Page:Philosophical Transactions - Volume 001.djvu/21

 , is exceeding small in respect of the whole circumference thereof, and hardly distinguishable by us from a streight line.

Concerning the New Comet you mention, I saw it on the 11. of February, about the 24. deg. of Aries, with a Northern latitude of 24. deg. 40. min. The cloudy weather hath not yet permitted me to see it in Andromeda, as others affirm to have done.

As to the Hypothesis of Georg. Domenico Cassini, touching the motion of the Comet about the Great Dog in a Circle, whose Centre is in a streight line drawn from the Earth through the said Star, I believe it will shortly be publish'd in print, as a thought I lighted upon in discoursing with one of my Friends, who did maintain, that it turned about a Centre, because that its Perigee had been over against the Great Dog, as I had noted in my Ephemerides. This particular I did long since declare to many of my acquaintance, whereof some or other will certainly do me that right, as to let the world know it by the Press. I have added an Observation, which I find not, that Signior Cassini hath made, viz. that there was ground to think, that the Comet of 1652. was the same with the present, seeing that besides the parity of the swiftness of its motion, the Perigee thereof was also over against the Great Dog, if the Observations extant thereof, deceive not. But, to make it out, what ground I had for these thoughts, I said, that if they were true, the Comet must needs acomplish its revolution from 12. to 12. years, or thereabout. But, seeing it appears not by History, that a Comet hath been seen at those determinate distances of time, nor that over against the Perigee of all the other Comets, whereof particular observations are recorded, are alwaies found Stars of the first Magnitude, or such others, as are very notable, besides other reasons, that might be alleged, I shall not pursue this speculation; but rather suggest