing under it represent themselves to us obscure and for that they are many they oft happen to aggregate their parts together and afterwards seperate again Others believe them to be äerial impressions others the illusions of the chrystals and others other things But I incline to think yea am verily perswaded That they are an aggregate of many several opacous bodies as it were casually concurrent among themselves And therefore we often see that in one of those spots one may number ten or more such small bodies which are of irregular figures and seem to us like flakes of snow or flocks of wooll or moaths flying they vary fire amongst themselves and one while sever another while meet and most of all beneath the Sun about which as about their Centre they continually move But yet must we not therefore grant that they are generated or dissolved but that at sometimes they are hid behind the body of the Sun and at other times though remote from it yet are they not seen for the vicinity of the immeasurable light of the Sun in regard that in the eccentrick Orb of the Sun there is constituted as it were an Onion composed of many folds one within another each of which being studded with certain small spots doth move and albeit their motion at first seemeth inconstant and irregular yet neverthelesse it is said at last to be observed that the very same spots as before do within a determinate time return again This seemeth to me the fittest answer
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
for the Reasons alledged admit in many places Expositions far from the Sense of the words and moreover we not being able to affirm that all Interpreters speak by Divine Inspiration For if it were so then there would be no difference between them about the Senses of the same places I should think that it would be an act of great prudence to make it unlawful for any one to usurp Texts of Scripture and as it were to force them to maintain this or that Naturall Conclusion for truth of which Sence Demonstrative and necessary Reasons may one time or other assure us the contrary For who will prescribe bounds to the Wits of men Who will assert that all that is sensible and knowable in the World is already discovered and known Will not they that in other points disagree with us confess this and it is a great truth that Eaquae scimus sint minima pars corum quae ignoramus That those Truths which we know are very few in comparison of those which we know not Nay more if we have it from the Mouth of the Holy Ghost that Deus tradidit Mundum disputationi eorum ut non inveniat homo opus quod operatus est Deus ab initio ad finem One ought not as I conceive to stop the way to free Philosophating touching the things of the World and of Nature as if that they were already certainly found and all manifest nor ought it to be counted rashness if one do not sit down satisfied with the opinions now become as it were commune nor ought any persons to be displeased if others do not hold in natural Disputes to that opinion which best pleaseth them and especially touching Problems that have for thousands of years been controverted amongst the greatest Philosophers as is the Stability of the Sun and Mobility of the Earth an opinion held by Pythagoras and by his whole Sect by Heraclides Ponticus who was of the same opininion by Phylolaus the Master of Plato and by Plato himself as Aristotle relateth and of which Plutarch writeth in the life of Numa that the said Plato when he was grown old said It is a most absurd thing to think otherwise The same was believed by Aristarchus Samius as we have it in Archimedes and probably by Archimedes himself by Nicetas the Philosopher upon the testimony of Scicero and by many others And this opinion hath finally been amplified and with many Observations and Demonstrations confirmed by Nicholaus Copernicus And Seneca a most eminent Philosopher in his Book De Cometis advertizeth us that we ought with great diligence seek for an assured knowledge whether it be Heaven or the Earth in which the Diurnal Conversion resides And for this cause it would probably be prudent and profitable counsel if besides the Articles which concern our Salvation and the establishment of our Faith against the stability of which there is no fear that any valid and solid Doctrine can ever rise up men would not aggregate and heap up more without necessity And if it be so it would certainly be a preposterous thing to introduce such Articles at the request of persons who besides that we know not that they speak by inspiration of Divine Grace we plainly see that there might be wished in them the understanding which would be necessary first to enable them to comprehend and then to discuss the Demonstrations wherewith the subtiler Sciences proceed in confirming such like Conclusions Nay more I should say were it lawful to speak my judgment freely on this Argument that it would haply more suit with the Decorum and Majesty of those Sacred Volumes if care were taken that every shallow and vulgar Writer might not authorize his Books which are not seldome grounded upon foolish fancies by inserting into them Places of Holy Scripture interpreted or rather distorted to Senses as remote from the right meaning of the said Scripture as they are neer to derirision who not without ostentation flourish out their Writings therewith Examples of such like abuses there might many be produced but for this time I will confine my self to two not much besides these matters of Astronomy One of which is that of those Pamphlets which were published against the Medicean Planets of which I had the fortune to make the discovery against the existence of which there were brought many places of Sacred Scripture Now that all the World seeth them to be Planets I would gladly hear with what new interpretations those very Antagonists do expound the Scripture and excuse their own simplicity The other example is of him who but very lately hath Printed against Astronomers and Philosophers that the Moon doth not receive its light from the Sun but is of its own nature resplendent which imagination he in the close confirmeth or to say better perswadeth himself that he confirmeth by sundry Texts of Scripture which he thinks cannot be reconciled unlesse his opinion should be true and necessary Neverthelesse the Moon of it self is Tenebrose and yet it is no lesse lucid than the Splendor of the Sun Hence it is manifest that these kinde of Authors in regard they did not dive into the true Sence of the Scriptures would in case their authority were of any great moment have imposed a necessity upon others to believe such Conclusions for true as were repugnant to manifest Reason and to Sense Which abuse Deus avertat that it do not gain Countenance and Authority for if it should it would in a short time be necessary to proscribe and inhibit all the Contemplative Sciences For being that by nature the number of such as are very unapt to understand perfectly both the Sacred Scriptures and the other Sciences is much greater than that of the skilfull and intelligent those of the first sort superficially running over the Scriptures would arrogate to themselves an Authority of decreeing upon all the Questions in Nature by vertue of some Word by them misunderstood and produced by the Sacred Pen-men to another purpose Nor would the small number of the Intelligent be able to repress the furious Torrent of those men who would finde so many the more followers in that the gaining the reputation of Wise men without pains or Study is far more grateful to humane Nature than the consuming our selves with restless contemplations about the most painfull Arts. Therefore we ought to return infinite thanks to Almighty God who of his Goodness freeth us from this fear in that he depriveth such kinde of persons of all Authority and reposeth the Consulting Resolving and Decreeing upon so important Determinations in the extraordinary Wisdom and Candor of most Sacred Fathers and in the Supream Authority of those who being guided by his Holy Spirit cannot but determin Holily So ordering things that of the levity of those other men there is no account made This kinde of men are those as I believe against whom not without Reason Grave and Holy Writers do so much
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
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
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
touching whose motion none stand in doubt do all describe as hath been said the great circle of their Orb and in that maintain themselves without any variation The absurdity is farther enlarged which let be the sixth inconvenience to him that more seriously examineth the thing in that no thought can comprehend what ought to be the solidity of that immense Sphere whose depth so stedfastly holdeth fast such a multitude of Stars which without ever changing site among themselves are with so much concord carried about with so great disparity of motions Or else supposing the Heavens to be fluid as we are with more reason to believe so as that every Star wandereth to and fro in it by wayes of its own what rules shall regulate their motions and to what purpose so as that being beheld from the Earth they appear as if they were made by one onely Sphere It is my opinion that they might so much more easily do that and in a more commodious manner by being constituted immoveable than by being made errant by how much more facile it is to number the quarries in the Pavement of a Piazza than the rout of boyes which run up and down upon them And lastly which is the seventh instance if we attribute the Diurnal Motion to the highest Heaven it must be constituted of such a force and efficacy as to carry along with it the innumerable multitude of fixed Stars Bodies all of vast magnitude and far bigger than the Earth and moreover all the Spheres of the Planets notwithstanding that both these and those of their own nature move the contrary way And besides all this it must be granted that also the Element of Fire and the greater part of the Air are likewise forcibly hurried along with the rest and that the sole little Globe of the Earth pertinaciously stands still and unmoved against such an impulse a thing which in my thinking is very difficult nor can I see how the Earth a pendent body and equilibrated upon its centre exposed indifferently to either motion or rest and environed with a liquid ambient should not yield also as the rest and be carried about But we find none of these obstacles in making the Earth to move a small body and insensible compared to the Universe and therefore unable to offer it any violence SAGR. I find my fancy disturbed with certain conjectures so confusedly sprung from your later discourses that if I would be enabled to apply my self with atention to what followeth I must of necessity attempt whether I can better methodize them and gather thence their true construction if haply any can be made of them and peradventure the proceeding by interrogations may help me the more easily to expresse my self Therefore I demand first of Simplicius whether he believeth that divers motions may naturally agree to one and the same moveable body or else that it be requisite its natural and proper motion be onely one SIMPL. To one single moveable there can naturally agree but one sole motion and no more the rest all happen accidentally and by participation like as to him that walketh upon the Deck of a Ship his proper motion is that of his walk his motion by participation that which carrieth him to his Port whither he would never with his walking have arrived if the Ship with its motion had not wafted him thither SAGR. Tell me secondly That motion which is communicated to any moveable by participation whilest it moveth by it self with another motion different from the participated is it necessary that it do reside in some certain subject by it self or else can it subsist in nature alone without other support SIMPL. Aristotle giveth you an answer to all these questions and tels you that as of one sole moveable the motion is but one so of one sole motion the moveable is but one and consequently that without the inherence in its subject no motion can either subsist or be imagined SAGR. I would have you tell me in the third place whether you beblieve that the Moon and the other Planets and Coelestial bodies have their proper motions and what they are SIMPL. They have so and they be those according to which they run through the Zodiack the Moon in a Moneth the Sun in a Year Mars in two the Starry Sphere in those so many thousand And these are their proper or natural motions SAGR. But that motion wherewith I see the fixed Stars and with them all the Planets go unitedly from East to West and return round to the East again in twenty four hours how doth it agree with them SIMPL. It suiteth with them by participation SAGR. This then resides not in them and not residing in them nor being able to subsist without some subject in which it is resident it must of force be the proper and natural motion of some other Sphere SIMPL. For this purpose Astronomers and Philosophers have found another high Sphere above all the rest without Stars to which Natural agreeth the Diurnal Motion and this they call the Primum mobile the which carrieth along with it all the inferiour Spheres contributing and imparting its motion to them SAGR. But when without introducing other Spheres unknown and hugely vast without other motions or communicated raptures with leaving to each Sphere its sole and simple motion without intermixing contrary motions but making all turn one way as it is necessary that they do depending all upon one sole principle all things proceed orderly and correspond with most perfect harmony why do we reject this Phoenomenon and give our assent to those prodigious and laborious conditions SIMPL. The difficulty lyeth in finding out this so natural and expeditous way SAGR. In my judgment this is found Make the Earth the Primum mobile that is make it turn round its own axis in twenty four hours and towards the same point with all the other Spheres and without participating this same motion to any other Planet or Star all shall have their risings settings and in a word all their other appearances SIMPL. The business is to be able to make the Earth move without a thousand inconveniences SALV All the inconveniences shall be removed as fast as you propound them and the things spoken hitherto are onely the primary and more general inducements which give us to believe that the diurnal conversion may not altogether without probability be applyed to the Earth rather than to all the rest of the Universe the which inducements I impose not upon you as inviolable Axioms but as hints which carry with them somewhat of likelihood And in regard I know very well that one sole experiment or concludent demonstration produced on the contrary part sufficeth to batter to the ground these and a thousand other probable Arguments therefore it is not fit to stay here but proceed forwards and hear what Simplicius answereth and what greater probabilities or stronger
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
stand us in stead likewise if the computation succeed as I expect for a warning how we do in other occurrences suffer our selves as the saying is to be taken with the enemies shouts and surrender up our belief to what ever first presents it self to our fancy And now to give all advantages to the Peripateticks and Tychonicks let us suppose our selves to be under the Equinoctial there to shoot a piece of Ordinance point blank Eastwards at a mark five hundred paces off First let us see thus as I said in a level what time the shot after it is gone out of the Piece taketh to arrive at the mark which we know to be very little and is certainly no more than that wherein a travailer walketh two steps which also is less than the second of a minute of an hour for supposing that the travailer walketh three miles in an hour which are nine thousand paces being that an hour containes three thousand six hundred second minutes the travailer walketh two steps and an half in a second a second therefore is more than the time of the balls motion And for that the diurnal revolution is twenty four hours the Western horizon riseth fifteen degrees in an hour that is fifteen first minutes of a degree in one first minute of an hour that is fifteen seconds of a degree in one second of an hour and because one second is the time of the shot therefore in this time the Western horizon riseth fifteen seconds of a degree and so much likewise the mark and therefore fifteen seconds of that circle whose semidiameter is five hundred paces for so much the distance of the mark from the Piece was supposed Now let us look in the table of Arches and Chords see here is Copernicus his book what part is the chord of fifteen seconds of the semidiameter that is five hundred paces Here you see the chord or subtense of a first minute to be less than thirty of those parts of which the semidiameter is an hundred thousand Therefore the chord of a second minute shall be less then half of one of those parts that is less than one of those parts of which the semidiameter is two hundred thousand and therefore the chord of fifteen conds shall be less than fifteen of those same two hundred thousand parts but that which is less than fifteen parts of two hundred thousand is also more than that which is four centesmes of five hundred therefore the ascent of the mark in the time of the balls motion is lesse than four centesmes that is than one twenty fifth part of a pace it shall be therefore about two inches And so much consequently shall be the variation of each Western shot the Earth being supposed to have a diurnal motion Now if I shall tell you that this variation I mean of falling two inches short of what they would do in case the Earth did not move upon triall doth happen in all shots how will you convince me Simplicius shewing me by an experiment that it is not so Do you not see that it is impossible to confute me unless you first find out a way to shoot at a mark with so much exactnesse as never to misse an hairs bredth For whilst the ranges of great shot consist of different numbers of paces as de facto they do I will affirm that in each of those variations there is contained that of two inches caused by the motion of the Earth SAGR. Pardon me Salviatus you are too liberal For I would tell the Peripateticks that though every shot should hit the very centre of the mark that should not in the least disprove the motion of the Earth For the Gunners are so constantly imployed in levelling the sight and gun to the mark as that they can hit the same notwithstanding the motion of the Earth And I say that if the Earth should stand still the shots would not prove true but the Occidental would be too low and the Oriental too high now let Simplicius disprove me if he can SALV This is a subtilty worthy of Sagredus But whether this variation be to be observed in the motion or in the rest of the Earth it must needs be very small it must needs be swallowed up in those very great ones which sundry accidents continually produce And all this hath been spoken and granted on good grounds to Simplicius and only withâ—n intent to advertise him how much it importeth to be cautious in granting many experiments for true to those who never had tried them but only eagerly alledged them just as they ought to be for the serving their purpose This is spoken I say by way of surplussage and Corollary to Simplicius for the real truth is that as concerning these shots the same ought exactly to befall aswell in the motion as in the rest of the Terrestrial Globe as likewise it will happen in all the other experiments that either have been or can be produced which have at first blush so much semblance of truth as the antiquated opinion of the Earths motion hath of equivocation SAGR. As for my part I am fully satisfied and very well understand that who so shall imprint in his fancy this general community of the diurnal conversion amongst all things Terrestrial to all which it naturally agreeth aswell as in the old conceit of its rest about the centre shall doubtlesse discern the fallacy and equivoke which made the arguments produced seem eoncluding There yet remains in me some haesitancy as I have hinted before touching the flight of birds the which having as it were an animate faculty of moving at their pleasure with a thousand motions and to stay long in the Air separated from the Earth and therein with most irregular windings to go fluttering to and again I cannot conceive how amongst so great a confusion of motions they should be able to retain the first commune motion and in what manner having once made any stay behind they can get it up again and overtake the same with flying and keep pace with the Towers and trees which hurry with so precipitant a course towards the East I say so precipitant for in the great circle of the Globe it is little lesse than a thousand miles an hour whereof the flight of the swallow I believe makes not fifty SALV If the birds were to keep pace with the course of the trees by help of their wings they would of necessity flie very fast and if they were deprived of the universal conversion they would lag as far behind and their flight would seem as furious towards the West and to him that could discern the same it would much exceed the flight of an arrow but I think we could not be able to perceive it no more than we see a Canon bullet whil'st driven by the fury of the fire it flieth through the Air But the truth is that the proper motion of birds I
Stars SALV Perhaps he is the same with the Author of the Book called Anti-Tycho SIMP He is the very same but the confutation of the new Stars is not in his Anti-Tycho onely so far as he proveth that they were not prejudicial to the inalterability and ingenerability of the Heavens as I told you before but after he had published his Anti-Tycho having found out by help of the Parallaxes a way to demonstrate that they also are things elementary and contained within the concave of the Moon he hath writ this other Book de tribus novis Stellis c. and therein also inserted the Arguments against Copernicus I have already shewn you what he hath written touching these new Stars in his Anti-Tycho where he denied not but that they were in the Heavens but he proved that their production altered not the inalterability of the Heavens and that he did with a Discourse purely philosophical in the same manner as you have already heard And I then forgot to tell you how that he afterwards did finde out a way to remove them out of the Heavens for he proceeding in this confutation by way of computations and parallaxes matters little or nothing at all understood by me I did not mention them to you but have bent all my studies upon these arguments against the motion of the Earth which are purely natural SALV I understand you very well and it will be convenient after we have heard what he hath to say against Copernicus that we hear or see at least the manner wherewith he by way of Parallaxes proveth those new stars to be elementary which so many famous Astronomers constitute to be all very high and amongst the stars of the Firmament and as this Author accomplisheth such an enterprize of pulling the new stars out of heaven and placing them in the elementary Sphere he shall be worthy to be highly exalted and transferred himself amongst the stars or at least that his name be by fame eternâ—â—ed amongst them Yet before we enter upon this let us hear what he alledgeth against the opinion of Copernicus and do you begin to recite his Arguments SIMP It will not be necessary that we read them ad verbum because they are very prolix but I as you may see in reading them several times attentively have marked in the margine those words wherein the strength of his arguments lie and it will suffice to read them The first Argument beginneth here Et primo si opinio Copernici recipiatur Criterium naturalis Philosophiae ni prorsus tollatur vehementer salâ—em labefactari videtur In our Idiom thus And first if Copernicus his opinion be imbraced the Criterium of natural Philosophy will be if not wholly subverted yet at least extreamly shaken Which according to the opinion of all the sects of Philosophers requireth that Sense and Experience be our guides in philosophating But in the Copernican position the Senses are greatly deluded whil'st that they visibly discover neer at hand in a pure Medium the gravest bodies to descend perpendicularly downwards never deviating a single hairs breadth from rectitude and yet according to the opinion of Copernicus the sight in so manifest a thing is deceived and that motion is not reall straight but mixt of right and circular SALV This is the first argument that Aristotle Ptolomy and all their followers do produce to vvhich we have abundantly answered and shewn the Paralogisme and with sufficient plainnesse proved that the motion in common to us and other moveables is as if there were no such thing but because true conclusions meet with a thousand accidents that confirme them I vvill with the favour of this Philosopher adde something more and you Simplicius personating him answer me to vvhat I shall ask you And first tell me vvhat effect hath that stone upon you which falling from the top of the Tower is the cause that you perceive that motion for if its fall doth operate upon you neither more nor lesse than its standing still on the Towers top you doubtlesse could not discern its descent or distinguish its moving from its lying still SIMP I comprehend its moving in relation to the Tower for that I see it one while just against such a mark in the said Tower and another while against another lower and so successively till that at last I perceive it arrived at the ground SALV Then if that stone were let fall from the tallons of an Eagle flying and should descend thorow the simple invisible Air and you had no other object visible and stable wherewith to make comparisons to that you could not perceive its motion SIMP No nor the stone it self for if I would see it when it is at the highest I must raise up my head and as it descendeth I must hold it lower and lower and in a word must continually move either that or my eyes following the motion of the said stone SALV You have novv rightly answered you knovv then that the stone lyeth still vvhen without moving your eye you alwayes see it before you and you know that it moveth when for the keeping it in sight you must move the organ of sight the eye So then vvhen ever without moving your eye you continually behold an object in the self same aspect you do alvvays judge it immoveable SIMP I think it must needs be so SALV Novv fancy your self to be in a ship and to have fixed your eye on the point of the Sail-yard Do you think that because the ship moveth very fast you must move your eye to keep your sight alvvayes upon the point of the Sail-yard and to follow its motion SIMP I am certain that I should need to make no change at all and that not only in the sight but if I had aimed a Musket at it I should never have need let the ship move how it vvill to stir it an hairs breadth to keep it full upon the same SALV And this happens because the motion which the Ship conferreth on the Sail-yard it conferreth also upon you and upon your eye so that you need not stir it a jot to behold the top of the Sail-yard and consequently it vvill seem to you immoveaable Now this Discourse being applied to the revolution of the Earth and to the stone placed in the top of the Tower in which you cannot discern any motion because that you have that motion vvhich is necessary for the following of it in common with it from the Earth so that you need not move your eye When again there is conferred upon it the motion of descent which is its particular motion and not yours and that it is intermixed with the circular that part of the circular which is common to the stone and to the eye continueth to be imperceptible and the right onely is perceived for that to the perception of it you must follow it with your eye looking lower and lower I wish for
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
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
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
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
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
of the ebbing and flowing you must finde and give us some reason why it doth in the self same place run one while one way and another while another Effects that being contrary irregular can never be deduced from any uniform and constant Cause And this Argument that overthrows the Hypothesis of the motion contributed to the Sea from the Heavens diurnal motion doth also confute that Position of those who would admit the sole diurnal motion of the Earth and believe that they are able with that alone to give a reason of the Flux and Reflux Of which effect since it is irregular the cause must of necessity be irregular and alterable SIMP I have nothing to reply neither of my own by reason of the weakness of my understanding nor of that of others for that the Opinion is so new But I could believe that if it were spread amongst the Schools there would not want Phylosophers able to oppose it SAGR. Expect such an occasion and we in the mean time if it seem good to Salviatus will proceed forward SALV All that which hath been said hitherto pertaineth to the diurnal period of the ebbing and flowing of which we have in the first place demonstrated in general the primary and universal Cause without which no such effect would follow Afterwâ—â—ds passing to the particular Accidents various and in a certain sort irregular that are observed therein We have handled the secondary and concommitant Causes upon which they depend Now follow the two other Periods Monethly and Annual which do not bring with them new and different Accidents other than those already considered in the diurnal Period but they operate on the same Accidents by rendring them greater and lesser in several parts of the Lunar Moneth and in several times of the Solar Year as if that the Moon and Sun did each conceive it self apart in operating and producing of those Effects a thing that totally clasheth with my understanding which seeing how that this of Seas is a local and sensible motion made in an immense mass of Water it cannot be brought to subscribe to Lights to temperate Heats to predominacies by occult Qualities and to such like vain Imaginations that are so far from being or being possible to be Causes of the Tide that on the contrary the Tide is the cause of them that is of bringing them into the brains more apt for loquacity and ostentation than for the speculation and discovering of the more abstruse secrets of Nature which kind of people before they can be brought to pronounce that wise ingenious and modest sentence I know it not suffer to escape from their mouths and pens all manner of extravagancies And the onely observing that the same Moon and the same Sun operate not with their light with their motion with great heat or with temperate on the lesser reeeptaclâ—s of Water but that to effect their flowing by heat they must be reduced to little lesse than boiling and in short we not being able artificially to imitate any way the motions of the Tide save only by the motion of the Vessel ought it not to satisfie every one that all the other things alledged as causes of those effects are vaine fancies and altogether estranged from the Truth I say therefore that if it be true that of one effect there is but one sole primary cause and that between the cause and effect there is a firm and constant connection it is necessary that whensoever there is seen a firm and constant alteration in the effect there be a firm and constant alteration in the cause And because the alterations that happen in the ebbing and flowing in several parts of the Year and Moneths have their periods firm and constant it is necessary to say that a regular alteration in those same times happeneth in the primary cause of the ebbings and flowings And as for the alteration that in those times happens in the ebbings and flowings consisteth onely in their greatness that is in the Waters rising and falling more or lesse and in running with greater or lesse impetus therefore it is necessary that that which is the primary cause of the ebbing and flowing doth in those same determinate times increase and diminish its force But we have already concluded upon the inequality and irregularity of the motion of the Vessels containing the Water to be the primary cause of the ebbings and flowings Therefore it is necessary that that irregularity from time to time correspondently grow more irregular that is grow greater and lesser Now it is requisite that we call to minde that the irregularity that is the different velocity of the motions of the Vessels to wit of the parts of the Terrestrial Superficies dependeth on their moving with a compound motion resulting from the commixtion of the two motions Annual and Diurnal proper to the whole Terrestrial Globe of which the Diurnal conversion by one while adding to and another while substracting from the Annual motion is that which produceth the irregularity in the compound motion so that in the additions and substractions that the Diurnal revolution maketh from the Annual motion consisteth the original cause of the irregular motion of the Vessels and consequently of the Ebbing and Flowing insomuch that if these additions and substractions should alwayes proceed in the same proportion in respect of the Annual motion the cause of the Ebbing and Flowing would indeed continue but yet so as that they would perpetually return in the self same manner But we are to finde out the cause of making the same Ebbings and Flowings in divers times greater and lesser Therefore we must if we will retain the identity of the cause find the alteration in these additions and substractions that make them more less potent in producing those effects which depend thereupon But I see not how that potency and impotence can be introduced unlesse by making the same additions and substractions one while greater and another while lesser so that the acceleration and the retardment of the compound motion may be made sometimes in greater and sometimes in lesser proportion SAGR. I feel my self very gently led as it were by the hand and though I finde no rubs in the way yet neverthelesse like a blind man I see not whether your Clue leadeth me nor can I imagine where such a Journey will end SALV Though there be a great difference between my slow pac't Philosophy and your more nimble Reason yet neverthelesse in this particular which we are now upon I do not much wonder if the apprehensivenesse of your wit be a little obscured by the dark and thick mist that hides the mark at which we aime and that which lesseneth my admiration is the remembrance of the many hours many dayes yea more many nights that I have consumed in this contemplation and of the many times that despairing to bring it to a period I have for an incouragement of my self
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
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
the said Divine Wisdome surpasseth all humane Judgment and Conjecture But that that self same God who hath indued us with Senses Discourse and Understanding hath intended laying aside the use of these to give the knowledg of those things by other means which we may attain by these so as that even in those Natural Conclusions which either by Sensible Experiments or Necessary Demonstrations are set before our eyes or our Understanding we ought to deny Sense and Reason I do not conceive that I am bound to believe it and especially in those Sciences of which but a small part and that divided into Conclusions is to be found in the Scripture Such as for instance is that of Astronomy of which there is so small a part in Holy Writ that it doth not so much as name any of the Planets except the Sun and the Moon and once or twice onely Venus under the name of Lucifer For if the Holy Writers had had any intention to perswade People to believe the Dispositions and Motions of the Coelestial Bodies and that consequently we are still to derive that knowledge from the Sacred Books they would not in my opinion have spoken so little thereof that it is as much as nothing in comparison of the infinite admirable Conclusions which in that Science are comprized and demonstrated Nay that the Authours of the Holy Volumes did not only not pretend to teach us the Constitutions and Motions of the Heavens and Stars their Figures Magnitudes and Distances but that intentionally albeit that all these things were very well known unto them they forbore to speak of them is the opinion of the Most Holy Most Learned Fathers and in S. Augustine we read the following words It is likewise commonly asked of what Form and Figure we may believe Heaven to be according to the Scriptures For many contend much about those matters which the greater prudence of our Authors hath forborn to speak of as nothing furthering their Learners in relation to a blessed life and which is the chiefest thing taking up much of that time which should be spent in holy exercises For what is it to me whether Heaven as a Sphere doth on all sides environ the Earth a Mass ballanced in the middle of the World or whether like a Dish it doth onely cover or overcast the same But because belief of Scripture is urged for that cause which we have oft mentioned that is That none through ignorance of Divine Phrases when they shall find any thing of this nature in or hear any thing cited out of our Bibles which may seem to oppose manifest Conclusions should be induced to suspect their truth when they admonish relate deliver more profitable matters Briefly be it spoken touching the Figure of Heaven that our Authors knew the truth But the H. Spirit would not that men should learn what is profitable to none for salvation And the same intentional silence of these sacred Penmen in determining what is to be believed of these accidents of the Celestial Bodies is again hinted to us by the same Father in the ensuing 10. Chapter upon the Question Whether we are to believe that Heaven moveth or standeth still in these words There are some of the Brethren that start a question concerning the motion of Heaven Whether it be fixed or moved For if it be moved say they how is it a Firmament If it stand still how do these Stars which are held to be fixed go round from East to West the more Northern performing shorter Circuits near the Pole so that Heaven if there be another Pole to us unknown may seem to revolve upon some other Axis but if there be not another Pole it may be thought to move as a Discus To whom I reply that these points require many subtil and profound Reasons for the making out whether they be really so or no the undertakeing and discussing of which is neither consistent with my leasure nor their duty vvhom I desire to instruct in the necessary matters more directly conducing to their salvation and to the benefit of The Holy Church From which that we may come nearer to our particular case it necessarily followeth that the Holy Ghost not having intended to teach us whether Heaven moveth or standeth still nor whether its Figure be in Form of a Sphere or of a Discus or distended in Planum Nor whether the Earth be contained in the Centre of it or on one side he hath much less had an intention to assure us of other Conclusions of the same kinde and in such a manner connected to these already named that without the dedermination of them one can neither affirm one or the other part which are The determining of the Motion and Rest of the said Earth and of the Sun And if the same Holy Spirit hath purposely pretermitted to teach us those Propositions as nothing concerning his intention that is our salvation how can it be affirmed that the holding of one part rather than the other should be so necessary as that it is de Fide and the other erronious Can an Opinion be Heretical and yet nothing concerning the salvation of souls Or can it be said that the Holy Ghost purposed not to teach us a thing that concerned our salvation I might here insert the Opinion of an Ecclesiastical Person raised to the degree of Eminentissimo to wit That the intention of the Holy Ghost is to teach us how we shall go to Heaven and not how Heaven goeth But let us return to consider how much necessary Demonstrations and sensible Experiments ought to be esteemed in Natural Conclusions and of what Authority Holy and Learned Divines have accounted them from whom amongst an hundred other attestations we have these that follow We must also carefully heed and altogether avoid in handling the Doctrine of Moses to avouch or speak any thing affirmatively and confidently which contradicteth the manifest Experiments and Reasons of Philosophy or other Sciences For since all Truth is agreeable to Truth the Truth of Holy Writ cannot be contrary to the solid Reasons and Experiments of Humane Learning And in St. Augustine we read If any one shall object the Authority of Sacred Writ against clear and manifest Reason he that doth so knows not what he undertakes For he objects against the Truth not the sense of the Scripture which is beyond his comprehension but rather his own not what is in it but what finding it in himself he fancyed to be in it This granted and it being true as hath been said that two Truths cannot be contrary to each other it is the office of a Judicious Expositor to study to finde the true Senses of Sacred Texts which undoubtedly shall accord with those Natural Conclusions of which manifest Sense and Necessary Demonstrations had before made us sure and certain Yea in regard that the Scriptures as hath been said
while to another and that there is a great difference between commanding a Methametitian or a Philosopher and the disposing of a Lawyer or a Merchant and that the demonstrated Conclusions touching the things of Nature and of the Heavens cannot be changed with the same facility as the Opinions are touching what is lawful or not in a Contract Bargain or Bill of Exchange This difference was well understood by the Learned and Holy Fathers as their having been at great pains to confute many Arguments or to say better many Philosophical Fallacies doth prove unto us and as may expresly be read in some of them and particularly we have in S. Augustine the following words This is to be held for an undoubted Truth That we may be confident that whatever the Sages of this World have demonstrated touching Natural Points is no waies contrary to our Bibles And in case they teach any thing in their Books that is contrary to the Holy Scriptures we may without any scruple conclude it to be most false And according to our ability let us make the same appear And let us so keep the Faith of our Lord in whom are hidden all the Treasures of Wisdom that we be neither seduced with the Loquacity of false Philosophy nor scared by the superstition of a counterfeit Religion From which words I conceive that I may collect this Doctrine namely That in the Books of the Wise of this World there are contained some Natural truths that are solidly demonstrated and others again that are barely taught and that as to the first sort it is the Office of wise Divines to shew that they are not contrary to the Sacred Scriptures As to the rest taught but not necessarily demonstrated if they shall contain any thing contrary to the Sacred Leaves it ought to be held undoubtedly false and such it ought by all possible waies to be demonstrated If therefore Natural Conclusions veritably demonstrated are not to be postposed to the Places of Scripture but that it ought to be shewn how those Places do not interfer with the said Conclusions then it s necessary before a Physical Proposition be condemned to shew that it is not necessarily demonstrated and this is to be done not by them who hold it to be true but by those who judge it to be false And this seemeth very reasonable and agreeable to Nature that is to say that they may much more easily find the fallacies in a Discourse who believe it to be false than those who account it true and concludent Nay in this particular it will come to passe that the followers of this opinion the more that they shall turn over Books examine the Arguments repeat the Observations and compare the Experiments the more shall they be confirmed in this belief And your Highness knoweth what happened to the late Mathematick Professor in the University of Pisa Who betook himself in his old age to look into the Doctrine of Copernicus with hope that he might be able solidly to confute it for that he held it so far to be false as that he had never studied it but it was his fortune that as soon as he had understood the grounds proceedings and demonstrations of Copernicus he found himself to be perswaded and of an opposer became his most confident Defender I might also nominate other Mathematicians who being moved by my last Discoveries have confessed it necessary to change the formerly received Constitution of the World it not being able by any means to subsist any longer If for the banishing this Opinion and Hypothesis out of the World it were enough to stop the mouth of one alone as it may be they perswade themselves who measuring others judgements by their own think it impossible that this Doctrine should be able to subsist and finde any followers this would be very easie to be done but the business standeth otherwise For to execute such a determination it would be necessary to prohibite not onely the Book of Copernicus and the Writings of the other Authors that follow the same opinion but to interdict the whole Science of Astronomy and which is more to forbid men looking towards Heaven that so they might not see Mars and Venus at one time neer to the Earth and at another farther off with such a difference that the latter is found to be fourty times and the former sixty times bigger in surface at one time than at another and to the end that the same Venus might not be discovered to be one while round and another while forked with most subtil hornes and many other sensible Observations which can never by any means be reconciled to the Ptolomaick Systeme but are unanswerable Arguments for the Copernican But the prohibiting of Copernicus his Book now that by many new Observations and by the application of many of the Learned to the reading of him his Hypothesis and Doctrine doth every day appear to be more true having admitted and tolerated it for so many years whilst he was lesse followed studied and confirmed would seem in my judgment an affront to Truth and a seeking the more to obscure and suppresse her the more she sheweth her self clear and perspicuous The abolishing and censuring not of the whole Book but onely so much of it as concerns this particular opinion of the Earths Mobility would if I mistake not be a greater detriment to souls it being an occasion of great scandal to see a Position proved and to see it afterwards made an Heresie to believe it The prohibiting of the whole Science what other would it be but an open contempt of an hundred Texts of the Holy Scriptures which teach us That the Glory and the Greatnesse of Almighty God is admirably discerned in all his Works and divinely read in the Open Book of Heaven Nor let any one think that the Lecture of the lofty conceits that are written in those Leaves finish in only beholding the Splendour of the Sun and of the Stars and their rising and setting which is the term to which the eyes of bruits and of the vulgar reach but there are couched in them mysteries so profound and conceipts so sublime that the vigils labours and studies of an hundred and an hundred acute Wits have not yet been able thorowly to dive into them after the continual disquisition of some thousands of years But let the Unlearned believe that like as that which their eyes discern in beholding the aspect of a humane body is very little in comparison of the stupendious Artifices which an exquisite and curious Anatomist or Philosopher finds in the same when he is searching for the use of so many Muscles Tendons Nerves and Bones and examining the Offices of the Heart and of the other principal Members seeking the seat of the vital Faculties noting and observing the admirable structures of the Instruments of the Senses and without ever making an end of satisfying his curiosity and wonder contemplating
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
another conceipt thereof they would meet peradventure as many others that accord with it and haply would judge that the Holy Church doth very appositly teach That God placed the Sun in the Centre of Heaven and that thereupon by revolving it in it self after the manner of a Wheel He contributed the ordinary Courses to the Moon and other Erratick Stars whilst that she Sings Coeli Deus sanctissime Qui lucidum Centrum Poli Candore pingis igneo Augens decoro lumine Quarto die qui flammeam Solis rotam constituens Lunae ministras ordinem Vagosque cursus Syderum They might say that the Name of Firmament very well agreeth ad literam to the Starry Sphere and to all that which is above the Planetary Conversions which according to this Hypothesis is altogether firme and immoveable Ad litteram the Earth moving circularly they might understand its Poles where it 's said Nec dum Terram fecerat flumina Cardines Orbis Terrae Which Cardines or Hinges seem to be ascribed to the Earth in vain if it be not to turn upon them FINIS AN ABSTRACT OF THE Learned Treatise OF JOHANNIS KEPLERUS The Emperours Mathematician ENTITULED His Introduction upon MARS IT must be confessed that there are very many who are devoted to Holinesse that dissent from the Judgment of Copernicus fearing to give the Lye to the Holy Ghost speaking in the Scriptures if they should say that the Earth moveth and the Sun stands still But let such consider that since we judge of very many and those the most principal things by the Sense of Seeing it is impossible that we should alienate our Speech from this Sense of our Eyes Therefore many things daily occur of which we speak according to the Sense of Sight when as we certainly know that the things themselves are otherwise An Example whereof we have in that Verse of Virgil Provehimur portu Terraeque urbesque recedunt So when we come forth of the narrow straight of some Valley we say that a large Field discovereth it self So Christ to Peter Duc in altum Lanch forth into the Deep or on high as if the Sea were higher than its Shores For so it seemeth to the Eye but the Opticks shew the cause of this fallacy Yet Christ useth the most received Speech although it proceed from this delusion of the Eyes Thus we conceive of the Rising and Setting of the Stars that is to say of their Ascension and Descension when at the same time that we affirm the Sun riseth others say that it goeth down See my Optices Astronomiae cap. 10. fol. 327. So in like manner the Ptolomaicks affirm that the Planets stand still when for some dayes together they seem to be fixed although they believe them at that very time to be moved in a direct line either downwards to or upwards from the Earth Thus the Writers of all Nations use the word Solstitium and yet they deny that the Sun doth really stand still Likewise there will never any man be so devoted to Copernicus but he will say the Sun entereth into Cancer and Leo although he granteth that the Earth enters Capricorn or Aquarius And so in other cases of the like nature But now the Sacred Scriptures speaking to men of vulgar matters in which they were not intended to instruct men after the manner of men that so they might be understood by men do use such Expressions as are granted by all thereby to insinuate other things more Mysterious and Divine What wonder is it then if the Scripture speaks according to mans apprehension at such time when the Truth of things doth dissent from the Conception that all men whether Learned or Unlearned have of them Who knows not that it is a Poetical allusion Psal. 19. where whilst under the similitude of the Sun the Course of the Gospel as also the Peregrination of our Lord Christ in this World undertaken for our sakes is described The Sun is said to come forth of his Tabernacle of the Horizon as a Bridegroom out of his Chamber rejoycing as a Giant to run a Race Which Virgil thus imitates Tithono croceum linquens Aurora cubile For the first Poets were amongst the Jews The Psalmist knew that the Sun went not forth of the Horizon as out of its Tabernacle yet it seemeth to the Eye so to do Nor did he believe that the Sun moved for that it appeared to his sight so to do And yet he saith both for that both were so to his seeming Neither is it to be adjudged false in either Sense for the perception of the Eyes hath its verity fit for the more secret purpose of the Psalmist in shadowing forth the current passage of the Gospel as also the Peregrination of the Son of God Joshua likewise mentioneth the Vallies on or in which the Sun and Moon moved for that they appeared to him at Jordan so to do And yet both these Pen-men may obtain their ends David and with him Syracides the magnificence of God being made known which caused these things to be in this manner represented to sight or otherwise the mystical meaning by means of these Visibles being discerned And Joshua in that the Sun as to his Sense of Seeing staid a whole day in the midst of Heaven whereas at the same time to others it lay hid under the Earth But incogitant persons onely look upon the contrariety of the words The Sun stood still that is The Earth stood still not considering that this contradiction is confined within the limits of the Opticks and Astronomy For which cause it is not outwardly exposed to the notice and use of men Nor will they understand that the onely thing Joshuah prayed for was that the Mountains might not intercept the Sun from him which request he expressed in words that suited with his Ocular Sense Besides it had been very unseasonable at that time to think of Astronomy or the Errours in Sight for if any one should have told him that the Sun could not really move upon the Valley of Ajalon but onely in relation to Sense would not Joshuah have replyed that his desire was that the day might be prolonged so it were by any means whatsoever In like manner would he have answered if any one had started a question about the Suns Mobility and the Earths Motion But God easily understood by Joshuahs words what he asked for and by arresting the Earths Motion made the Sun in his apprehension seem to stand still For the summ of Joshuahs Prayer amounts to no more but this that it might thus appear to him let it in the mean time be what it would of it self For that it s so seeming was not in vain and ridiculous but accompanied with the desired effect But read the tenth Chap. of my Book that treats of the Optick part of Astronomy where thou shalt finde the Reasons why the Sun doth in this manner seem to all mens thinking to
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
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
ascribes to the Earth Ends and Foundations which yet it hath not to the Sea a Depth not to be fathomed to Death which is a Privation and consequently a Non-entity it appropriates Actions Motion Passions and other such like Accidents of all which it is deprived as also Epithites and Adjuncts which really cannot suit with it Is not the bitternesse of Death past 1 Sam. 15. 32. Let death come upon them Psal 6. He hath prepared the Instruments of Death Psal. 7. 14. Thou raisest me from the gates of Death Psal. 84. In the midst of the shadow of Death Psal. 23. Love is strong as Death Cant. 8. 9. The First-Born of Death Job 18. 13. Destruction and Death say c. Job 28. 22. And who knows not that the whole History of the rich Glutton doth consist of the like phrases of Vulgar Speech So Ecclesiasticus Chap. 27. vers 11. The godly man abideth in wisdome as the Sun but a fool changeth as the Moon and yet the Moon according to the real truth of the matter no wayes changeth but abides the same for ever as Astronomers demonstrate one half thereof remaining alwayes lucid and the other alwayes opacous Not at any time doth this state vary in it unlesse in respect of us and according to the opinion of the Vulgar Hence it is cleer that the holy Scripture speaks according to the common form of speech used amongst the unlearned and according to the appearance of things and not according to their true Existence In like manner Genes 1. in the description of the Creation of all things the Light is said to be made first of all and yet it followeth in the Text And the Evening and the Morning made the first day and a little after the several Acts of the Creation are distinguished and assigned to several days and concerning each of them it is said in the Text And the Evening and the Morning made the second day and then the third day the fourth day c. Hence many doubts arise all which I shall propound according to the common Systeme that it may appear even from the Hypothesis of that Systeme that the sacred Scripture sometimes for the avoyding of emergent difficulties is to be understood in a vulgar sense and meaning and in respect of us and not according to the nature of things Which distinction even Aristotle himself seemeth to have hinted when he saith * Some things are more intelligible to us others by nature or secundum se. First therefore If the light were made before heaven then it rolled about without heaven to the making of the distinction of Day and Night Now this is contrary to the very doctrine of these men who affirm that no Coelestial Body can be moved unlesse per accidens and by the motion of Heaven and as a knot in a board at the motion of the board Again if it be said that the Light was created at the same time with Heaven and began to be moved with Heaven another doubt ariseth that likewise opposeth the foresaid common Hypothesis For it being said that Day and Night Morning and Evening were made that same is either in respect of the Universe or onely in respect of the Earth and us If so be that the Sun turning round according to the Hypothesis of the Common Systeme doth not cause the Night and Day but only to opacous Bodies which are destitute of all other light but that of the Sun whilst in their half part which is their Hemisphaere and no more for that the Suns light passeth over but one half of an opacous Body unless a very small matter more in those of lesser bulk they are illuminated by the Suns aspect the other half remaining dark and tenebrose by reason of a shadow proceeding from its own Body Therefore the distinction of dayes by the light of heaven according to the description of them in the sacred Scriptures must not be understood absolutely and secundum se and Nature her self but in respect of the Earth and of us its inhabitants and consequently secundum nos 'T is not therefore new nor unusual in sacred Scripture to speak of things secundum nos and only in respect of us and secundum apparentiam but not secundum se and rei naturam or Absolutely and Simply And if any one would understand these Days of sacred Scripture not only secundum nos but also secundum naturam as circulations of Coelestial Light returning to the self same point from whence it did at first proceed so as that there needs no respect to be had to Night or to Darknesse for which sole reason we are fain to imbrace the Interpretation of sacred Scripture secundum nos In opposition to this we may thus argue If the sacred Scripture be understood to speak absolutely of iterated and successive circulations of light and not respectu nostri as if these words Evening and Morning had never been inserted which in their natural acceptation denote the Suns habitude to us and to the Earth For that the Morning is that time when the Sun begins to wax light and to rise above the Horizon in the East and become visible in our Hemisphaere and Evening is the time in which the Sun declines in the West and approacheth with its light neerer to the other opposite Horizon and Hemisphaere which is contiguous to this of ours But the word Day is a Co-relative to the word Night From hence therefore it evidently appeareth that these three words Evening Morning and Day cannot be understood of a Circulation of Light secundum se and absolutè but only secundum nos and respectu nostri and in that sense indeed the Morning and Evening do make the Night and Day In like manner Gen. 1. 16. it is said God made two great Lights the greater Light to rule the Day and the lesser Light to rule the Night and the Stars Where both in the Proposition and in the specification of it things are spoken which are very disagreeing with Coelestial Bodies Therefore those words are in that place to be interpreted according to the foresaid Rules namely according to the third and fourth so that they may be said to be understood according to the sense of the vulgar and the common way of speaking which is all one as if we should say secundum apparentiam and secundum nos vel respectu nostri For first it is said in the Proposition And God made two great Lights meaning by them the Sun and Moon whereas according to the truth of the matter these are not the Greater Lights For although the Sun may be reckoned amongst the Greater the Moon may not be so unless in respect of us Because amongst those that are absolutely the Greater and a little lesser than the Sun nay in a manner equal to it and far bigger than the Moon we may with great reason enumerate Saturn or some of the Fixed Stars of the first
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
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
set down the whole businesse in writing who having afterwards read it privately the said Signore imparted the same with like privacy to the most Serene PRINCE and I received order to represent the same to the full Colledge as accordingly I did in the Moneth of May the same year and it was as followeth CONSIDERATIONS Concerning the LAKE OF VENICE BY D. BENEDETTO CASTELLI Abbot of S. Benedetto Aloysio Mathematician to Pope VRBAN VIII and Professor in ROME CONSIDERATION I. THough the principal cause be but one onely that in my judgment threatneth irreparable ruine to the Lake of Venice in the present state in which it now stands Yet neverthelesse I think that two Heads may be considered And this Consideration may peradventure serve us for to facilitate and explain the opportune remedies though not to render the state of things absolutely unchangeable and eternal an enterprize impossible and especially in that which having had some beginning ought likewise necessarily to have its end or at least to prevent the danger for many hundreds of years and possibly it may in the mean time by the mutation it self be brought into a better condition I say therefore that the present disorder may be considered under two Heads One is the very notable discovery of Land that is observed at the time of low Water the which besides the obstructing of Navigation in the Lake and also in the Chanels doth likewise threaten another mischief and disorder worthy of very particular consideration which is That the Sun drying up that mudde especially in the times of hot Summers doth raise thence the putrified and pernicious vapours fogs and exhalations that infect the Air and may render the City unhabitable The second Head is the great Stoppage that daily is growing in the Ports especially of Venice at Malamoco concerning which matters I will hint certain general points and then will proceed to the more particular and important affairs And first I say that I hold it altogether impossible to effect any thing though never so profitable which doth not bring with it some mischief and therefore the good and the hurt ought to be very well weighed and then the lesse harmful part to be imbraced Secondly I propose to consideration that the so notable discovery of Earth Mud hath not been long observed as I understand from old persons that can remember passages for fifty years past which thing being true as to me it seemeth most true it should appear that it could not but be good to reduce matters to that passe that they were at formerly laying aside all affection or passion that self-flattering minds have entertained for their own conceits or at least it shall be necessary speedily to consult the whole Thirdly I hold that it is necessary to weigh whether from the foresaid discovery of Land it followeth that onely the Earth riseth as it is commonly thought by all without dispute or whether the Waters are abated and faln away or else whether it proceedeth from both the one and other cause And here it would be seasonable to enquire what share the said causes may have each considered apart in the foresaid effect For in the first case if the Earth have been raised it would be necessary to consider of taking it down and removing it But if the Waters have failed or abated I believe that it would be extreamly necessary to restore and raise them And if both these reasons have conspired in this effect it will be necessary to remedy them each apart And I do for my part think that the so notable appearance of Shelves at the time of low Water proceeds principally from the decrease and abatement of the Waters which may confidently be affirmed to need no other proof in regard that the Brent hath been actually diverted which did formerly discharge its Water into the Lake As to the other point of the great Stoppage of Ports I hold that all proceedeth from the violence of the Sea which being sometimes disturbed by windes especially at the time of the waters flowing doth continually raise from its bottome immense heaps of sand carrying them by the tide and force of the waves into the Lake it not having on its part any sttength of current that may raise and carry them away they sink to the bottom and so they choke up the Ports And that this effect happeneth in this manner we have most frequent experiences thereof along the Sea-coasts And I have observed in Tuscany on the Roman-shores and in the Kingdom of of Naples that when a river falleth into the Sea there is alwaies seen in the Sea it self at the place of the rivers out-let the resemblance as it were of an half-Moon or a great shelf of settled sand under water much higher then the rest of the shore and it is called in Tuscany il Cavallo and here in Venice lo Scanto the which cometh to be cut by the current of the river one while on the right side another while on the left and sometimes in the midst according as the Wind sits And a like effect I have observed in certain little Rillets of water along the Lake of Bolsena with no other difference save that of small and great Now who so well considereth this effect plainly seeth that it proceeds from no other than from the contrariety of the stream of the River to the impetus of the Sea-waves seeing that great abundance of sand which the Sea continually throws upon the shore cometh to be driven into the Sea by the stream of the river and in that place where those two impediments meet with equal force the sand setleth under water and thereupon is made that same Shelf or Cavallo the which if the river carry water and that any considerable store it shall be thereby cut and broken one while in one place and another while in another as hath been said according as the Wind blows And through that Chanel it is that Vessels fall down into the Sea and again make to the river as into a Port. But if the Water of the river shall not be continual or shall be weak in that case the force of the Sea-Wind shall drive such a quantity of sand into the mouth of the Port and of the river as shall wholly choak it up And hereupon there are seen along the Sea-side very many Lakes and Meers which at certain times of the year abound with waters and the Lakes bear down that enclosure and run into the Sea Now it is necessary to make the like reflections on our Ports of Venice Malamocco Bondolo and Chiozza which in a certain sense are no other than Creeks mouths and openings of the shore that parts the Lake from the main Sea and therefore I hold that if the Waters in the Lake were plentiful they would have strength to scowr the mouths of the Ports thorowly with great force but the Water in the Lake failing the Sea will without any opposal
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
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
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