Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	king_n	know_v	power_n	6,767	5	5.0443	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66047	Mathematicall magick, or, The vvonders that may be performed by mechanicall geometry in two books, concerning mechanicall povvers, motions, being one of the most easie, pleasant, usefull (and yet most neglected) part of mathematicks, not before treated of in this language / by I.W. ...	Wilkins, John, 1614-1672.	1648 (1648)	Wing W2199; ESTC R227427	93,737	280

many handfuls of earth would almost make a mountain and therefore wee may easily beleeve that so great a multitude in so long a space as their bondage lasted for above four hundred years might well enough accomplish such vast designs In the building of Solomons Temple there were threescore and ten thousand that bare burdens and fourscore thousand hewers in the mountains 1 Kings 5.15 The Ephesian Temple was built by all Asia joyning together the 127 pillars were made by so many kings according to their severall successions the whole work being not finished under the space of two hundred and fifteen years Whereas the transplacing of that Obelisk at Rome by Sixtus the fift spoken of before was done in some few days by five or six hundred men and as the work was much lesse then many other recorded by Antiquity so the means by which it was wrought was yet far lesse in this respect then what is related of them 2. The abundance of wealth which was then ingrossed in the possession of some few particular persōs being now diffused amongst a far greater number There is now a greater equality amongst mankind and the flourishing of arts and sciences hath so stirred up the sparks of mens naturall nobility and made them of such active and industrious spirits as to free themselves in a great measure from that slavery which those former and wilder Nations were subjected unto In building one of the Pyramids there was expended for the maintenance of the labourers with Radish and Onyons no lesse then eighteen hundred talents which is reckoned to amount unto 1880000 crowns or thereabouts And considering the cheapnesse of these things in those times and places so much money might go farther then a summe ten times greater could doe in the maintenance of so many now In Solomons Temple we know how the extraordinary riches of that King the generall flourishing of the whole State and the liberality of the people did joyntly concur to the building of the Temple Pecuniarum copia populi largitas majora dictu conabatur saith Iosephus The Rhodian Colossus is reported to have cost three hundred talents the making And so were all those other famous monuments of proportionable expence Pancirollus speaking of those Theaters that were erected at the charges of some private Romane Citizens saith thus Nostro hoc saeculo vel Rex satis haberet quod ageret aedificio ejusmodi erigendo and a little after upon the like occasion Res mehercule miraculosa quae nostris temporibus vix à potentissimo aliquo rege possit exhiberi 3. Adde unto the two former considerations that exact care and indefatigable industry which they bestowed in the raising of those structures These being the chief and only designs on which many of them did imploy all their best thoughts and utmost endevours Cleopes an Aegyptian King is reported to have been so desirous to finish one of the Pyramids that having spent all about it he was worth or could possibly procure he was forced at last to prostitute his own daughter for necessary maintenance And we read of Ramises another King of Aegypt how that he was so careful to erect an Obelisk about w ch he had imployed 20000 men that when he feared lest through the negligence of the artificers or weaknesse of the engine the stone might fall and break he tyed his own son to the top of it that so the care of his safety might make the workmen more circumspect in their businesse And what strange matters may be effected by the meer diligence and labour of great multitudes we may easily discern from the wilde Indians who having not the art or advantage of Engines did yet by their unwearied industry remove stones of an incredible greatnesse Acosta relates that he himself measured one at Tiaguanaco which was thirty eight foot long eighteen broad and six thick and he affirms that in their stateliest aedifices there were many other of much vaster magnitude From all which considerations it may appear that the strangenesse of those ancient monuments above any that are now effected does not necessarily infer any defect of art in these later ages And I conceive it were as easie to demonstrate the Mechanicall Arts in these times to be so farre beyond the knowledge of former ages that had we but the same means as the Ancients had we might effect far greater matters then any they attempted and that too in a shorter space and with lesse labour CAP. XII Concerning the force of the Mechanick faculties particularly the Ballance and Leaver How they may be contrived to move the whole world or any other conceivable weight ALL these magnificent works of the Ancients before specified are scarce considerable in respect of art if we compare them with the famous speeches and acts of Archimedes Of whom it is reported that he was frequently wont to say how that he could move Datum pondus cum datâ potentiâ The greatest conceivable weight with the least conceivable power and that if he did but know where to stand and fasten his instrument he could move the world all this great globe of sea and land which promises though they were altogether above the vulgar apprehension or belief yet because his acts were somewhat answerable thereunto therefore the King of Syracuse did enact a law whereby every man was bound to beleeve what ever Archimedes would affirm 'T is easie to demonstrate the Geometricall truth of those strange assertions by examining them according to each of the forenamed Mechanick faculties every one of which is of infinite power Under this latter faculty I did before mention that engine by which Archemedes drew up the Roman ships at the siege of Syracuse This is usually styled Tollenon being of the same form with that which is commonly used by Brewers and Dyers for the drawing of water It consists of two posts the one fastned perpendicularly in the ground the other being jointed on crosse to the top of it At the end he fastned a strong hook or grapple of iron which being let over the wall to the river he would thereby take hold of the ships as they passed under and afterwards by applying some weight or perhaps the force of Screwes to the other end hee would thereby lift them into the open air where having swinged them up and down till he had shaked out the men and goods that were in them he would then dash the Vessels against the rocks or drown them in their sudden fall insomuch that Marcellus the Roman Generall was wont to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Archimedes made use of his ships in stead of Buckets to draw water with This faculty will be of the same force not only when it is continued in one but also when it is multiplied in divers instruments as may be conceived in this other form which I doe not mention as if it could be serviceable for any motion since the

Mechanicall practises that he rather thought it to be thereby adorned as with curious variety and to be exalted unto its naturall end And whereas the Mathematicians of those former ages did possesse all their learning as covetous men doe their wealth only in thought and notion the judicious Aristotle like a wise Steward did lay it out to particular use and improvement rightly preferring the reality and substance of publike benefit before the shadows of some retired speculation or vulgar opinion Since him there have been divers other Authors who have been eminent for their writings of this nature Such were Hero Alexandrinus Hero Mechanicus Pappus Alexandrinus Proclus Mathematicus Vitruvius Guidus Vbaldus Henricus Monantholius Galileus Guevara Mersennus Bettinus c. Besides many others that have treated largely of severall engines as Augustine Ramelli Vittorio Zoncha Iacobus Bessonius Vegetius Lipsius Most of which Authours I have perused and shall willingly acknowledge my self a debtor to them for many things in this following Discourse CAP. II. Concerning the name of this Art That it may properly be styled liberall The subject and nature of it THe word Mechanick is thought to be derived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 multum ascendere pertingere intimating the efficacy and force of such inventions Or else 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Eustathius quia hiscere non sinit because these arts are so full of pleasant variety that they admit not either of sloth or wearinesse According to ordinary signification the word is used in opposition to the liberall arts whereas in propriety of speech those employments alone may be styled illiberall which require onely some bodily exercise as manufactures trades c. And on the contrary that discipline which discovers the generall causes effects and properties of things may truly be esteemed as a species of Philosophy But here it should be noted that this art is usually distinguished into a twofold kind 1. Rationall 2. Cheirurgicall The Rationall is that which treats of those principles and fundamentall notions which may concern these Mechanicall practises The Cheirurgicall or Manuall doth refer to the making of these instruments and the exercising of such particular experiments As in the works of Architecture Fortifications and the like The first of these is the subject of this discourse and may properly be styled liberall as justly deserving the prosecution of an ingenuous minde For if we consider it according to its birth and originall we shall finde it to spring from honourable parentage being produced by Geometry on the one side and naturall Philosophy on the other If according to its use and benefit we may then discern that to this should be referred all those arts and professions so necessary for humane society whereby nature is not onely directed in her usuall course but sometimes also commanded against her own law The particulars that concern Architecture Navigation Husbandry Military affairs c. are most of them reducible to this art both for their invention and use Those other disciplines of Logick Rhetorick c. doe not more protect and adorn the mind then these Mechanicall powers doe the body And therefore are they well worthy to be entertained with greater industry and respect then they commonly meet with in these times wherein there be very many that pretend to be masters in all the liberall arts who scarce understand any thing in these particulars The subject of this art is concerning the heavinesse of severall bodies or the proportion that is required betwixt any weight in relation to the power which may be able to move it And so it refers likewise to violent and artificiall motion as Philosophy doth to that which is naturall The proper end for which this art is intended is to teach how by understanding the true difference betwixt the weight and the power a man may adde such a fitting supplement to the strength of the power that it shall be able to move any conceivable weight though it should never so much exceed that force which the power is naturally endowed with The art it self may be thus described to be a Mathematicall discipline which by the help of Geometricall principles doth teach to contrive severall weights and powers unto any kind either of motion or rest according as the Artificer shall determine If it be doubted how this may be esteemed a species of Mathematicks when as it treats of weights and not of quantity For satisfaction to this there are two particulars considerable 1. Mathematicks in its latitude is usually divided into pure and mixed And though the pure doe handle only abstract quantity in the generall as Geometry Arithmetick yet that which is mixed doth consider the quantity of some particular determinate subject So Astronomy handles the quantity of heavenly motions Musick of sounds and Mechanicks of weights powers 2. Heavinesse or weight is not here considered as being such a naturall quality whereby condensed bodies do of themselves tend downwards but rather as being an affection whereby they may be measured And in this sense Aristotle himselfe referres it amongst the other species of quantity as having the same proper essence which is to be compounded of integrall parts So a pound doth consist of ounces drams scruples Whence it is evident that there is not any such repugnancy in the subject of this art as may hinder it from being a true species of Mathematicks CAP. III. Of the first Mechanical faculty the Ballance THe Mechanicall faculties by which the experiments of this nature must be contrived are usually reckoned to be these six 1. Libra 1. The Ballance 2. Vectis 2. The Leaver 3. Axis in Peritrochio 3. The Wheel 4. Trochlea 4. The Pulley 5. Cuneus 5. The Wedge 6. Cochlea 6. The Screw Unto some of which the force of all Mechanicall inventions must necessarily be reduced I shall speak of them severally and in this order First concerning the Ballance this the Leaver are usually confounded together as being but one faculty because the generall grounds proportions of eithers force is so exactly the same But for better distinctiō more clear discovery of their natures I shall treat of them severally The first invention of the ballance is commonly attributed to Astrea who is therefore deified for the goddesse of justice and that instrument it self advanced amongst the celestiall signs The particulars concerning it are so commonly known and of such easie experiment that they will not need any large explication The chief end and purpose of it is for the distinction of severall ponderosities For the understanding of which we must note that if the length of the sides in the Ballance and the weights at the ends of them be both mutually equall then the Beam will be in a horizontall situation But on the contrary if either the weights alone be equall and not their distances or the distances alone and not the weights then the Beam will accordingly decline As in this