he sky or the earth, and those who have imagined
magnetick mountains, or rocks, or poles, will immediately begin to waver as
soon as they have perused these books of yours on the Magnet, and willingly
will march with your opinion. Finally, as to the views which you discuss in
regard to the circular motion of the earth and of the terrestrial poles,
although to some perhaps they will seem most supposititious, yet I do not
see why they should not gain some favour, even among the very men who do
not recognize a sphaerical motion of the earth; since not even they can
easily clear themselves from many difficulties, which necessarily follow
from the daily motion of the {v} whole sky. For in the first place it is
against reason that that should be effected by many causes, which can be
effected by fewer; and it is against reason that the whole sky and all the
sphaeres (if there be any) of the stars, both of the planets and the fixed
stars, should be turned round for the sake of a daily motion which can be
explained by the mere daily rotation of the earth. Then whether will it
seem more probable, that the aequator of the terrestrial globe in a single
second (that is, in about the time in which any one walking quickly will be
able to advance only a single pace) can accomplish a quarter of a British
mile (of which sixty equal one degree of a great circle on the earth), or
that the aequator of the _primum mobile_ in the same time should traverse
five thousand miles with celerity ineffable; and in the twinkling of an eye
should fly through about five hundred British miles, swifter than the wings
of lightning, if indeed they maintain the truth who especially assail the
motion of the earth). Finally, will it be more likely to allow some motion
to this very tiny terrestrial globe; or to build up with mad endeavour
above the eighth of the fixed sphaeres those three huge sphaeres, the ninth
(I mean), the tenth, and the eleventh, marked by not a single star,
especially since it is plain from these books on the magnet, from a
comparison of the earth and the terrella, that a circular motion is not so
alien to the nature of the earth as is commonly supposed. Nor do those
things which are adduced from the sacred Scriptures seem to be specially
adverse to the doctrine of the mobility of the earth; nor does it seem to
have been the intention of Moses or of the Prophets to promulgate any
mathematical or physical niceties, but to adapt themselves to t