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

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              <s>
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              Starry Orb: “And indeed in my opinion this Authour very
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              pertinently queſtioneth and asketh: To what end, and
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              for whoſe ſake are ſuch huge machines made? </s>
              <s>Were they
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              produced for the Earth, for an inconſiderable point? </s>
              <s>And
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              why ſo remote? </s>
              <s>To the end they might ſeem ſo very ſmall,
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              and might have no influence at all upon the Earth? </s>
              <s>To
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                <arrow.to.target n="marg631"/>
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              what purpoſe is ſuch a needleſſe monſtrous ^{*} immenſity
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              tween them and
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              Saturn
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              ? </s>
              <s>All thoſe aſſertions fall to the
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              ground that are not upheld by probable reaſons.”</s>
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            <p type="margin">
              <s>
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                <emph type="italics"/>
              Inſtances of the
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              Authour of the
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              Concluſions by way
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              of interrogation.
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              </s>
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              <s>
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              Or Gulph.</s>
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            <p type="main">
              <s>SALV. </s>
              <s>I conceive by the queſtions which this perſon asketh,
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              that one may collect, that in caſe the Heavens, the Stars, and
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              the quantity of their diſtances and magnitudes which he hath
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              hitherto held, be let alone, (although he never certainly fancied
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              to himſelf any conceivable magnitude thereof) he perfectly
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              cerns and comprehends the benefits that flow from thence to the
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              Earth, which is no longer an inconſiderable thing; nor are they
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              any longer ſo remote as to appear ſo very ſmall, but big enough to
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              be able to operate on the Earth; and that the diſtance between
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              them and
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              Saturn
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              is very well proportioned, and that he, for all
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              theſe things, hath very probable reaſons; of which I would
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              ly have heard ſome one: but being that in theſe few words he
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              confounds and contradicts himſelf, it maketh me think that he
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              is very poor and ill furniſhed with thoſe probable reaſons, and
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              that thoſe which he calls reaſons, are rather fallacies, or dreams
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              of an over-weening fancy. </s>
              <s>For I ask of him, whether theſe
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                <arrow.to.target n="marg634"/>
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              leſtial bodies truly operate on the Earth, and whether for the
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              working of thoſe effects they were produced of ſuch and ſuch
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              magnitudes, and diſpoſed at ſuch and ſuch diſtances, or elſe
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              whether they have nothing at all to do with Terrene mattets. </s>
              <s>If
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              they have nothing to do with the Earth; it is a great folly for us
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              that are Earth-born, to offer to make our ſelves arbitrators of
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              their magnitudes, and regulators of their local diſpoſitions,
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              ing that we are altogether ignorant of their whole buſineſſe and
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              concerns; but if he ſhall ſay that they do operate, and that they
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              are directed to this end, he doth affirm the ſame thing which a
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              little before he denied, and praiſeth that which even now he
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              condemned, in that he ſaid, that the Celeſtial bodies ſituate ſo
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              far remote as that they appear very ſmall, cannot have any
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              fluence at all upon the Earth. </s>
              <s>But, good Sir, in the Starry Sphere
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              pre-eſtabliſhed at its preſent diſtance, and which you did
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              knowledg to be in your judgment, well proportioned to have an
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              influence upon theſe Terrene bodies, many ſtars appear very
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              ſmall, and an hundred times as many more are wholly inviſible
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              unto us (which is an appearing yet leſſe than very ſmall)
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              therefore it is neceſſary that (contradicting your ſelf) you do </s>
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          </chap>
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