Page:On the Magnet - Gilbert (1900 translation of 1600 work).djvu/257



RIMARILY having shown the manner and causes of the diurnal revolution of the Earth, which is partly brought about from the vigour of the magnetick virtue, partly effected by the præ-eminence and light of the Sun; there now follows an account of the distance of its poles from the poles of the Ecliptick—a supremely necessary fact. For if the poles of the universe or of the Earth remained fast at the poles of the Zodiack, then the Æquator of the Earth would lie exactly beneath the line of the Ecliptick, and there would be no variation in the seasons of the year, no Winter, no Summer, nor Spring, nor Autumn: but one and the same invariable aspect of things would continue. The direction of the axis of the Earth has receded therefore from the pole of the Zodiack (for lasting good) just so far as is sufficient for the generation and variety of things. Accordingly the declination of the tropicks and the inclination of the Earth's pole remain perpetually in the twenty-fourth degree; though now only 23 degrees 28 minutes are counted; or, as others make out, 29 minutes: But once it was 23 degrees 52 minutes, which are the extreme limits of the declinations hitherto observed. And that has been prudently ordained by nature, and is arranged by the primary excellence of the Earth. For if those poles (of the Earth and the Ecliptick) were to be parted by a much greater distance, then when the Sun approached the tropick, all things in the other deserted part of the globe, in some higher latitude, would be desolate and (by reason of the too prolonged absence of the Sun) brought to destruction. As it is, however, all is so proportioned that the whole terrestrial globe has its own varying seasons in succession, and alternations of condition, appropriate and needful: either from the more direct and vertical radiation of light, or from its increased tarriance above the horizon.

Around these poles of the Ecliptick the direction of the poles of the Earth is borne: and by this motion the præcession of the æquinoxes is apparent to us.