appearing in the ayre, betwene you & the glasse, with like hand, sword or dagger, & with like quicknes, foyning at your very eye, likewise as you do at the Glasse. Straunge, this is, to heare of: but more meruailous to behold, then these my wordes can signifie. And neuerthelesse by demonstration Opticall, the order and cause therof, is certified: euen so, as the effect is consequent. Yea, thus much more, dare I take vpon me, toward the satisfying of the noble courrage, that longeth ardently for the wisedome of Causes Naturall: as to let him vnderstand, that, in London, he may with his owne eyes, haue profe of that, which I haue sayd herein. A Gentleman, (which, for his good seruice, done to his Countrey, is famous and honorable:
and for skill in the Mathematicall Sciences, and Languages, is the Od man of this land. &c.) euen he, is hable: and (I am sure) will, very willingly, let the Glasse, and profe be sene: and so I (here) request him: for the encrease of wisedome, in the honorable: and for the stopping of the mouthes malicious: and repressing the arrogancy of the ignorant. Ye may easily gesse, what I meane. This Art of _Perspectiue_, is of that excellency, and may be led, to the certifying, and executing of such thinges, as no man would easily beleue: without Actuall profe perceiued. I speake nothing of _Naturall Philosophie_, which, without _Perspectiue_, can not be fully vnderstanded, nor perfectly atteined vnto. Nor, of _Astronomie_: which, without _Perspectiue_, can not well be grounded: Nor _Astrologie_, naturally Verified, and auouched. That part hereof, which dealeth with Glasses (which name, Glasse, is a generall name, in this Arte, for any thing, from which, a Beame reboundeth) is called _Catoptrike_: and hath so many vses, both merueilous, and proffitable: that, both, it would hold me to long, to note therin the principall conclusions, all ready knowne: And also (perchaunce) some thinges, might lacke due credite with you: And I, therby, to leese my labor: and you, to slip into light Iudgement,
Before you haue learned sufficiently the powre of Nature and Arte.
Now, to procede: +‡Astronomie‡, is an Arte Mathematicall, which demonstrateth the distance, magnitudes, and all naturall motions, apparences, and passions propre to the Planets and fixed Sterres: for any time past, present and to come: in respect of a certaine Horizon, or without respect of any Horizon.+ By this Arte we are certified of the distance of the Starry Skye, and of eche _Planete_ from the Centre of the Earth: and of the greatnes of any Fixed starre sene, or _Planete_, in respect of the Earthes greatnes. As, we are sure (by this Arte) that the Solidity, Massines and Body of the _Sonne_, conteineth the quantitie of the whole Earth and Sea, a hundred thre score and two times, lesse by ⅛ one eight parte of the earth. But the Body of the whole earthly globe and Sea, is bigger then the body of the Mone, three and forty times lesse by ⅛ of the Mone. Wherfore the _Sonne_ is bigger then the _Mone_, 7000 times, lesse, by 59 39/64 that is, precisely 6940 25/64 bigger then the _Mone_. And yet the vnskillfull man, would iudge them a like bigge. Wherfore, of Necessity, the one is much farder from vs, then the other. The _Sonne_, when he is fardest from the earth (which, now, in our age, is, when he is in the 8. degree, of Cancer) is, 1179 Semidiameters of the Earth, distante. And the _Mone_ when she is fardest from the earth, is 68 Semidiameters of the earth and ⅓ The nerest, that the _Mone_ commeth to the earth, is Semidiameters 52¼ The distance of the Starry Skye is, frõ vs, in Semidiameters of the earth 20081½ Twenty thousand fourescore, one, and almost a halfe. Subtract from this, the _Mones_ nerest distance, from the Earth: and therof remaineth Semidiameters of the earth 20029¼ Twenty thousand nine and twenty and a quarter.