urseth thus of
this subject. How comes, or wherefore is this _temeraria siderum
dispositio_, this rash placing of stars, or as Epicurus will, _fortuita_,
or accidental? Why are some big, some little, why are they so confusedly,
unequally situated in the heavens, and set so much out of order? In all
other things nature is equal, proportionable, and constant; there be
_justae dimensiones, et prudens partium dispositio_, as in the fabric of
man, his eyes, ears, nose, face, members are correspondent, _cur non idem
coelo opere omnium pulcherrimo_? Why are the heavens so irregular, _neque
paribus molibus, neque paribus intervallis_, whence is this difference?
_Diversos_ (he concludes) _efficere locorum Genios_, to make diversity of
countries, soils, manners, customs, characters, and constitutions among us,
_ut quantum vicinia ad charitatem addat, sidera distrahant ad perniciem_,
and so by this means _fluvio vel monte distincti sunt dissimiles_, the same
places almost shall be distinguished in manners. But this reason is weak
and most insufficient. The fixed stars are removed since Ptolemy's time 26.
gr. from the first of Aries, and if the earth be immovable, as their site
varies, so should countries vary, and diverse alterations would follow. But
this we perceive not; as in Tully's time with us in Britain, _coelum visu
foedum, et in quo facile generantur nubes_, &c., 'tis so still. Wherefore
Bodine _Theat. nat. lib. 2._ and some others, will have all these
alterations and effects immediately to proceed from those genii, spirits,
angels, which rule and domineer in several places; they cause storms,
thunder, lightning, earthquakes, ruins, tempests, great winds, floods, &c.,
the philosophers of Conimbra, will refer this diversity to the influence of
that empyrean heaven: for some say the eccentricity of the sun is come
nearer to the earth than in Ptolemy's time, the virtue therefore of all the
vegetals is decayed, [3068]men grow less, &c. There are that observe new
motions of the heavens, new stars, _palantia sidera_, comets, clouds, call
them what you will, like those Medicean, Burbonian, Austrian planets,
lately detected, which do not decay, but come and go, rise higher and
lower, hide and show themselves amongst the fixed stars, amongst the
planets, above and beneath the moon, at set times, now nearer, now farther
off, together, asunder; as he that plays upon a sackbut by pulling it up
and down alters his tones and tunes, do the