The Works and Rest of the Creation By Moses Browne |
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| IV. | BOOK IV. Observations on the Sun and Fixed Stars. |
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 | The Works and Rest of the Creation |  |
BOOK IV. Observations on the Sun and Fixed Stars.
The Argument.
The former Books having been employed in a Survey of the Earth and Planets, This last proceeds to consider the Sun, the Head and Principal of our System, and from thence, by Occasion, passes on to a View of the Fixed Stars, believed in their Nature and Uses to resemble our Solar Orb; where a few Enquiries are proposed concerning the Times of their Creation and Dissolution, with some Reflections on Comets, and the sudden Appearing and Disappearing of several new Stars. Whence the Absurdity of the Peripatetic Philosophy is inferr'd. And the Epicurean appeal'd to, for the Existence of a God and Providence. The whole concluding with a Hymn of Praise to the tremendous and adorable Deity.
From Planets, that their changeless Course repeat;
More boldly ventrous I my Search pursue:
And Suns above, in vast Expansion view.
Dear to thy Britain by her Cato's Name!
To Me, by grateful Memory, dearer still!
First, generous Prompter of my tuneful Skill.
Who my young Genius by thy Favours rais'd:
Long to be mourn'd! as ever to be prais'd!
Sad, round thy Urn, the pious Muse shall bind.
Small, neighb'ring Globe, array'd in lucid Beams:
That West appears, deceptive of our Eyes,
At Eve to set; that East appears to rise;
Behold! (amaz'd, when serious we enquire)
Immense his Size we find, an Orb of Fire,
So large, ten Million Earths like ours below
Wou'd but suffice his equal'd Mass to show.
So distant, eighty Million Miles wou'd fail,
Vast Sum! to count a full proportion'd Tale.
Plac'd in the midst he keeps his central Throne,
In State revolving on himself alone;
Twelve Days here doubly clos'd his Motion spends
Ere the huge Sphere one Circulation ends.
While thro' his System, from his Regal Seat,
His Rays dispense prolific Light and Heat;
Their Homage Planetary Subjects pay,
And round him, distanc'd, take their order'd Way.
Or liquid all? an Orb of melted Gold?
Whose Action, Density, and Bulk, conspire
Perpetual to preserve his wond'rous Fire;
Cloath'd with an Atmosphere, whose Weight's Excess
May forcibly th' exhaling Parts compress,
As Magnets back their Steams retracted call;
Or Floods disgorg'd, in their own Whirlpools fall.
Else his exhausted Stores, with dread Decay
Wou'd, by long Time, burn out, and fume away.
Six thousand Years, to Life, prodigious Space!
His Beams, incessant, have refresh'd our Race,
On all th' ethereal Wand'rers shed their Light,
Yet still his Pow'rs unwasted seem to Sight.
If meer Antiquities of ev'ry kind
Impress a pleasing Rev'rence on the Mind,
The useless Coin obscur'd with eating Rust,
The shatter'd Ruin, or the mould'ring Bust,
More venerable far our Thoughts should deem
This eldest, signal Work, of Pow'r supreme.
Dim Spots shou'd e'er its lucid Face enclose?
Yet such, detected by th' assisting Glass,
Oft o'er its Surface in Succession pass:
Vast as our World, th' observing Eye attains.
Now form'd, augmenting while their Tour they make
Now lost, as floating o'er th' enkindled Lake;
Borne on his Ball they keep mysterious Round,
A while obscure him, and then scarce are found.
Whole Days their Mists have veil'd his Light from View,
Whole Years it wore a faint and palid Hue.
Shall they at last, in desolating Shade,
Th' incrusted Star with dire Eclipse invade?
And as the Seers inspir'd, prophetic, write ,
‘Blot his fair Lustre with eternal Night?’
Prelude of fatal Doom; when in return
Earth, scorch'd with purifying Flames, shall burn;
Perhaps consum'd, but (Phœnix like) to rise,
Fair as a Sun, in renovated Skies.
Heav'n's hid Decree, inscrutable to Man.
See'st thou those Orbs that numerous roll above?
Those Lamps, that nightly greet thy visual Pow'rs,
Are each a bright capacious Sun like ours.
How vivid they emit their lucid Streams!
Not like the Planets dull, reflected Beams;
Of their own Essence, like the Solar Ray,
Thro' boundless Spaces they their Flames convey.
Observe, two close-appearing Stars are found.
Both small, tho' diff'ring; both so near reside,
A Hand might seem the shining Points to hide.
Ah! treach'rous Sense!—each far from each remains,
Far, as from either lie Earth's sever'd Plains.
Tho' in our annual Path we upward run,
Rais'd in the Heav'ns twice higher than the Sun,
No seeming Difference can we there espy.
Thro! our whole Circle in the changing Year,
From all Positions they the same appear:
No Benefit of Height, no Help of Art,
Can to their Figures least Increase impart;
Tho' of these Optic Instruments they tell
Some, ev'n to Hundred Times, their Objects swell.
How strong he glitters on the pleasur'd Eye,
In Lustre matchless, on the azure Plain,
Nearest to Earth of all the station'd Train:
Than Rule can measure, or than Mind can soar.
Stretch to the Sun thy long prodigious Flight,
Thence, twice ten thousand times, exceed his Height,
But little, little Gain thy Toil wou'd cheer,
Scarce there, his Orb wou'd magnify'd appear;
Six hundred thousand Million Miles proceed,
Short of thy End th' extended Path would lead .
Yet this, the only measur'd Star we know,
Compar'd, will seem diminutively low:
Farther from this, than this from Earth is plac'd,
Th' ethereal Regions with new Orbs are grac'd;
Farther than those from this, fresh Numbers still
The Depths of lost Infinity may fill.
Since from our Centre so remote they lie,
Can our far Sun their Flux of Light supply?
Cou'd we receive the weak, reflected Ray?
What can they be? (thus self-illustrious shown)
What, less than Suns? resembling each our own.
This Orb, but for his Planets mutual Use?
Have theirs, to cherish with their vital Fires,
No happy Train, no circulating Quires?
Shine they all void thro' solitary Space?
Fair to no Service? fruitful with no Race?
No Reptile, Plant, nor Animal, to tend?
Vast, without Worth? and active, for no End?
O! rather think, since form'd with equal Pow'rs,
Heav'n meant their Systems as compleat as ours.
O'erwhelming Image! what a boundless Scene
Breaks on the Mind! what Musings intervene!
What! when Discov'ries still their Sum enlarge,
Swell on, and Mental Faculties o'ercharge.
With the Perspective; lo! th' Observer sees
More num'rous Orbs, and more, succeed to these.
Full seventy clust'ring Luminaries join;
Where fam'd Orion's Constellation glows,
Two thousand mingling Stars their Orbs disclose.
How thick, discernible to aided Sight,
Their Central Forms possess the Milky Height!
Whose Spheres elude the Reach of naked Eyes,
And seem with Light to belt the whiten'd Skies.
Have each (a Sov'reign in his System's Bound)
Their lighted Earths, and Moons, revolving round,
Inhabitable all? their Plants and Flow'rs?
Their Insects, Animals, and Reasoning Pow'rs?
Confute it, Mortal! whose elating Pride
Wou'd to thyself the Universe divide.
What, tho' no Planets round those Orbs of Light
Appear, thus distant, to thy failing Sight,
Seen from their Region would thy Wand'rers run
To a like Point, all shrunk within thy Sun.
Thy Sun wou'd seem, by a Remove so far,
Diminutive as theirs, suppos'd a Star.
View'd with his kindred Lamps, their Night to cheer,
In the same Surface of one concave Sphere.
Say, do Reflections, Man! enlarg'd like these,
Thy vain Ambition's ruling Lust displease;
Yet, humble Christian, thy unswelling Mind
May from their Lessons deep Instruction find.
Jesus the God! th' existing Worlds proclaim,
To Thee related by a dearer Name;
To thy admiring Thoughts they more commend;
He, who thy Nature bore, thy Sins atton'd,
Is Lord of all this vast Creation own'd;
If lessen'd by the View thyself thou see,
The more his Love it magnifies for Thee.
Can'st to Heaven's Sov'reign nigh access afford;
Can'st introduce me to his bright Abode,
And raise a Worm, to view his wond'rous God.
Eas'd of my Guilt, his Terrors disappear;
No more his Justice wakes my trembling Fear:
His Holiness, his Truth, my dread before,
All leagu'd with Mercy, now dismay no more.
By Thee redeem'd, thy Mite, thy breathing Dust,
Sees him appeas'd, yet holy; good, yet just.
Sees o'er the Angelic Nature Man's preside,
With Godhead's self in near Relation ty'd:
Sons new adopted, ransom'd to supply
Thrones of fall'n Seraphs, in th' eternal Sky.
O! may their Wand'rings ne'er my Heart misguide,
Keep me, blest Saviour! from their Wiles and Pride;
If with pure Souls thy Love has number'd mine,
Thine be the Praise, as all the Merit Thine.
And ask when rose these Glories of the Sky:
And to one final Period all ordain'd?
Or, since wide Space they independent fill,
Apart created? or creating still?
Do Scriptures clear, the aw'd Assent oppose?
They chiefly our Original disclose.
Do they assert, ere we in Being came,
God ne'er was own'd by the Creator's Name?
Where then were Angels , elder Race to Man?
Who fell seduc'd, perhaps, ere He began:
Do they assert prolific Pow'r, at rest,
Shall in no future Instance shine confest?
How then shall, long foretold, (declare ye Wise)
New Worlds, new Heav'ns in distant Ages rise?
What if the sacred Page shou'd only mean
To paint the forming one creative Scene,
These Heav'ns that visibly our World embrace,
This Sun with all his Planetary Race?
Perhaps, too, Suff'rers in one Doom alone.
Must all those sep'rate Worlds with ours below,
Fix'd by one Law, a general Period know?
What, to the Muse, conject'ral, has been taught.
Some think more Planets, than have reach'd our Sight,
Lie hid 'twixt Mercury, and the Solar Light ;
More still, betwixt the Orb of Saturn cast,
And the Fix'd-Stars, may fill that mighty Vast,
Which God, on his creating Work employ'd,
Perhaps, wou'd scarcely leave one total Void.
Six Thousand have been guess'd their Sums, and more,
That might be rang'd this wide Expansion o'er ;
The Sun's o'er-close Proximity shall burn,
Whirld (in eccentrical Descension lost)
It's Sphere too nigh; or in its Furnace tost.
And each new Comet, that our Sight acquires,
Of such doom'd Worlds may be the Funeral Fires .
Earth and her five near Sisters 'scape so long.
Had, each ten Years since first our World begun,
The fatal Conflagration seiz'd on One.
More than five Thousand of the numerous Train,
Safe in their separate Bounds wou'd yet remain;
One Neighbour should those tragick Flames infest,
Presageful Dread might well alarm the Rest.
Still, stranger to Heav'n's mystical Decree.
Yet will she ask why in sublimest Skies,
Suns, there, themselves expire, and New arise?
In that Lacteal Path that shines above,
Frequent those direful Revolutions prove.
Two signal Stars have long their Stations lost.
The well-known Orbs no Search could yet regain;
Void lie their Regions on th' ethereal Plain.
Once seven were number'd in the Pleiade Throng,
Where since, for Ages, only Six belong.
'Tis thought, their Spots might fatal Growth acquire,
Dim the clos'd Orbs, and quench their native Fire.
Near fair Andromeda's illustrious Sign,
The Modern first discern'd a Globe to shine;
Unview'd, till beaming on his wond'ring Sight,
As Sirius large, as nearest Venus bright.
Yet, strange to tell, ere two short Years were past,
The vanish'd Star a total Shade o'ercast.
A fresh Discov'ry claims our noting Eyes,
An Orb, far less, but Stationary found;
Like the bright Centres which our View surround.
Since, have an hundred Years their Circles roll'd,
Yet clear its fixt Illuminations hold.
Are Worlds created there, and Worlds destroy'd?
Some, lucid Suns just kindling into Light?
Some, whelm'd, and closing in a fatal Night?
Some, half obscur'd, eluding all Survey,
Then glimmering with a temporary Ray?
State, dismal sure! to all the Systems near,
If Planets, Life, and Creatures plac'd to cheer.
Are these unfathom'd Myst'ries, that we trace,
True Solar Lustres , fix'd thro' vary'd Space?
Whose Fires, in-pent, thick Spots have dark entomb'd,
Freed by some Comets Blaze, and re-illum'd?
Or Planets, seen when nearest our Abode,
The Suns, wide circling of the Milky-Road?
Or Comets that excentrical convert?
Omnific God! thy Beam refulgent vail!
To trace thy Works all Man's Ideas fail.
Confuted, now, thy Ignorance declare;
Who bold, yet blind, who teaching, to be taught,
Of changeless Make the Heavenly Matter thought,
Its Orbs firm Diamond, of dural Stay:
All unsusceptible of least Decay.
Ye vainly learn'd in Epicurus' School,
Who heavenly Pow'r, and Providence disgrace,
To clear Conviction yield, ye erring Race!
Search the least Path creative Pow'r has trod,
How plain the Footsteps of th' apparent God!
His Art cou'd Organs, Strength, and Sense implant
In the small agile Fly, and reptile Ant,
In the mean Mite, so much minuter still,
Thy Finger's pressing Point may Millions kill.
In ev'ry Place, what Proofs will stand display'd!
Lo! from the stagnant Pool one Drop obtain;
Of Insects this includes a sumless Train:
Buoy'd in the little Pool they frisk and play.
Pleas'd with their short Existence of a Day.
That Blue with which the glossy Plum is grac'd,
(That gives such poignant Pleasure to it's Taste)
Or azures o'er the Damsen's Velvet Rhind,
A Groupe of smallest Animals we find.
The little Gnat, in Beauties, may compare
With all his rival Brothers of the Air,
Transparent Feathers, Purple, Green, and Gold,
His Wings, small Feet, and gay-fring'd Tail enfold.
Four sharpen'd Spears his Head with Weapons arm,
And his pearl'd Eyes with liveliest Graces charm.
In Down of ev'ry variegated Die
Shines, flutt'ring soft, the gaudy Butterfly.
That Powder which thy spoiling Hand distains,
The Forms of Quills, and painted Plumes contains;
Not Courts can more Magnificence express,
In all their Blaze of Gems, and Pomp of Dress.
Encircled with his brilliant Ring, of Eyes:
By one quick Glance directing ev'ry Way,
The watchful Hunter to secure his Prey.
Thy Mycroscopic Glass admiring bring,
And view the humble Hornet's sharpen'd Sting.
Then on the slend'rest Needle turn thy Eye,
And the vast Diff'rence in their Points descry:
This view'd, more polish'd seems, acuter far;
That, rough as from the Forge some blunted Bar.
God's smallest Work all human Skill degrades,
Foils the lost Man, and sinks his Worth in Shades.
If lesser Proofs such Demonstration show,
What may th' unmeasur'd Universe bestow?
Think, cou'd blind Chance, dead, unexisting Name,
Produce such Order, so complete a Frame?
That Sun, bright Fountain of Life-gladd'ning Day,
Who kindled first his cheering vital Ray?
(Fix'd, that not too remote, nor near he shines)
And stores with Fuel his eternal Mines?
What Hand th' unnumber'd Solar Worlds sustains,
And guides their circling Planetary Trains;
That from their Orbits ne'er excentric wheel
The whirling Spheres, and dire Confusion feel?
Is there no Wisdom in th' Appointment shown?
Own they no Former, no Preserver own?
Cou'd Nature's constant, wise, harmonious Laws,
Spring from weak Chance? so impotent a Cause!
Or needful Instincts on th' inferiour Kind?
Or the mixt Species of their various Race
Maintains, in due Succession, Number, Place?
Can it their diff'rent Wants discern, relieve?
Whence has it Pow'r? and how does it perceive?
Reflect, vain Dreamers, ye pretended Wife!
You who confide on darken'd Carus' Eyes,
Close his dim Leaves, and ponder Nature's Page,
There let clear Truth your pleas'd Assent engage,
And the dread God confess; his Sapience own,
Thro' the fill'd Space with brightest Lustre shown.
Form'd, conservates and rules the Worlds around;
How grand a Scheme, cou'd we our Search pursue,
And thro' its various Ranks Creation view!
The Depths 'twixt Seraphim and Angel scan,
And trace, by slow Gradations, down to Man;
From Man, thro' Orders numberless, descend,
'Till the last Link the Chain of Beings end;
Lost in the Point where Entity begun.—
Or, backward, cou'd the Mind revolving run;
Quite up again, and with admiring Eyes,
See the huge Scale to new Perfection rise.
From Seraph, up thro' Hierarchies unknown,
Onward advancing, nearer to the Throne,
Yet infinite the Distance as before.
So vast a Plan! to ev'ry Part descend,
And know their various Int'rests to pursue,
At one clear, unperplex'd, immediate View!
Admir'd Omniscience, that at once can see
Past, present, and whate'er shall future be!
How great a Pow'r must all their Wants supply!
Its Cares how watchful, and its Aids how nigh!
Each Spring to move, each Hind'rance to controul,
And act, by Parts, subservient to the Whole!
The Muse began, with Thee shall end my Lays.
These are thy Works, blest Architect divine!
Earth, all this universal Offspring thine!
Thy Breath first bid inactive Matter move,
And strait wirh Life the genial Atoms strove;
Producing Animal, and Plant, and Flow'r,
Concurrent Proof of Wisdom and of Pow'r.
Thy potent Word infus'd the Solar Light,
And spread the Curtain of refreshing Night,
With splendid Orbs enrich'd the Void profound,
Rang'd the bright Worlds, and roll'd their Courses round.
Created Kinds, the Strains of Praise from You?
How grateful the deserv'd Returns of Love!
Praise Him, thou Earth, ye Worlds that roll above,
Each Pow'r, whole Nature, all His Works, conspire
In Songs of Praise; an Universal Quire!
And all ye Solar Orbs that deck the Sky,
Round whose vast Systems peopled Planets move,
Ye central Suns of numerous Earths above;
Praise the dread Pow'r, whose Goodness ye proclaim,
And let your warbling Spheres attune His Name!
Brighten the shapeless Gloom of awful Night;
And you Satellitary Orbs on high,
Who kindly Beams to distant Worlds supply,
Hymn your Creator's Praise; whose Skill divine
Impow'r'd your Mass to roll, your Globes to shine.
Whole Ages finishing your annual Way;
Thou Darkness! Nature's emblematic Tomb,
Yield him thy Reverence of impressive Gloom,
In silent Praise! And thou, dread Space profound,
Thro' all thy waste, interminable Round.
Swell with loud Accents in your Maker's Praise,
And you, soft Breezes, that perfume the Spring,
Bear Him a Tribute on your gentler Wing.
Spread it, ye pealing Thunders, round the Sky,
Wide as your Vollies roll, or Lightnings fly!
Ye Meteors! your Creator's Praises show;
The spangled Dew, the Clouds reflected Bow,
And moist'ning Show'r. Ye Frosts! his Praise proclaim;
The pendant Isicle's clear, native Gem;
Hoar Mists congeal'd, that dress the Meadow pale:
Blue Vapour, whitening Snows, and pearly Hail!
And Summer blooming with maturer Grace;
Ripe Autumn, clad in Wines, with Harvests crown'd,
And Winter old; His solemn Praise resound!
Your lovely Forms, and dazzling Hues display!
Young fruitful Branches! white with vernal Bloom,
In rich Oblations breathe your fresh Perfume!
Praise Him, ye Plants! with all your sweet Supplies;
Ye od'rous Herbs, in grateful Incense rise!
In Troops your tributary Homage bring.
And the finn'd Race that Stream and Ocean breeds.
Own'd Symbols of the Trinity divine!
Ye Seraphim, bright Flames! ye Angel Quires!
To the lov'd Theme tune all your sounding Lyres!
In noblest Strains your loftier Praise bestow!
Man! Image of thy Maker's moral Pow'r,
Last, labour'd Work of Heav'n's creating Hour!
No warm Returns, nor swell the Breath of Love?
Priest of the mute Creation, He demands
Their Off'rings from thy consecrated Hands,
Deputed Lord; from thy dead Slumber start;
Let Nature wake, awake the Pow'rs of Art,
And with exerted Force attune his Praise,
In Notes may emulate celestial Lays.
Let Music her divinest Succours bring,
The breathing Flute, the Viol's warbling String,
And dulcid Voice. Ye Concerts, louder grow!
Let the shrill Trump, the deep'ning Organ blow,
While with the Notes the tremulating Ground,
And echoing Roofs, strike awful Rapture round.
Praise him, each Creature, Plenitude, and Space;
Things of Inanimate and living Race!
From the Terrestrial to the Starry Pole,
Praise him his Works, and thou, my prostrate Soul!
Pursue on Earth a false, imagin'd Good;
That Good, which Creatures never can bestow,
With him still only found, from whom they flow;
While Gold or Lust, with a deceitful Bribe,
Tempt to sure Woes the easy-list'ning Tribe;
While Faction leads th' unsteady Herd aside,
And Deism perverts the Sons of Pride;
Conversing with the Themes of heavenly Love.
These shall my Hours of virtuous Life amuse,
Cheer its dull Glooms, and brighter Hopes infuse:
Pleas'd the lov'd Visit frequent to renew,
While certain Bliss my rais'd Desires pursue,
To meditate my Maker; and my Lays
Tune to his Pow'r, who gave me Breath to praise.
The Sun's Diameter, or Breadth from side to side, is about eight hundred thousand Miles; therefore the Quantity of Matter in him must exceed that of the Earth above ten million times.
Theophanes the Historian relates it was once so dark, in the Time of Irene the Empress, for 17 Days together, that Ships lost their Way, and were in Danger of splitting against each other.
The Year following Julius Cæsar's Death, Pliny affirms there were “prodigiosi & longiores Solis defectus, totius anni pallore continuo.” Hist. Nat. L. 2. It appear'd again a whole Year so in Justinian's Time, Cedrenes writes, with a very dim and duskish Hue, as if he had been in perpetual Eclipse. The Solar Maculæ were not then discover'd, but it is not questioned but they were the Occasion.
It is one very considerable Argument for the immense Distance of the fixed Stars, that those two in the Tail of the Great Bear afford no Parallax, nor admit of any Encrease, whatever Point of our Orbit we view them from; which is very strange, for in moving round the Sun we must have approached toward them by the whole Diameter of the Magnus Orbis, which consequently is double our Distance from hence to the Sun, and an advance in the Heavens, of one hundred and sixty Millions of Miles, by the lowest Computation.
Sirius, or the Dog-Star, is supposed the nearest to us of any of the fixed Stars. Mr. Huygens imagining him much about the Bigness and Brightness of our Sun, thought upon an Experiment to measure his Distance (given in his Cosmetheo. &c.) by so lessening the Sun's Diameter as to make him appear thro' the Tube not larger than the Dog-Star. He found the Difference was as twenty seven Thousand six Hundred sixty four to one, or that Sirius is so many of the Sun's Distances from us, which (taking Dr. Harris's lesser Computation) is Twenty seven Thousand six hundred sixty four times 80 Million of Miles; tho' Mr. Derham, Dr. Halley, &c. think the Sun's Distance to be almost 40 Million of Miles more, which makes the Amount, nearly, half as much again.
Mr. Huygens has observ'd, the Distance from us to Sirius is twenty seven Thousand six Hundred sixty four times the Sun's Distance from us. After 20 thousand of those could be passed, there is 7664 Distances remaining, which multiply'd by 80 Millions, the least supposed Distance of the Sun, amounts to more than the Numbers I have mentioned. It may be thought incredible so large an Accession of Miles should not alter the Appearance of these Bodies, yet it is Dr. Harris's Observation, “That could we advance 99 Parts in 100 of the whole Distance, and there was but the one hundredth Part left, they would appear very little larger than they do now.” Astron. Dial. p. 82.
“Questionless those sparkling Fires have a nobler Use than barely to spangle our Hemisphere; a Benefit every passing Cloud can deprive us of—How much more rational is it to consider them as the several Suns of different Systems of Planets!” Phil. to Hydasp. 2d Con. p. 21.
“Who shall presume to set Bounds to the Production of infinite Power, actuated by infinite Benevolence? Who shall circumscribe the Theatre upon which an omnipotent Goodness may think proper to display itself.” Phil. to Hyd.
The Formation of Angels prior to Man, is an Opinion the Generality of Divines have allow'd: As the more judicious have thought the Creation recorded by Moses, was confined in its View to that of our visible and Solar System.
The regular Returns of the same Spots in the Sun have been, by some, thought favourable to this Hypothesis, (whose Author is the learned Mr. Wall) none knowing what those Spots are. After several Years that they have been lost, we begin to see them again; generally at the Hour and Place of the Sun, where they ought to appear. M. de la Hire. Hist. del'Acad. des Scien. 1700.
Suppose (to take the least Measure for the vast Space betwixt Saturn and the fixed Stars) it be a thousand Times as far as from the Sun to Saturn; there being six Planets in the latter, proportionably, six Thousand may be in the Former.
A Comet is a solid Body about the Earth's bigness (more or less) all on Fire. They have always their Line of Motion falling towards the Sun.
This Calculation is founded upon the Observation, that about seven Comets have been seen thus falling within the last seventy Years of our Time.
“These were in the Stern and Yard of the Ship Argo, observed in 1664, but in 1668 there was not the least Glimpse of them to be seen; when they disappeared first is not known: The rest about them, even of the 3d and 4th Magnitudes, remain'd the same. I have observ'd many more Changes, to the Number of 100, among the Fixed Stars, yet none so great at these, &c.”
Mr. Montanere's Letter to the Roy. Soc.
The new Star in Cassiopeia was first observed about the middle of November 1572, its Lustre was so great it could be seen in fair Sun-shine. It never changed its Place all the Time, but by Degrees diminished, and in about 18 Months became invisible.
That other new Star in the Swan's Breast, was discovered by Kepler in the Year 1600; afterwards for some time it disappear'd, but was discern'd again by Hevelius in 1666, just in its first Place, as a Star of the Sixth Magnitude, where it still appears.
It is difficult to determine what these new Stars are. The sudden Appearing of some; the total Disappearing of others; and the Half-occultation of a third Sort, sometimes turning their dark, then their light Sides toward us, has occasioned various Conjectures of learned Men, express'd in the Poem. None of which solve all the Phenomena, the same having been discovered of some of the known six'd Stars themselves: A Wonder, which, perhaps, Man's Art will never fathom.
These are composed of several Thousand little Hemispheres, or in Reality are so many distinct Eyes; which have such a Power of magnifying, and are of such a wonderful Structure, in many of the minutest Insects, that they are capable herewith to discover Objects many thousand Times less than themselves.
Ezekiel i. 28. x. 18, 19, 20. Fire, Light, and Air (or Spirit) seem to have been the proper, known, and scriptural Emblems of the Trinity in the one Essence. Their familiar Hieroglyphicks were the Ox; whose curled Forehead aptly represented the Fire, the Emblem of the First Person. The Lion, from his brightness of Sight, was used for the Hieroglyphick of the Second. And the Eagle, the highest soaring Bird, of the Third. Accordingly the Cherubic-Faces, exhibited in the above-cited prophetical Vision, bore these several Figures. The fourth Face, of a Man joined to that of the Lion (the Hieroglyphick for Light, the Emblem of the Second Person in the Trinity) had a beautiful and teaching Signification, of the Assumption of the Human into the Divine Nature by our Lord Jesus Christ; and might convey this comfortable Doctrine to our first Parents, when thus beheld (in the Appearance of the Cherubim placed over the Gates of Paradise) at their Expulsion. See also Rev. iv. 6, 7.
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