Page:Mathematical collections and translations, in two tomes - Salusbury (1661).djvu/413

 their right hand therein till that the Water by reason of the heat do rise but one sole inch, and then let them take it out, and write off the tumefaction of the Sea. Or at least desire them to shew you how the Moon doth to rarefie a certain part of the Waters, and not the remainder; as for instance, these here of Venice, and not those of Ancona, Naples, Genova: the truth is Poetick Wits are of two kinds, some are ready and apt to invent Fables, and others disposed and inclined to believe them.

I believe that no man believeth Fables, so long as he knows them to be so; and of the opinions concerning the causes of ebbing and flowing, which are many, because I know that of one single effect there is but one single cause that is true and primary, I understand very well, and am certain that but one alone at the most can be true, and for all the rest I am sure that they are fabulous, and false; and its possible that the true one may not be among those that have been hitherto produced; nay I verily believe that it is not, for it would be very strange that the truth should have so little light, as that it should not be visible amongst the umbrages of so many falshoods. But this I shall say with the liberty that is permitted amongst us, that the introduction of the Earths motion, and the making it the cause of the ebbing and flowing of Tides, seemeth to me as yet a conjecture no lesse fabulous than the rest of those that I have heard; and if there should not be proposed to me reasons more conformable to natural matters, I would without any more ado proceed to believe this to be a supernatural effect, and therefore miraculous, and unsearchable to the understandings of men, as infinite others there are, that immediately depend on the Omnipotent hand of God.

You argue very prudently, and according to the Doctrine of Aristotle, who you know in the beginning of his mechanical questions referreth those things to a Miracle, the causes whereof are occult. But that the cause of the ebbing and flowing is one of those that are not to be found out, I believe you have no greater proof than onely that you see, that amongst all those that have hitherto been produced for true causes thereof, there is not one wherewith, working by what artifice you will, we are able to represent such an effect; in regard that neither with the light of the Moon nor of the Sun, nor with temperate heats, nor with different profundities, shall one ever artificially make the Water conteined in an immoveable Vessel to run one way or another, and to ebbe and flow in one place, and not in another. But if without any other artifice, but with the onely moving of the Vessel, I am able punctually to represent all those mutations that are observed in the Sea Water, why will you refuse this reason and run to a Miracle?