Page:Mathematical collections and translations, in two tomes - Salusbury (1661).djvu/134

 with the same charge, and at the same elevation or disport towards the West, the range towards the West should be very much greater then the other towards the East: for that whil'st the ball goeth Westward, and the Peece is carried along by the Earth Eastward, the ball will fall from the Peece as far distant as is the aggregate of the two motions, one made by it self towards the West, and the other by the Peece carried about by the Earth towards the East; and on the contrary, from the range of the ball shot Eastward you are to substract the space the Peece moved, being carried after it. Now suppose, for example, that the range of the ball shot West were five miles, and that the Earth in the same parallel and in the time of the Bals ranging should remove three miles, the Ball in this case would fall eight miles distant from the Culverin, namely, its own five Westward, and the Culverins three miles Eastward: but the range of the shot towards the East would be but two miles long, for so much is the remainder, after you have substracted from the five miles of the range, the three miles which the Peece had moved towards the same part. But experience sheweth the Ranges to be equal, therefore the Culverin, and consequently the Earth are immoveable. And the stability of the Earth is no lesse confirmed by two other shots made North and South; for they would never hit the mark, but the Ranges would be alwayes wide, or towards the West, by meanes of the remove the mark would make, being carried along with the Earth towards the East, whil'st the ball is flying. And not onely shots made by the Meridians, but also those aimed East or West would prove uncertain; for those aim'd East would be too high, and those directed West too low, although they were shot point blank, as I said. For the Range of the Ball in both the shots being made by the Tangent, that is, by a line parallel to the Horizon, and being that in the diurnal motion, if it be of the Earth, the Horizon goeth continually descending towards the East, and rising from the West (therefore the Oriental Stars seem to rise, and the Occidental to decline) so that the Oriental mark would descend below the aime, and thereupon the shot would fly too high, and the ascending of the Western mark would make the shot aimed that way range too low; so that the Peece would never carry true towards any point; and for that experience telleth us the contrary, it is requisite to say, that the Earth is immoveable.

These are solid reasons, and such as I believe no man can answer.

Perhaps they are new to you?

Really they are; and now I see with how many admirable experiments Nature is pleased to favour us, wherewith to assist us in the knowledge of the Truth. Oh! how exactly one