Planets from the Sun as they relate to the before-mention'd System he thus accounts Mercury above 200 Diameters of the Earth Venus above 400 Mars 900 or 1000 Jupiter above 3000 Saturn 5 or 6000 Diameters of the Earth distant from her The Copernican Hypothesis is so much the same with his and so frequently Inscrib'd in Almanacks that I shall desire my Reader rather to Inspect any one of them there than to trouble my self with delineating of a Diagram to so thread bare a Purpose here The difference that he allows the Stars not only as some of them are greater than others but as the Planets receive their Illuminations communicated to them by the Light of the Sun Concenters with the general Opinion of all Astronomers Nor will I directly oppose the Imagination he Annexes by which he Attributes to every of the fix'd Stars a particular Fountain of Light and as distant from the Sun as the Sun is from us Concluding That were we Situated as near the six'd Stars as we are to the Sun we might observe any one of their Magnitudes as much Illuminated as the Sun appears to our Sight On which ground 't is possible he may be tho' but in Conceit as much in the right as any certain Argument or Proof that can be urg'd to the contrary by reason of the wonderful appearance and immense remoteness of the fix'd Stars from us Notwithstanding that the famous Tycho as far as his accurase Observation could elevate his Computation determines in general that the fix'd Stars are not nearer the Earth than 13000 of her Semidiameters But in the 11th and 12th Particulars of this Treatise this Author delivers a more unparallel'd Paradox than ever was Imputed to a Learned Pen The First is That the Earth tho' a very opacous Body is as perfectly enlightned by the Beams of the Sun as the Moon wherefore he conceives the Earth to be also a Planet And why might he not have Affirm'd the same of Glass Iron or any other solid Substance since we are assur'd by common Experience That every one of these are not only capable of being Illuminated by the Sun but will also have their Shadows So that according to his Opinion any gross opacous Matter may be estimated on a shining Day no less a Madam in Composition and Feature than the Moon or Planet Venus It seems he forgot that these Stars continue their Light whilst the Earth has not Sun-Light longer than the Sun shines on her But why he so cheaply compares the Dominion of the bright Queen of Night with the dull Earthly Lamp on which we Inhabit I connot guess unless by some one of those which he calls distinct and unerrable Ideas he imagin'd That his Person was elevated to a Market in the Moon and there observ'd some Utensils in a Ihon of all Trades-Shop marvellously reflecting the Illuminations and Beams of the Sun And surely he might as well allow the possibility of these Examples with whatsoever besides has Being on Earth as perfectly Existing in the Moon Since by his Tenent a very capacious World may be thought encompass'd by Her His other egregious Mistake depends on the Former which is That he fancies that the Earth performs the Part of the Sun by Illuminating the Face of the Moon beheld by us when she is in her New Estate or Conjunction with him Which Notion is very false both in a Philosophical and Astronomical Consideration Nothing being more unnatural than to Attribute Planetary Light either Communicable or Inherent to the unrefin'd Body of the Earth which can be no otherwise understood by reason that there is no such Thing as a pure Element of Earth but rather its Substance grosly Commixt and Corrupted by the Intercourse of the other Elements And thus Air Earth Fire and Water as Use and Observation assure us are impurely mixt And should the Earth as she does and must necessarily so Subsist receive Light or Flame from the Sun in common with the Planets Her corrupt Frame and combustible Materials would have been long ago totally burning to the utter dissolution of the Figure and Composition that she now possesses However Antecedent to the Opinion of some Learned Divines that defers her Conflagration to the Day of Judgment And this might have been effected with as much Facility as a Burning-glass kindles a Pipe of Tobacco Especially if granted the Earth a Planet according to this Author and always Moving because Motion where it is sufficiently continu'd Inflames every Thing that is materially capable to be set on fire as is visible in the Axletree of a Waggon caus'd by the Movement of the Wheel that round it turns The like might be determin'd in reference to the Moon and other Motional Stars if their Compositions were Elementarily mingled But their Substance is more Sublime and Excellent if not superlative to any Definition that can be given of their Nature and Manner of Existence As I doubt not is Emphatically prov'd by my Remarks on the 21th Particular of the Second Part of this Author 's Philosophical Treatise To which I refer the Reader And whereas he would confirm his Assertion by pretending That the Earth Illuminates some part of the Moon when she is in Conjunction with the Sun 'T is no less diametrically opposite to what we behold in that State of the Moon than it is to Astronomical Certainty and why might not the Moon as well receive Light from the Earth according to his Doctrine when at her Full she is sometimes so Eclipsically opposite to the Sun as twice a-Year he passes by the Nodes or is near unto them call'd the Dragon's Head and Tail that she appears totally Darken'd Which can be no otherwise caus'd than as the Earth is betwixt her and the Sun But could she then receive any glimpse or sign of Light from the Earth it would be as discernible as at any other Time Which enough Confirms That the Earth is no Luminary Planet and therefore none at All as will be prov'd by what is to come In the mean time 't is not improper on this Occasion to Explain the Phases or Figure of the Moon especially when in Conjunction with the Sun which without the trouble of a Diagram may be thus readily Express'd 'T is not to be doubted That the Moon as she moves round the Earth has always one half of her Illuminated by the Sun but not so as that half is always visible to us Tho' sometimes more or less or nothing of her Enlightned Half appearing towards us by reason that as so many Semicircles or as it were Semiglobes of the Moon 's Compass are turn'd to the Eye or Earth they cannot considering their Curvitures be discern'd in Plain by the Eye And this differently happens as the Light of the Sun to Sight may be obstructed by the Convex or Mountainous Part of the Earth or by the Intervening of Aerial Vapours which cause the Face of the Moon that is turn'd towards
Fluid Substances exceedingly thinn'd whilst others were as nimbly thicken'd As if the Hands of Nature had been busily imploy'd in kneading of their Clusters till thoroughly condens'd Yet grants them so insipidly temper'd that by no proper Term Naturally or Philosophically Intelligible he determines them either light or heavy as he distinguishes their Elements from whatsoever is Elementarily Compos'd And thus according to his Method he imagines That Nature made her first Entrance out of the Closet of Chaos and having not thoroughly wash'd her Face he supposes some of her Spots might afterwards visibly remain in the Figure and Substance of both Sun Moon and Earth If next he had been ask'd on what account he attributes Spots to the Luminary of Day or Night together with the Terrene Sphere of our Being that are within no compass of reasonable Apprehension he must have return'd a motly Answer Since undeniable That whatsoever is capable of Spots as its propriety must be naturally colour'd and therefore of a mixt Elementary Composition by reason that nothing can be observably spotted but is also colour'd by mixt Ingredients and consequently the Object of Sight But the Sun and Moon were never held by found Opinion Elementarily Constituted wherefore not of any of his suppos'd Elements no more than 't is possible to conceive how Air could be alterative or operate on Air or Water on Water without partaking of Elementary Mixtures A Truth confirm'd by Experience in every Thing that is Thinn'd Thicken'd Ascends or Descends as sure as Earth is more ponderous than any of the other Three Elements ordain'd by Providence to exert all such Operations of Nature as are with clearest Evidence understood by us From whence may be concluded that the seeming Spots in the Sun or Moon are no other than meteorous Exhalations or Vapours that interpose betwixt the Luminaries and the Eye of the Beholder as surely as we frequently discern more or less clear in Appearance the Sun and Moon and therefore no Spots Inherent in their Substance As for the Spots that he annexes to the outward Complexion of the Earth what Man ever heard of any of their Colours except of such Things as have Being and Growth on her Surface as Trees Plants Men Women Beasts Grain and such other Things as might from Causes be produc'd How to Reply had he been thus Interrogated I dare Answer for him he could not have told And thus I come to the farther Examination of his Third Element by which he undertakes to Exspand the Original of all Things within the Compass of the Earth To which purpose I will briefly Summ the Order and Materials by which he forms his Phaenomena's of the Earth's Production All which he supposes were produc'd of the Fragments of a certain Thinn and Fluid Composition which he Entitles The primary Element of Nature These Imaginary or Globuli Fragments proceeding as he derives them from Spots in the First Element and descensively operating on the next term'd by him a Second Element they confus'dly and exceedingly disorder'd in Motion and Figure tended downward from their first sublime Height till at last they became more congeriously Thick suitable to the grossness of the Earth's Composure and Settlement where it now remains So very intricately obscure or vainly perplex'd does this conceited Monsieur debase the original Wisdome and Conduct of Nature both as to her own Establishment and the Production of her Works which could never be so disproportionably and irregularly effected by the prudent Diligence and Intendment of her Operations Which as this Author commits them to her peculiar Conduct I do not see why they should not have been by her Management as highly refin'd and continu'd as he delivers the Materials of her first purest Celestial Element And consequently of them so sublimately ordain'd have produc'd the Substance of Man and Woman that being exalted to a Superior Room in the Etherial Heaven the Eyes of Beauty might have there shin'd instead of Stars now beheld of the first Magnitude And next to these why should she not have gradually Illuminated the Substance of Animals with all other Materials and Plants that being naturally cleans'd from such Terrestrial Ingredients Alterations and Mixtures that are now in them they might have remain'd splendent Parts above instead of being Revolv'd and whirl'd in globuli's or dispers'd Fragments of Nature downwards untill they clos'd in a Lump that compleated the Earth in Figure disposition of Parts and Situation suitable to the Opinion of this Author Such Queries may not be unfitly urg'd against his total Hypothesis with all its Appurtenances to which I add these palpable Objections First that it is egregiously preposterous if not an Impeachment or lessening of the Dignity of Nature supposing that by her voluntary Actings she debas'd the superiority of her Existence by crumbling of her Materials into innumerable Bits or Particles in all kinds of impurer Substance and next dispose them by a rambling or giddy Progression so grossly to meet as they might constitutively finish and sustain the small inferior Bulk of the Universe call'd Earth or rather denominated the spurious Daughter of Nature if so engender'd by her actual consent Whereas contrarily 't is the inseparable Attribute of Nature intentionally to Conserve whatsoever depends on her Regalia's in its proper and utmost Perfection And although that by such Elementary Compositions and Mixtures as are understood by us she is necessitated to vary her Conduct as Things are in course Generated or Corrupted in order to produce such Existencies that could not be continu'd in themselves and therefore Providentially convertible into other Beings Yet she constantly preserves her most genuine Progression which is that nothing shall so alter as not to have Matter and Form incident to their Corporeal Proprieties Not unlike a Sovereign Ruler within whose Dominions there is no period of his numerous Subjects by Death because enough are begotten that succeed them But no such Procreation could be consistent or produc'd as an Elementary Triplicity is devis'd by Des-Cartes and not at allaccomplish'd or season'd with such natural Ingredients as are the Elementary Adjunct to Bodily Existences But rather of such a simplicity and incommunicable Qualification that 't is as reasonable to imagine That Earth should proceed from meer Air or Water from Fier as that his imperfect and uncompounded Elements should by their Vortices and Globuli arrive to any Corporeal Production Because the Principles of all Things could be no other than Contarrieties and therefore Elementary Insomuch that had not Providence otherwise dispos'd natural Operations than are contriv'd by this Author neither the Heavens above however excellent and refin'd their Essence or the Earth we possess with all its Appurtenances could have been effected The next Objection is briefly thus Suppose it were conceded That his Hypothesis relating to the Constituting of the Earth's Existence were allowable could it be conceiv'd that the diversities of Being and Motion which he annexes to his Particles
assur'd of what we understand Unless the Intellect be Refin'd by Idea after his manner as the most natural Way of being clearly Apprehensive and with such disparagement to the Senses That they may be in his Opinion neglected Tho' common Experience might have convinc'd him that they are by Nature Constituted Assistants and real Proofs of whatsoever is openly and demonstratively understood But it seems he omitted these Considerations And therefore in his next Particular which is his 4th he positively directs as he would intend the Use of his Idea by which he Argues That the Nature of Matter or Body does not Consist in that it is Hard Ponderous or any other Manner affecting the Senses but only as it is a Thing extended in Length Breadth and Depth And for durition or hardness the Sense discovers it no farther than as the Parts of a Hard Body Resist the Motion of our Hands meeting with it Here he would exalt his Idea to the height of Dominion in the Mind and level the Senses below the Capacities that Nature has allow'd them Nothing being more Philosophically Irrational than the Supposition he Inserts That the Nature of Body is only to be understood as it has Longitude Latitude and Depth and why not also as it is Weighty Hard and Colour'd Is not Air as much a Body as Iron and yet perfectly distinguish'd by the compact Durition of the Latter as its Essential Propriety And as absolutely different in Colour could the diaphanous Substance of Air be as visible to the Eye and although it be not we may conceive the Distinction much surer than we could by intruding on the Mind a conceited Idea because we are sensibly Assur'd That no Corporeal Thing can have Being in Nature without its colourable Property And this as familiarly Certain as that a Bay-Horse cannot be Denominated a Horse if his natural Colour could be separated from his Substance There are many Things that may be said to have Colour that are not genuinely their own And so a painted Cheek whether in Man or Woman is no Dye or Complexion of Nature but Artificically Colour'd And we Judge of Pictures as they Resemble the Life by the Colours apply'd to them by the Skill of the Painter And 't is no less evident that Des-Cartes has presented his Reader with a very Fictitious Varnish of his Pen if he meant no other distinction of Colours Relating or Apply'd to Material Substances than in this Place he mentions And in Summ concludes That Weight Colour and such like Corporeal Qualities may be separated from their Inherence in Matter so that the Nature of the Substance to which they belong does not depend on any of them And is not this a concise Manner of Idea in this Author by which he would have us believe That Bodily Substance may have Existence and be sensibly perceiv'd without being discern'd by its genuine Shape and Figure If Colour Hardness and Weight with other Qualities appertaining to Matter are defin'd Accidents in a Philosophical Sense yet allowable such as when natural are inseparable Proprieties from Bodies to which they appertain And 't is some wonder that this Learned Monsieur should forget on this occasion That noted Logical Maxim Quod omni sola et semper accidit subjecto So that the Idea of this Author as it is here Apply'd by him is so far from a Weighty or indeed a Colourable Notion That 't is as surely Confuted as a White Plum may be distinguish'd by the Act of Nature from a Black one The next Step he takes is to present his Reader with the Doubts of some Persons who Determine That Bodies may be so Rarified or Condens'd that they may have by Rarifaction more Extension than when Condens'd To which Number of Dubitants I desire to be added Because I conceive nothing more clear than the doubt he Delivers Is it not very evident That Snow when dissolv'd by Rarifaction into Water is substantially Extended farther than before as it may be observ'd falling from a Hill into a River And is it not as manifest That some Parts of Wood when Thinn'd and Rarified by Fire convert to Smoak So that 't is impossible to deny that Corporeal Alteration is not Incident to Rarifaction which gives it a variable and different Extension if compar'd to the space it Precedently fill'd and this amounts to Demonstration instead of Opinion But he that will be Proselyted by the Doctrine of Des-Cartes must in this Case be such a compliable Sceptick as to Renounce his sensible Conviction and accord with him where he contends to Argue That whosoever will attentively Think and admit nothing but what he clearly understands will Judge That no more is Effected by Rarifaction and Condensation than Change of the Corporeal Figure And this in few words is the summ of what is contain'd in his Fifth and Sixth Particular that is worth a Remark The Reason he offers is That Rarified Bodies having many Pores are there Replenish'd with other Substances and by that means become Condens'd This Conceit of his is as distant from Proof as Fiction is from Truth And nothing more obviously Answer'd since 't is Philosophically Certain That Condensation is added to Bodies which are made more or less Solid as their thinner Parts are proportionately expell'd by Rarifaction And thus a tenuous Substance is gradually render'd more compact and harden'd by the Fire as is in divers Kinds Experimentally Observable Which however producing Alteration of Figure in their Corporeal Extent 't is as they receive Solidity or Durition from the Capacity that their tenuous Parts have in order to Rarifaction So that 't is not as this Writer Infers from any Intervals or Cranies in Bodies fill'd with other Bodies that causes Condensation but so much of the Tenuity of their Compositions as being vanish'd by Rarifaction leaves them more compactly Harden'd Suppose he had been ask'd Whether the thin Substance of Air or Fluid Body of Water did Exist with any such Pores or Inlets in them that might be Receptacles for other Bodies He could not probably have solv'd the Question notwithstanding 't is very apparent That Air is Thicken'd by Moisture that exhal'd by the Sun is mingled with it But Water being a grosser Substance is Condens'd as its Thinner Parts are by Heat extracted from it and this may be discern'd in every standing Pool or Puddle All which is Equivalently acknowledg'd by him in his Entrance to his Seventh Head Where he grants That there are no Pores in Air or Water that may add to their Amplitude by giving Reception to other Bodies whereby they may be more Replenish'd Yet would have it pass in being suppos'd for a Rational Fiction but I expected his Proof and therefore must be excus'd if I reject his Fable As for Corporeal Extent caus'd by Rarifaction he seems to allow none otherwise than as he would a new Body so Extended Which is not Universally true and may be so understood from the Example
Of these Disputes have been rais'd till ceas'd by Conceding of One or more Eternity of Causes All which Particulars have been exquisitely Treated of by great Philosophers if the labour of their Search could have been as satisfactorily repaid by discerning of what they so earnestly sought But they soon found that Infinite Science is inconsistent with Finite Understanding It being impossible that in the most exquisite Imagination of Mankind there should be an Idea or Phantasm of any Thing of Infinite Denomination or Being either as to Magnitude or Time Because neither Magnitude or Time can be Infinitely Computed Insomuch that nothing but what is Infinite can have an Infinite Conception So that should a Man of the most subtil and refin'd Reason undertake to argue from one Effect of an immediate Cause and next to a Remoter and by that manner of Reasoning continually Ascend he would find That his Imagination could have no eternal Progression but would fail as if tir'd by its stupendious Journey or how to proceed farther not at all impower'd to direct it self Nor is it consequently absurd in the Judgment of Learned Philosophers if the Structure of the Universe be thought either Finite or Infinite by reason that both or either of those ways of its Constituting are alike possible to the Conduct and Operation of the Almighty as the World now is or might so have been formerly beheld with whatsoever it contains If nothing can properly be said to Move but as it is Mov'd by some Cause of Motion which must be granted Supreme and Eternal A main Querie depends on that Concession which is Whether Matter the subject of Motion must not be also allow'd Eternal in which Sense the World might be held perpetually and motionally Existing Contrary to the Opinion of Some who determine That the Omnipotent Cause or Deity was eternally Immoveable or not at all Operative untill the World's total Creation was miraculously compleated But the Objection against that Opinion will be more difficultly Answer'd if urg'd That whatsoever may be thought eternally Immoveable cannot be probably conceded the primary Cause of Motion which Imply's a temporary or Finite Beginning as applicable to any Date of the World's Creation A Consequence in the Judgment of some that Confirms the perpetuity of the World 's material Consistence as also That by Omnipotent Power it was always in Motion till gradually perfected as it now Exists It being not at all Inconsistent with Divine Power if so ordain'd That Matter should be unaccountably motional in order to the stated Disposure and exact Consummation of whatsoever has Being within the vast Circumference of Heaven and Earth Yet no such Thing as Infinite Matter in any consideration rationally to be suppos'd the Original out of which proceeded the World's Existence with all its Particulars By reason that it were a Geometrical Contradiction should Matter be defin'd Infinitely subsisting Since absolutely certain that whatsoever may be Term'd Matter Substance or Body must also be quantitively Commensurable Wherefore in this Case the World might be before Time was materially Consistent if duely distinguish'd betwixt Infinite and eternal Duration which by Omnipotent Will and Power might be effected by determining a perpetual continuance of Matter tho' not Infinitely Existing The great Philosopher Aristotle not a little concenter'd with the same Opinion as he thought it more probable to appropriate Eternity to the material Being of the World in opposition to the Sentiments of some Philosophers who thought it was generated according to the Opinion of Plato by a certain Mutation from what it had been to what it afterwards was or now is But although in the Judgment of Aristotle the substantial Existence of the World was deem'd Everlasting he could not believe that its Matter was actually Infinite because whatsoever is material must be quantitive and therefore Mathematically computable as before Instanc'd So that if Aristotle be reconcil'd to Aristotle he may be understood to deny the Being of the World from any precedent Alteration or Change that could proceed from its natural Composure or any generative Faculty that could be suppos'd in it at all produc'd But in this Belief he does not absolutely oppose its total Creation If he firmly conceiv'd That it was never effected by any generative Method he does not by that Tenent peremptorily dissent from the possibility of its Existence by a miraculous Creation To which purpose in his Second Book of the World he Affirms That the World is the Ordainment of God And in his Twelfth Book of Metaphysicks he positively Asserts That the World and whatsoever it contains depends on God as its Original Cause Which duely apprehended is more contiguous to Divine Allowance than the Universal Principels of Catholick Des-Cartes who having fill'd the World with one pure Element and by that determination left no Space or Room whereby there may be imagin'd any natural Operation by which the different Qualifications and Proprieties that he confers on his Vortices and Globuli could be possibly deduc'd Insomuch that it may be Affirm'd That his petty Phaenomena's together with his Hypothesis of the World's Production are more Irrationally fabulous than the little imperfect Notions of Atoms expos'd in the Writings of Epicurus who teaches That the World before it had Beginning did consist of most diminutive Places that were not replenish'd with Bodies his Reason is That had such Places been fill'd with any Corporeal Beings there could not have been Room for the Motion of his Atoms because one Body might oppose in the Space it possess'd the Movement of another and so frustrate in every kind the progression of his Atoms in order to the Constituting of Heaven and Earth The Modalities of which Particles of Nature by Epicurus denominated Atoms together with their motional Attributes may methodically be read in the Writings of the Philosophical Poet Lucretius to which I refer the Reader And next to proceed with Monsieur Des-Cartes I find that he has not only elaborately Intrigu'd if not unsuccessfully perplex'd his Brain as I have precedently prov'd by forming of such Materialities and their Movements whereby he would Embody the Fond Situation and Existence of the Terrene World but also as he Imploys his farther Speculations on the Elements of Air and Water as being of nearest vicinity to the Earth we Inhabit The Air by his Definition is of a tenuous and fluid Substance congeriously compos'd of his Third Element already mention'd and therefore declares it thin and pellucidous That the Air consists of a Fluid tenuity is undeniable but not to be allow'd glist'ring or shining of it self which is very evident as we ocularly discern the capacious Complex of the ambient Air more or less Enlightned and consequently Warmer or Colder its Temperature and Effects as it proportionably receives and is qualified by Illuminations from Above And therefore not true as inferr'd by this Author that because the Air is of a liquid and tenuous Consistence that it is therefore
naturally and not accidentally Lucid If otherwise why might not this opiniative Monsieur as well Attribute Inherent transparency or shining unto Water that is so nearly ally'd to Air in being of a fluid and thin Substance But who ever observ'd any shining in either of these Elements in a cloudy Day or Night So that Experience assures That neither Air or Water have in themselves any Illuminating Propriety unless he could convincs us That a congeries of his Globuli of which he Asserts the vast quantity of Air and Water is Compos'd were glisteringly parcell'd like studded Diamonds But allowing neither them nor their Vortices and Elements from whence he derives them any such Capacity or so much as a Being in rerum natura I cannot but totally reject them wheresoever I find them as formerly I have done My next remarkable Consideration shall refer to his 48th Particular where he delivers the two main specifical Qualities that he annexes to the Nature of Water some of which he determines flexible others inflexible and if separated one from another some of them compose or produce Salt Water whilst others sweet or fresh This Principle of his can never be so perfectly Season'd as that it shall not taste of a Paradox in the very Sense of the Word as it is apply'd by common Understanding For what is more distastful to obvious Intelligence than to Attribute to the Fluidity of Water a flexible or inflexible Qualification Whereas Water by its appropriated Inclination may be properly said to flow but not to bend or consider'd as absolutely Inflexible A Stick or Cane may be bow'd by the Hand but can a Man so grasp a quantity of Water as he may be thought to Inflect or bend the liquid Material or feel in any of its fluid Substance such an Inflexible Part that he could not squeez or if he did immediately observe it stiffen'd into a Salt Composition Could this be readily perform'd by Manual Operation it would doubtless advantageously facilitate the Salt-Manufacture and gratifie the Inventer with a Pension and thanks from the Publick for his beneficial Project But I cannot perceive any such assurance in the Writings of this French Gentleman if not rather an Imaginary Perfection conferr'd by him on the Actings of his Globuli as he supposes them sometimes to thin Water into Air or thicken Air into Water Much like the pretended Experiments of Empiricks who boastingly teach That their Operations consist of such a quintessence of Things as were never understood before Whereas indeed 't is a devis'd Tale of so many Non-Entities as to any Use or Effect that could be actually perform'd by any real process of such Authors The next Exterior and Contiguous Element to Air is Water as it is by Philosophers Elementarily understood of which In his 49th Particular he offers a very confiderable Account as he applys it to the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea The external Superficies of the Earth being in some sort surrounded by the Ocean whereby the Globulous Form of the Earth is more exactly compleated There is no Speculation within the Precincts of Nature that has more perplex'd Learned Authors than the Discovery they would attain of the Causes that effect the Flux and Reflux of the Sea every six Hours of Day and Night as it is variously observ'd in different Climes and Situations of the Earth But as to the Ocean in general the same Compass of Time relating to its Floating and Refloating is usually expended Whereas in the Baltick as also in some other Seas there are no such Egressions and Regressions of the Waves of the Sea which failure is by some thought to proceed from the narrowness or streightness of the Shores and the adjoyning Caverns of the Earth not large enough to receive or be fill'd with the huge Billows of the rolling Water Or because the coldness of those Parts of the World obstruct the Rarifying of Exhalations requisitely conducing to the sufficient Tumefying or Swelling of the Waves that flow to their Shores Whether these Reasons or more that might be added have an effectual tendency in order to the various Fluxions and Refluxions of the Ocean observable in many Places of the Earth I will not dispute being more inclinable to believe that it is a Secret more deeply absconded by Nature than can be penetrated by the most accurate Inquisition of Humane Science Notwithstanding it may be Affirm'd That the remote Cause may probably be deriv'd from the Etherial vigour of divers Stars but most especially from the Moon when gradually arising above the Horizon she disperses her Beams obliquely on the Ocean and by that means warmes as also exhales from the bottom of the Sea such Exhalations that being Dilated Tumefy'd and consequently so weightily Increas'd as in a manner they Revolve to Shores The next Diversity may be apprehended from the Degrees of Motion made by the Moon as she departs from the Meridian towards the West Part of the Horizon by which Movement she disperses her Raies and Light less obliquely and therefore not so efficaciously transmitted to the Sea or generative of Vapors whence follows such a remission of the Tumidity of the Ocean that it seems to Reside and by so doing causes an Ebb or with-drawing from the Land Other Varieties of the Flowing and Ebbing of the Ocean as they depend on the Motion of the Moon by Day or Night might be mention'd here But I conceive the Instances I have given are enough and which I thought conveniently interpos'd because the most Remarkable Opinion amongst Philosophers before I came to the Judgment of Des-Cartes on this profound Subject To which purpose he rely's on the Phaenomena of his Vortices and Globuli together with the Motion of the Earth and Sea contiguous unto it and a Scheme delineated to that end On all which I am oblig'd to Insert no other Remark than by insisting on my absolute denial of the total Hypothesis of his Vortices and Globuli as also of the Earth's Motion either Diurnal or Annual which by the Diagram that I have given in the Third Part I doubt not is Geometrically demonstrated So that it were a needless Repetition should I reiterate the same Confutation In his 51st Particular I confess he has a Conceit which as to the Flux and Reflux of the Ocean could I Correspond with the dependence it has on his other Systems appears to be Mathematically acceptable by the Instance he gives and seeming probation why in Equinoctial Times or when the Moon is either at Full or at New the Flowing of the Sea is greater than at other Seasons Which he thinks he Confirms by alledging That the Moon at such Times and condition of her Light has always a Vicinity to the Plane of the Ecliptick and that the Earth which he supposes motional makes its Diurnal Progression according to the Plane of the Equator From whence saies he it comes to pass that those two Planes Intersect one another but in Solstitial
is not Intelligible from any Definition given by him but as he Affirms it Active and Motional And therefore consisting suitably to his Teuent of quantitative Parts it must be Elementarily Compos'd and consequently Mortal by Nature By reason that there is no sublunary Substance that has not a mutable and perishable Being So that within the Compass of the World and Course of Providence there is no Immortal Thing that can be by Man apprehended Which may be naturally Argu'd from the Doctrine of Des-Cartes as it relates to the Humane Soul Notwithstanding to Improve his Philosophical System I will conclude That as a Learned Catholick 't was granted by him that the eternalizing of the Humane Soul however Compos'd or operative in the Body of Man was wholly to be referr'd to the Decree of the Omnipotent In his Second Part he grosly defines and mistakes the Nature of Body by Affirming That it does not consist as as one Thing may be said to be more Ponderous Hard or distinctly Colour'd than another but as it is differently extended in Length Breadth and Depth which is a very incompatible Tenent or all one as to Assert That Air Water Man and Beast are no otherwise distinguishable than as any one of them are heavier or less than another tho' absolutely bereav'd of their other Proprieties Which shews That there is neither Head or Tail in the Shape of his Treatise on this Subject In his Third Part amongst divers of his questionable Positions and Phaenomena's which I conceive are considerably tax'd by me he does in a high degree essentially debase the conspicuous Sphere of Glory and Light visibly beheld in the wonderful appearance of the Sun which according to his Definition is no other than a flaming Substance that flashingly Moves continually from one place to another within its Circumference but with such resemblance to our common Fire that it dissolves whatsoever Matter is contiguous to its Movement Notwithstanding he would distinguish it from the Notion we have of Fire as it is sed and maintain'd by consuming of such Materials as are not too hard to be dissolv'd And is not this a pretty kind of distinction by which he gives a different denomination to the flaming Substance as be terms it of the Sun from the combustible Nature of Tarrestial Fire tho' in effect he grants that the Operation is the same in both There being little difference betwixt Dossolution caus'd by a flaming Substance and burning as Matter may be understood either way alter'd or consum'd The Fuel on which be conceives the flaming Substance of the Sun to operate is no other than what be calls his first Element or imaginary material Fund as be determines and orders it of the Worlds original Being Above and Below So that by a thorough-pac'd fiction he Constitutes the Heavens and Earth materially the same And if so he must grant that their Substance may be equally subject to the variable Alterations generatively or corruptly understood no less than Terrestial Beings which is contradictory to common Experience There being no such etherial Changes as are frequently visible in Things Below Which is an undeniable Argument that the Substance of the Earth could never be derivatively the same with that of the Heavens or originally so Compos'd Of which the Reader may be satisfied at large when he Inspects my particular Remarks that confirm my general Exception amongst other Things against the Fourth Part of his Philosophy where he makes the Earth as it were a diminitive Brat engendred by Seeds descending from Skies To be plain these Parts of his Philosophy which Include the whole depend on so many fabulous Phaenomena's and improbable Conjectures diversly introduc'd by him that it is impossible to apprehend any direct Foundation on which he erects the Babel of his Hypothesis in reference to the Heavens and Earth So that it were prolixly improper should I load my Preface by discussing of such Particulars that require a more ample Debate in their proper Places It being more suitable to the Nature of a Preface to intimate briefly such Observations as may give the Reader a taste of what he is more largely to consider Wherefore I shall refer him to my Remarks as in course they are to be Read where I believe he may find them as pertinently Compendious as my endeavours could accomplish or perhaps his Ingenuity may expect And for my own Vindication I can sincerely avow that I discharg'd from my perusal of his Tractates such opinionative Reflections as usually flow from the Pens of opposite Authors Being so fully prepar'd both as to the Repute of the Person and the value that I propensly allow'd to his great Abilities That I did in a manner not doubt that I should be proselited by his Principles But finding upon a Mature and thorough Consideration that his Maxims in divers Particulars not only check'd with my Understanding but also against the Proofs that might be adjusted against them I could not but infer that in a Judicious Conception he was not the same Des Cartes or Grandee of Knowledge that had been by many attributed to his Caracter So that I might well pronounce Quantum mutatus ab illo Hectore Not that I presume on my Success farther than he contributes to his own Defeat by intruding such Notions Ideas Systems and Existency of Things that could by no Method of Providence or Nature have Being in the World Notwithstanding all which he confidently assures his Reader that he takes himself to be no Author of Novelties or Principles disagreeable to the most famous of Ancient Philosophers Tho' palpably manifest that he neither mentions Plato Aristotle or any others of Old or Modernly Renown'd that he does not sharpen his Pen to Confute Tho' the Proofs that he offers are as far short of the Validity of many of theirs as Fiction is from best Probability or experimental Assurance As may be seen by some Examples given by me To Conclude had not these Motives prevail'd on my Judgment and what is more the demonstrative Evidence that I have Instanc'd from Proof I had been far more inclinable as I consider'd on many Accounts the Learned Deserts of this Author to have annex'd to his Esteem my Praise instead of my Opposition Farwel REMARKS On the First Part of the New PHILOSOPHY OF DES-CARTES Concerning the Principles of HUMANE KNOWLEDGE PART I. NOTHING is more commendable then the Exercising of the Humane Mind in such requisite Contemplations as most Effectually conduce to the Improvement of the Understanding in things of special Importance And tho' Man do's Exist in a World whose Structure is no less admirable to his Speculation then how he came to have Being in it or Originally Ensoul'd above other Creatur's Yet Nature is no such Step-Dame as not to Communicate by her Works such plentiful discoveries to the Rational Faculty as have an ample perspicuity and genuine tendency to Improve our Apprehensions A Treasure of Science that ought
be Thought if we please that in the Compass of the Universe there are no such Imaginary Points and consequently no Permanent Place as to the Being of any Thing otherwise than by Thought we so determine To which it may be Answer'd That as to any fix'd Points in any Caelestial Orb there is no Cause to Imagine them but as they Relate to the Commensurable Motion of some other Thing or by conceiving Imaginary Points in the Orbits of the Sun and Planets Yet not at all true if otherwise Applied because it is Philosophically certain That Motion generally Consider'd must be made from Point to Point gradually Mov'd with whatsoever is Moving otherwise there could be no Mathematical Computation or Time estimated as Proprieties of Motion In which Sense it may be likewise Asserted That the Sun and Stars no less than every other Thing may be judg'd to Remove with such Movable Spaces as naturally appertain to the Measure of their Extensions however their Diurnal or Annual Revolutions may be terminated by such Points as may be deem'd fix'd in Orbits above In summ whatsoever is Mov'd must have an actual Beginning and determinate Period or in a Philosophical Sense a quo et ad quem Which is no other than the Movable Progression from Space to Space of any Individual Thing with all its Parts Yet so as it may be said tho' in Motion still to continue the Place Incident to its proper Extent And therefore incongruously Conceded by Des Cartes That by License of Thought we may Think that there is no such Thing as Permanent Place appertaining to any Thing which in some Sense is as unnaturally Absurd as it one should undertake to Contemplate that there is no Corporeal Being Since Body cannot be understood either Moving or not Moving but as contain'd by Place nor Place without Local and Bodily Existence The difference that he makes in his 14th Particular betwixt Place and Space is That in his Sense Locality more expresly signifies Situation than Magnitude or Figure and contrarily these are more noted by us when we speak of Space And thus we frequently mention one Thing as succeeding to the Place of another although it be not of the same Magnitude or Figure All which amounts to no more than a Quibble of so many Words that ought to have one and the same ordinary Application And therefore very incongruously Asserted by this Author That by Place is more appositely understood Situation than Magnitude or Figure But how can any Thing be said to be duely Situated unless its natural proprieties be Locally understood Nor less dissentaneous is it to common Experience should his Notion be allow'd or manner of Thought by which might be suppos'd That one Substance could genuinely supply the room of another tho' not of the same Magnitude or Figure Which is a contradictory Supposition because naturally repugnant or rather Impossible that any one Thing should be said to possess the Local Being of another and not have its proper Attributes In his 12th Head he had allow'd That if any Corporeal Thing were remov'd from the Space or Place in which it was that we may believe the Local Being that it had before possess'd by some other Body or Bodies or term'd Vacuity Which as a Notion fit to be Enroll'd amongst Modern Absurdities was Remark'd accordingly But in his 17th Particular having precedently granted That in a Philosophical Conception there could be no such Thing as Vacuity or where no Substance does Exist He seems in few words to Recant what he Inscrib'd in his 12th Head acknowledging That by customary Manner of Speaking is not to be understood by the Term or Word Vacuity That Place or Space can be Apprehended by it in which there is nothing but in which there are none of those Things that we conclude ought to be there And thus a Vessel is said to be empty that appointed to contain some other Thing is fill'd only with Air or a Fish-Pool empty though full of Water because no Fish in it So that in effect he grants That the Cursory wording of Emptiness or Vacuity under the Phrase of nothing ought to be referr'd to the Predicament of Non-sense But vulgar usage of Words is and will be more practicably Retain'd by the generality of Mankind than any Concise or Philosophical Language of the Schools Wherefore this Author might have spar'd much of the Instructions of his Pen on this Subject because surer known to Men of Science than any Reception it may probably meet with in the Dialect of common Persons It was ever an undoubted Maxim That Vacuity is Inconsistent with the Essential Being of Nature because Substance must be Attributed to whatsoever Exists by her Prerogative and this as an old Truth is sufficiently acknowledg'd by Des-Cartes Notwithstanding that throughout his New Model of Philosophy there are few Tenents of the Erudite Ancients however Celebrated by Time that he does not undertake to Confute But where he Refells the obsolete Opinion or rather Conceit of Epicurus and some of his Predecessors concerning the World's Original from the accidental Concourse of Indivisible Atoms his Pen Conspires with the Vogue of Learned Antiquity which unanimously determin'd That there could be no natural Existence but in Quantitative and Corporeal Beings So that the Opinion of Innumerable Atoms or Thing next to nothing as they were deem'd Inconsistent or Exempted from having divisible Parts in Future Time became the Subject of Invention or such Poetical Allusions as by the fantastical Poem of Lucretius are committed to Perusal There we may Read how by admirable Conceit Things call'd Atoms destitute of Corporeal Proprieties had Motion and Flight as their Wings were Imp'd by the Artifice of Fiction And next to fill the World with their suppos'd procreative Faculty how they met and embrac'd like Male and Female I confess That a fabulous Process of the Original of the Universe may be more excusable because the most exquisite and penetrating Ingenuities of Mankind have been to wonder pos'd in the account they have given of the World's Beginning insomuch that the utmost Inquisition they could make has led them to such an Extasie or Stand of Thought That they have only been able to admire the Constituted Perfection of the World they Inhabit instead of discerning in what manner it was produc'd Whether the Imagination or Principles of Des-Cartes as they have Reference to this stupendous Subject will expand a prospect to the Eye of the Intellect more requisitely open than hath as yet been explicated by the profoundest Industry of Humane Science will be seen in such of his following Particulars where he Treats of the vast Consistency and Appurtenances of the Visible World And thus I come to his 21st Particular by which he would have us understand That the World we Inhabit is boundless in Extension Because as he states his Argument wheresoever we suppose its Limits we must necessarily grant That beyond those Imaginary Limitations are real
States it is because those Celestial Globuli find more Passages into a watry Drop than into the Circumjacent Air And by that means as near as may be Move in right Lines or in such as most approximate unto direct lineaments whence it is manifest in his Opinion That such Globuli that are in the Air are less motionally hinder'd as they meet with a watry Drop according to the continuance of their Motions in a streight Line or nearest unto it if that Drop of Liquor be exactly spherical than if it had taken any other Figure But if any Part of the Superficies of that Drop be extended beyond a spherical Figure the Celestial Globuli by their more forcible discursions made in the Air more strenuously assault the watry Drop than were it other Substance and immediately thrust it downwards towards the Center The Reader I presume will excuse me if in this Place and some others of his Writings I deliver the Notions of this Author in more uncouth Accents than I would willingly commit to his Perusal It having been my care no less than necessary Diligence to render as genuinely as might be his Latin Expressions into English If my Remarks on his precedent Praticular had any sharp Allusion dress'd in a plain and familiar Application I cannot rebate on this occasion the point of their tendencies Wherefore if prov'd by me in the foregoing Head tho' by a comical Similitude that his Hypothesis had inebriated his Globuli I may as judiciously Assert That his Sense in the Particular I now Treat of may be by no extravagant Similitude term'd unnatural or Philosophically and Mathematically Intoxicated unless I could Affirm in his behalf that his Globuli which as he supposes might by the force of their whirling Vortices so dispose their Materials to the Constituting of the Earth that the very Grapes that caus'd drunkenness in the Head of the Patriarch Noah were engender'd by some of their giddy Compositions And as sure as the Earth is now in Being Nature might be deem'd out of her Wits if according to his disorderly Process she could be thought to Design the Production of the earthly World Or what can be more improbable than the Tale he tells of his Celestial Globuli converting of liquorous Drops hanging in the Air into round Figures And what Reason does he give why no better than as he supposes That his Globuli may find more passage in watery Drops than in the circumjacent Air But does not common Experience confute this Imagination Let a strenuous Hand fling a smooth Peeble-Stone into the Air and afterwards into Water will it as soon pass any Part of the Superficies of Water as of the Air Or will it not the Water being of a more condense Substance than Air have proportionably a longer Motion and Passage by the ressistance of its thicker Body than might be given by the Tenuity of the Air A Truth so practically evident that it could not be unknown to many of the young Contemporaries at School with Des-Cartes wherefore I wonder to find him of a contrary Opinion here As little concentring in any kind with sound Principles are the Proprieties that he annexes to his Globuli which if in their Motion engaging with any Part of a watry Drop that is extended beyond a spherical Figure they immediately with greater force assail it and by compulsion enforce it towards its Center But if any Part of it be nearer its Center than another his Celestial Globuli contain'd in that watry Drop forthwith imploy their utmost Force to expell it from its Center and next altogether concur to make one spherical Drop Here by a perverse Contradiction he notoriously thwarts the surest Maxims of Philosophy as they pertinently Relate to the Nature and Motion of Corporeal Beings Nor is there any Thing more irrational if not Philosophically absurd than to define as he does globulous Materials and debar them of Motion natural to their Figures It being not possible to imagine that whatsoever is rotund should be more propense to Move in a streight Line or the nearest unto it than in a circular Revolution If a Ball be let fall from the Hand will it it not rotundly Move suitable to its Figure And could this Author imagine That a Demonstration so experimentally obvious would be wav'd by any Principle of his Geometrically Inconsistent or that the exactness of Things circularly Mov'd of all others most perfect should incline to deviate from their Centers Or if that were granted is it at all probable that they could have freer migrations according to this Author through any one of his suppos'd watry Drops than in the tenuous Substance of the Ambient Air Which being done they are in his Sense sometimes compulsively enforc'd towards their Centers if their Figures be not absolutely spherical but if exactly round as forcibly remov'd from their Centers And thus he Implicates if not so crosly Involves Contradictions that he determines the operations of Nature more consonant to the exerting of a Step-dame's Arbitrary Conduct than suitable to the comely Effects by which she regularly produces the Motion and Being of Things All which must be conceded as Principles of Nature incident to her Rule and regular Intention as surely as some of her Materials are more substantially heavy or lighter than others and will therefore have a natural Recourse upwards or downwards to their Centers accordingly Wherefore it may be admir'd in what Fit or Heat of Fancy the Brain of this Monsieur was Inveigled when by so many perplex'd Words as also opposite Terms and Methods he did in a manner angrily Impose the Limitations of his Measures on the stupendious Productions of the Works of Nature Insomuch that his Maxims if soberly consider'd signifie little other than a design'd Rape committed on the Grandeur of her Figure and Beauty together with the providential Facility by which she compleats and preserves her Legitimate Conduct and Operations So that his Invented Elements with all his Diagrams of Vortices and Globuli seem fictitiously devis'd or appertaining to the Imaginary System of some other World since not at all probable that they could belong to the Composure of this But enough has been in this Place and occasionally before I believe satisfactorily Inserted on this Subject that it were impertinently tedious if more be added There remains one Particular that ere I conclude on this Head requisitely deserves a considerable Remark because it Includes a very curious and subtil Mathematical Problem Which he thus expresses the Angle of Contact by which the Tangent Line touches a Circle and by which only it is distant from a right Line is less than any Rectilineal Angle whatsoever and in no Curve Line besides the Circle is every where equal Wherefore he Affirms That a streight Line cannot more equally and less every where inflect or bend from its Points than when it degenerates into a Circular I have read in the History of Algebra written by Dr.
the beneficial Act of Providence than concentring with Humane Invention Notwithstanding all which Des-Cartes is so fondly confident of his supposs'd Phaenomena's in every consideration that he doubts not to promulge as he would be taken for a paramount Minister to the Counsels of Nature such Secrets that being enclos'd in her Cabinet could only be Reveal'd by him To which purpose he presents his Reader with no less than Thirty Four Particulars whereby he would explain the mysterious Sympathy of the Load-stone and Iron On which I am oblig'd to bestow no other Remark than by taxing of their dependancies on the Construction and Management he gives to his fabulous Elements Vortices and Globuli by which he attempts to Constitute the World and all its Individuals together with their occultest Qualifications and manner of Existence As surely as he Imagines that in this Place he has Decipher'd every Syllable relating to the obscurest Contexture Being and Nature of the Magnet the most useful Jewel of Stones with all its Excellencies Had it not been as easie for this Author having furnish'd his Brain with so many Notions Theories and Systems by which he undertakes to penetrate and display the total Recesses of Nature to have given a Philosophical Reason Why the Remora tho' one of the least of Fishes adhering to the Stern or Rudder of a great Ship should stop her Course when under Sail in a Tempestuous Sea Or Why the Eyes of a Crab-Fish should burst the Stone engender'd in the Bladder of Man Yet these Experiments are related by undoubted Authors but so as they are referr'd to ocult Causes or such as are impossible to be extricated by Humane Comprehension On which account Pliny the great Naturalist acknowledges that there are many Things wholly absconded by the Majesty of Nature From whence I conclude That had this Learned Monsieur been as modest in his Opinion he had never propo'sd any Maxims of his in order to Frame the miraculous Consistence of the Universal World by Materials and Operations of his devising For doing of which however the labour of his Pen and pregnancy of his Fancy might in those respects acquire Applause Yet in a Judicious construction they cannot be allow'd any other Encomium than may be given to Ovid for the first Line or Introduction to his fictitious Poem where he tells his Reader that In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas Corpora To be plain I would as soon rely on the Metamorphosis of that Poet by which he fabulously produces the Universe with all its Appurtenances as confide on that account on the Principles engender'd by the Brain of Des-Cartes Not but I grant that the most accurate Thinker even where Causes of Things are obscurely Envelop'd will signally attain the nearest room to Philosophical Reputation Notwithstanding the endeavours of Men are so far unfortunately obstructed that where Knowledge is most desir'd and would requisitely be embrac'd the greatest difficulties not seldom Interpose Insomuch that the Faith we assign to the Zenith of our Salvation above Encounters too often the Soul with dubious Sentiments that in a natural Conception are more remote from our Apprehension than the absconded Cause that guides the Magnetical Needle to Epitomize a Line that would direct its Points towards the vastly distant Poles of the World The main Supposition of this Author and on which chiefly his before-mention'd Thirty Four Particulars relating to the especial Inclination of the Magnet or the Needle touch'd by it to regard the Nothern and Southern Points of Heaven is That he supposes two Poles in the Magnet that respect those Parts or Poles on which he imagines the Earth to Move But how the Load-Stone should be accomplish'd with two such Poles that Sympathetically affect those Points of the World he offers no natural Reason for their Consistence or Operation Some of the Learned have thought that by a secret Sympathy Influenc'd by Nothern and Southern Stars the Magnetical Needle points towards them Others have more naturally appropriated the Cause to vast quantities of Iron situated as some think under the North or South Pole of the World From which Opinion perhaps as probable as any other may be inferr'd That if one end of the Needle does steadily Point Northward the other will as certainly Point Southward because the Needle will be then demonstratively in the same Plane with the Meridian Line if not accidentally hinder'd But notwithstanding the strong Inclination or sympathetical Affection that the Magnetick Needle has directly to represent the two Polar Points of the World 'T is frequently observ'd that in some Places of the Earth ' tho not far distant from one another it considerably differ'd if compar'd with what it does in other Situations And what is more admirable if plac'd as near as could be judg'd on the same foot of Ground it has at one time more or less vary'd than at another And thus it is frequently observ'd that very near the same Place higher or lower or on the contrary Sides of a Wall or Window that the Magnetical Needle hath pointed on contrary sides of the Meridian Which might be from different Azimuths as the Compass was plac'd much like to the Substile of a declining Dyal on several Plaines Whether caus'd by some Aspects and Motions of Stars Alterations of the Air Water Earth and Seasons of the Year or Metals conceal'd within the Surface of the Earth If not as some have Imagin'd diverted or variously drawn aside by quantities of Iron that in Towns and Cities were more or less when Observation has been made near their Precincts As was the Opinion of Learned Gilbert who is said to have spent 50000 Crowns on his endeavour to find out the Secret But whatever were the Cause I think it not improper to mention the signal Observation made by practical Mr. Gunter in the 279 Page of his Book where he Writes that being inform'd in what place Mr. Bourough in the Year 1580 had observ'd the Variation of the Compass at Limehouse near London compar'd with the Azimuth of the Sun to be 11 dig 15 m. That he on the 13th of June 1622 made Observations on several Parts of the Ground in that Place and could find the greatest Variation of the Needle to be but 6 deg 10 m. Which differs from the Observation made by Mr. Bourough 5 deg 5 m. And tho' betwixt these Observations there was 42 Years difference it may be demonstratively concluded from them that if the Earth be suppos'd to Move as Des-Cartes Imagines it could not vary its Poles nor the Magnetical Needle if granted with him to have Poles also by the Virtue it receives from the Touch of the Magnet because both these Learned Authors made their Experiment in the same Place Having consider'd these Observations and not knowing whether or not the Variation of the Compass had been observ'd at Windsor where I now Reside I made from a high and convenient Place these following Observations by