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The earth, felf-balanc'd, on her centre hung,

Ver. 592. This and the following verfe we have inferted to fill up a lacuna, which Creech having totally omitted this verse of his author, Ufque adeo magni refert cui quæ adjaceat res, had left in all the former editions of this book. Ver. 598. In thefe four verses, he brings another argument of the connection of the earth and air: because, fays he, the thunder that causes violent motions in the air, makes the earth tremble, which it could not do, but that they are of a piece. Here our tranflator feems to have imperfectly rendered the fenfe of his author, whofe words are, Præterea grandi Tonitru concuffa repentè Terra, fupra quæ fe funt; concutit omnia motu, Quod facere haud ullâ poffet ratione, uifi effet Partibus aëriis mundi cœloque revincta.

i. e. Besides, the earth, whenever it is fhaken on a fudden, by a violent thunder, makes every thing that is upon it fake and tremble, which it could by no means do, unlefs, &c. Compare this with Creech's tranflation, and fee his error.

Ver. 602. But because, it may feem wonderful that fo fubtle a body as the air, should support a mafs fo vaftly thick as the earth; he adds in thefe leven verfes, that the foul, which is a moft fubile ubftance, fuftains our ponderous body; nay, not nly that, but even lifts it up, and makes it leap rom the ground.

Ver. 604. Where we must understand the word hings; an elipfis too frequently ufed by Creech, hough hardly allowable in our language, which ates all grammatical figures, and loves to fpeak dain. What, without a fubftantive, is always in he fingular number: What raises, what controuls. Sed hoc obiter."

Thus, neither Epicurus nor Lucretius after him, affirmed any thing for certain concerning the magnitude of the fun, moon, and ftars: And indeed fo many, and fo various are the opinions both of the ancients and moderns, of this matter, that it is impoffible to ground any probable belief upon them. However, I will give fome of their opinions, but rather for curiofity than inftruction. f. Heraclitus held the fun to be a foot broad: II. Anaxagoras, many times as big as the country of Peloponnefus. III. Animaxander, as big as the earth. IV. Empedocles, a vast mass of fire, even bigger than the moon. V. Archelaus, the biggest of all the celeftial lights. VI. Plato, never to be conceived nor found out. VII. Cicero, immenfe. VIII. The Egyptians, and after them Macrobius, eight times as big as the earth. IX. Others, whofe opinion Cicero, Tatius, and Philoponus mention, but conceal their names, above eighteen times as big as the earth. X. Eratofthenes, seven and twenty times as big as the earth. XI. Cleomedes. near three hundred times as big as the earth. XII. Ariftarchus, above two hundred and fifty-four times as big as the earth.~ ́~ ́~XIII. Hipparchus, a thousand and fifty times as big as the earth. XIV. Plutarch fays there were fome who held the fun to be a thousand feven hundred and twenty-eight times as big as the earth. XV. Poffidonius, fifty-nine thoufand three hundred and nineteen times as big as the earth What certainty then can be grounded on fo many different opinions? And Archimedes owned, it was next to impoffible to take the diameter of the fun, because neither the fight, nor the hands, nor the organs, by which the obfervation is perceived, are fuflicient to demonftrate it exactly; and therefore no credit ought to be given to them. This makes Lactantius fay, "Dementiam cffe difquirire, aut fcire velle, Sol utrumque tantus, quantas videtur, an multis partibus major fit quam omnis hæc terThat it is a folly to inquire, or be defirous to know, whether the fun be as big as he feems to be, or many times bigger than the whole earth. And the fame uncertainty there is likewife concerning the magnitude of the moon, and of the other planets and stars.

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Ver. 609. Epicurus, in the tenth book of Laerius, fpeaking of the magnitude of the fun and fars, fays, that in as much as it relates to us to judge of it, their magnitude is the fame that it appears to be and that as to the thing itself, it is fomewhat bigger, or fomewhat less, or else exactly the fame that it feems: infomuch that our eyes lie very little, if they do at all. The poet, in these twenty-feven verfes, afferts the fame thing, and But the more modern, both philofophers and Endeavours to prove his affertion by an argument aftronomers, though their opinions be indeed vaaken from fenfe. As we retire from any fire, forious, as to the magnitude of this glorious lumilong as we are within fuch a diftance of it, that nary, yet having grounded them on more probawe can perceive its light and heat, the fire feems ble methods of obfervation, have at least come to less than it does when we are near it: but we nearer the truth than the ancients, and not left us feel the heat, and perceive the light of the fun : fo much in the dark, nor in fo great uncertainty therefore, the fun is of the fame magnitude it concerning it. It is moft certain, that we forma a feems to be. Then he adds of the moon, that we right judgment of the magnitude of an object, by diftinctly fee the outmost verge and face of it : the distance of one part of it from another, and and yet we fhould fee it but confufedly, if it were by the distance of the whole from us: for the difo far off that its diftance took away any of its ftance of it being first confidered, we find that the magnitude. Laftly, He lays of the ftare, that they rays from all parts of the object cause an impreflion are not much larger, nor much less, but rather on the retina in the extremities of more or less just as big as they feem: for even the fires that we fee here below at a dihance from one another, either by day or by night, present to our eyes like variety of fizes. Epicurus writes the fate doctrine to Pythocles.

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diftant fibres. Therefore, the farther distant those extremities, to impreffed are from each other, the greater we judge the objeâ to be; and in like mauner on the contrary: infomuch, that it is firt necciary to know the distance of an objeð, be

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fore we can attain to the true knowledge of its magnitude: And therefore, whenever we are mistaken in the diftance, we must neceffarily be deceived in the magnitude likewife and confequently, as often as we judge an object to be farther from us than it really is, we imagine it to be bigger than it is; because, the farther distant an object is, the lefs will be the space between the incident points of the rays that make the impreffion on the retina: And on the contrary, as often as we judge the object to be nearer us than indeed it is, we fancy it to be lefs than really it is, because the space between the points of the rays, &c. is larger. Hence we fee the reafon why it is fo difficult to come by the true knowledge of the fun's magnitude: for the distance of the fun from

| the equator is fo hard to be discovered, that, i we may believe Pliny, to endeavour to find it ect, "penè dementis otii eft," is an employment & for none but madmen. Ricciolus likewife cos feffes, that the fublimity of the fun has exceeded and baffled hitherto the fearch and inveftigation of all aftronomers. However, he himself fays, in Almageft. lib, iii. cap. 11. That the true magn tude of the fun may be known from its true femidiameter; for that being doubled, gives its true diameter, whence its other species of magnitu are derived, according to the rule of proportion This method has been obferved by many of the moft learned and judicious aftronomers, whofe o pinion concerning the fun's magnitude, may be feen at one view in the following table.

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The true Magnitude of the Sun compared with the Earth.

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OF THE SUN.

THIS glorious luminary is in Hebrew called Chamah, or Shemafo, from his heat, or Adon Schemez, i. e. Dominus Sol. By the Phenicians, Baal Shemaim, i. e. Dominus Cæli. In Chaldee, Shemfo. In Arabic, El Sbemo. By the Greeks, "Hλos and quißos, quali pûs rê ßís, i. e. lux vitæ, whence the Latin Pbæbus, called likewise Titan, Apollo, Cor Cali, Oculus Jovis, and "Oupa 'Afiges, i. e. oculus etheris. The Egyptians called the fun, Potiris, which in their language fignifies the Holy God; and Ofyris, from his vital and kindly heat: as, on the contrary, Typhon, and Setb, from his violent and deftructive fervour; and by them called likewife Horus. By the Perfians Mitbra, i. e. Dominus or Dynefta. By the ancient Arabs, Urotalt, i. e. Lucis Deus; and Dufares, or Dai-Usar, i. e. Deus perluftrans, as Sebedius de Diis German. interprets thofe names. By the Syrians, according to Macrobius, the fun was called Adad, or, as Sca liger and Selden would rather have it, Abad, or Elbad, i. e. Unus: or as Pontanus in his notes on Macrobius, Badad, i. e. Solus Unicus. Heraclitus, as Macrobius in Somn. Scip. lib. i, cap. 20. calls the fun the fountain of all celeftial light and heat. Moft of the ancients, as Democritus, Metrodorus, Pythagoras, Plato, &c. and of the moderns likewife, as Kepler, Scheinerus, Rheitæ, Bulialdus, Kircher, Ricciolus, &c. imagine the fun to be a real fiery body, confifting of true proper elementary fire, partly liquid, partly folid; the liquid is as it were an ocean of light, and moves with flaming billows and fiery ebullitions. This is manifeft to thofe who regard that moft glorious luminary by the help of a telescope. The folid parts are like the land in our terraqueous globe, divided into continents, iflands, mountains, and rocks, as if it were to reftrain the vehement motion of the exeftuating folar ocean, and by the frequent allifions to repel, diffipate and break the impetuous force of it; to the end it may with greater efficacy impart its all-productive virtue to the bodies on which it beftows light and influence.

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It is likewife probable, that within the folar globe, as in this earth of ours, there are vast caverns and receptacles of fire, that break out of the fun's ignivomous mountains, in like manner as fubterranean fires are ejected out of the mountains Etna, Hecla, and Vefuvius. Befides, the folid parts of the fun, within whofe bowels is contained the fluid and liquid fire, like metal in a furnace, are thoroughly ignified, in the fame manner as the bricks of the roofs and fides of furnaces are made red hot, and look of the fame colour as the fiery mafs of melted matter within them.

It is farther fuppofed, that the folid parts of the fun confift of a matter abeftinous and incombuftible, and far better able to refift the voracity of fire than this earth of ours. Nay, fuppofing that fome parts of the fun here and there thould be confumed, and whole mountains be levelled and wafted, yet there is no neceflity from thence,

TRANS. II.

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that the globe of the fun fhould be totally deftroyed, no more than is this earth by the frequent accidents of fuch kinds of ruins and decays. Moreover, the fplendour, as well of the fluid, as folid fire of the folar globe, is evidently far more bright than our fire or flame here below: the end for which it was made neceffarily requiring it fhould be fo; fince it may reasonably be conje&tured to be created for the fountain of light, if not of the whole world, at least of the planetary system.

It is likewife obfefved, that as well this liquid fea of fire, as that which breaks out of the caverns and mountains, conftantly exhales fuligi nous vapours, not black and footy, like the fmoke of our fire, but bright and elear; and that these exhalations, condenfing in the ambient æther, do in a manner overcaft the fun, as clouds overfhadow the earth. From all which, and from the evidence of frequent obfervations, lately made by the help of the telescope, is manifeft, the mistake of Ariftotle and his followers; who imagine the fun to be an unalterable substance; whereas, indeed, he is fubject to divers changes and alterations; which not only the generation and production, but the diffolution and corruption likewife of feveral phenomenons in the body of the fun, altogether unknown to the ancients, clearly demonftrate. Among which the most remark able are thofe, which late aftronomers call the Macula folares, and the Faculæ folares.

The Macule, or fpots, are, they tell us, certain cloudy obfcurities appearing upon the difk of the fun; and fuppofed by fome to be a fuliginous obfcure matter or exhalation, fometimes clofely compacted into one, fometimes difperfed and diffipated into feveral parcels, and iffuing from its fervent fiery body, by force of its extreme heat. But whether they are in the fun itfelf, or some space diftant from it, is not certain. However, it is from feveral obfervations most probable, that they are in the very body of the fun, or at least not far from the furface of it. They are very irregular in their fhapes and figures, as well in regard to their form as fize; and fome of them are more durable than others. And those that have the longest duration, are held to be the folid parts of the fun; and it is believed that the reason why they discover themselves in various figures, and of different magnitudes, is because of the vertiginous motion of the fun about his own axle, reprefents ing them to our fight in divers fituations.

The Facult folares are held to be partly maffy globes of fire, that burst out of the ignivomous folar mountains; and which, by reafon, of their brightness, fhine amidst the maculæ, or fuliginous cloudy vapeurs, and fometimes difappear in fhort space of time, fometimes continue long vi fible; and partly effervencies of the exestuating folar ocean; which, by reafon of the excellive innate fervour of the globe of the fun, boils up into mighty waves, like fo many mountains of light, that fcatter and difperfe the darker maculæ, and difcover, as it were a fiery ocean, fluctuating and agitated with flaming billows of exceffive fplen

dour. But Scheinerus in difquifit Mathem. de-, deprived of any innate or proper light of her fines them thus: "Faculæ funt areola in fole lucidores reliquo ejufdem corpore "i. e The faculæ are certain fmall plats, or quarters in the fun, brighter than the rest of his body. Galilæo in Letter iii. delle Macchie Solari, defcribes them as follows: In the face of the fun, fays he, there appear certain marks, brighter than the rest, and which obferve the fame motion as the macula: Nor can it be doubted but that they are inherent in the very body of the fun; because it is not credible, that there can be any fubftance more refulgent than that of the fun itself.

own. And this opacity is demonftrably proved; because in her total echipfes, fhe wholly lofes her luftre; which, on the contrary, if she had any of her own, would rather, in the greatest darkness, be come more visible and confpicuous; whence it is rationally concluded, that all the light fhe has, is from the fun, and that the moon, as fhe is an o. pacous, fo too fhe is a denfe body, fitted, and apt to receive and reflect the light of the fun. Macrobius giving the reafon, why the moon, when The fhines, does not impart any warmth, as well as the fun, but only reflects the light like a looking glafs, afcribes it to her having no light of her own, as the fun has, but only a mutuatitious

Lafly, This obfervation of the fun's fpots and lights has given occafion to aftronomers to remark, that the fun, befides his motion of revolu-light, and borrowed from the fun; which her be. tion, diurnal and annual, according to the hypothefis of the immobility of the earth, has likewife a motion from east to west about his own axle; which converfion is finished, according to fome, in the space of twenty-feven days, or thereabouts; according to Kepler and others, in twenty-four hours; but others affign it a much more wonderFul celerity, particularly Otto de Guerrick, who affirms the vertiginous courfe of the fun to be completed in a moments space. All which confi-gioni luce fuâ carenti proxima, lucem nifi de fu dered, together with what we faid before of the fun's magnitude, we may well fay with Lucretius:

Nam licet hine mundi patefactum totius unum
Largifluum fontem, fcatere, atque erumpere flu-

men

Ex omni mundo, quó fic elementa vaporis
Undique conveniunt, et fic congeftus corum
Confluit, ex uno capite hic ut profluat ardor.

And conclude with the fame poet, That it is no
wonder the fun difpenfes so much light and heat
to the earth.

As to the figure of the fun, Epicurus affirmed nothing for certain concerning that neither, but only faid, that the various opinions of feveral men, of the different figure of the fun, might for any thing he knew to the contrary, be all of them true. Meanwhile it is certain that the opinions differed concerning the figure of the fun likewife: For, I. The Pythagoreans, Platonics, Peripatetics, and Stoics, held the fun to be globous. II. Anaximenes believed it to be flat, and broad like a leaf, or plate of iron, or other metal. III. Others to be in fhape like a difh or platter. IV. Heraclitus would have the fun crooked, and bending like the keel of a boat. They gave like. wife the fame different figures to the moon and ftars. The figure of the fun is now universally held to be globous.

Ver. 619. Some hold the moon to have no light but what the borrows from the fun; but o thers will have her fhine with no light but her own. Lucretius does not decide this controverfy, but only propofes each opinion. It is moft probable, and generally believed, however, that the moon borrows her light from the fun. This opinion is grounded on the opacity of that planet, which indeed proves the moon to be altogether

ing placed beneath the fun, evidently evinces. His words are thefe: "Lunam, quæ luce propriâ caret, et de fole mutuatur, neceffe eft footi luminis fui effe fubje&tam. Hæc enim ratio facit lunam non habere lumen proprium, cæteras omnes ftellas lucere fuo, quod illa fupra folem locata, in ipfo puriffimo athero funt, in quo omne, quicquid eft, lux naturalis et fua eft.-Luna vero, quia fola ipfa fub fole eft, et caducorum jam re.

perpofito fole, cui refplendet, habere non potuit.

-Luna speculi inftar, lumen, quo illustratur emittit; et fit acceptæ luci penetrabilis adeo, ut eam de fe rurfus emittat, nullum tamen ad nos perferentem fenfum caloris, quia lucis radius, cum ad nos de origine fuâ, id eft, de fole pervenit, naturam fecum ignis, de quo nafcitur, devehit; cum vero in lunæ corpus infunditur, et inde refplendet, folam refundit claritudinem, non calorem; nam et fpeculum, cum fplendorem de fe vi oppofiti emi nus ignis emittit, folam ignis fimilitudinem ca. rentem fenfu caloris oftendit," &c. In Somn. Scip. lib. i. cap. 19. and Cicero, lib. ii. de Naturâ Deor. is of the fame opinion. And Feftus, in voce Malus, obferves, that the moon is faid to be drawn by mules, in regard to her borrowed light; be caufe, as mules are not generated out of their own kind, but of a horfe, fo the moon is said to fhine, not with her own, but notho lumine, as Lucretius in this place, and after him Catullus, exprefles it, with a baftard light, which the derives from the fun. And Milton, fpeaking of the fum,

calls him

Great palace of all light!

To him, as to their fountain, others stars

Repairing, in their golden urns draw light;
And hence the morning planet gilds her horns.
-Lefs bright the moon,
His mirror: with full face borrowing her light
From him, &c.

Ver 629. In these seven verfes, he speaks of the magnitude of the other stars and planets; of which we have already spoken at large, ver. 551.

Ver. 636. But it feems almoft impoffible, that fo much heat and light, as are diffused through the whole sky, immenfe as it is, should flow from fo fmall a body as the fun, if it be no bigger than it appears to be. To fatisfy this difficulty, Lu,

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retius teaches, in nine verfes, that we may imagine the fun to be as the perpetual fource of light and heat; because the feeds of light and heat continually flow from all parts of the univerfe into the body of the fun, as into a great fountain; fo that we feel and perceive the heat and light, not of the fun only, but of the whole world. To which he adds, in ten verfes, that perhaps the air; near the fun, is fet a-fire by his beanis; and that many fiery particles, invisible to us, are hovering about his orb; and thence may proceed fo great a profufion of light and heat. Thus Lucretius, in a thing fo doubtful, dares pronounce nothing for certain.

Ver. 652. The original has, cæcis fervoribus, that is to fay, invifible to us: For as Pafferatius notes, cacus fignifies not only what does not fee, but allo whatever is not feen. "Cæcum non tantum quod non videt, fed etiam quicquid non videtur." In Propert. lib. ii. Eleg. 27

Ver. 655. In order to explain the annual course of the fun, and the monthly courfe of the moon, through the twelve figns of the zodiac, he first propofes, in twenty-five verfes, the opinion of Democritus, who taught, that the lower fpheres are rolled and whirled around by the highest orb, called the primum mobile, either swifter or more flow, according to the diftance of each sphere from that highest orb. Thus the fun moves fwifter than the moon; because the fun is higher, and therefore the figns more feldom overtake, and pafs by him, than they do by her. Nor is it then ftrange, that the moon runs through all the figns in one month, which the fun goes through but in twelve,

The two first of thefe verfes are tranfcribed, word for word, from Cowley, David. i. p. 19. of the folio edition. The original runs thus: Nec ratio folis fimplex, nec certa patefcit, Quo pacto æftivis è partibus Ægocerotis, Brumales adeat flexus, atque inde revertens Canceris ad metas vertit fe ad folftitiales. Which our tranflator has rendered in the two verfes, that follow thefe of Cowley.

The fouth and north pole, which are two points about which the heavens are rolled; fo called from oniw, I turn, whence the Latins called them vertices. The north pole is always vifible to us, and to the French, Italians, & fouth is never feen by us, but by those whom we call Antipodes. See above, ver. 545.

The

Ver. 656. Cowley calls the walk of the fun crooked, by reafon of the obliquity of the zodiac, through which he makes his annual revolution. See the note on ver. 661.

Ver. 658. The figns, in matter of aftrology, are afteriims, or configurations of fixed stars: which are imaginary forms, devifed by aftrologers, the better to comprehend and diftinguifh thofe ftars from one another. Thus one after ifm is called the Bear, another the Dragon, &c. to the number of forty-eight in all, according to the ancient aftrologers; befides a few lately invented by the difcoverers of the fouth pole. It is not a

greed who first reduced the stars into afferisms, or conftellations; nor is it an easy task to reconcile the different niorphofes or figures in the feveral spheres of the Chaldeans, Perfians, Egyptians, Greeks, Arabians, Indians, Chineses, and Tartars; of whofe opinions in this matter, the various difference may be feen in the defcription of Abu. Maher, commonly called Albumazar, in Aben Ezra de Decanis Signorum, published by Scaliger, in his notes on Manilius; of all which Salmafius, in Præfat. ad Diatrib. de Antiq. Aftrolog. believes thofe of the Greeks, which are most commonly ufed amongst us, to be of latest date. As to the names of the ftars, it is scarce doubted, but that Adam first imposed them; though all those арpellations, except fome few preferved in fcripture are fince utterly loft. Yet moft of the names we now use, are above two thousand years ftanding, as appears by Hefiod and Homer. They were not, however, all named at one and the fame time; for fome are of late denomination, particularly that which Conon, Antinous, and others call Coma Berenices. Some report Aftræus to be the firft who gave names to the ftars; whom for that reafon

-Fama parentem

Tradidit Aftrorum

As Aratus fays in Germanicus; and others afcribe it to Mercury. To give the feveral names of the figns and conftellations, would engage me in too tedious a task: I will therefore confine myself to the two Lucretius here mentions, which are Ægoceros and Cancer.

Egoceros, by the Greeks, called 'Ayónigos, from a, a goat, and xigas, a horn, and 'Aiyira by the Latins Capricornus; Hircus quoris, by Afclepiadius, and Vomanus, Pelagi Procella, by Vitalis: and thus Horace,

Tyrannus

Hefperiæ Capricornus undæ.

The poets fabled, that goceras was born of the goat Amalthea, and placed by Jupiter among the ftars, in memory of that god's having been nourish. ed with the fame milk. Some fay that this was made a conftellation in honour of Egipan, the fon of Jupiter by the Olenian goat; but others, with more reason, that gipan was fofter-brother to Jupiter, and fon of Æga, the wife of Pan, from whence he had his name. And Baffus in Ger manic. from the authority of Epimenides, writes, that Ægipan affifted Jupiter in his wars against the Titans, and helped him to put on his armour; for which reafon he was honoured with this celeftial dignity: he was reprefented half goat, half fish, the reason of which, fays the Scholiast on Aratus, was, becaufe having found on the fea fhore, the hell of a murex or purple-fish, he wound it as if it had been a horn, and fo ftruck a panic fear into the Titans, whence he came to be figured with a tail like a fea monster. The fun entering into this fign, makes the winter folftice. Cancer, by the Greeks called Kagxives, a Crab, is faid to have been killed by Hercules for biting him by

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