Salusbury, Thomas, Mathematical collections and translations (Tome I), 1667

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            <p type="main">
              <s>
                <pb xlink:href="040/01/199.jpg" pagenum="181"/>
              ver ſo ſmall, yet is it alwayes more than ſufficient to reconduct the
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              moveable to the circumference, from which it is diſtant but its leaſt
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              ſpace, that is, nothing at all.</s>
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              <s>SAGR. </s>
              <s>Your diſcourſe, I muſt confeſs, is very accurate; and
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              yet no leſs concluding than it is ingenuous; and it muſt be
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              ted that to go about to handle natural queſtions, without
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              try,
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              is to attempt an impoſſibility.</s>
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              <s>SALV. </s>
              <s>But
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              Simplicius
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              will not ſay ſo; and yet I do not think
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              that he is one of thoſe
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              Peripateticks
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              that diſſwade their Diſciples
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              from ſtudying the
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              Mathematicks,
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              as Sciences that vitiate the
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              ſon, and render it leſſe apt for contemplation.</s>
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            <p type="main">
              <s>SIMP. </s>
              <s>I would not do ſo much wrong to
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              Plato,
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              but yet I may
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              truly ſay with
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              Aristotle,
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              that he too much loſt himſelf in, and too
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              much doted upon that his
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              Geometry
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              : for that in concluſion theſe
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              Mathematical ſubtilties
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              Salviatus
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              are true in abſtract, but applied
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              to ſenſible and Phyſical matter, they hold not good. </s>
              <s>For the
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              Mathematicians will very well demonſtrate for example, that
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                <emph type="italics"/>
              Sphæratangit planum in puncto
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              ; a poſition like to that in diſpute,
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              but when one cometh to the matter, things ſucceed quite another
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              way. </s>
              <s>And ſo I may ſay of theſe angles of contact, and theſe
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              proportions; which all evaporate into Air, when they are applied
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              to things material and ſenſible.</s>
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            <p type="main">
              <s>SALV. </s>
              <s>You do not think then, that the tangent toucheth the
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              ſuperficies of the terreſtrial Globe in one point only?</s>
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            <p type="main">
              <s>SIMP. No, not in one ſole point; but I believe that a right
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              line goeth many tens and hundreds of yards touching the ſurface
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              not onely of the Earth, but of the water, before it ſeparate from
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              the ſame.</s>
            </p>
            <p type="main">
              <s>SALV. </s>
              <s>But if I grant you this, do not you perceive that it
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              keth ſo much the more againſt your cauſe? </s>
              <s>For if it be ſuppoſed
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              that the tangent was ſeparated from the terreſtrial ſuperficies, yet
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              it hath been however demonſtrated that by reaſon of the great
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              cuity of the angle of contingence (if happily it may be call'd an
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              angle) the project would not ſeparate from the ſame; how much
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              leſſe cauſe of ſeparation would it have, if that angle ſhould be
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              wholly cloſed, and the ſuperficies and the tangent become all one?
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                <arrow.to.target n="marg368"/>
                <lb/>
              Perceive you not that the Projection would do the ſame thing
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              on the ſurface of the Earth, which is aſmuch as to ſay, it would
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              do juſt nothing at all? </s>
              <s>You ſee then the power of truth, which
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              while you ſtrive to oppoſe it, your own aſſaults themſelves uphold
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              and defend it. </s>
              <s>But in regard that you have retracted this errour,
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              I would be loth to leave you in that other which you hold, namely,
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              that a material Sphere doth not touch a plain in one ſole point:
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              and I could wiſh ſome few hours converſation with ſome perſons
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              converſant in
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              Geometry,
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              might make you a little more intelligent </s>
            </p>
          </chap>
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