ld all the uncertainties be remov'd, and were the true
distance of the Moon known.

But because we find by the Experiments of _Vendiline_, _Reinoldus_, &c.
that Observations of this kind are very uncertain also: It were to be
wisht, that such kind of Observations, made at two very distant stations,
were promoted. And it is so much the more desirable, because, from what I
have now shewn of the nature of the Air, it is evident, that the refraction
may be very much greater then all the Astronomers hitherto have imagined
it: And consequently, that the distance of the Moon, and other Planets, may
be much lesse then what they have hitherto made it.

For first, this Inflection, I have here propounded, will allow the shadow
of the Earth to be much shorter then it can be made by the other
_Hypothesis_ of refraction, and consequently, the Moon will not suffer an
Eclipse, unless it comes very much nearer the Earth then the Astronomers
hitherto have supposed it.

Secondly, There will not in this _Hypothesis_ be any other shadow of the
Earth, such as _Kepler_ supposes, and calls the _Penumbra_, which is the
shadow of the refracting _Atmosphere_; for the bending of the Rays being
altogether caus'd by _Inflection_, as I have already shewn, all that part
which is ascribed by _Kepler_, and others after him, to the _Penumbra_, or
dark part, which is without the _umbra terrae_, does clear vanish; for in
this _Hypothesis_ there is no refracting surface of the Air, and
consequently there can be no shadows, such as appear in the ninth Figure of
the 37. _Scheme_, where let ABCD represent the Earth, and EFGH the
_Atmosphere_, which according to _Keplers_ supposition, is like a Sphaere
of Water terminated with an exact surface EFGH, let the lines MF, LB, ID,
KH, represent the Rays of the Sun; 'tis manifest, that all the Rayes
between LB, and ID, will be reflected by the surface of the Earth BAD, and
consequently, the conical space BOD would be dark and obscure; but, say the
followers of _Kepler_, the Rays between MF, and LB, and between ID, and KH,
falling on the _Atmosphere_, are refracted, both at their ingress and
egress out of the _Atmosphere_, nearer towards the Axis of the sphaerical
shadow CO, and consequently, inlighten a great part of that former dark
Cone, and shorten, and contract, its top to N. And because of this
Reflection of these Rays, say they, there is superinduc'd another shell of
a dark Cone FPH, whose Apex P is yet further