Page:On the Magnet - Gilbert (1900 translation of 1600 work).djvu/258



RIMITIVE mathematicians, since they did not pay attention to the inequælities of the years, made no distinction between the æquinoctial, or solstitial revolving year, and that which is taken from some one of the fixed stars. Even the Olympick years, which they used to reckon from the rising of the dogstar, they thought to be the same as those counted from the solstice. Hipparchus of Rhodes was the first to call attention to the fact that these differ from each other, and discovered that the year was longer when measured by the fixed stars than by the æquinox or solstice: whence he supposed that there was in the fixed stars also some motion in a common sequence; but very slow, and not at once perceptible. After him Menelaus, a Roman geometer, then Ptolemy, and long afterward Mahometes Aractensis, and several more, in all their literary memoirs, perceived that the fixed stars and the whole firmament proceeded in an orderly sequence, regarding as they did the heaven, not the earth, and not understanding the magnetical inclinations. But we shall demonstrate that it proceeds rather from a certain rotatory motion of the Earth's axis, than that that eighth sphære (so called) the firmament, or non-moving empyrean, revolves studded with innumerable globes and stars, whose distances from the Earth have never been proved by anyone, nor can be proved (the whole universe gliding, as it were). And surely it should seem much more likely that the appearances in the heavens should be clearly accounted for by a certain inflection and inclination of the comparatively small body of the Earth, than by the setting in motion of the whole system of the universe; especially if this motion is to be regarded as ordained solely for the Earth's advantage: While for the fixed stars, or for the planets, it is of no use at all. For this motion the rising and settings of stars in every Horizon, as well as their culminations at the height of the heavens, are shifted so much that the stars which once were vertical are now some degrees distant from the zenith. For nature has taken care, through the Earth's soul or magnetick vigour, that, just as it was needful in tempering, receiving, and warding off the sun's rays and light, by suitable seasons, that the points toward which the Earth's pole is directed should be 23 degrees and more