Page:A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More.djvu/83

Rh its self; or to have it carelesly tumble this way and that way as it happens, or at least very variously and intricately. And you cannot but answer me. That it is better to have it steady and parallel; for in this lies the necessary Foundation of the Art of Navigation and Dialling. For that steady stream of Particles which is supposed to keep the Axis of the Earth parallel to it self, affords the Mariner both his Cynosura and his Compass; the Load-stone and the Load-star depend both on this; and Dialling could not be at all without it. But both of these Arts are pleasant, and the one especially of mighty importance to mankind: For thus there is an orderly measuring of Time for our affairs at home, and an opportunity of traffick abroad with the most remote Nations of the world, and so there is a mutual supply of the several commodities of all Countreys, besides the inlarging of our Understanding by so ample Experience we get of both men and things. Wherefore if we were rationally to consult, Whether the Axis of the Earth is to be held steady and parallel to it self, or to be lest at random; we would conclude. That it ought to he steady. And so we find it de facto, though the Earth move floating in the liquid Heavens, So that appealing to our own Faculties, we are to affirm, That the constant direction of the Axis of the Earth was established by a Principle of Wisdom and Counsel, or at least approved of it.

2. Again, there being several Postures of this steady direction of the Axis of the Earth, viz. either Perpendicular to a Plane going through the Centre of the Sun, or Co-incident, or Inclining; I demand, which of all these reason and Knowledge would make choice of. Not of a Perpendicular posture: for both the pleasant variety and great conveniency of Summer and Winter, Spring-time and Harvest, would be lost, and for want of accession of the Sun, these parts of the Earth that bring forth fruit now and are habitable, would be in an incapacity of ever bringing forth any, and consequently could entertain no Inhabitants; and those parts that the full heat of the Sun could reach, be plying them alwaies alike, without any annual recession or intermission, would at last grow tired and exhausted. And besides, consulting with our own Faculties we observe, that an orderly vicissitude of things is most pleasant unto us, and doth much more gratifie the Contemplative property in Man.

3. And now in the second place, nor would reason make choice of a Co-incident position of the Axis of the Earth. For if the Axis thus lay in a Plane that goes through the Centre of the Sun, the Eclipick would, like a Colure or one of the Meridians, pass through the Poles of the Earth, which would put the Inhabitants of the world into a pitiful condition: For they that scape best in the Temperate Zone, would be accloy'd with very tedious long nights, no less then fourty daies long; and they that now have their night never above four and twenty hours, as Friseland, Ireland, the further parts of Russia and Norway, would be deprived of the Sun above a hundred and thirty dales together; our selves in England, and the rest of the same Clime, would be closed up in darkness no less then an hundred or eighty continual dales, and so proportionably of the rest both in and out of the Temperate Zones. And as for Summer and