86 EFFECT OF THE SUN ON VAPOURS. 



Ll!J - &quot; vapours on high, and to dissolve them presently, and turne 

 them into raine, when there is any obstacle to consume 

 them. And although these things seeme contrary, that one 

 sunne within the burning Zone, being neere, should cause 

 raine, and without the Zone afarre off should breed the like 

 effect ; so it is, that all well considered, there is no con- 

 trarietie. A thousand effects in naturall causes proceede of 

 contrarie things by divers meanes : we drie linnen by the 

 fire and in the aire, and yet the one heats and the other 

 cooles ; pastures are dried and hardened by the sunne and 

 with the frost; moderate exercise provokes sleepe, being 

 too violent, it hmdereth : if you lay no wood on the fire, it 

 dieth ; if you lay on too much, it likewise quencheth : for 

 the onely proportion entertaines and makes it to continue. 

 To well discerne a thing, it must not be too neere the eie, 

 nor too farre off, but in a reasonable distance proportion 

 able ; being too farre off from any thing, we loose the sight, 

 and too neere likewise, we cannot see it. If the sunne 

 beames be weake, they draw vp no fogge from the rivers ; 

 if they be violent, having drawne vp the vapours, they pre 

 sently dissolve and consume them ; but if the heat be 

 moderate, it drawes vp and preserves it : for this reason 

 the vapours rise not commonly in the night, nor at noone, 

 but in morning, whenas the sunne begins to enter into his 

 force. There are a thousand examples of naturall causes 

 vpon this subiect, which we see do often grow from con 

 trarie things : whereby we must not wonder if the sunne, 

 being neere, engenders raine, and being farre off, works the 

 like effect : but being of a moderate and proportionable dis 

 tance, causeth none at all. Yet there remaines one doubt 

 why the neerenes of the sunne causeth the raine vnder the 

 burning Zone, and without, when it is farthest off. In my 

 opinion, the reason is, that in Winter, without the Tropicks, 

 the sunne hath not force sufficient to consume the vapours 

 which rise from the land and sea ; for these vapours grow 



