Current ♉ 4. ♃ 19. ♂ ☌ ☉ ♀ 1635. Octob. the 8th a Current ♌ 28. ♃ ♠4. ♂ III. in ♎ Octob. 27. A Current ♠1. ♃ 15. ♂ 1648. Dec. 18. Currents Monconys ♠14. ♂ ♎ 8. ♃ And I do not insist much upon these as if the Aspect had any eminent Power in the Streams because I see other Causes nearer the ☉ and nearer home to the Earth I mean that challenge this Province and whether They or These do exert remarkable Influences unless in some places of Heaven posited is to be enquired as also whether among the Superiours ♄ may not have more Power though remoter than ♃ in the Motion of Waters The Seamen use to adjust their reckonings by allowing for Impediments wherein besure Currents are comprehended Notwithstanding I have noted none but where the Current made them speak out and have none of the Moderation above premised in the mean time I desire comparison may be made between the two Superiors in the case Parelia § 70. Something is contributed but other Aspects may be more proper ♃ and ♀ perhaps may multiply the Images of the ☉ before our present Aspect because ♀ Pranks it more than ♂ seems to do howbeit take our few Instances of Parelia with Halo's 1528. May 16. Halo circa Solem Lyc. ♊ 22. ♂ ♋ 22. ♃ 1550. Aug. 11. Norimberg alibi in a fair day Irides and other Phoenomena Lycosth 607. ♊ 13. ♂ 26. ♃ 1551. Magdeburg Paraselenae seen with VII Irides Lyc. 612. at Wittemberg also describ'd by Lycosth p. 613. 615. Gem. 1. p. 194. ♋ 5. ♃ ♌ 11. ♂ 1559. Febr. 28. Antwerpiae Tres Soles cum variis atque diversis circulis Visisunt Lycosth 614. ♊ 22. ♃ ♊ 3. ♂ 1607. Dec. 13. Iris tot die ♑ 22. ♃ ♒ 4. ♂ 1617. May 1. Parelia ♒ 1. ♃ ♌ 27. ♂ 1619. Mense Maii Tres Soles ♃ ♂ ☠Dec. 13. Iris tot die Kepl. ♑ 22. ♂ ♒ 4. ♃ 1621. Aug. 18. Halo ☽ ♠o. ♂ ♊ 22. ♃ 1623. Lincii Parelia Kepl. May. 18. ♑ 16. ♂ ♋ 26. ♃ May 30. Iris K. ♑ 16. ♂ ♋ 28. ♃ Nov. 24. Halo ☽ Kyr ♠o. ♃ ♓ 3. ♂ 1625. July 6. Iris ♠25. ♃ ♓ 27. ♂ Sept. 20. Iris et clarus Sept. ♓ 27. ♂ ♎ 10. ♃ Octob. 14. Gaelum Sanguineum Kepl. Dec. 8. Oldenburgi Parelia in Coron Regis Ferdin 3. die Kepl ♎ 25 ♃ ♈ 10. ♃ 1627. Octob. 18. Halo Solis Kyr Kepl. ♠4 ♃ ♊ 6. ♂ 15. Iris Kepl. Nov. 12. Halo ☽ Kyr Kepler ♉ 29. ♂ ♠9. ♃ Dec. 14. Parelia Kyr in Bavaria ♉ 21. ♂ ♠21. ♃ 1628. Jan. 2. Iris Kepl. Kyr ♉ 27. ♂ ♠20. ♃ March 18. Iris Kyr ♑ 3. ♃ ♋ 11. ♂ April 13. Iris Kyr ♑ 3. ♃ ♋ 9. ♂ 25. Iris Kepl. Kyr ♑ 2. ♃ ♋ 15. ♂ May 14. Iris Kepl. Kyr ♑ 1. ♃ ♋ 26. ♂ 23. Iris Kyr 1629. March 24. Halo ☽ K. Kyr ♒ 1. ♃ ♓ 3. ♂ 1631. March 4. Iris Kyr ♈ 9. ♃ 21. ♂ 1635. Jan. 14. Halo ♃ ♂ ♌ ♒ 29. Partil ☠1637. Febr. 9. Halo ☉ Kyr ♓ 26. ♃ ♎ 4. ♂ 10. Tres Soles cum Iride Kyr March 2. Paraselenae ♎ 1. ♃ ♈ 19. ♂ April 19. Tres Soles cum Iridd Kyr △ ♃ ♂ Nov. 13. Halo ☽ Columnae Kyr ♎ 17. ♂ ♃ partile Dec. 10. Halo ☉ ♎ 25. ♃ 29. ♂ Dec. 20. Halo ☽ Kyr ♠2. ♃ 6. ♂ 23. Iris Kyr Febr. 2. Iris Kyr ♠4. ♃ 15. ♂ March 18. Halo ☉ ♎ 23. ♃ ♈ 15. ♂ 1640. April 27. Iris Matut Kyr ♑ 7. ♃ ♒ 5. ♂ 1644. Aug. 17. Parelia Kyr ♉ 29. ♃ ♊ 9. ♂ 1646. Aug. 25. Iris Parelia ♋ 3. ♂ 28. ♃ Aug. 29. Iris. 1672. May 15. Halo ☉ 10 mane lasted near an hour ♠9. ♃ 25. ♈ ♂ § 71. Concerning the Halo the Iris we must not repeat what has been said we are in the mind still that there 's more Pencils go to the draught of such Images as we shall see in the Cognate Phaenomenon of the Claritas Septentrionalis which happening in the Night time cannot then arise from the ☉ alone As to the greater appearance of the Parelia and Paraselenae we have here a considerable number a Dodecade of such Rarities and such a Number in spite of fate proves they have some dependance on the Aspect in hand however we cast about to make it out The great Joseph Scaliger on Eusebius was engaged by his Argument to give us some Chronological Notes of these Phenomena but he scarce tells us the Month much less the Day A Fault that more are guilty of besides him having no Opinion of Celestial Philosophy We do not trouble our selves here about their signification Fromond modestly takes off Gemma for his Vanity in that respect He proposes perhaps his own Fancies for standing Rules They can't well reconcile Aristotle and others who make the Parelia to be the Forerunners of Tempests and Showry Weather with Des-Cartes his opinion before commended of a Solar Reflexion from some Icy Particles which at that time may hang in the Air. For nothing hinders but that such Particles may hang in a cold clumsie Air as well as a Sheet of Snow 't is certain floats before 't is portion'd into Flakes Secondly because I well remember that upon the report of three Suns seen at Oxford on a certain day before noon which I neither had hap to see nor yet to record I took notice that the morning was cold Nor does any of these appearances shew themselves at Sea but under a chill Latitude So by a good token Scaliger tells us that his Hollanders saw it in the Latitude of 71. All which sweetly agrees with our Aspect of ♃ and ♂ which we have owned and shall farther prove of a Dry and Cold Energy Claritas Septentrionalis § 72. The Nocturnal Brightness whether in the North or in the East may deserve to be consider'd which we have said cannot come from the ☉ alone but from some new accessions of Light from those Bodies which are as moveable as Torch-Light sometimes together sometimes asunder which though I am assured it springs from a Conflux of Celestials so posited yet I protest 't is hard to find such an appearance without our Aspect of ♃ and ♂ Days noted in Keplers Diary are 1625. August 28. September 20 ♎ 5. ♃ ♈ 3. ♂ 1626. June 16. Claritas nocturna ♠o. ♃ ♉ 1. ♂ 1628. Dec. 10. ♑ 11. ♃ ♠14. ♂ Dec. 16. ♠18. ♂ ♑ 12. ♃ 1629. Sept. 11. ♑ 27. ♃ ♋ 2. ♂ St. Octob. 6. ♑ 28. ♃ ♋ 12. ♂ St. Octob. 19. ♑ 28. ♃ ♋ 14. ♂ In most of these days we find a Congress of three Planets or more Kepler hath observed that the Clarity used to happen at a ☌ ☉ ☽ and though observing two he was in a fair way for three yet he did not deliver it to posterity ♄ ☉ ♂ are 3. Aug. 28. S. V. 1625. Sept. 20.
ASTRO-METEOROLOGICA OR APHORISM'S AND DISCOURSES OF THE Bodies Coelestial THEIR NATURES and INFLUENCES DISCOVERED From the Variety of the Alterations of the Air Tempeperate or Intemperate as to Heat or Cold Frost Snow Hail Fog Rain Wind Storm Lightnings Thunder Blasting Hurricane Tuffon Whirlwind Iris Chasme Parelij Comets their Original and Duration Earthquakes Vulcano's Inundations Sickness Epidemical Maculae Solis and other Secrets of Nature Collected from the Observation at leisure times of above Thirty years by J. GOAD The Lord Reigneth Clouds and Darkness are round about Him A Fire goeth before him His Lightnings enlightned the World the Earth saw and TREMBLED the Hills melted like Wax at the Presence of the Lord. Psal CXVII Seek ye the Lord who maketh the Seven Stars and Orion That calleth for the Waters of the Sea and poureth them out on the Face of the Earth Amos V. Who removes the Mountains and they know not Who shakes the Earth out of his place Who commandeth the Sun and Seals up the Stars Who maketh Arcturus and Orion and the Pleiades and the Chambers of the Southern Constellations Who doth GREAT things past finding out yea and WONDERS without number Job IX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 19. LONDON Printed by J. Rawlins for Obadiah Blagrave at the Black Bear in St. Pauls Church-Yard over against the Little North-door 1686. To the Most Potent and Heroick Prince JAMES the II. OF Great Britain France and Ireland KING Defender of the Faith c. Most DREAD Soveraign AFTER Your Majesties Miraculous Access to the Imperial Crown of these Realms in Peace and Awful Silence After your Glorious Endeavours to Illustrate your Crown and Kingdom and make the English NAME Legible to all our Gazing Friends and Neighbour Nations it needs an Apology to interrupt your Great Tendencies and Designs with a Piece of Paper-Skill of any pretended Treatises of Science But Great SIR our Argument is as High as the Outward Courts of Heaven and Noble withal since the Greatest Princes Coats of Arms are emblazoned by our Planets These Papers like your Majesties Royal Mind are not confin'd within the Limits of the Britannick Shore but to shew their Usefulness they are bound for the East for the West for the South and for the Frozen Sea They aim at the account of a Fair Wind and a Storm a Thundring Tempest and a Resistless Hurricane and this all the World over They inquire into the Nature of Vulcano's Flaming Mountains which being accompanyed often with Earthquakes are as so many Sea-Marks to warn the Mariner that he comes not Ashore So the Subject may not be Unworthy of your Majesties Able Commanders that they may bring and re-bring their Cargo's safe to their desired Port. Specially since we adventure to search the Nature of Currents at Sea that they may be no longer Impediments un-accounted for When the deluded Vessel shall find she 's stolen back so many Leagues of her Voyage maugre a stiff Gale at her Stern What tends to Navigation leads to Empire or to Fame at least and Remark in case your Undaunted Royal Spirit shall be content with the Hereditary Dominions of your Crown This I reflect on with Comfort that this Essay I cannot say bask'd in the Sunshine but when time was it had the Glorious Fate to be enlivened by a Glance at least of your Royal Brother of most happpy Memory Nor can I be diffident of your Majesties Sweetness and good Liking when according to my Low Station under and with your Royal Scepter I aim at the Publick Good Praying the God of Heaven whom you Religiously and Devoutly Worship to impart the Blessings of Heaven the Blessings of Earth and the Blessings of the Deep on your State and Dignity Temporal and after a Long and Happy Reign amongst your Loyal Subjects who only understand the Blessings of Monarchy to re-Crown your Royal Head in the Temple not made with Hands his Eternal Kingdom So Prayeth your Majesties most Humbly Devoted Subject and Daily Orator J. GOAD TO THE Favourable Reader PHILOSOPHY I hope will never be out of date neither Natural nor Moral because they are Lights that lead us the one to admire the Divine Nature the other to follow it In Natural Philosophy the Planets and the Meteors teach their part in Letters writ in Light brighter than Gold as more Noble and therefore visible to the Vulgar who all believe a Celestial Power because they see it This being admitted They are fairly invited to give heed to the other more Spiritual Light which sheweth Good and Evil in their Colours I never found but that Contemplation of the Heavens conduced to the First and therefore must manuduce to the Second A Showre of Rain and a Fruitful Season is a good Proof for a Good God and a Pealing Storm of Thunder is a Sermon from Heaven the Voice of God and not of Man Such a rowsing Lesson may shake even an Epicurean into a Religious Horror much more the plainer Vulgar who are happy in this that they have no blind acquired Biass to counter-sway them from the belief of a Deity The Holy Text is full of what I say The Poetick and the Prophetick Books ring of Astrology and the Doctrine of the Sphere I could have filled my Title-Page with Testimonies The Verses of the Holy Arab are a Compendium of these Papers I confess I had a Fancy for these Contemplations from my Youth but I hope I should not have followed them Recreations though they were but that the Holy Text enflamed me thereto For I always had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Love for Holy Writ The Alteration of the Air comes home to our Doors and the Causes sometimes shine in at our Windows If an Influence of Sol Mercury Mars and Saturn c. were as commonly known to the Husbandman or Seaman as the Noviâ— and Plenilunar Influence how familiar would our Resentments be of God's good Providence how frequent would be the occasions of Discourse thereon what Advantages to Religion in its Devotional part from the Terrible Meteors in its Love Gratitude Admiration from the more Blessed Constitution But the unlucky Principle of Mechanism amongst the Learned and of Nature in the Brutish Notion amongst the Vulgar hinders our Wish But I hope this our Principle is so much the more prizable that it clearly â—vacuates that Intrigue And is it not pity that a Forein Mode of Philosophy though transient with the Age should debauch the present Generations defraud us of Arguments for God's Illustrious Providence urged so many Thousands Years ago and unhinge us from the Knowledge of the Creator who is Visible and Palpable to us every 24 Hours Wellfare therefore those Philosophers of our Age who made it their business to appear against Cartesius Dr. H. More Dr. S. Parker and Others to whom in my poor Opinion Religion and the knowledg of the Creator is indebted We are Superstitious forsooth if we are troubled at a Comet because 't is Natural
It may Portend for all that They deny Apparitions of Armies Wherefore because they can give no account of them They may deny as well a Showr of Rain for any account they can give why it falls with the Circumstances of hic nunc Our Philosophy reaches those very Circumstances because we study God and His Motions the Accesses Recesses Stations Respects of those Moveables which He hath Cloathed with Light least we should say He hid such Knowledge from us Therefore tell me good Friend why it Rains now why every quarter of an Hour for so it haps sometimes Why it Snows in Summer and Thunders in Winter Prognosticate by your Mechanisms what shall be Seven Year hence Nay if there be a Natural Divination then there is a Providence then there is a God then there is a Law of Nature setled which he who is Skill'd in obtains the Gift of a kind of Prescience So does Hippocrates foretel the Fate of his Patient an Arab a Comet and Thales an Eclipse This Knowledge I have endeavour'd to settle and to render it perspicuous which must require some Prolixity where the Mountain of a Common Prejudice is to be removed Yet I will not justifie my self I might have been more contract perhaps I may add that I was never inclined to study the Arabs I fetched not this Knowledge from them When I saw I was engaged to consult them I knew here was a Meum Tuum even among them so I gave them their due I have often apolâ—gized in the following Papers for the Length of the Diaries inserted I labour'd to find the utmost of the Planetary Communication which I have shewn to be large That is the chief thing I pretend to and I hope if it brings its Conviction it will be kindly accepted To conclude I wish the Reader a discerning Spirit in all Truth he pursues not only in this but in a more Celestial Philosophy So far am I on all accounts his unfeigned and absolute Well-Wisher J. GOAD The Characters which are made use of in the following Papers are thus explained Planets Saturn ♄ Jove ♃ Sol ☉ Mars ♂ Venus ♀ Mercury ☿ The Moon ☽ Aspects Conjunction ☌ Sextile âš¹ Quartile â–¡ Trine â–³ Opposition ☠The XII Signs of the Zodiack Aries ♈ Taurus ♉ Gemini ♊ Cancer ♋ Leo ♌ Virgo â™ Libra ♎ Scorpio â™ Sagittary â™ Capricorn ♑ Aquary â™’ Pisces ♓ A. l. ante lucem A. m. ante merid m. p. most part d. t. die toto T. M. Terrae Motus or Earthquake R. Retrograde Dir. Direct ASTRO-METEOROLOGICA APHORISMS and Discourses concerning the Natures of the Bodies Celestial c. BOOK I. CHAP. I. God the First His Second Cause the Heavens Their admirable Power on the Sublunary World on the Air especially The Causes of Meteors ordinary or prodigious Angelick Powers § 1. GOD Almighty the Great and Wise Creator Blessed for ever for no legitimate Astrology can exclude Him is not only in Himself but even in his Works Incomprehensible § 2. Amongst His other infinitely various Operations He is admirably discovered in the constitution of the Air and its strange Vicissitudes which the Divine Word unquestionably produceth by a Second inferior Cause or Generant § 3. The Theatre on which these Alterations are hourly acted being the open Air Mankind hath more easily arrived at some little Apprehension of this Second Cause the Region in which they are presented being so neer and pervious § 4. As reasonable as it is to believe that the Sea comprehendeth all the Seminal Causes of Her Productions and the Earth of what is bred in Her Bowels also so natural is it to imagine that the Heavens are not Idle but rather give Spirit and Influence to all things under their Convexity viz. the Air and its Regions with the Globe of Water and Earth These being but minor Orbs all inclosed within the vast Embraces of the major even as the Foetus is embraced by the Womb and the Membranes that are agnate to it § 5. The World therefore in all Ages hath been convinced that the Heavens have no small Power on the premises and every Body within their respective Inclosures § 6. On the Air especially and its Phaenomena the Meteors as they are distinguished vulgarly into Real or Apparent § 7. Of these latter none go about to deny that the Heavens are the due Efficient whether Halo's Rainbows Parelia Paraselenae Chasms Clarities Nocturnal the Morning and Evening-Blushes of the Heavens to which may be added the rarer appearance of its seeming Conflagration unless That prove gather to be Real § 8. But no less are they the due Effective of the former the Real ones though some Well-meaners would fain deny it whether Clouds Rain Mist Dews Fiery Trajections Ignes fatui Lightning Thunder Blasting Frost Snow Hail Winds § 9. And of All these whensoever they happen whether in Measure or Excess Ordinary or Prodigious and they again whether Homogeneous such as those Dire Tempests called of old Ecnephiae Exhydriae Fistulae Plin. hist nat II. 48 49. known amongst us by the names of Sponts Huracans Tornados Travados c. or Heterogeneous as the Rains of Dusts Ashes Milk Blood c. § 10. No other is the Cause after all that can be disputed of that great phaenomenon the Comet and That not only Sublunar but Celestial § 11. The same also is most justly acknowledged the Cause of the motion of the Sea its Ebbs and Flowes which some great Artists would pin on the motion of the Earth others on the inward Principle of the Element § 12. Yea the Heavens though it may seem to be no less than a Contradiction are to be admitted Causes of Earthquakes Meteors as they are rightly called of the Subterranean Region § 13. Powers Angelical Good or Evil are no Causes solitary or such as do evacuate the proper Causality of the Heavens § 14. Stormy Winds therefore which are harmful to Countrey or Province are no Arguments whatsoever the vulgar are perswaded of Sorcery or Conjuration § 15. Hereby it is not intended to deny that Spirits can raise or bestow Winds or Tempests and that it may be by Arbitrary means though I see some are willing to excuse Lapland from such Inditement § 16. Showers of Stone Dust Ashes Blood Corn c. which I call Prodigious out of kind § 9. are generated first in the Air not elevated thither by any violent natural Spirit as some think so that if they may be fairly imputed to an Angelick Administration yet neither can the Heavens be wholly excluded § 17. Concerning prodigious Showres of Creatures Animate as Frogs c. although the more probable Opinion saith they are generated in the Region from whence they fall yet here I am not ingaged to undertake § 18. Noises and Apparitions of Armies with Military Equipage and Tumult can at no hand exclude an Angelic and that a Principal Cause CHAP. II. Meteors their Material Cause and that there is
take the same notice of Dayes extraordinary Dies quidam apud Belgas our Neighbours of Brabant pluviarum atri infames sunt saith Fromond Meteor lib. 5. and he names us one viz. IV or July which he saith they call S t Martin the Dripper quem S. Martini bullientis aut pluvii appellant This Day I find not in every Kalendar but in our English only and not without the Inclination specified Fromond would have pleasured us therefore if he had named the Rest § 6. But the old Verses help us June VIII S. Medard's day Humida Medardi pluvias lux usque minatur And such dayes amongst us are St. John Baptist June XXIV St. Peter's Eve XXVIII Mary Magdal July XXII who is therefore said in the homely Country Proverb to wash S. James ' s Shift while dripping S. James himself saith the same Dialect Christens the Fruit. Add such are St. Bartholmew August XXIV St. Simon and Jude Oct. XXVIII with the day following XXIX the Powder-Treason Novemb. V. c. § 7. All which Dayes being Festival or notable for the Annex of some Mart Fair or other Solemnity could not chuse but come under notice with their Character § 8. Nor have our Ancestors given us days obnoxious to Moisture only we find other Constitutions also noted St. Mark 's day April XXV with his Neighbour St. Walburg's April XXVII and St. Philip and James are marked with an Obelisk for dangerous times of nipping Winds and Blasting Nunc caret aura fide nunc est obnoxia ventis saith one Verse and again Si friget segetes subeunt plerumque perîclum St. Margaret July the XX noted for Thunder Reboat mugitibus Aether St. Matthias for uncertain Air in this remarkable Distich Matthiae glaciem frangit si invenerit illam Ni frangat glaciem tum mihi crede facit As the Satyr thought it strange that a man should with the same breath blow hot and cold so the character of this Day seems as strange § 9. Yea the returns of Constitutions are not always confin'd to single dayes but to series of Dayes whence it comes to pass that some peculiar Dayes in this affair pass into Critical enabling to pronounce somewhat concerning the future Harvest Vintage or Winter for what have we to do with the frivolous Observation of the XII dayes in Christmass as if they were a compendious representation of the Months in the Year or with the Prognosticks on St. Paul's day sure no one Day can give crisis for a whole Year but for a month or a week a shorter term it may Four dayes then there are whose serenity gives fair hopes of a Vintage Vineent Apr. V. Vrban May XXV Assumption Aug. XV. and what Origanus interposes St. Bartholmew Aug. XXIV For Winter Purification Feb. II. and Cathed Petri Feb XXII are also Critical If it be fair on the former of these Major erit glacies post festum is in every bodies mouth if in the latter it freezeth the same constitution holds a Fortnight Again Rain on Mid-summer day speaks fears of a wet Harvest if on July II. Visit B. Virg. wet must be expected for a Month saith Origanus though the old Verse speaks more cautelous Si pluit haud poter is coelum spectare serenum Transivêre aliquot ni prius antè Dies If on St. Swithun's day the cry of England is it rains 40 dayes after if on St. Martin's day in Novemb. XI a wet winter is portended saith the Verse vid. Alsted Vranom p. 490. yea there is one critical Day recorded in Aetius the Physician 's time and that must be many hundred years ago concerning the then first day of Decemb. on which if it rained for the most part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it held on for 37 dayes Petav. Vranolog p. 421. § 10. Some that shoot without aim may abandon these Observes for superstitious as that of St. Swithuns in Mr. Parkinson's judgment is but where there is Experience and innocent Reason there is no ground for superstitious conceits § 11. For the Experience we have said the most of these dayes were Festival and so observable for the annex of some Solemnity and thence came in the publick Experience for the reason we shall give it in due place in the mean while asserting the truth of St. Swithun's crisis for some dayes after more or less which the Vulgar made a shift to call fourty to hold good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Kalendars have it and That 's enough CHAP. V. The Sun the great â—ight justly admired Notwithstanding alone He is not the absolute cause of Heat no not of the Seasons of the Year or the Constitution of the Day Chance excluded An Objection solved § 1. THis is enough for Demonstration of the Fixed Returns of the Weather and those Returns father'd on the Heavens by reason and consent universal Now in the Heavens what but the SUN can produce these Effects in their respective Periods the Sun being so regular a Mover that some have scrupled to call him a Planet § 2. And who goes to debar the Sun of his due let not us that contemplate the Heavens be guilty of it Let Theologie it self teach us that the Sun is a great Minister the Light and Life of the World without it no difference of Clime or Season no Spring no Summer no Autumn All Time would be Winter Horrid Winter the Sea a Mountain of Ice the Land a Flint and Darkness would usurp his old Dominion over both But sure God hath amongst thousand of other Stars made the Sun appear and commanded him to run an eternal Race in his great Olympiques This Commission as if conscious of the Infinite God he jollily executes and Nothing in the Universe is hid from His Heat At his Rise the Morning-Cloud vanishes the Fog dissolves and the Dew gently exhales Toward Mid-day he bringhteth the Air into a chearful Saphir and guildeth the Borders of the very Clouds with a costly limbus All the Earth basketh in his Light while the Clay is calcin'd by his Heat When he pleaseth he imprinteth his Face on the Roscid Cloud and decircinates the Iris with his Pencil He draweth the Waters as through an Alembick and gageth the Depth with his Beam The Current of the Seas observe his Tekupha's and flock All to the place of his Residence Where he keepeth Court is the greatest conflux the Stream makes hast to kiss his feet He raiseth Thunders in his vertical strength and gives fire to the Priming of his Clouds He raiseth a gentle Brise in the Aestival Morn and fanneth the Husbandman in the cool of the Evening When he mounteth he banisheth the Frost and confineth it as by the power of his Spell to the Ends of the Earth The Flowers of the field open for his Entertainment and the Birds of the Air observe his Night-watches they give a signal as from their Watch tower and chaunt their Reveille to the Sons of the Night All the
several Texture of Matter Density Rarity c. we must carefully distinguish between Them and their Privations the rather because the Philosopher saith rightly that the same Sense is Judge of both for t is no reason to look for a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Privative Beings but only of Positive Thus it will be vain to look for a Prime Recipient of Siccity the Fire being dry and the Earth also and neither owing that Quality one to the other because being a bare carentia and Absence of Humidity all Bodies so deprived must aequè primò rejoice in that Denomination Thus I take it is Rarity nothing but a Privation of Density Softness of Hardness Smoothness of Asperity Fluor of Solidity Friability of Viscosity Leanness of Fatness total or partial Privations For the Prime Recipient though it be commonly a certain species yet 't is not always so § 54. There are Properties which follow the Genus as All men must confess such are the known Properties of Quantity Figure Place Motion Time Gravity Colour Sound Figure I say for if Quantity be such a Property then Figure must also however it be called Quality or otherwise a Property of Corpus solidum Then Motion for be the principle of Motion what it will Matter or Form or Finiteness of Nature 't is plain 't is a common Generical Attribute to which it is annexed we may call it corpus or if you will substantia finita Then for Gravity we have a General Recipient for That whether in the new Philosophy which reckons All Elements to be Gravia as tending to their Centre Fire it self seeming to tend upward only on this account or in the more stale Philosopby which makes Earth Water Air Gravia in comparison of Fire I say according to the one the Prime Recipient of Gravity is corpus Homogeneum supposing the Heavy substance out of its place and corpus Opacum according to the other understanding it here as opposed to Luâ—id in which sense Air Water Earth are opacons and therefore Gravitating as being destitute of That Spirit which tendeth upward We say the same of Colour that corpus opacum but as distinguish'd to pellucid or Diaphanous is the Prime Recipient of it Colour being nothing else but a nice mixture of Light and Opacity Yea for Sound it self we give a prime Subject and That is corpus Spirituosum it being the Spirit that is the Subject and Vehicle of the Sound § 55. These things being premised I say that All Qualities truly so called positive Beings not privative have necessarily their Prime Recipient in the Species or the Genus at least Heat Cold Humectation Tast Odour All Sensible Qualities have their Prime Recipient it being hard to find Humectation where there is no Water Cold where no Earth Tast where no Salt Odour where no Oyl Light and Heat where no Fiery Spirit And what do we say of the Second Tactile Qualities Crassitude Solidity Density Hardness Roughness The Earth no doubt is the Prime Receiver of them All so that where there is Solidity and Density there is Earth as Plato saith even in the Stars themselves For Viscosity unless we say 't is a Compound Complicate Quality ex pingui arido and so get off from the necessity of assigning a Prime Recipient as there is no Prime Recipient of Tepor and mixt Colours so otherwise we may nominate a Gluten to supply That place with the same liberty as the Chymists name Sulfur and Salt for if it be said that there is no such species in which this quality inheres no more is there any species of Salt and Sulfur the Prime Recipient of Savours and Odours they are Generical Natures common to all Sapid and Odorate Bodies § 56. Surely unless some Recipient be admitted both in Active and Passive Qualities the Family of Nature will be at a loss The several Tribes of Hot Cool Sapid Odorate how manifold soever in their Natural Colonies must needs depend on some prime Propagator as all Families do § 57. I will not say this is in imitation of God himself and his Communications Nature being nothing else but a Sciagraphy of Divinity who being a Creator hath ordained a Generant communicating Essence and Gifts and Graces Himself being of them All the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 § 58. And truly when upon a just Induction made we may find a prime Subject for all the Active Qualities truly stated as Light Heat Cold Humidity c. why we should not seek for prime Subjects for All the rest which are absolute perfections of the Subject in which they dwell I see not seeing the Fabrick of this Great Universe though it be abstruse yet it is such as doth incourage Enquiry not discourage it by the Mutual dependance of Causes the Second on the First and the Third on Both the Creator being admirable not only in the Number but in the Order of his Creatures To find Fire in Fish-bones Rotten wood Tasts in Dews as well as Plants and Minerals Stenches in Mists as well as Puddles and All through the communication of the same prime Subject incourages a Modest Enquirer and brings him to the knowledge of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the prime Cause of All. § 59. Neither is the prime Generical Recipient to be thought an Empty Notion as if Universal Natures subsisted only by the Operation of the Intellect and did not exist à parte rei for certainly They are guilty of the Empty Notion that make a Nature not We that find it Surely the Individual borrows all its Reality from the Species unless his Essence be a fiction and the Species in part from the Genus the One is a Modification of his Vniversal the Other a Difference and thus far for the second Enquiry § 60. Now thirdly what Relation a Body Celestial may have to Cold if Cold be a Terrestrial Emanation is the next Enquiry seeing Reason as Cardan confesses makes them All without difference warm even ♄ it self if he be Luminous Resp The Nature of the Planet is to be estimated not from his Magnitude only and Distance and Light and Colour but much if not chiefly from its Consistence and Spirit if any there be that inhabits it § 61. Their Bodies of their own nature are Opacous but they are Pervious too This is known for certain as to the ☽ it is full of Cells and Concavities of a vast Penetration for otherwise neither It nor the Rest could so visibly so potently reflect the Solar Incidences As to the Spirit all that believe the Sun to be of an Igneous Nature as 't is high time we should come so far do resolve that there are Mines of Sulfur in the Sun which minister an Eternal Pabulum to the Flame as the Mines do to our Hot Baths This is so certain that the Assertors of the Maculae Solares know not what else to define them but Sulphureous Fumid Exhalations issuing from it § 62. Again all that are Curious
Earthquakes at the Indies run so many leagues yea and at home as the last in Oxfordshire shall run in a Chanel as it were as far as Barbary the Convulsion must lie deep and contracted into a less circumference that it may diffuse it self to the greater § 68. Here we must take notice of one instance supplied from Van Helmont That Helmont who under the name of the Schools makes nothing to run down all Philosophers before him for that saith he no Exhalations nor Vapor nor Sulphurous Spirit hath any thing to do in the Earthquake but only some Fiend or Cacodemon is employ'd by Commission from Heaven Now the Vesuvii and the Aetnae the several Vulcans flaming round about the World and the indisputable affinity between the Earthquake and the monstrous Eruption which the Schools teach might have kept Him to rights For 't is not any Levity or a Wind enclosed but a vast Nitro-Sulphureous Spirit of incomprehensible Force that striving within her womb discomposes the Earth To this he presently comes upon us and asks us First Is there a vein of Sulfur c. throughout the whole Low Countries for all Holland Trembled and Flanders to boot I answer there may be for all that he knows Agricola perswades that the Subterranean Fires are as copious especially in Maritime places where Earthquakes mostly appear and this is witnessed by Sulfureous Stench which hath been observ'd whereever the Vapour gets vent Yea as some have deliver'd a dis-colouring of the Air as it were by sulfureous Fumes Nay 't is beyond as it were for wherefore do the poor Birds fall to the Earth But that being taken giddy by such suffocating Steams 2dly He cannot intend sulfur refin'd and depurate then by his own Principles he must allow Sulfur to be every where in every compound Body or in their Matrices the places where they take their being Every Peble is constituted of so many Grains of Sulfur and our Castle-Goal we see betrays its constitution by perfect yellow sume mixed with the darker Soot Every thing then will melt hath Sulfur in it and what will not melt in those all-dissolving Heats of the Subâ—â—ranean Furnace The Earth will melt like Wax and run many 2 Mile in a fusile constitution and yet we speak at large for if it be a Bitumen of any kind or color if it be Pitch if it be Naptha if it be Coal 't is Sulfur to us whereever there 's Mineral or hot Baths or Medicinal Waters or Metals or Quarries of Stone there 's Sulfur and Salt c. So that 't is in vain to anatamize the Regions of the Earth to the Centre and assure us there 's no room in the Globe of the Earth for He hath offer'd nothing that I can see why the seat of the Tremor may not be where he acknowledges the Mineral for there besure are Oyls Sulfurs Salts Mercury and Earths and Juices and whatsoever wants a name and one of those impatiently contrary to the other nor is He ignorant of it but confesses that if the least drop of Water falls upon Metal or Marchesites melted they fly about like mad with incredible Antipathy Consonantly some Stories say that in one of our Hiatus's there was observed Water in the depth of the Cavity in Stow. He asks 2dly why the Concussion is so transient quickly past tho' it returns by fits Oh to that I say that the Planetary Positures as they require Critical places so they watch their Critical Hours Did not this T. M. happen at Midnight He asks thirdly why the Earthquake in 1640. and that of threescore years before happened both in April I could ask him why his Angel or Devil chuses to scare us That Month Yet we say that the Spring is the time of the year and seeing it happened that there were but 12 days difference between that of 1580. April the 6th the time that I believe Mechlin trembled as all England did and 1640 It manifestly shews that these Earthquakes come under the Philosophical Rules He asks 4ly what extraordinary heat was found there to shake the Earth at those precise times which was not found in the Intermediate years adding that that night was a very cold night with a Chill North-Wind and much Snow the day before How say I doth a Chymist call for a sensible Heat to all wondrous Operations Nothing more against his own Experience who tells us in one place of his fellow-Travellers Shoulder burnt by the Suns imperceptible Heat as he passed over the Alps as plainly as if he had been stung by Gantharides and teaches us in another 1 ounce of Salamniac mingl'd with 4 ounces of Aqua Fortis shall break the glass presently and how but by an invisible Eâ—halation And what great heat there is in the Ingredients separate He knows best An Exhalation you see by his own Confession can make a strong glass fly in pieces But I answer the Schools call it Heat they should say Influence or his own Gas which takes place in cold Weather as well as Hot. As we see and feel oft-times the Influence of the Heavens opeperate upon our Bodies while that Heat is not discerned by our Sensories There may be Communication between Homogeneals Fire and Fire Aetherial and Subterranean when there may be no Communications between Fire and Earth I mean our Corporeal Organs Yea I come closer to the matter and say that Planetary Warmth in a remiss degree as in Weak and Calmer Earthquakes may actuate Cold as well as encourage the Grosser Warmth may stir the Nitrous Spirit as well as enflame the Sulfury Particle for it is necessary that 's more than probable that all such immane Violence must be founded upon those Hostilities of Nature which we call Antipathy When we are agreed about this then I 'le point at the Influence with my Finger and shew him our Aethereal Heat in ☌ of ♄ and ♂ at the first Earthquake and a ☌ of ♃ and ♂ at the Second And these Aspects in Critical places which do not occur every year 'T is well if they meet in 12 in 30 and even then if they want any one requisite the Effect is blank We grant him that the final Cause of the T. M. is the awe of the Divine Menace And upon this account whatever others think I value our Theory being engag'd in matters of so ponderous concern But we do no think that the Divine Power acts immeditely in those Effects which are Periodical and have their Revolutions though they be strange We dare not grant the Creation so imperfect that the Divine Power which made the Universe acts as much without a created instrument as with it But this 't is for Wise Men to lay aside the consideration of the Noblest Parts of the Universe so overlooking and setting at nought those Wonders of the Aether the Fixed Stars and Planets to run higher into Heaven or lower into Hell to borrow Angelical Spirits from thence to make up the
was fashioned like Spur-rowls c. I commend Cartesius's Diligence but I applaud not his Design Assuredly not all Phoenomena in Nature can be solved excluding Miracle or not if you will bear it without Planets and Angelical Substances And yet I heartily allow that our Philosophy whatever it aims at shoots short Ponds or Fountains turned into the appearance of Bloud may be accounted for by the Theory of Damps when the Earth being disturbed from the Heavens is apt to fall into a quaking Fit a disposition to or a Consequent of the Earthquake This perhaps may tinge the Water 'T is poorly done of Scepticks to deny whatsoever they cannot give account of yea or of others who set themselves against received Truths and are forced to refuse Authentick Authority He is hard beset who because he does not believe any Portent in Comets or other Aethereal Phasmes will question Josephus's History of the taking of Jerusalem Where He Instanceth in Monstrous Births also seen before the War and therefore in all probability portended it the Heifer which brought forth the Lamb before the Altar might signifie that God was bringing some strange thing upon the Nation I own I cannot give any account of Such In These Births there is more than a Planet § 23. More than a Planet that is a Signal Exertion of God's absolute Power contrary to the very Grain of Nature or which is all one to me his own Decree by which Nature is established More of which kind occur in Writings if Men have need of Arguments to believe a Deity But we descend to a Lower Sphere Births that are beside not against the course of Nature where the Species is safe yet remarked with some exorbitancy or Defect either to the pity or the affrightment of the Beholder The Causes of these are assigned to be the Plastick Virtue be sure the Imagination of the Mother to which he should add Terrors Affrightments the Constitution of the Country the difference of Dyet and which I did not suspect would be confessed the Sidereal Influences Schottus Lib. 5. Cap. 28. We cannot accuse Schottus of unkindness to the rest of the Stars though he proves it only from the Moon Some good men may think I have grasped too much already and that I need not wade into this deep I can say for this particular I was not fond of it nor was I invited thereto by any Astrologer not by Ptolemies Chapter de Monstris I 'll assure you for in this place the Conception is to be regarded and not the Nativity or its proper Scheme as Cardan also notes But like the Merchant that trades abroad I was offer'd a Penny worth the years presented themselves to me and bid me take them upon Suspicion what Suspicion I had will appear presently I am not going to say that every strange Birth none excepted was conceived under ♄ ♃ but I say the Contingency is so frequent that it may be it deserves to be noted by those who understand better Take notice that we refer to the Conception and then we begin with a young man in Arles with six Fingers on each Hand 15 years old was he when Valericola saw him in the year 1561. whence he must be Born A o 1546. and conceived in A o 1545. one of the years specified above pag. 492. I will not run back as far as the year 1446. much less to the year 1274. where we meet with Births of deformed Hands and Feet but keep my self in my Bounds so then A o 1537. not far from Wurts by the River Molda Natus est Infans sine Pedibus Lyc. The like again at Widensbach a Mile off Schleusing ending in a Pyramidal Figure A o 1552. ib. Again A o 1556. a Birth of same Figure Aldroâ—and A o 1556. at Basil a Man-Child born without Ears Lyc. A o 1593. at Konningsberg with a Hare's Ear Schenckius A o 1503. An Infant without Nostrils Eyes or Ears Lyc. A o 1554. at Stetin with an Arm coming out of his Ear Lyc. A o 1514. May 10. A Child born without a Nose or Nostrils Gem. The same year at Bononia a Girl with four Eyes baptized and lived four Days Amatus Lusitanus A o 1554. A Headless Infant with Eyes in the Breast Finkel apud Lyc. A o 1615. Puellus Satis grandis fine Capite only a Mouth and Teeth in the place of the Neck Another A o 1624 in Italy whose Eyes and Nose and Mouth were in the afore said place Aldrovand A o 1544. at Milain Nata est Puella Biceps Cardan Lib. XIV de Var. A o 1514. In March the like Rhodigix A o 1536 at Zurich an Infant born with two Heads Three Arms and as many Feer Lyc. A o 1553. in Misnia the like Lyc. A o 1515. in Bavaria she begg'd up and down 26 years after Pareus A o 1552. in 〈◊〉 A o 1536. a double Birth join'd together though but one Heart between them Gem. The like A o 1555. Alâ—â—â— A o 1593. Another at 〈◊〉 And have we not an Instance in this very Chapter of the like Miscarriage for so I may call a Monstrous Birth Verily if I had not met with such a Spectacle among the Prints at the very Threshold of our Inquiry in the year 1503. that year being charged with a second unfortunate Birth If I had not met with two other sad Prints at the year of the ☠1514. as at the ☌ If I find something of this Nature in Man or Beast the next ☌ A o 1523. and a strange one beside A o 1525. In cujus corpusculo aliud preterea Corpus praependebat ad Genuasque who lived and was shewed up and down in Fairs 30 years after If the next ☠A o 1533. shews you a Monstrous Animal at least Lepusculum cum octo pedibus quorum quatuor in dorso eminebant Beside that A o 1534. I meet at the same Birth two short-liv'd Twins joyned together in the same fleshly Co-alition as I met with 30 years before in the ☌ if yet again I find another kind of Birth A o 1537. if between the year 1543. 1544 we meet with 3 or 4 such monstrous Productions to proceed no further Is it not enough to make my poor Head teem with monstrous Thoughts that these Events belong to ♄ ♃ Especially where Imagination comes in then you see I am haunted with these Apparitions and invited to follow them Now my Suspicions were these since ♄ ♃ in the hour of their Engagement a long hour produces such wondrous and monstrous things in the Universe why may not their disturbance be universal and reach our Humane Bodies put them into Disorder by God's Permission or Commission or both Whether we leave to Divines to determine Consent between the Heavenly and Humane Bodies is manifest Consent between Aethereal and Animal Spirits is manifest such a Wind blows the Body is affected as Tradition and Experience hath taught even the Vulgar the Ancient
an Earthy Exhalation The Air considered All Meteors reducible to Heat and Cold as their Efficient the Nicety of their Degrees An account of the Natural Prognosticks of Weather they all prove that Heat is the cause of Rain and the Heavens Dominion over Moisture Concerning Hail Snow Mist Lightning Comet Blasting No phaenomena casual Wind its cause is not rarefaction or condensation but celestial Impulse The Body of the Heaven as distinguished from the Stars signifies nothing § 1. MEteors Real whether Aerial or Subterrranean as to their Cause Material consist of Water Earth Simple or Compound Fire and their Expirations these in the depth of the Earth those in the heights of the Air as far as the reach of the Atmosphere § 2. For that the Earth also is resolved into Exhalation is evinced from the Thunderbolt yea from the Nitrous and Sulphureous Ingredients into the wild-fires Celestial Lightnings Add the forementioned Rains of Stones Ashes Corn c. nay every Fog is so fuliginous as to bear witness a Fog which sometimes casts it self into Threds or Ropes and by the warmth of the Sun furls up into Gossamere § 3. The Body of the Air seems not to be the Resolution of Terrestrial or Watry Exhalations but is rather distinguished from Both as their Subject or medium even as the Water is distinguishable from its Impurities or from the saline Spirit that inhabits the Ocean § 4. For the whole Expansion Aerial and Aethereal is one homogeneous Body differing only in Warmth or Cold Purity or Impurity according as it is nearer or remoter from the Earth and Water § 5. Of it self as it seems neither hot nor moist nor cold c. but capable of all § 6. So distinguished is the Air from the Water that Neither can be converted into the Other the four Elements vulgarly called being as I deem Incorruptible in as much as although God the Creator was pleased as Moses seems to say to make the Air out of Water yet it may be true notwithstanding that no Natural Agent can turn it back into the same § 7. Meteors Real as to their Efficient Cause are naturally reducible to Heat or Cold and their Activities Frost Snow Hail to the later Lightning Rain Clouds to the former § 8. Winds also have no other Aeolus § 9. Here it is to be remembred that degrees of Heat and Cold are of a minute and nice disquisition our grosser Sensories being not always competent Judges for we see Rivers in depth of hardest Winters reserve some Heat where Fish subsist and scalding Liquors admit some degree of Cold as when their Aestuation is calmed by a little cold Infusion and yet remain scalding still § 10. As nice also may be the consideration of Dryth and Moisture for as the Coals of dry Fewel taken from the Furnace burn quick and bright so from moist Fewel they glow obscurely as if they were not as yet rid of their pristine though adventitious Moisture § 11. Warmth is the instrumental Productive of Cloud and Rain This is witnessed by the Southern Winds which bring Both by Thaws in Winter which are always cloudy seldom dry by the ingrateful Savors most hot against moist Seasons beside the convincing testimony of the Thermoscope § 12. The Survey of the usual Prognosticks of Rain from Fire Water Animates Inanimates do all argue the same Original of Rain viz. Heat Celestial and its Consequent Moisture with the secret Impressions of Both on the Creature § 13. In Animals the usual Noises observed against weather as in the Raven the Crow Cock Goose Owl Peacock the Pimlico in the Hist of Virginia a Bird so called from her note too sure a Prophet saith Captain Smith of Wind and Weather Swine Frog c. their crowing screaming croaking c. argue not any miraculous Divination in the Creature but only protest the sensible disquiet and alterations that are felt by them at such times Haud equidem credo quia sit Divinitùs illis Ingenium aut rerum fato Prudentia major Verùm ubi Tempestas c. Vertuntur speciès animorum the Poet himself was so cunning Georgic 1. § 14. Further arguments of such Alterations are the Water-fowls leaving the Element flocking together or betaking themselves farther into the Country the poor Earth-worm creeping from his bed the flying or springing of the Loligo the Cuttle-fish they speak of the playing of the Dolphins in the waters all not brooking their own Element That and their Bodies being alike disturbed § 15. To say little of their Stomachs or Appetites extraordinary Birds coming late from Feed yea the contemptible Fleas or Flies more notably stinging i. e. biting or sucking are hence reckon'd for Presages § 16. The forced motions and postures of Creatures argue the same as when Cattel are seen skipping odly up and down indecorâ lasciviâ as Pliny calls it as if twitch'd or pricked by some shooting or ach in their Limbs as vexed by some pain tearing their Litter § 17. Which pains some Creatures endeavour to help the Beast licking the Hoof or against the Hair the Bird picking and pruning its Feathers some perfusing themselves with water or flying so neer the Swallow and Sea-mew 'till they dew their Wings point the House-cat washing her Head with her moistned Foot the Oxe snuffing aloft into the Air all as it were for refrigeration-sake of their Bloud or Spirits cooling the little Feavers perceived therein § 18. The poor Ant hiding himself or removing his Eggs the Shelfish sticking close to the Rocks or ballasting it self with Sand shew a kind of natural Prudence but no Prophetick Divination in as much as first they find the Alteration of their bodies before their Instinct teacheth them to provide for the consequent § 19. And as to Presages from the Water whatsoever the Ancients speak of the murmuring of the Sea at hand or the noise on the Shore side the bubbling or swelling of the Sea without noise witnessed by all Sea-faring men the appearance of the Froth broken or divided these all betray the Dominion of the Heavens on the Water and a disturbance rais'd by the Celestial Warmth § 20. Verily the Dominion on the Water is as large as that seen in the Air the Prognosticks from Animals being grounded principally on the Alterations of their Natural Moisture And if any Presages are drawn from Plants as the Bristling of the Trefoil c. hither it may be reduced § 21. I do not mention the Sweating of Wals or Glass which may arise from the continual Appulse of the moist Atome floating neer the chill superficies but Plinie's Instance from the Larder when a Dish which hath been used at Table leaves a Sweat on the place whereon it was reposited argues some consent of the Ambient's moisture with the moisture of the Esculent on which account also Wood swels Wainscot cracks Viol-strings snap asunder and we also as other Animals no better nor worse are disquieted with the Excrescencies of our
Hail you shall seldom hear of two though little Distances of place that will agree in its Admission § 3. We acknowledg this Variety is admirable when God Himself hath pleas'd to give it as a remarque of his Power that He causes it to rain on one City and not on another that which our Eyes in a beautiful prospect are sometimes witness of But sober Philosophy is not confounded at the Contemplation of this wonder as the Astrologer Himself was who observing once at Tubing some Heat and a little Rain onely but elsewhere lower in the Countrey Tonitrua horrida breaks out into this self-killing Conclusion frustrà istas Meteororum formationes à positu Astrorum exigas Kepler Ephem Anni 1625 ad mens Jun. Philosophy is rather excited to give some account of the Divine Power and Wisdom which though invisible in themselves are and in all Ages of the world have been discoverable by such contemplation and scrutiny § 4. Wiser therefore was the Conclusion of the same good man who upon the like collation of the various Constitution of the Heaven at Lusatia first observing only black Clouds and at Glogaw scarce a days journey from thence having had intelligence of terrible Thunder spake like Himself in Wonderment but not Confusion Ecce quid Coelum quid Terra quid Loca possunt Kepl. ad mens Sept. Anni 1629. § 5. For without all peradventure this variety of the Airs Constitutions whether permanent or transient must be referr'd to the Heavens above and their Difference hereafter to be consider'd joyn'd with the Situation of the Place together with the Parts adjacent and the manifold Differences there also to be alledged By reason of which Thebes differs from Athens Rome from Tibur Athenis tenue Coelum crassum Thebis Thus the Mountains Acroceraunii in Epire famous of old for frequent Thunders as the Sierra Leona in Africk witnessed to this day by the Portuguez Mariners who hear as much at 50 Miles distance Thus in Rome and Campania Winter-Thunders are heard sometimes in other parts of Italy never as Pliny hath noted II. 50. The instance from Peru is notable though far fetch'd where Acosta tells us that in the Plains ten Leagues bredth from the Sea coast it never Rains nor Thunders upon the Sierra's and Andes two ridges of Hills at 50 Leagues distance running parallel to each other it rains sufficiently on the first from September to April on the latter almost continually But nearer home the Cities of Heidelberg in the Palatinate and the Ancient Triers in Germany from the Heavens disposition to Rain have it seems a like slabby character so the German City is by some call'd saith D r Heylin the common Sewer of the Planets Cloaca Planetarum § 6. This Diversity say I must be referr'd to the Quality and Site of the Place whether it be neer the River Lake Sea whether it be Hill or Dale Sands Clay Mine and some say Forrest which All contribute to the Individual Constitution of Hot Cold Fresh Pure Dry Gross Moist Foggy by way of Cause Material or reduced to the Efficient § 7. First for the Sea 't is a granted case the Maritim places are more subject to Fog Rain and Winds witness the East part of Lincolnshire by reason of the Fens and certainly all the prodigious Tempests of this our Island noted by our Ancestors are found to lay their Scene in our Maritim Countreys as Lancaster Somerset Dorset Hampton in the West Lincoln York to the North-east but especially the Counties of Essex Kent Suffolk Norfolk Cambridge § 8. So gloriously true is That which God Himself taught us long ago by the mouth of his Holy Prophet that He gathers the Waters from the Sea and poureth them on the face of the Earth § 9. The Sea ministers Matter not only for Rain and Wind but for Thunder also if Nitre and Sulphur be ingredients thereto As for Hail we know that it falls at its season in most places but note it for certain that all Prodigious Hailstones whose ambit reaches five six seven Inches is found to have faln on places at no great distance from the Sea the Cause is obvious § 10. Rivers then must bear their proportion as Fogs so Dashes of Rain are the sorer by how much the nearer to them The Showre the Seamen say observes the River and flows along with it as in its own alveus The Greater Rivers make the moister Air as the Air of Austria because of the Danow Kepler ad Sept. Anno 1627. Upon which account London I observe hath her share in Chronicle for Tempest because of her Thames and the Southern-side of the City hath complain'd most as the Tower Bow-Church poor S. Pauls now Tempest-free I wis Westminster because of their vicinity to the River when what I have seen my self tall Spires of Churches have rock'd to and fro as if they were at liberty and strong Iron Bars have hung the head like a broken Stalk by meer stress of weather § 11. Next the Nature of the Soil Kepler hath admonished us of a certain place neer Vlm in Suâ—via often struck with Thunder the Reason he rightly guesses from the Slate-Quarrâ—es and other Minerals there about which are discerned by the Mineral-waters there in use ad mens Maii Anno 1627. Those about Bath should inform us of this matter which if I misremember not is perform'd in the Transactions Philosophical For my part I always suspected that Horrible Thunderbolt which came into the Church of Wells Anno 1596 to have ow'd somewhat of its Extraction to the Place This we shall find that All places more subject to Lightning are also subject to Earthquakes but Earthquakes we know proceed from Mineral Sulphur c. incensed Rome and Campania which were noted but now for â—inter-thunders I am sure are Tracts not exempted from Earthquake § 12. This is so certain that in those uncouth showres of Milk and Bloud it becomes probable that the Mines of Chalk and Vermilion contribute also at least to the distinction of their borrowed Tincture § 13. The difference of the Hill and Vale is as conspicuous the Hill contributing more Cold than the Vale yeilding therefore for the most part a later Herbage In the Mountains of Bohemia the Corn at S. James tide was blowing when in the Plains of Lusatia it was ready for Harvest saith our constant Kepler Here note that in respect of the Heaven Lusatia lies the more Northward of the two therefore the Difference arises from the difformity of the parts of the Earth amongst themselves of Hault or Bate How cold the Tops of the Alps are is not unknown of whom 't is noted that the Snow melts first at the foot of the Hill § 14. In observation of Weather the Hill many times puts bounds and limits to the moisture of the Vale. Instance of This I have had the hap to observe what I have also heard from the Chiltern Hills in the County of
take it that Cold cannot be said to be such 1. Because though it be necessary upon the removal of Moisture I must understand the Subject to be Dry yet there is not the same necessity that on the Removal of Heat I should apprehend the Subject to be Cold. Hence some Philophers have it may be not absurdly defined the Air to be Neither of its own Nature being the Subject and Receiver of Both. 2. Privation may be allowed a principle of Generation but not of Constitution but Cold is a Constituent as in Metals Glass c. ingreditur opera Naturae Hence a sudden Heat violates the Consistence of the Glass whereas a Privation may be removed with Safety and Innocence 3. Cold is Active Penetrative Expulsive of its Contrary even as Heat Active and Biting Penetrative through Glass it self where neither Air nor Moisture can be transmitted whose Action is so like that of Heat that sometimes we take it to be the very same For a Cold piece of Iron seems to burn the Hand if the Sense of the Touch not the Eye be witness Expulsive of the Heat even Natural Heat This is seen in Freezing of Beer or Wine where the Spirits driven out of their Cells retire to their Centre In the freezing of Fruits which upon a milder Constitution suddenly putrifie the Spirit being not able to recover its former Mansion by reason of the disorder created Add the Gangren'd parts of Man's Bodies in cold Countreys c. the crumbling and scaling of Brick and Stone in Frosts that are extreme c. § 48. 4ly a Spirit is no Privation Cold is a Spirit of such a Figure saith Democritus and not very absurdly for the benumming operation of Cold curiously attended betrays not the pungencies of the Pyramid proper to Fire but the Contusion of a Cubical Figure which is the figure assigned to the Earth but that Cold is a Spirit may be proved because some Bodies enjoy a cool Spirit Vegetables as the Rose Minerals as the Nitre and all Infrigidation is performed by transfusion of a Spirit as Rooms are cool by strewing of Herbs Flags and Aspersion of sweet Water Vinegar c. Wines in their Bottles are cooled by immersion into Water the Water transmitting the Spirit suddenly through the Vessel This Spirit is evident and awakened by the Motion certainly if Heat be a Spirit Cold is also a Spirit and if the South-wind warms by the introduction of the One the North-wind chills by the accession of the Other and so much for the First the Nature of Cold. § 49. For the second we deem that the Earth is rightly assigned for the primum frigidum and this may be gathered from the very situation it obtains in the System of the World viz. the very Distance from the Spheres of Heat being as good as in the Centre of the Sphere of the Fixed even in Copernicus his Hypothesis For though Cold be no Privation yet 't is not altogether becoming the Order of Nature that Opposites should have an opposite place and be at local as well as at formal Distance God hath not placed Heat at one of the Poles if he had sure he had fixed the Cold at the Pole opposite Giving him therefore the liberty to place it in the middest of the Globe the Frozen Zones must quarter on each side as far distant as they can and that is tantamount to Diametrical For as to the Subterranean Fires by Natures great End placed in the Earth they can put in no Caveat to our pretence seeing they cannot belong to the Nature of that Element though therein contained no more than the Vegetable or Animal Seeds that lie couch'd in the same The same is to be reckoned of Hot Earths Lime c. They conclude not the Earth of its own Nature indifferent to Cold or Heat no more than hot-Hot-waters artificially extracted or Hot Baths for the Nature of the Water conclude any such indifferency But that Cold is an Earthy Spirit whence shall we more evidently conclude but from the consistence of Ice Ice hath a terrene Consistence therefore it depends upon a terrene Spirit For such cognation is there between the Consistence and the Spirit actuating that a man may safely conclude the one from the other The Vegetable Spirit is of the same Nature with the Plant the Metallick Spirit with the Metal the Fumid Spirit with the Odour the Earthy Spirit with the Earth We confirm this by consideration that all Petrification is by intrusion of a Terrene Spirit as in Wood and other things metamorphos'd by petrifying Streams is confessed And what is Ice but Water petrifyed Add that Ice becomes fixed by Incraâ—â—ations so Cold fixes or stanches Bloud by incrassating of the parts Hence the cold Spirit or Corpuscle dilating the Body as in liquor congeled in Earthen Vessels bursts the Vessel and the Hand benummed with Cold is more swoln and gowry than in open Weather § 50. Further Metals or Minerals which are the coldest Bodies are of a Consistence Earthy as Stone Lead Iron yea Quick-silver though a strange Body is the Colder because it is so dense for we may safely allow an Earthy Spirit in it notwithstanding its Fluor as well as in other Metals which at least when melted are fluid So much it seems to have of Earth that though it be fluid we see it moistens not the whitish Hue I hope is no hinderance since sundry Earths are of a Cretaceous colour § 51. Again every Stupefactive Spirit is Terrene every Cold Spirit is Stupefactive For what I pray is Stupefying but Congeling the Cold Spirit stanches Blood by Congelation Thus Dioscorides speaking of all Earths used in Physick saith they are Cold and Stupifying all Narcoticks quatenus talia will be found invested with such a Spirit Opium c. the History of the Torpedo it self I believe will prove it Yea the Greatest Observers that have been curious in this point declare that as according to the common Presumption Heat tends upward so the Cold hath a tendency downward a Heavy Spirit it seems then to be Earthy § 52. But whether this Spirit be Saline or Nitrous or of Quick-silver is none of our interest to define 't is somewhat too nice a discourse to be so particular Saline or Nitrous are All Earthy and it may be not so much different § 53. Here I confess our Discourse is strongly checked by some of the Noblest Observers who scruple to admit any prime Recipient of Cold as not necessary there should be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of all Qualities for there are None assignable say they for Gravity Figure Motion Colour Sound c. To the Vindication therefore of such a Principle let me crave leave to distinguish first of Qualities then of the Prime Recipient and say first that in all Qualities whether Powers Natural or their Sensible Objects Heat Cold Humour Siccity Light Colour c. as also Qualities more Material such as consist in the
Observers of the. ☽ do aver not only Mountains but Waters also placed there which cover all the darkish parts of the Lunar Globe and why may not God fill the Rest of the Celestial Bodies with a suitable Spirit The different Colours both of Planets and Fixed Stars do more than probably argue a difference of Spirit lodged in them 'T is not impossible but some of the Heavenly Bodies may partake of the Cold Spirit in common with the Earth as the Subterranean specus partakes of the Warm Spirit the Fires that rage there in common with the Heavens § 63. What Mines of Sulphur may be lodged in ♂ what Treasure of Nitre or Camphire or Quick-silver may be in ♀ or ♃ the Expiration of Camphire even flaming cools a Room Who can refell this with any better Argument than a Smile What know we their Internal Constitution Where were we in the day of their Creation that we should pronounce of their Natures but by their Effects If thus it should be how facile how explicate is the Solution of this great Question Celestial Bodies though Lucid though Fiery may have some of them a cold Emanation and at their opportunity they may cause a Winterly Weather not only by their chill Emanation from above but by the consequent Attraction of the Cold here below as all Homogeneous Bodies naturally observe one another § 64. Verily we seem to flutter neer some Truth when the Scripture it self seems to teach us so monstrous things as Waters above the Heavens placed there wot you what but for the tempering of Celestial Heat or some worse because unknown reason Ger Voss de Idololatr II. 39. and our own Learned Gregory beside the Jew and Ancient Christian what may there not be contain'd in the Celestial Bodies Seas or Mines if there may be Elementary Bodies in the utmost Circumference of the Heaven Our narrow Imaginations cramp the Planets as far as the Distance diminishes them to sight not daring to look into the vast Continent of those unknown Orbs which it may be are as little Homogeneous as the Globe of the Earth which seems a Globe of Dust and similar Mold to those that have not descended into the heart of it to those that have not viewed the Fossiles the Minerals Metals concrete Juices Subterranean Fires c. 'T is clear that the Planets are not made only for Reflexion but also for Modification of Light and Heat And Light if there be any Connate Spirit in the Lucid Body is apt to convey the Radiation as the painted Glass transmutes its Colour along with the Beam that shoots through it the variety of the Colour we must say again doth argue a difference of Spirit and Confistence as in the Yolk and White of an Egg is manifest § 65. But ♃ may be cold as the ☽ is moist no Waters no Lakes no Seas supposed by extrinsecal Denomination We say 2 ly then who knows but that Light and Cold may have kindness one for the other T is a great Speculation that is before us When I was arrived in Philosophy so far as to hearken to the discourse of the Spirits of Natural Bodies to which by Assent and Experience Universal all Activity belongs and finding that what they call Spirits were for the most nothing but igneous parts of the Compound I justly cry'd up Avicen the Physician who owns the Elements Actual Existence in the Composition as the Existence of Fire among the rest but when I was advertised from so great Authority as my L d Verulam who somewhere tells us that amongst Natural Bodies there is found a Cold Spirit I confess I was at some Loss as to the stating the Question Affirmative every Spirit being the Actuous part of the Body Attending farther therefore to what was proposed concerning Heterogeneous Mixtures found in the same Body by reason of which the same Vegetable or Mineral may be qualified sundry wayes as in Salt Pepper Opium c. consisting of a Hot and also Crude Spirit subtilty weaved together I began to admit of a cold Spirit or rather having admitted it to guess the Reason or its Activity as borrowed from the vicinage of the warmer Corpuscles as if a Spirit were nothing else but the Igneous Particle incrusted in the Body as if the Spirit were Active upon one account and seemed Cold upon the other For Cold it self at least in comparison of Heat is but a dull and slow Quality that it may be a great question whether setting aside its Figure and Gravity it hath any pure Activity of Influx or Emanation or no for the Pressure it makes by reason of its Gravity or Figure is not Activity of Emanation such as is found in Fire This it owes to Warmth perhaps So that if God should annihilate the Celestial Warmth there would be no Elevation or Emanation of a Cold Spirit all would sink and lye flat upon the Surface of its Cold Earth as in a most unlively Chaos Hence it may be before God was pleased to make the Light or Heat Celestial the Spirit of God is expresly said to move on the Face of the Waters to keep them in their serviceable and therefore Natural Fluidity which otherwise would be sullen and put on their Icie unpliant and unserviceable Rigor For the Subterranean Fires too much made of by some cannot so much as considerably supply the want of the Celestial since 't is notorious that on the top of Aetna itself there lies all the year a continual Snow § 66. The Heat then of Celestial Bodies may be such a friend to the Activity of the Cold Spirit as to raise it from its Centre and keep it up in suspense as under the Poles it doth toward the generation of Wind Snow Mists Clouds c. what the Northern Voyages sufficiently testifie testifie I mean concerning the Heat that is many times felt there amidst the very Mountains of Ice In this case Cold first acts by Corporeal Contact and Gravitation of Those Bodies that wade in the Atmosphere That 's one way § 67. But again the same Agent that raises that Exhalation may if it be incouraged hurry and drive the Cold Atome and impart a forced Activity to it as in the generation of Hail may be seen and in all cold Winds and especially on those signal times when Frost and Ice is found on the ground the Sky having been Cloudy by the piercing of a sharp Wind busling all the Night before That 's a second § 68 But sure Cold appears not always under a forced sometimes with a proper and Natural Activity being quick and agile penetrative and pungent like the Fiery Atome entring the Body and following the Leading Atome with a vehement Nisus into the same not by Gravitation only because then there would be but little Frost within doors where there is little Gravitation yea all Congelation would begin at the top only when as in Vessels of Wood and Metal the side and bottom of
to raise Tempests Without fooling it hath an unexpected undreamt of Influence towards Tempests whether of Lightning in the capable Months or of Winds Furious Ragings Hurricanes which sometimes are felt without the Tropiques even in our Septentrional parts This being somewhat Novel or near Paradox must yea hath been demonstrated § 20. But then what should be the Latent Spring of this Energy can any Man tell If the Musical Fancy doth not please we have assigned a Right Angle in the Quadrate Aspect for the Seat of its strength if a Man may say it before ever we Read the more Learned Ofhusius Verily if we rightly consider it the same Angle may be found under the Trine in as much as by reason of the Obliquity of the Ecliptique we see it fall out that one of the two Planets so Aspected may lie just under the Meridian when the other is on the Limb of the Horizon § 21. Thus Bring me ♋ and ♑ Solstitial Signs to the Meridian and there you shall find but 3 Signs appearing which make an absolute Quadrate But reduce ♠♓ ♈ either of them to the Meridian and in the Oriental part of Heaven you shall observe IV. Signs a perfect Trine emers'd above the Horizon The Equator is uniform shews it 90 grades constantly on the Eastern and Western side the Ecliptique is not tyed to that constant Equality it is unequally divided sometimes with 4 Signs of one side of the Meridian and only 2 Signs on the other And this is not all Let us consider the Occidental Mediety of Heaven let us depress ♊ ♋ ♌ ♠to the Horizon and we shall find neer IV. Signs compriz'd in the Arch from the Horizon to the Meridian as before you found it from the Meridian to the Horizon So then if in all these Cases a right Angle is discerned the Efficacy of the Aspect may be founded thereon § 22. Now whether these Trines as it seems according to this Doctrine owe all their Influence to these Critical Coincidences with Meridian Circle or Horizontal may be referred to its proper Chapter or may be solved by what proposed in the □ It remains only to enquire why a Trine is more Turbulent than a Quadrate Aspect And that will be assoiled by considering the measure of the Angle by the length of the Subtensa reaching 4 Signs or 120 grades for upon this account is the Quadrate more strong than the Sextile in the same manner as the Trine is more Operative than the Quadrate With a barr notwithstanding put in against the Quincunx because of its vicinity to its principal viz. the ☠And perhaps because a Quincunx as Semisextile also are never found of so large an Expansion as to possess the two Circles of Horizon and Meridian at the same Moment which yet we shall see a Sextile doth But first let us admit the Trine Interest and view its Books the rather because I seem to advance a Paradox For though the Antiens hold the △ to be very perfect above the Square or Opposition so that I had thought they had favoured our Plea Escuid Tract 2. dist 12. Cap. 1. Yet I dare not alledge them least they speak in relation to Genitures rather than the Change of the Air So that we must wholly appeal to the experience of our Table though not extant here But if the Antient Arabs mean the Change of the Air also well and good then I am free from the guilt of a Paradox CHAP. XVII ⚹ ☉ ☽ § 1. The ⚹ the first Lunar Phasis of the Creation 2. The secondary Light discernible in the dark side of the Lunar Discus whence 3. The Aspect operates 5 6. Keeps touch at the Hour 7. The Moons part seems to lye in the Complement of an Effect 8. 9. This Aspect need not be ashamed to appear among her Kindred 't is as stormy as one of the Squares and as dashing 10. A Table declarative of their Influence 12. Second ⚹ seems to out-do them all 13. In stormy Weather of more frequency but less danger 15. The Full ☽ brings less moisture than any of its fellow Aspects 17. Aspects compared as to dashing Rains 18. This Aspect takes place in fits of Rain returning after frequent intermission 19 20 21. This demonstrated 22. Of infallible success as to Rain how far the Table produced 24. Inclination for Wind. 26. Search into the reason of its Influence whether there be any thing of a right Angle Some equality in all Aspects The ⚹ is critical with the Physitians not without reason 29. Gassendus his why-not's answered 13. Suffrage of the Seaman from our great Verulam § 1. THe Sextile two Signs distant from the ☌ though the last for Dignity is the first Aspect in order and makes some shew 3 or 4 days after the Prime enlightning about 3 digits of the ☽ 's disk the rest being Opaque and dark The First Phasis of the ☽ wherein she appeared to the World in the day of her Creation not in ☌ and ☠but about the Sextile Aspect The First ☌ of ☽ being imaginary 2 days before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Jews most probably reckon An Aspect call'd by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon a vulgar account unless they should have some respect to the Tradition The Latines call it Cava Luna because it tends to Orbicular the Inner Area being dark and shady save that in the Craepusculum we may discern a weaker diffusion of Light in the whole disk not unpleasant to behold § 2. Especially since we may wonder how it gets thither The Copernicaus perswade that it owes the Original to her Sister Earth whose illuminate part makes it Reflexion thither Yea Galileo most ingeniously solves the Phoenomenon why in the Mornings Later Sextile this Lustre appears somewhat brighter than in the Evening wherefore but because supposing that the Earth and Solid Bodies reflect stronger than Water or Fluids There is more Land then Water the vast compass of Asia Eastward of Europe and more Sea than Land Westward The truth is if Wit will do it the Copernican Hypothesis must be accepted but whether it comes from the Earths reflexion or from the Other Celestial lucid Bodies to which whatsoever Galileo hath observed to the contrary I should as readily incline the Astrologer is not obliged to determine § 3. Our engagement lies rather to assert what Galileo doubts of that the Celestial Bodies operate upon the Inferiour if I have leave to call the Earth inferiour by Light and Motion At present that the ☽ operates in her Sextile Radiation § 4. Now whereas we have observed in the Trine Aspect one day of the Triduum often Lights in common with the Neighbour Quartile and that toward the exit or Introit we confess so doth the Sextile also But in answer as before that this is no visible prejudice to either Aspect their Characters being raised from their visible Efficacy those common days if need be not
as I remember is happily observ'd by Ofhusius But if this will not be admitted as sufficient and responsible for some violent Effects shewing themselves what if I should observe that in a manner all Aspects seem to be equal whether Diametral or Angular Wherefore as in the ☌ there is an imaginary or rather a Virtual Opposition since the Heaven is Circular and shews an opposite point affected so that you have no single Aspect then contra an ☠is a virtual Conjunction So is it in the Rest Bring in a Square of ☉ and ♀ One of them to the Meridian and the Square is doubled For there is a Quadrate Oriental and Occidental ♀ posited on the Meridian makes a right Angle with the Sun in the Horizon and another with the point in oppositio Solis Doth not then our Sextile Oriental suppose by the same Reason make a △ occidental and back again a △ in the East constitute a Sextile in the West § 27. For what pains and indispositions we had noted with their Obelisk here also as in the Quadrate how duly I had noted them I cannot speak but how truly they are noted I can So the Sextile is a Critical Aspect I see as well though not perhaps as much as the Quartile And what should hinder us to assert an Antient Truth and so witnessed by the Learned Physitians who tell us that in Critical Days Quartus est Index Septimi Now as the Seventh day is the One so the Fourth Day is the other even our very Sextile I know there are other Irritations of Aches and Pains in our querulous Bodies besides these Lunar Aspects viz. the Rises and Obits c. of the Planets so posited co-incident with these Aspects which I am not certain the Physitian will allow though they exert their smart Influence at a minute howbeit if they like not to admit of that I am bound nevertheless to witness to the Truth which they deliver § 28. We close up this Chapter with an Answer to Gassendus who though he dar'd not deny an Efficacy to the Sun and Moon consider'd as Luminaries yea though he acknowledged it rational to believe that their Efficacy is advanced or abated according to the increase or decrease of their Light yet he hath no kindness for these Luminaries so united and confederated by Aspect for saith he why should not the same be said of ♀ who we know now by the Telescope runs through the Series of the same Phasis as the ☽ doth ⚹ □ △ For answer I could tell him 't is enough for a Mortal Astrologer if he make use of all that is visible I say all that is presented by the Natural though non-arm'd Eye The Spectators of the Heavens are rightly entertain'd by what appears on the Theatre without prying into the attiring Room No man speaks against a curious inquisitor into Nature by Telescope or Microscope I applaud the invention but there may be ill use made of it when we search after hidden in the neglect of Obvious Truths Secondly though I could ask whether Gassendus hath calculated these Aspects and found them void or unactive or decipher'd them only for us that we might spend our Verdict Besides that the Quadrates of ♀ are consider'd under another Name viz. when she is enlongated from the Sun by the same token that she contributes to Warmth Yet where is the Angle we speak of Alass Her furthest Elongation never sets her upon the Meridian while the Sun is on the Horizon A Semisextile is her utmost Aspect as to us When ♀ descends as low as the ☽ in Orb as vast as the ☽ or ♀ Orb then Gassendus shall see what we will say till then the Influence of her Phasis is not so considerable but what a just Science may overlook as Anatomy doth a Capillary Vein or Glandule which is not necessary in the subsistence of the Body and therefore may be spared its consideration § 29. He tells us more that if the ☽ hath Influence upon the Earth so may the Earth on the ☽ Will it not then be time to consider that when we remove into that Colony No man pretends to prognosticate the State of the Air for the Man in the ☽ be the ☽ never so habitable 't is less than the Earth and so 't is fitting the Earth should be considered before it The plain enquiry with us is whether the Fire warms the Hands Now to perplex this Question by a more curious Problem whether Fire works on Fire is a new way of Philosophy Nor can I justly infer that Fire was not made for that use because perhaps it was made for some other Service in Nature If the Earth hath Influence on the ☽ how much more the ☽ on the Earth If it hath no Influence on the ☽ it makes not against us For the Rain which makes the Meadows green and the Corn-Fields fruitful makes not the Wilderness fruitful nor doth it sweeten the Waters of the Sea § 30. This rub being out of the way it may not be amiss to remind us that great Enquirers bear Testimony in other terms to this Aspect For where is it that I read that the Fifth Day of the ☽ after long observation is feared by Mariners for stormy Verulam hist of Wind art 32. par 17. So saith He. The Fourth rising of the ☽ ibid. Now one if not both these are the Sextile Aspect And if what I pretend of the Later Sextile holds its own then the Seamen may observe together with the Fourth and the Fifth the twenty fifth day of the ☽ 's age especially those who are resolved to learn no further Better is it to observe the ☽ alone than to abandon all Astrology Who knows but the small ☽ touch'd at before by Linscoten and Drake may belong to this Aspect more properly rather than to the Change CHAP. XVIII Comparison of Lunar Aspects § 1. The Synoptical Table of the Lunar Aspects compared 3. The greater warmth of the Later □ △ ⚹ apparently infer a Lunar Warmth 4. More Frosty days in the Former than the Later □ △ ⚹ 5. So more morning Frosts on the same ground 6. Astrology demonstrates 7 8. New Moon brings more hot days than the Full. So the Second Quadrate and Sextile a probable reason why the Trine doth not the like The Later Sextile brings more hot days than all 9. Difficulty and Charge in perpetual observation of Trajections Second Sextile brisk as any Aspects seem not wholly devested of Influence though under Hatches 10. For Lightning c. Second Trine is a busling Aspect The Sextiles favour Corruscations 11. Lightning may sometimes flash in greater or lesser Arches of the Skie according to the different extent of the Lunar Aspect 12. Aetna not unjustly imagined in the Lunar Globe 13. Full ☽ and △ most stormy 14. ☠and △ shifters of Wind. 15. The Changes shift not Wind so oft as the Full or First Quadrate 16. For Rains and excesses of
common apprehension but in our case 't is more than so her Expressions seem founded on a Primaeval Tradition which from Adam to Noah from Noah to the Jewish Nation as his VII precepts also did may resolve ultimately into Divine Revelation the voice of Him who best knows the Universe because he made it Known was it of old that the Globe of the Earth a great Truth is Round and that it hangs on nothing fixed on its own Centre Nor doth the Scripture speak here Secundum captum vulgi And what saith the Leading Book of the World that is the History it saith that at the beginning of Gods own System the Earth as the Waters hung in vacuo for Darkness Privation and nothing else did encompass it till He was pleas'd to say Light which being created for distinction of the Day and Night made it move from the Opposite Hemisphere where it was first created to the upper Hemisphere of the Eastern Countrys so that Even and Morn made out the day the Light was not first created and then the Earth to move towards it but contrarily He made the Earth first and the Light to wheel about so the Earth was the Centre of that Orb of Light If the Sun had bin made the first day all things had went Mathematically the Gentre first then the Gircumference Or if this New Planet the Earth had been made the fourth day and bin placed in the Expansion with its fellows who would not have reckoned the Earth among the Planets But the Expansium in whose utmost Lofts the Planets are placed 't is manifest begins at the Earth the Terraquaeous Globe thence dividing and parting those inferiour Waters from the Superiour setting them at their due distance the Terms of which distance are of one side the Earth and those Waters on the other side the Firmament Now if this Expansion be uniform and alike in all Hemispheres I see not but that the Earth must hand in the Middle of the Firmament § 4. But whether this Explanation hold or no I affirm 't is the Interest of the Creation that the Planetary Motions should be as direct so Retrograde Direct for the ordinary Uniform dispensation of the year and its Seasons equally distributing to all their due Signature and Temper But Seasons we know do sometimes seem short and at other times are prolonged Winter holds longer one Year than another and Heat renews it self at the Latter end of Summer in August suppose or September What is the matter One Reason is Planets by Retrocessions play their Lessons over again they walk such an Arch of Heaven a second and a third time which in a direct course they measure but once Then the Station of a Planet is a great occurrence and causes Extremity of Weather you cannot dip into a Diary but so you will find it the Effect is apparent The Cause must be real Nay saith the Hypothesis not real in its self but real to us it may be as the Suns Eclipse Or to come nearer his rising or setting For do we not see say they that when we part from shore the Bankside and all the Buildings seem to recede from us yea when in a clear Night we ferry over the River do not the ☽ and Stars fly apace from us even so upon the Motion Annual of the Earth the Planets seem to recede when as indeed they continue a regular undisturbed Course But this doth not yet clear off the Objection for the Shore and the Buildings and the ☽ and the Stars though they seemingly fly amain yet withal among themselves they are found to keep their Station and due distance one from another In the Planetary retrocession 't is otherwise for they alter their Places in their Orbs and under the Constellations to which they are subject When I put off from Pauls-Wharfe the Houses recede and fly from me but at no hand change their Station among themselves their Ground or Distance The Houses on the Wharfe run not for hast behind Pauls Steeple or come one Inch the nearer then they were Nor do the ☽ and Stars however hasting away for any motion of mine alter their respective distance among themselves whatsoever they do in order to me So the Planet ♄ when in his direct course he passed the Hyades as in the Month of Octob. An. 1677. By his Retrograde pace He got engaged in the midst of them again Jan. 1678. Yea in August 1676. he was past the Pleiades also in the Month following In September October November he returned and passed them a third time and 't was curious to observe how he inched along in the Retreat of his where his least motion in other places not so sensible was here more distinct and conspicuous being adjusted by such little Measures viz. the Petit distances of the Stellulae of the Pleiades This being a noble Instance may suffice § 5. To this 't is answered that the Parallax of the Planet and the difference of Prospect makes this seeming alteration the Planets hanging much lower than the Firmament so that the Earth approching toward the Planet casteth the Sight of its Inhabitannt to one point forward and when it hath passed the same it casteth to a contrary point Yea but you see therefore I Instance in ♄ who they say hath little or no Parallax so exalted is he and so near the Firmament Next if there be any such Parallax in ♄ then there would be found such difference of Motion even among the Pixed since They also be in different Orbs or Heights on which account some shifting of place would even there be discerned They answer that there may be made some such observation in time perhaps Kepl. Epit. Astron So a 1000 years hence we shall perhaps see somewhat or nothing for a 1000 years backward there hath been no such thing Others deny any proportion between the Earth nay between the Orb of the Earth a swinging Circle and the Fixed No proportion How comes it to pass then in measuring the Universe Miles 60. or 70. answer to a degree A degree and that in the Firmament when the Stars hide themselves Northwards or ward if we walk from either side How comes it to pass that the Day increases unless a Degree in the Earth's Annual Motion answer to somewhat considerable in the Firmament § 6. It is affirmed that the Planets while seeming Retrograde do keep on their direct course let experiment be made by some Observator within the Tropicks it must be where the Planets to such and such portions of the Terraquaeous Globe do sometime become Vertical at what time all Parallax ceases whether any of the Superiours rtreating to any notable Fixed Star be not to be found there where Tycho states him rather than where the Hypothesis pretends whether it be not found near the Fixed Star or Constellation as really when it receded thither as when it first met it in its direct motion This Astrologers are sure of that
a scrupleof time and then there is necessity of Nature it must needs be that the Fixed and the Circumference must describe so prodigious a Circle and what hinders but that there may be as much consent between the Fixed and the Planets as if they were all engaged in a material Circle The Copernican Hypothesis is not unwilling to such a Fancy as fa as ♄ goes and the Ptolemaic will not stand out § 13. As for the Suns particular methinks 't is made for Motion 't is Sphaerical 't is Fire 't is Light Fire and Light is Spirit the Motion inconceivable witness Lightning so swift as the Dr. saith that a man scarce dare say he saw it Nay by their own confession the Sun moves too upon his Axis 'T is impossible the Sun should rest Pardon me if I say ordinary illumination and the incredible expansion of Light makes it out rightly considered moving even in an Instant not shaking the Air first and so with successive Undulation reaching the Organs as in sound 't is manifest but preventing all such slow paced Addresses shoots its way through the Medium eluding if not overcoming all the Resistances Gartesius himself granting the Light is seen in a Moment which if it be done by impulse as he would have it cannot be so sudden as I think I could demonstrate it must therefore be by our monstrous miraculous for so it is though Natural Emanation i. e. Local Motion § 14. All which notwithstanding and what soever more may be said elsewhere if it proves to be Non-conclusive we must need averr that our principle of Prognostic is unquestionable howbeit it maybe some will not reconcile it to the New System though other happyer Theorists can and there may be several unquestionable Truths for which perhaps we have not yet found their Conciliator § 15. Other offences cast in our way are of less moment seeming to make against the Influence as first that he is one of the Least and much cannot be expected from a little Neither is the motion of this Planet as yet exactly determined The motion it seems being more intricate and the appearance of the Planet more seldom at least in these more temperate Zones To this we may say that among the many other things for which Astronomy is indebted to the great Mathematician John Kepler this is none of the least that he ventur'd to rectifie the Motion of ☿ setting it back two whole degrees the more to be prized because the diligent Venetian Andrewos Argolus having since undertaken also to correct the Prutenick account though in a more Southern Clime wherein he had greater advantages hath not hit the Mark so near as the happier German For let me account this of some Weight while others use their Pleasure that Keplers Calculation manifestly agrees with our pretensions as in some parts of Heaven is easily discerned while that of Argol's doth not In all my observation I do scarce remember that I could wish our Planet a degree forwarder or more backward to answer for our Effects Kepler therefore when he fluctuates concerning his own Account though not in his Elongation from the ☉ yet as to the ☌ not daring to affirm but that he may mistake 4 or 5 degrees in his Explicat Fandament p. 15. ante Ephem 1617. might have set his Heart at rest in as much as I can assure him that he was never wide a degree entire but as happy as need to be so that that fluctuation of his as it happened proceeded not from his unaccurateness of the Account but from want of sight sometimes how to reconcile the State of Heaven for that day with that single Aspect which as we have pronounced all the way is vain and impossible The contrary whereof though he as we are all found of our own Proposals yet when he is put to it that he might solve the Correspondence of the Effect with the Planet to alter the Calculation for two days he refused with resolution Nequit esse tantus Error calculi § 16. To the First then that ☿ is but a little Planet I answer it may be so and yet be a great Body in it self Compared with greater the Earth is but a small Body and yet the Earth is a vast Body to all that Circumnavigate the Globe yea or go to the Indies yea to all who travel but nearer home measuring step by step their Countries Length or Breadth and so widen out our thoughts to the Comprehension of the whole by duly considering the proportional part 2. A little Body though it be it may be a great Instrument if we go to the Dimension of the Planet the ☽ 's influence is known to be great and yet the ☽ is certainly less than the Earth by much the very shadow of the Earth at a great distance from its first projection bears a greater Diameter than the Body of the ☽ in all total Eclipses § 17. Yea but ☿ is but a Reflexion only as the Telescope shews it waxes and wanes is horn'd and gibbous as the ☽ it self the like is said of ♀ Venus yea and some body else we fear unless they find Satellites to help him out However the ☽ will help us and teach us that Reflexions for what is she else that hath not one spill of Light of her own May be potent Influencers Grant the rest of the Planets to be as so many Moons and we need not make Hue and Cry for Foundation of Astrology § 18. But this will not content us we challenge for ☿ a greater Influence than that of ☽ A ☌ ☉ ☿ will do more than a ☌ ☉ ☽ and more evident Lo ye now We speak out because if we do not speakout few will attend to what we say Now if so it proves what is wanting in Dimension may be made up on other accounts viz. Vicinity to the ☉ different Motion the very Constitution and Fabrick of the Planet for suppose by miracle the Ocean should recede like Jordan and we could walk in the depths of the vast Alveus dry-foot should we not discover more of the Make of the Earth the Roots of the Mountains and the strong Barricado's of the Rocks innumerous Cells for Minerals and passage for Communication of Waters Ask but the Miners in Cornwal or in the Dominion of Germany search with the Spaniard the Bowels of the Earth for Ore go down so low till you despair of returning and tell us the News from the Centre must we not in all reason think that a Planet is more than a Reflexion from a Pewter Dish Of so vast a Circumference and uniform solid No doubt in this sense there is a World in the ☽ and all the Caelestial Bodys whose variety is hidden by their distance and concealed by their very Light § 19. These things though as probabilities only will help to solve another Objection and encourage me to say that the seldom appearance of ☿ though a Potent Planet agrees
a Fortnights experience at first Introduction Their Latitude above Gardefeu Again anonother Captain Sept. 21. nearer the time of ☌ ☉ ♂ which happened Sept. 27. ♎ 13. For 6 days together the Wind against our will forced us to the Leeward toward Shore with a Strong Current Lib. 3. Cap. 12. § 1. p. 278. After we had got clear of these dangers we found the Current to carry us to the Northwards Thirty Leagues when we thought we had pass'd but Fifteen Ib. Oct. 10 11 12. we found our selves to lose more and more every day by the Current Ib. Latitude by Judgement 70 Leagues above the Mozambique Third Captain near Madagascar or St. Laurence Isle Sept. 10. Lat. South gr 17. A strong Current setting South-West having a stiff Gale we could not but have run these 24 Hours 24 Leagues but in the Evening we made to the Island about 4 Leagues off Sept. 11. We were carried by the force of a Current to the Southward almost a degree Southward Sept. 13. The Current very strong against us Sept. 19. We steered North-East but by the extremity of the Current we were carryed to the Southward so that we were 10 days and could not get to the Northward notwithstanding we had a reasonable stiff Gale Lib. 4 p. 335. Sept. 21. The Current did set exceeding strongly to the South-West by West c. Sept. 22 23. We laboured to get rid of the Current Octob. 3. We came to an Anchor after much Trouble by Currents p. 336. That the Cause is from over-head the Seamen themselves suspect some have said it is the Full ☽ Purch p. 192. Others have said at times it is the New ☽ And they who expect to get clear of them by Alteration of the Latitude the depression of the Pole-Star and the like I can make it very probable that here at this year in this Latitude considering in what Sign our ☌ is celebrated in an Equinoctial Sign of ♎ and this over an Equinoctial Latitude that our ☌ of ☉ and ♂ doth trouble the Waters Especially when the Tables furnish us with the like Evidence at the same ☌ ☉ and ♂ in a different Month and different Latitude Anno 1612. Add a Third Testimony from a ☌ in January in another difference of Latitude we felt a great Stream saith the Seaman And a 4th Anno 1620. May 9. the ☌ being found May 16. 'T is out of road to pursue it further here If it proves thus it will become our Seamen to be no Strangers to Conjunctions to know a New ♂ as well as ☽ and the ☌ of ♂ and ☉ with them Yet let no man think I appropriate it to a Martial Aspect but I look upon ♂ as one of the Celestials which moves the Sea And if so then by Galilaeos his favour there will be no need of moving the Earth for the Flux of the Waters To the ☉ ☽ and Stars it belongs which seems to be proved from hence For if a part of the Heaven move a part of the Sea a Current then the Whole moves the whole § 49. And let no man object ♂ his unreasonable distance in my first Instance viz. of gr 14. for that Four Nights time terminates nearer to gr 12. 10. which we proclaim aloud to be a Legitimate distance such as doth strengthen rather than invalidate the Influence of the Application as we have said before before ever we dream't of such use to be made of it But then secondly we have nearer applications of ♂ to ☉ in the other 3 years yea in the very same No let us rather see by this how the Celestial Bodies irritate the Waters Beside the additions of moisture which they lend the Waters they put them into a Heat and a Ferment and make them run over as I suppose Both Tide and Current which are aloof from Shore Ordinary and extraordinary come to pass by a Fermentation see something of this Feb. 11. 1680. III. Tides in 5 hours on our Home River § 50. To conclude as the Heavenly Bodies operate on the Elements so do they one upon another to all seeming I mean as the Sun seems to be eclipsed Histories note and Astronomers also take notice that the Sun it self suffers labours and looks pale Nec prosunt Domino saith the Heathen Much ado hath been made from before in Heathen time with the Maculae Solis nay Spots are observed now with a delicate curiosity in the other Planets The Learned Ricciolus bids us be gone with our Astrology as if all the Changes of the Air were to be imputed to the ☉ alone with such Maculae or without Injuriously and Unhappily The First because 't is plain or may be plain that the Sun alone or ☽ cannot be the Causes of the Changes of the Air or Seasons of the year The Second because these Spots are the Products I speak probably again of those very Conjunctions and other Aspects which He with others proscribes This the kind Reader will give me further time if need be to make out § 51. Take we with the Character of the Aspect ☌ ☉ ♂ is apt to Heat and sometimes even in these Northern Climes to Dryth but more frequently to Lowr Bluster Rain gentle or dashing sometimes to Hail which though it be rare is more frequent under the Martial Aspect than in other Aspects In a weaker Condition it admits against its will a Frosty Season 'T is apt to colour the Clouds rising or setting with the Sun It is voic'd and truly for some malignity of Influence upon our Bodies whether which is to be noted it be Summer or Winter Hot or Cold as to Frosty Seasons with a little Help it uses to cause some Relent or to bring Snow CHAP. V. Opposition of Mars Sol. § 1. The Opposition and its Diary 2. The Breviate of the Diary 3. ☠☉ ♂ more cold than ☌ ♂ ☉ 4. Because ☠in general is cooler 5. Because the ☠☉ ♂ is shorter liv'd 6. ♂ in Perigee helps to smart Influence yet he is but solitary and therefore not so brisk 7. His Thunders in Summer do not hold in Winter 8. Ninety one days of 118. either Rain or Wind or Heat In frosty Seasons ♂ sits uneasie 9. Fog and hazy Air. 10. A Tempest given a Philosopher may know the Hour of the day 11. Forreign Table 12. ☌ and ☠of a like Influence for the Main 13. Maculae Solis 14. Thames stows thrice in 9 Hours 15. Suddain motion of the Mercury in the Barometer 16. The Dismal dark Sunday 17. Frosts are not to be ensured under ☉ ♂ 18. Why ♀ in Perigee is sometimes seen § 1. Conjunctions we have consider'd but this is the First Opposition which comes in our way the Lunar excepted We will present its Table because of its use yea because it is short and not clogging ☠♂ ☉ ad intervall hinc inde grad 5. 1653. ♠8. 25. May 6. III. Cloudy windy S W. IV. Showry windy S
Conjunction 'T is not to be denyed though that ♂ ☿ are Shakers as in that at Rome A o 1624. noted by Kepler ☉ and ♂ are gr 10 distant while ♂ and ☿ are upon the very Spot of ♌ 6. Yea before he tells us of the like observed at Lima he names not the day of the Month But happen when it will it falls within the tedder of ♂ and ☿ being stretched but 10 degrees Just now we remember a Second Comet happened at the return of ♂ and ☿ Here we meet with a Second Earthquake happened at the same time and within a Months space in both That of A o 1643. lasting for 5 days we were willing to make much of though ☉ and ☿ be 7 degrees distant so ☿ from ♂ is but twice 7 degrees distant those 5 days in which he abates that Distance Thrt at Thuringen A o 1645. Sept. 12. has appeared under the ☌ ♂ ♀ Yet ♂ and ☿ are but 4 degrees distant That of A o 1667. shews ♃ and ☉ indeed at 7 degrees distance and ♂ and ☿ at 6 gr distance A o 1676. follows with that in Worcestershire ♂ and ☿ are within 6 degrees while ♃ and ☿ 't is true are nearer Next A o 1680. Vesuvius Flames which are tokens and Earnest of T. M. thereabouts is noted within the First 20 days of March that year and within the Mid-way viz. die 11 is noted ☌ ♂ ☿ Lastly that at Doncaster A o 1682. adds to a ☌ ☉ ♂ gr 7. ☌ ♂ ☿ gr 11. distant § 30. I do not add the Legend of Two Grampisces stranded or taken at Greenwich though I have own'd that there is some reason to believe that such Novel Appearances do give notice of some disturbance of the Earth and its Concomitant Waters which the Fish would avoid but I impute it rather to the Dreadful Thunders which are noted thereabouts which is known to disturb all Brutes by Sea or Land into which piece of Philosophy the Psalmist hath long ago entred us For who hath excepted the Fishes of the Sea from Celestial Distempers § 31. This I observe that Fishes do sometimes appear in Sholes when Celestial Causes are visible moving thereto So say the Journals for 10 days together ab Octob. 25. Nov. 5. 1662 returning from Java Nov. 22. All under this Aspect § 32. Here again we see the convenience of enlarging the Sheets of our Aspect the Account may be given at least abroad for let it be thankfully acknowledged Earthq continue not long with us They say 't is ordinary to continue 40 days yea and Aristotle himself agrees to it then the enlarging of an Earth-shaking Aspect as before so here to 30. or 40 Days hath its use and ground in Nature especially where Two Conjunctions meet So that when One ceases the Second begins thereby continuing yea and as it happens encreasing the Puissance of the Aspect § 33. The Next trouble is with Currents I have somewhat more perhaps to produce then they came to Yet because they are also of some Consequence I note First after a violent Storm of Wind in Lat. N. 42. March 31. April 1. A o 1665. A Current April 2 or 3. ♂ ☿ in ☌ on the Equinox with the ☽ on the Tropique But again April 11. A Current while the ☽ comes to the Equinox and opposes ♂ ☿ in ☌ on the other side In like manner April 4. 1665. the Ship London in her return from Surat Lat. N. 7. was found to be 22. miles more Northerly than by account and 22 more Westerly Days 5 and 6. 17. and 18 miles more to the Southward Die 7. Eleven more ♂ ☿ gr 9. distant in ♈ are united by the ☽ intervening Die 4. The same Planets with the ☽ applying to the Sun are found in the 3 days following The next that comes homeward A o 1680. March 11. in the Ship Sampson Lat. N. 30. A Stream Southward of 10 Miles Our Aspect is found on the precise day And another greater Die 16. of 27 miles alteration ♂ is as far from ☿ as ☿ is from the ☉ Note that I find a like Current in the Golden Fleece at far different Latitude near the Line about the time of the Aspect which I mention to perswade that this is no Error or Fault as may be pretended In the mean while we omitted Currents and those extream A o 1611. Sept. 12. mentioned by Purchas where the ☽ opposes ♂ ☿ and ☉ also as happened before § 34. Now that which I have look'd upon as a greater Arcanum is the shifting of the Tydes When the Thames for example shall Ebb and Flow twice or thrice in the space of a few Hours so we find it remarked to us by our Annals for Prodigious Such was that of A o 1550. Dec. 18. A o 1564. Jan. 26. 27 28. A o 1574. Nov. 6. A o 1609. Febr. 19. A o 1693. Jan. 3. A o 1654. Febr. 2. A o 1656. Oct. 3. and Two or Three in our Diary since § 35. 'T is no small enquiry since it is taken for a Prodigy concerning which point I am not engaged at present to say the Ingenious Author of Britannia Baconica pag. 93. makes it nothing but the Tyde at Ebb Leisurely preceding toward the Sea onward and beaten back again by a North-west-wind To this purpose he observes that these Tydes most part happened when the waters were at Lowest about the Quarters of the ☽ Yea and when so curious is he she was in Apogaeo a Circumstance which he saith with Reason helps to abate the highest Water And I would all hard Questions could be so easily solved For the Truth is the Wind blew from the North-West A o 1654. Febr. 2. and A o 1656. say I Octob. 3. a North-East at least which shall break no squares and the Wind blew hard also The like again March 22. 1682. Add May 31. News came from Lime the Sea-Coast There 't is said how a Storm of Wind with Rain and Thunder caused several Ebbings and Flowings in the Water in half an Hours time So that it must be granted that the Winds and the Northerly Winds are Instrumental in the case § 36. But to deal ingeniously I believe there is somewhat more in it which this Good Man would have hearkned to viz. some less obvious Cause than a Stiff North-Wind falling in with those Circumstances First because neither is the Neap-tide nor the North-Wind perpetual That of A o 1564. Jan. 26 27 28. was within a day or two of the Full and that 's no single Instance and besides that by his Confession the Apogaeum fails twice I add and a 3d. or 4th time March 12. May 31. 1682. but chiefly because we are by this Hypothesis engaged to find One every year since there is scarce a year passes but will find us one North-Wind brisk and blowing at Neap-tide Next that we seldom find any such Tyde but a Notable Aspect of ☉ ♂ ☉ ☿ ♄ ♃ ♂ ♃ is
lowring in some quarters N W. 28. High wd flying Clouds and darkish S W. 29. Rain Sun or showring clearing at n. S W. 30. Fair storms of rain inconstant S W. Stormy wind p. m. and driving rain H. wind at n. Sept. 1. Showrs high wind at night S W. 2. Tempestuous a. l. Rain misty H. Halo at n. S W. N W. 3. Fr. fine m. some gentle showrs Ignis faticus at n. S W. 4. Clouds fly low rain thunder S W. N W. 5. Some coasting showrs N W. 6. Lowring some showrs thunder S W. 7. Frost bright low mist s showry S W. A o 1656. Sept. 8. â™ 96. Ab Aug. 25. ad Sept. 29. 25. Wind n. till 3 m. then calm cold wind rise 26. Overc. a. l. N W. mistyish Clouds fair N E. 27. H. winds offering high wind at n. N E. 28. Windy cloudy S E. N E. 29. Overc. blew mist S E. N E. 30. Close m. 31. Overcast m. N E. Sept. 1. Close S W. cool showring Ely 2. Close m. p. and cold Ely 3. Close cold Ely 4. Wind and showrs about o. blow away N E. 5. Thick mist m. Hempen clds little yet variable 6. Wind rise blackish clouds S W. 7. Close faint blackish clouds S E. 8. Some little showring o. store of Rainbow Lond. N E. 9. Close flying clouds lowring A flash of Lightning N E. 10. Close red clouds Ely at Sun acc N E. 11. Close lowring some wd N E. 12. Red m. fr. mist flying clouds N E. 13. Frost mist falls 8 m. flying clouds 14. Fine rain a. l. so after Sun ar rain 4 p. S W. 15. Rain a. l. wind cold cloudy N W. 16. Some drisling Sun occ N W. 17. Overc. m. clouds fly low N W. 18. White clouds some little gathering at n. W. 19. Some misling open 10 m. reddish clouds Ely A wide Halo 20. Fr. blew mist Halo S V V § 12. Saturn had never been known for a Cold Influx but by his Aspect and First with the Sun Now t is a pretty Problem how ♄ mixing with the Sun a Glorious Fiery Furnace should so easily Juggle as to practice Cold by such a Congress As Cardan faith He can be only less warm than the Sun and that a less degree of Warmth compared with a greater is absolute Cold As in Water of a low remiss Warmth saith he cast into a boyling Pot it allayes the wambling of the Liquor in Ptol. Lib. XII § 13. No question but ♄ is higher than any of the Planets because he i sooner discover'd upon the recess of the ☉ than those which are near I would it were as wellagreed how high he is how many Semidiameters of the Earth he is remote from us 'T is no question also but this height of ♄ helps or contributes to get him the Name of a Cool Planet and seems to favour those no mean Philosophers who explicate Cold by the nature of Privation or a less Agitation of the Spirits in or from that which is denominated a Cold Body compared to the agitation of the Spirits in the Warmer But besides that this Notion seems not to agree with Coldsharp Wind where the chill Spirit is more agitated than the Spirits of the Bloud or Organ 'T is all one to us whether it be Yea or Nay yet since we have said the Cold is a Spirit an Effluvium as what Body hath not sudden not always distinct and gradual in its Operation but both sudden and painful Now Pain is Solutio continui and therefore Cold must penetrate and separate even where no Wind is sensible and Expell the Contrary Spirit which accordingly retreats and is repell'd thereby The Touch of Brass Silver in cold Weather will force us to withdraw our Hand and for the Repulse of the Spirit who hath not seen a Cold Plate laid on the Neck stanch the bleeding at the Nose For Cold is an Enemy to Heat of which Enmity the Spirit is sensible and resists For whereas 't is said that Cold constringes the Pores I rather think it is the Animal Spirit shrinks from the approach of its Enemy first and then Nature shuts up the Avenues to hinder entrance § 14. 'T is to be considered also that Cold strikes up to the Head from the Sole of the Foot though well Shod and Arm'd against it if we walk on a Marble Pavement which shews one would think some Activity upon the Organ of Sence at some distance as a Torpedo benumming the Fishers hand on Shore when the Fish is in the Stream And for refrigeration sake to mix a cool Spirit with Wine we immerge it in Water or lay it in Earth There is a maniiest Penetration of the Cool Spirit where the case of Less Agitation will scarce hold for the Glass Bottle it may be is as cold as the Earth or Water either § 15. Now therefore that it repells the Spirit appears that after the handling of Snow the Sensory is Warmer because the Bloud returns with advantage to those Extream parts from whence it was driven there is a Perception in Nature and Contrary doth smell its Contrary To this purpose I remember long ago in a hard Winter where our Colledge Ale for that was our Liquor being conglaciated into a Capacious Vessel upon a Thaw never returned to its self but was found so much insipid Ice with this difference only that in the Center there was lodged about a Quart of much Stronger Liquor than any was put into the Câ—sk A manifest Evidence that Spirits being besieged by the Ambient Frost retreated thither as to their Cittadel The like is to be observed in Fruits which upon the Solution of great Frosts are known to putrifie because the proper Preservative some would call it the Balsannick Spirit of the Fruit is dislodged by the Cold so that the Warmth returning finds nothing there but the Carcase of the Apple M. Rohault an ingenious Cartesian meeting I see with this Objection confesses there is a destruction of the Nexus and Site of the Parts and what Parts can those be but the Spiricuous Add likewise the Instance of Mortification of the Members of our Body so ordinary in Muscovy and other Countries which could not be if the vital Spirits did not retire from the surface and return again not of a Sudden but by degrees Namely if upon their approach to Fire they lay Snow as the Story goes upon the part affected to prevent the fam'd Putrefaction § 16. I must not be long in this dispute only this I say we cannot shew a Corpuscle in the Privation which darkens the Air c. But in a great Frost we can shew the Cold Atoms Fluttering about us For in a Frosty morning the pruinous Atoms lye floating in the Air and the Traveller gathers them in his Frosty Locks oft-times hoary before his time we can guess also of what size the Atome is and that it inclines to Gravity we can tell to which of the Poles it is fled
Winds in these Circumstances as Iris is a messenger upon a more Visible account Some good Learning may be produced to back this Fancy but we pass it and take notice that if ♃ ☉ and ☿ raise Storms wet or dry besure ♃ ☉ ♀ and ☿ will raise their Tumult A o 1539. Dec. 17. 1541. Feb. 19. A o 1555. 163. Dec. 6. bis in Jan. 17. 1671. ♃ ☉ and ☿ § 5. out-does the rest you see and the next is ♃ ♀ in § 2. § 7. Further ♃ ☉ ♀ ☿ and ☽ Five of the Planetary Consort cannot be wanting to disturb the Air as A o 1502. 1576. Sept. 7. 1589. Aug. 17. 1639. Dec. 24. Nay they would do more than any Congress yet mentioned but that Reason tells us that Four or Five can't agree to meet so easily as Two or Three can § 8. Other Mixtures there are which must not be thrown away as ♃ ☿ ☽ 1629. June 14. ♃ ♀ ☽ 1596 ♃ ♀ ☿ 1636. July 30. Sept. 7. bis 1656. Oct. 16. ♃ ☉ ☿ ☽ 1599. Aug. 10. ♃ ♀ ☿ ☽ 1549. 1567. Sept. 7. § 9. Now seeing we have allotted the Preeminence where 't is due we may consider the Aspects promiscuously since they all agree in Turbulency and Storm Here blowing Men overbord breaking their Fore-yards Main yards and in dispersing Fleets which too often never meet Storms that throw down Spires of lofty Towers A o 1529. Tempest that Roots up Trees Sept. 7. 1567. and demolishes Houses a Kingdom throughout 1627. That makes poor Mariners yield themselves to Mercy when they ly a Try as they call it a drift I think they mean not able to maintain a Sail 1609. Tempests threatning a Resolution of the Universe into the Old Chaos 1639. such things will be notwithstanding ☿ 's dwarf Stature and the others Smooth face sometimes take place § 10. There is a Hurricane or two would not be passed over One French Three English A o 1567. Sept. 7. 1576. 1601. and the Lambeth Hurricane For the First we have heard of it before in ♄ ☉ now in ♃ ♀ not without ☿ For the 2d we shall find it in ♄ ♂ which then it seems could do nothing without ♃ ♀ March 7. 1576. The Poor Miller which in the 3d. Hurricane had ♃ ♀ with ☉ and ♂ to Divorce his Millstones Febr. 1601. Add that dreadful one in Bohemia A o 1627. Dec 27. § 11. But the Ominous Tempest at Lambeth A o 1639. was the first that convinced me that there may be Hurracanes even in England I have trepass'd against some learned Men who will admit of no such Heathen Trumpery as an Omen But I speak the Sence of the Learned Reporter who was an excellent Historian and may be made as much use of it as another Yet our business is to assign the Cause which we say as far as it is to be discoursed of here was ♄ and ☿ super-added to ♃ and ♀ No other Conjunctions are near A great Instance of the Imperfection of that Astrology which reduceth all to Partile Aspects when the Lunar excepted there is not a Partile Conjunction or Opposition within 3 Weeks on either side But according to our Hypothesis if there can be no Storm of the most inferiour rate without a meeting besides ☉ and ☿ for they are ready at all times I was going to say of the Superiors one or more either with themselves or with the Inferiours within Thirty degrees You may guess that an Astrologer has enough to do in a Large and Noble Field such as to Prophesie for once joyned with good Literature in after Ages may be valued If this be an excursion let it be pardoned Proviso that we remember that our Planets have the great hand in this remarkable Tempest as will infallibly appear by the Moons place where But in Opposition to them Both. In what Signs In ♊ and ♠And have I not desired our Gentle Objectors but lately to study the Sign ♊ Doth not the more gentle Reader remember those Arch Birds have been often brought before him for Riot and Tumult § 12. As to the Rains and Flouds which appear we impute them as we do the Winds to our Aspects not simply but under such Circumstances met 1. Such as A o 1551. May 17. before Whitsunday at Kitting Chesenfort Rottolsee c. Lyc. 613. ♊ 23 ♀ ♋ 3 ♃ Jan. 13. 1569. at Lovain ♃ ☿ Tropic 2. A o 1599. May 27. Whitsunday Great Rain and High Winds How 's ♋ 9. ♀ 20. ♃ 3. A o 1636. Jan. fine the Dutch have it Gross Wasser Fluch Kyr Fromond speaks of one in Spain in Febr. ♓ 1 ♀ ♠1. ♃ So Sept. 1. 1577. in East Frisland c. § 13. But Oh the Spouts the Cataracts 1591 April 17. 1627. May 21. Aug. 14. the Dutch call them Wolkenbrucks What groveling Philosophy can give an account of them Who dares venture on them 'T is enough to make a Peripatetick confess the shortness of his Notions enough to break a Novelist especially in those at Sea where the Water is seen to run up in a Body through an Airy Cylinder as if it were one of Archimedes's Engines Who says 't is done With a Whirlwind may speak Truth but doth not cease to wonder I hope For if a profound Vortex of Air by its Force though not by its Density can prop up a Lake of Waters in the Atmosphere how can it insinuate it self into the Profundity of the Sea to bear up such a quantity into its unnatural place But I answer 't is an Immane Force for so we read at home as well as in France that Whirlwinds have torn up Trees nay and removed them twisted the Trunks so torn and folded up the Leaden Coverings of Churchos Is all this Natural Who knows but it may if it be Celestial Now A o 1591. April 17. our Planets are opposed so are-hey again June 26. 1640. not without ♄ and ♂ as the Table Confesses § 14. This puts in mind to run over our Thunders and here we find ♃ and ☿ to bring us about IX years viz. 1586. 1627. 1629. 1641. 1645. 1646. 1660. 1964. 1678. Then ♃ ☉ and ☿ do exceed a little and bring us XI 1528. 1519. bis 1590. 1627. 1628. 1630 1646. 1664. 1670. 1675. While ♃ ♀ odds though it be Two to Three bring XXII wiz 1521. 1526. 1535. 1537. 1548. 1596. 1617. bis 1618. 1636. turbulent years and so on in the Table But the reason of this Excess we have given because ♃ and ♀ meet oftner than ♃ ☉ and ☿ can please you to see the other mixtures of ♃ ☉ ☽ that brings us some murmurs A o 1627. 1681. ♃ ☉ ♀ bring us III. ☿ is always so near at hand when ☉ ♀ meet ♃ ☉ ☿ bring us XI ♃ ☉ ♀ ☽ as many ♃ ☉ ♀ ☿ IV. Wee 'l tell you but one Story from Hakluit of which our Diary is silent Sept. 18. 1591 of a Clap of Thunder at Sea that
♒ 29. ♃ ♠10. ♂ 1664. Dec. 4. per 3. menses Hevelius vide sub ♄ ♃ Dec. 9. Comet 6 m. S E almost as big as big as the ☽ angry and terrible Nor could all my Epicurean Principles applyed to my fancy perswade me to the contrary ☌ ♃ ♂ vide sub ♄ ♃ 1681. News of a Comet in Lithuania Dei 8. ♋ ♑ ♃ ♂ Vide etiam sub ♄ ♃ § 64. Now it will be time to turn the Scenes from Admiration to Fear or admire still if our Aspect be of an Earth-Shaking Spirit and it seems so for we have at hand a Table of Earth-movings as Copious as need to be I have not bespoke the Aspect at the time of the Concussion nor have I by an Engine or Helmont's Spirit Infernal mov'd the Earth at the time of the Configuration I have only studied part of Natures Alphabet and made a shift to put the Letters together and interpret by History § 65. We begin with the last Century A◠1500. Vesuvius Flagrat ardente Cometa Ricciolus ♃ ♂ are found in July ♃ and ♂ in Aug and Sept. 1577. June 26. Nordling in Germany Saw the Ruin of 2000 Houses by T. M. and Hurricane Lyc. ♃ ♂ in ♌ joyned with as great Movents viz. ♄ opp ☉ ☿ ♀ in Trop 1530. At Cubagua Sept. 1. The Sea rose 4 Fathoms from its ordinary Course The Earth did open in many places whereout sprung much Salt Water as black as Ink c. Many Houses fell Purch III. 868. ♀ ☉ in ♎ Yea ♃ and ♂ on each side the Aequator 1531. Lisbon in the Month of Febr. You heard of before in ♄ ♂ but in July 13. ♂ came again Mizald. Lyc. There I promise you an ☠♃ ♂ in ♈ and ♎ 1538. Italy shook for 15 days ♃ and ♂ were entred already in March and at a competent distance such as makes Work in the Earth besides other Aspects 1537. Mount Aetna flamed said Fritschius who heard the news Lycosthenes puts it the year before April 1. and tells us that all the Country near the Puteoli were so harass'd that there was scarce a House standing Agricola is certain for March 23. Lib. de Fossil IV. 20. We have no Aspect for his year of 1536. but for 37. when Aetna burnt still we have ♃ ♂ in Power April May and June throughout But stay No Aspect for March 23. 1536. Yet △ ♃ ♂ I was going to say a Cardinal △ pardon the absurdity 'T is better than nothing 1540. T. M. in Germania Dec. 14. Lyc. Many Houses shaken It haps at the Winter Tropic and therefore ☉ and ♀ in ♑ oppos ☽ in ♋ must be allowed and then the next is our Asp ☠♃ ♂ in ♌ ♒ ad gr 20. dist 1551. Jan. 28. Lisbon A fatal day for beside terrible Meteors and Rain of Bloud saith Frytschius an Earthquake beat down 200 Houses and kill'd 1000 persons ♂ returns Retrograde to joyn with ♃ at the end of ♊ Other places suffer this Month by Tempests and Inundations Violences seldom come alone Add the Hill Pocatepec whose Mouth or Crater was half a League over this Hill had not emitted any thing for 10 years before Purch III. 1124. Also at Guixos 70 houses were sunk Purch II. 1695. See the consent of the parts of the World Some years more discernible than others Wisely noted by Thuanus before 1556. April 10. Constantinople T. M. threw down many Towers and the Church of Sancta Sophia of a Truth ♃ ♂ are just entred on their Aspect ♉ 3. ♃ ♠3. ♂ 1570. They say Ferraria in Italy had fits of shaking for two years together From. In the former of these years viz. the present I have an ☠of ♃ ♂ from the end of Febr. to the midst of June ♂ going Retrograde on purpose to oppose ♃ and when that expires a ☌ of ♄ and ♂ begins These two Aspects we have told you are unquiet when they meet 1571. The second of these unquiet years we meet with an Earthquake of our own at Kinaston in Herefordshire Feb. 17. Stow 668. ♃ ♓ 1. ♂ 17. the midst of ♓ ☉ also in the beginning of the Sign ☿ and ♀ at the end Our Aspect alone do's not effect it nor is it done without it 1571. Nov. 1. At Venice thence to Florence thence to Cortray in Gallia Togata destroying that City once the finest in Italy Thuanus ♃ and ♂ in ♓ and ♠in the middle See elsewhere for this year in the Isle of S. Michael A o 1591. Purch 1581. Angoango a Village of Peru was ruin'd thus a great part thereof was raised up and carryed away many of the Indians smothered and that which seems incredible the Earth that was ruined did run and slide upon the Land as if it had been Water or melted Wax which I by the way note for St. Peter's sake who mention the melting of the Elements But the Month is not specified all we can say is this if this direful Calamity was inflicted on these Sorcerers and Idolaters for such they are noted In the first half year we shew God's Celestial Scourge in our Aspect the saddest criticalplace of Heaven viz. it s Tropical Purliews 1586. July 9. June 29. T. M. in the Cividad Real the Royal City in the West Indies which run 170 Leagues along the Coast and overthwart in the Sierrae 50 Leagues it ruin'd a great part of the City the Sea ran two Leagues into the Land rising above 14 Fathom Acosta Fromond Purch III. 941. Let the Reader be judge of our Superstition our Aspect now is in ☌ of the Tropical Heights as before it was in ☠Believe this when you see that the same ♃ and ♂ at the same year caused an Earthquake and a dire one too for all the City fell and some People slain at Guatimala Purch III. 929. even on Dec. 23. 1586. At the chief Town in Java Major fituate near a burning hill says Dr. Heylin This year the Hill brake forth exceedingly oppressed infinite numbers of men and cast great Stones into the City for 3 days together But now ♂ is got in a Cardinal □ to ♃ Are Squares also by the way of such Power Ask our Famous Cavendish whether within three Months after he felt not another Earthquake how did the Shore tremble when he felt the concussion at Sea Lat. 33. on March 22 Hakl p. 810. at what time ♃ ♂ were not far from the □ a Cardinal □ But we must not meddle with Quadrates much less with Trines as but now Only let the Reader see how vast are the Inlets of a Due Astrology 1591. In the Isle of St. Michael Purchas p. 1677. we meet with an Earthquake which lasted a Fortnight from July 26. ad Aug. 12. It belongs to ♄ and ♂ as plain as Nature can write being opposed in Tropical Aspect but information sends us back to such another Earthquake falling 20 years agone which if it happened in the last Quarter of
to avoid Repetition omitted those Aspects Jovial that are co-incident whether with ☉ or ♂ c. which must be allowed their Weight and Strength according to their Fortitude yet so as not to exclude the Influence of our Termagant which is as the Basis to every I fusion that is mixed therewith or like the Keel the first Poundation-Piece of a Ship whereunto all the Minor Aspects for the time being are Riveted and Mortaised like the Ribbs of the Vessel § 6. But what hath been hitherto our Method which I hope upon due consideration will be taken in good part we must consider this our supreme Configuration at the wrong end of the perspective viz. with its abbreviature first and after survey it in its farther extent § 7. The abbreviature will shew us the Nature in Little and notwithstanding afford us some Extravagances sometimes whereby a suspicion will be raised of some Stranger and stronger Power that lies Couchant between the configur'd Pair § 8. My Reader would I fear be at a loss if I should transcribe the Character of this Aspect from our Elders as from Cardan the Congress of ♄ and ♃ saith he as to the qualities of the Fixed and the Signs where it happens does affect the Air for many days with fair Weather or Rain or Winds Comment in Ptol. if the Luminaries at least be Aspected Is he not almost ridiculous But that he hath a Salvo from the Sign and the Fixed Stars which determine the Dis-junctive Regiomantanus saith For many days before and after it brings great Drought in ♈ ♄ ♠the Fiery Signs and in Watry Signs ♋ ♠♓ it brings Rains Flouds Inundations Particularia Diluvia This is very well But then in Aerial Signs I hope it brings Winds in ♊ ♎ ♒ In Earthy Signs Frost and Snow ♉ ♠♑ Regiomont dare not say so of this whatsoever he hath said of an Aspect in General Maginus is as cautelous consenting as to the Drought and Flouds but passing by the other Moiety of the Denomination of the Signs He comes to the Quarters of the year and tells us that In Spring it brings turbid Clouds and moist Air In Summer Hail and Thunder In Autumn Winds and Rain In Winter Turbid Air again Tagliacozzo accords only he restrains the Turbid Constitution to the Spring the Hail to the Summer the Rains and Flouds to Autumn and the Turbid Air in Winter to the Humid Signs only in which the other seems to be indifferent regarding only the Diversity of the Seasons Eichstad after all He went by his own experience ventures not on the premisses or their variety but asserts though not from his own experience what I do now from mine that ♄ and ♃ first hath an Influence for Drought while he brings Instances from 1516. 1614 of which in due place and expressing himself further in Keplers way who fancies that the great ☌ of the Superiours hinders the Concoction of the Earth so that it cannot attract the Waters of the Ocean whereupon must issue Drought § 9. We I hope more intelligibly say that ♄ and ♃ produce a Dry Constitution because it produces a Cold one being the two most remote Planets if there were no more but That Cold being the Parent of at least some Species of Drought 2ly We say it produces a Cold Air more often and more Naturally than Heat This few agree to though they admit Hail in Summer which is some Token but it appears Consequent from their very distance beside what else hath bin said before of the Planet ♃ 's Influence 3dly It produceth often with the Cold and the Drought a misty Air Fog and Foeculent confessed at least in Winter But Argol who hath added somewhat of use to what he found in Maginus and consequent to that which I would not forget put in great Dews more often observed in or after foggy Mornings § 10. And this I take to be meant by Kepler when he saith ♄ cum Jove vapidum ex Calentibus terrae latebris edu cit acrem qui in producendis meteoris ingentes habet vires in Optic Paralip p. 274. quoted also by Eichstad where I do not pretend to understand his Philosophy either the Misty Reek out of the Earth or Waters visible as the Fume from a Stable much less that Mists have such tendency to Meteors more than other Clouds but I do assert the Truth of the Aphorism that ♄ and ♃ is an obscure Foggy Congress very frequent § 11. In the mean while we are told our Aspect brings a Settlement as to what happens Rain or Shine for many days but they leave the poor Disciple to determine the Number himself Alass how many 20. years must a Student pass to determine That Notwithstanding they are not to be reproved for the variety of Motions and Habitudes of the Planets are so admirable that no determinate number will fit The year 1682. with 1683. saw 3 ☌ 's meet in one and so it continued 9 Months in the year and the like we shall shew presently in 1622. c. § 12. Now to make out our Cold and Dry Character what with Intelligence from Germany and my own Experience I could produce four of these Grand Conjunctions with their respective Diaries Entire the first whereof and 2d we shall present the first Conjunction though it be Celebrated in the Month of July and in the Sign ♌ a Sign besides other disadvantages which hath no great favour for Cold for Heat rather Thunder and Lightning yet we can be content to make no exception against it but all things consider'd to admit it The Conjunction lies at the Door of July 7 17. but how many degrees we shall expatiate before or after the day of the Conjunction in this our Minor Table which we make praevious to the following larger Diary That is a Question for sundry reasons I have pitch'd upon 8 degrees of Platique Distance not more because I would not overcharge the Reader nor Less least I should wrong the Aspect especially when the Aspect for fear it should be wrong'd seems to me to repeat its Motion not being content as we may see to pass part of September October November December entire A o 1622. but Commences again at April 1. 1623. and so holds on to October 4. Yea a third time from about the end of March 1624. to the beginning of May the same year So falls it out that we have some tast of this Aspect not only the Summer Months of June and July where we find little of his cooling Influence but of the early Spring Months yea of the later Autumn and Winter § 12. For what are Aspects tyed do we think to precise Minutes and Moments the Vanity of that appears from this Grand Conjunction An Astrologer must be lost in a Mist there not knowing whether he goes when Astronomy it self confesseth She is uncertain and does but conjecture at the Moment Hear Kepler's honest confession Planetae
even beyond a Quincunx profess their inclinations but the distance is too wide nor is it our interest to prove our Planets to have a Natural tendency to such Excesses yet because the Reports are so large p. 613 614. we refer them to the ☠♄ ♂ in ♌ and ♒ and to the Planets in ♋ in ♋ I say of which ♃ is the chief § 52. I need not force in any Instances the Rhine will bear Witness A o 1553 June 19. to such Excesses endamaging all the Cities I think for they say They were infinite that are situate near its noble Stream Take Notice if you please of ♃ and ☿ 's Congress but withal note that ♃ and ♄ are in Oppositional Quincunx ♌ 4. ♓ 4. Lycosth 616. Yea in Aug. A o 1552. Die 13. Budissina Peucer's Native Country felt the smart of a Cataract they call it a piece of a Cloud a Spout they would say that drown'd all for the space of 2 miles with 30 men lost Peucer p. 340. A strong ☠of ♄ and ♃ with other Planets to back him or seeing we have heard of the Phrase before now to make a Conspiracy Sooner or later doth not vary the Species a Spout there is a Floud which the Seamen describe to be a Cloud with a Tail like a Serpent drawing the Waters in a Smoak or Mist and wherever it falls Wo to the Sea-farer Hakl Vol. 2. p. 106. One of these in Aug. XXVII Another Octob. XX. p. 110. In the First a Partil ☠of ♄ and ♃ in the second X. degrees distance § 53. A o 1564. Sept. 20. Our Thames overflowed and drowned much Cattle Let any man look into the Ephemeris and take notice how many of the VII are in ♎ IV. of VII yea or the 20. day V. reckoning ♈ to its opposite Sign A notable Instance of what we have asserted about Equinoctial Tides and the Raising of Water by Rarefaction which our late ingenuous Theorist of the Earth considered not when concerning the Floud he affirmed there was no Water in Nature sufficient for it § 54. A o 1565. in January and February at Lovain the River Dilia overflowed in that Prodigious Winter which scarce ended before April The later of these Febr. 11. did much harm Gem. 2. 42 43. ♂ and ♀ are in ☌ we have said before but so is ♃ and ♄ which hath Influence not only on that over-long Winter but also in the excess of Snow or Rain according as they were provok'd § 55. The next ☠lands us on 1573. in ♉ and ♠upon which account the years concerned are famous upon Record Comets Flouds Pests Why I tell you the New Star in Cassiopeia as sure as you are there is the Offspring of ♄ and ♃ Let me dispatch the Flouds and I will prove it But Oh the Flouds If it be but that at Lovain Jan. 8. 1573. where the Waters rose upon the Thaw above 17. Cubits high so described by Gemma by ruining of Houses Trees Bridges Mills Pillars Floating of Beds Trunks and all manner of House-hold Goods Consternation and Shrieking of all Sorts and Sexes that it brings a cold Steam upon the Heart of the Reader so prodigious that an Astrologer though he be allowing the Snows and the Thaw and all that still wonders at the Cause and offers at some Fermentation which he imagines to arise from the mixture of Snow-Water c. A Point which ought to be consider'd but neither so was he yet satisfied He might have been satisfied had he consider'd the pure fermenting Power of our Aspect opened by the Appulse of ♂ and ☽ for there was neither Change nor Quarter in respect of the Sun if he had consider'd the Reach of our Aspect which is confess'd in in its Partile Estate to cause Flouds and Inundations which it concerns us to know for the Relator himself was almost drowned in common danger though the Floud coming by day God be thanked not above 8 or 9 were lost § 56. But there is more Wo yet In the same year and in Summer time in the beginning of July it self a Deluge happened not in one City or so but the Country it self Holland with Frieseland were plagued Inaudita Clade Gem. 2. 167. where the Learned Man tells us that the New Star in Cassiopeia was at that time abated of its Greatness and Splendour yea but ♄ and ♃ were under no abatement They were in a ☌ Partile not above a Month before we must not dare to mention the Pleiades engaged between them But so it was whether our Planets signifie any thing or no that we in England heard of a harmful Floud at Tocester by a Storm of Hail and Rain June 7. which gives us a little tast what was the Constitution of the most part of June which raised such Flouds there and elsewhere Let the Reader be pleased to consider and he will allow something to our Alms-Basket especially when there comes a 3d. or 4th Inundation in West-Frieseland as rueful and as masterless In the mean time let me tell him my Opinion that these and other such like Attentendants of the New Star are manifest Indications of its Nature Homogeneal to that of the Bearded Comet which will we nil we are too oft attended only with such Retinue § 57. We hear of no Flouds till about the next ☠which makes me remember that the ☠is better at such Tragical Sport than the ☌ and first with our selves A o 1594. we meet with Rain very sore for 14 hours April 11. which is an unlucky Prologue to what we hear of May 2. great Water-Flouds in Sussex and Surrey June also being as much a Trespasser as May Nor does it cease in July though it please God to send a fine August Both one and the other were the effect of our Aspect even the Rain from ♒ and ♌ as well as the fine Weather to see what Providence can do though it return to its wet again the Month following where we reckon a double Influx of ♄ and ♃ yea and of the rest too in their proportion a generative Faculty of Wet when all Requisites are supposed and a Spirit communicated to that Wet whereby the Moisture is Proud and Swelling apt to clime and outrun its bounds As the Bubble in a smart and warm Showr is a Sign of a Spirit which starts up and carries with it a Film of Water Fatter than ordinary Least any should say that seeing we like Gemma's Philosophy of some Ferment in the Waters we should therefore deny that our Planets were not contributers to the Moisture as well as the Tumor which we must assert they do But our Tres-Grand-Aspects are not so easily got off for A o 1595 the Scene lies in Germany the Rhine the Maes the Maene the Neccar the Danow all with one consent obey their Superiours and make such Work about Colen Mentz Francfort worse than they did A o 1573. of which before at Lovain c.
Many Carcases here Floating which we heard not in the former the Maes in one Night swelling thirty Foot and the Rhine thirty nine § 58. And did I not say deservedly that these are GREAT Aspects For I hope the Reader is almost convinced by this time Are they not GREAT Bodies and as Great CAUSES that move over our Heads The effects of them are such that we should not believe them though we saw them as the Poet said of Troy Victamque quamvis videat haud credit sibi potuisse vinci So Dire so Amazing that our Infidel-Will begins to question the Maker of All as if he could not find in his Heart to be so extremely severe with his Sinful Creatures It preaches to me a Religious sence of him that makes the Seven Stars and Orion yea ♄ and ♃ also and calleth for the Waters of the Sea and poureth them out upon the Face of the Earth as the Prophet seasonably preacheth if Flouds be meant I am concerned for my Neighbours of the Low-Countreys I have offered some Items before to take heed to the Heavens over their Head For 't is Childish to call a Noble Science Superstition if it leads you to the Knowledge of the Creator The Saints and Prophets of Old were not so peevish We may safely go as far as they Suppose they knew not the Niceties of the Microscope and therein come short of us They knew the Glories of the Fixed and the Erratique and therein they went beyond us § 59. The next we meet in princ ♠A o 1603. Here we gladly see that we find some respite Except we shall go far toward East-Indies as the Bay of Antongil where Sir J. Laurence and his Fleet Wintering found A o 1601. c. much Rain and great Flouds overflowing the Country Purch Tom. 1. p. 101. To the drinking of which Waters he imputes the Flux that troubled his men being not wholsom as in most places saith he in those hot Countries ♄ and ♃ are entred for Jan. and Febr. 1602. though ♃ falls back afterward It makes no noise to meet a high Tide one or two about this Winter with us But will not a Spout be considerable Aug. 17. a Whirlwind taking up the Sea Purch 2. p. 813. A Great Spout powring out of the Heavens in the Island of Malaca Or a Tide higher than in 40 years before Childrey in the Transactions pag. 2065. These are some Symptoms of our Dead-doing Influence and we are glad we have no more to produce This was the Conjunction § 60. But the ☠in ♓ and ♠A o 1613. cannot wipe her Mouth she is guilty on Record of what she cannot wash away since in Thuringia chiefly yea and Bohemia Saxony Austria and France the Corn was lost by Hail and Lightning and many Inhabitants together with their Houses were lost Calvis This happened on May 29. while ♄ and ♃ were 15. grad distant § 61. This is for Europe and A o 1613. But the East-Indies A o 1614. in the Month of Aug. a greater Floud than has been seen in 29 years which drave away Salt Hills and Towns saith Purchas and many 1000 of men and Cattle The place is call'd Narsa par Peta while a Neighbouring Town had about 4000 Houses wash'd away the Stone-Bridges as finely built as Rochester-Bridge which were three Fathome high above Water proved three Foot under Tom. 1. p. 326. Hath ♄ and ♃ nothing to do in Flouds when 29 years ago which must be 1585. there was a Floud and a Congress of our great Celestials and this years August she ☠lay but at XII grad distance § 62. I have not been so punctual in describing Earthquakes because I love not whatsoever the Reader may miscollect I delight not in the Raven-Notes that do befal Recitements at large of those Subjects which I am engaged to treat of for Who desires to be reckoned a oaleful inauspicious Bird Only here in Flouds I am the more particular if by any means can I procure an awful Esteem and not a slight contempt of the Divine Hand yea and if I might consult the Interest of Mankind so far as these Papers will reach to give them some little Glimpse or Insight into eminent Dangers for though every Patient cannot be his own Physician yet nothing hinders but that a Nurse by some Notes attentively hearkned to may get some Skill in Medicine § 63. I am weary of multiplying of Instances and yet my Journeys end being in prospect I cannot sit down We have not heard much of the Diaries of our Century Let us bring the Floud home to our Doors Threescore years ago then Kepler tells us of two Inundations of Danow within one Week of 1622. with the Bridge broke and the same force 〈◊〉 in June anni ejusd where Kepler recurs to his Subterranean Cause thereby forsaking his better Principle In June he refers it mostly 〈◊〉 the Appultes of the ☽ Five Lunar Oppositions happening within 24 hours How manifestly doth he own the Planets Situate in a Posture easie to be irritated Five of them within 20 degrees All in ♋ amongst them as Supream ♄ and ♃ gr 15. Lo what a shift the poor man is put into by his dis-favour to our Solid Principle He found the whole year violent and for the Solution of that Grand Problem he is forced to bespeak his Subterranean Cause without which and that must last as long as he hath need of it viz. the whole year point blank he tells us the Constellations of Heaven could not effect so much What a great Man had he bin too great if he had not stumbled at this in his way Oh! that I understood the Constellations as well as he did the Motions c. But he proceeds Nihil hinc situm in Natura Signi There 's nothing in the Sign no not in the Sign ♋ Let any man Judge who hath attended to the mention of the Sign If it comes in our way we will again remember the Reader In the mean time will not our Cause assigned which persevereth the whole year throughout in the Sight of all Men an swer better than a Cause in Hugger-Mugger of which no man shall ever hope to give an account I hope it will But I must not dwell here for 64. The ☠A o 1633. in ♠and ♊ scapes not Kyriander helps us here April 24. 1633. Grosse Gewasser saith the Dutch But higher than that in the beginning of October Gewaltige Spring-flutên Ergiessungen in Holland and Zealand In the former year is grad 6. distant In the next grad 24. distant and withal ♃ in ♋ There we have met with Kepler already who made us believe there was nothing in the Sign toward a Found when the the very next Instance tells us that there is Gevaltige Spring fluten We have but 3. or 4 more and we have done 65. What does 1642. the ☌ in ♓ A man would wish ♄ and ♃ far enough and they are of the farthest
Winter from before the Feast of All Saints till after Twelftide with great and deep Snows and sometimes Rains a Late Spring the Wind continuing N. and E. till after the Ascension with sharp Frost and Snows June 7. Hail and Rain at Tocester in Northamptonshire whence Flouds whereby 6 Houses were born down c. many Sheep drown'd lying in the High Hedges where the Water-Flouds left them the Hail square and six Inches about About Lammas Dearth at London A o 1574. July 9. At the Isle of Thanet A Whale shot himself on Shore ho. 6 p. Length 22 yards Any Man might have crept into his Mouth Sept. 4. Storm of Rain c. Nov. 6. Two great Tides in the Thames the First by Course the other overflowed the Marshes Nov. 14. About midnight following strange Impressions of Fire and Smoak out of a black Cloud in the North noct seq that in all parts it seemed to burn with marvelous rage the Flames did double and roll one on another as in a Furnace the Flames rose from the Horizon round about and met over head Nov. 18. Stormy and Tempestuous out of the South specially after midnight till next morning I have not known the like from any Quarter says our Annalist A o 1575. Feb. 14. Cold and Hard Frost after a Floud which was not great Great numbers of Flies and Beetles came down the River of Avon at Tewksbury a Foot thick above the Water Feb. 26. Between ho. 4. 6 p. m. Great Earthquake in York Worster Gloucester Bristol Hereford July 30. Great Tempest of Lightning and Thunder wherewith in divers places Men and Beasts were stricken Dead Great Hail also 6 or 7 Inches about Sept. 26. In the City of London A Woman deliver'd of four Female Children who followed all in Health and good liking their Deceased Mother who died a Month after which whether I had reason to transcribe will be seen toward the Close of our Papers I must observe that they were conceived if not born under the Aspect A o 1576. March 5. In the Night a great Flaw of Wind from the N. W. ruin'd a Tilt-Boat with 31 Persons one Boy excepted July 4 5 6. The Fatal Sessions at Oxford where so many Men were destroy'd by a Damp. We have referr'd it to ♄ ☿ and we abide by it as a parcel-Cause but we are willing to reduce it also among other notable Causes to our ☠for 't is certain 't is a Borderer ♄ ♂ are within Bounds and ♂ opposing ♃ delivers up ♄ also linked with it 'T is no little matter that kills 500 Persons by a Breath A o 1582. May 13. Comet hora 10 p. descending in the N W. the Beard streaming S W. Aug. 12. Lightning Thunder Whirlwind with hail fashioned like Spur rowls two or three Inches about in Norfolk beat the Corn flat to the Ground rent up many Trees and shiver'd them into pieces or writh'd them like Wit hs the Top of Henden Church was lifted up 5 Webs of Lead ruffled up together like so much Linen Cloth 1583. Jan. 13. Blackmore in Dorsetshire a piece of Ground of 3 Acres removed from its place 600 Foot Octob. 10. Caster in Norfolk a Fish by Force of the Easterly Wind driven ashore whose Tayl was 14 Foot in Breadth Summary of the Occurrents happened at or about the last ☌ ♄ ♃ 1682. and seqq from our own Collections § 10. 1611. April 1. Romae Septentrionem versus Cometa major Lucidiorque nupero qui Neapoli visus est Die 22. Ex inferiore tractu Albis Ruricolae queruntur ex anni siccitate grandem scarabeorum invalescere numerum qui delicatum arborum florem abradit Dioecesis Bremensis tristius conqueritur de inusitato Murium numero qui segetem radicitus abradunt Rela◠Colon. Num. 37. May 3. 13. Lately an Earthquake in Zealand and Meteor of an extraordinary bigness for 3 Nights in Amsterdam Horizon Die 5. This Night following a great and general Bliting Wind the Walnut-Trees felt it Middlesex Die 20. Hurricane lately at Barbado's Die 22. St. Johnston's Hail Rain Thunder and Lightning unusual circa 5 p. T. M. for a quarter of an Hour Benskins Intelligence Die 27. Drought not within memory Engl. Die 30. Near Lancaster Lightning and Hail as big as Walnuts for two Hours damaging the Corn. June 18. About a week ago Rained Wheat in Dean Forest Die 13. Oxford lately happened Lightning c. which fired a House Die 16. Dolphins sporting in the Mouth of Severn 17. Ferrara Thunder Hail Earthquake 20. Lime A Vessel put in which felt a Tempest of Thunder Rain and Lightning never the like 20. Lately at Lyons in France terrible Earthquake 29. Dorchester within two Miles a Globe of Fire falling among a Tuft of Trees burnt two or three to Ashes July 3. Sheerness Whale lately seen in the Mouth of the Thames 5. West-Chester a Man stroke Dead with Lightning 6. Chichester about 3 m. Trumpets sounding a Charge c. Thunder c. 16. Hamburg Plague broke out at Magdeburg 23. Friburg Thunders Armies Squadrons Battalions c. 25. Thunder bolt clove a Woman in 4 parts a Man had no hurt 26. Portugal Row near Hide Park Thunder 8 m. shook the House so till 11 m. T. M. in Lorrain 6 Stately Houses destroyed St. Colombs Church suffered by Lightn Aug. 9. Francofurti ad Viadrum Locustarum pestis 11. Lues epidemica Dresdae in reliqua Misniâ 16. Jersey Comet SW ante 5 m. with a Train of 3 yards 27. Whale in Flushing taken 30 Foot long Nevis in India occid Hurricane Two Bristol Ships lost 4 or 5 at Antigoa Sept. 6. Meteors seen in Moor Fields with a Stream 6 Inches broad 13. Vesuvius burns for four days T. M. in Naples two Shocks Gazet. Numb 96. 14. Lues Epidemica in Calabria 16. Pestilence continues at Hamburg 20. Great Storms of Hail then Swarms of Flies for 3 Hours pass'd Eastward with the Wind. Octob. 2. Hurricane at Jamaica 6. Comet lately appeared in ♒ 13. swift in motion 10. At Falmouth for some Days Very Stormy Weather so at Harwich 16. Plague in many parts of Spain seems not yet to be decreased 23. Star last n. with a large Train but the Clouds hindred 29. Dreadful Storm at Dover Rode 30. Portland Dismal accounts from several places of this Stormy Weather Nov. 2. Weymouth such a Floud from the continued Rains that the Ways are hardly passable 4. Near Lincoln Lucid Circle in the Air like a Rainbow reversed 6. Deal a Zeland Vessel cast away in Tempest 10. Westchester Monstrous Fish lately taken like a Crocodile Domest Intellig. 13. Plague not quite ceased at Magdeburg 29. Sickness lately broke out in Barbary 30. Violent Storms since day 26. at Hague ruin'd part of the Fortification at Narden Dec. 10. Hague Strong S W. Wind broke up the Banks and laid 2100 Acres under Water 8. Falmouth many Shipwracks Decemb. 15. Summer Weather and much Thunder p. m. 21. Gopenhagen Waters