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

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            <pb xlink:href="040/01/352.jpg" pagenum="332"/>
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              <s>SALV. </s>
              <s>You ſay very well; but you alledge nothing in that
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              which may favour the cauſe of the
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              Ptolomœans
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              in the leaſt, who
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              did never yet reject the motion of 36000. years in the ſtarry
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              Sphere, for that the ſaid tardity would make it too vaſt and
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              menſe. </s>
              <s>For if that the ſaid immenſity was not to be ſuppoſed in
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              Nature, they ought before now to to have denied a converſion
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              ſo ſlow as that it could not with good proportion adapt it ſelf,
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              ſave onely to a Sphere of monſtrous magnitude.</s>
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              <s>SAGR. </s>
              <s>Pray you,
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              Salviatus,
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              let us loſe no more time in
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              ceeding, by the way of theſe proportions with people that are apt
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              to admit things moſt diſ-proportionate; ſo that its impoſſible
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              to win any thing upon them this way: and what more
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              tionate proportion can be imagined than that which theſe men
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              ſwallow down, and admit, in that writing, that there cannot be a
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              more convenient way to diſpoſe the Cœleſtial Spheres, in order,
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              than to regulate them by the differences of the times of their
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              riods, placing from one degree to another the more flow above
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              the more ſwift, when they have conſtituted the Starry Sphere
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              higher than the reſt, as being the ſloweſt, they frame another
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              higher ſtill than that, and conſequently greater, and make it
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              volve in twenty four hours, whilſt the next below, it moves not
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              round under 36000. years?</s>
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              <s>SALV. </s>
              <s>I could wiſh,
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              Simplicius,
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              that ſuſpending for a time
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              the affection rhat you bear to the followers of your opinion, you
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              would ſincerely tell me, whether you think that they do in their
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              minds comprehend that magnitude, which they reject afterwards
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              as uncapable for its immenſity to be aſcribed to the Univerſe.
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              </s>
              <s>For I, as to my own part, think that they do not; But believe,
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                <arrow.to.target n="marg618"/>
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              that like as in the apprehenſion of numbers, when once a man
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              begins to paſſe thoſe millions of millions, the imagination is
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              founded, and can no longer form a conceipt of the ſame, ſo it
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              happens alſo in comprehending immenſe magnitudes and
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              ces; ſo that there intervenes to the comprehenſion an effect like
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              to that which befalleth the ſenſe; For whileſt that in a ſerene
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              night I look towards the Stars, I judge, according to ſenſe, that
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              their diſtance is but a few miles, and that the fixed Stars are not a
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              jot more remote than
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              Jupiter
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              or
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              Saturn,
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              nay than the Moon.
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              </s>
              <s>But without more ado, conſider the controverſies that have paſt
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              between the Aſtronomers and Peripatetick Philoſophers, upon
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              occaſion of the new Stars of
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              Caſſiopeia
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              and of
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              Sagittary,
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              the
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              ſtronomers placing them amongſt the fixed Stars, and the
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              ſophers believing them to be below the Moon. </s>
              <s>So unable is our
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              ſenſe to diſtinguiſh great diſtances from the greateſt, though theſe
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              be in reality many thouſand times greater than thoſe. </s>
              <s>In a word,
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              I ask of thee, O fooliſh man! Doth thy imagination comprehend </s>
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