24 LETTERS ON SCIENTIFIC SUBJECTS. 



but informed by others, then they reporte falsly ; and there- 

 fore men behouldinge the moone in the horizon, through and 

 by the meane of the moist and vaperous aier, the eies reporte 

 to the minde the moone to be bigger then it is 2 howers 

 after : and an ower to be broken in the waves that is whole ; 

 a penny in a boule of water to be a grote for bignes : or, if 

 theise ballifes meet with an artificial! object, then as with a 

 suptill sophister, beinge deluded, they err in there arrant 

 likewise ; and that is the reason why Zeuxis' painted grapes 

 dasled the sighte of the birdes, and whye Parrhasius coort- 

 ine deceaved Zeuxis the painter; that Pigmalion's handes, 

 in beinge in love with his owne picture, deceaved his eyes ; 

 and to applie it to this present example, this seameth to me 

 the reason why this artificiall tower deceaveth the behoulder. 

 In the fabricke of the clocke which standeth in the church, 

 nature for geavinge sutch an excellent subject to woork on, 

 the will of the devisor for his invention and disposition, and 

 the handes of the artificers for there exquisitenes in gravinge, 

 carvinge and paintinge, and all three for the consent they 

 had in the perfettinge this rare devise, are so much to be won- 

 dered at, that the behoulder remaineth douptfull to which 

 he shoold geave the glory or praise, for it should seem they 

 all contended for the highest point of wonderfull admiration. 

 Nature hath geaven a kinde of w r oode, called Zilly, which 

 hardly can be discerned from stone. The devisor hath placed 

 in this, besides divers incredible motions, the best instru- 

 ments of astronomy ; and the painters hath bestowed thereon 

 the summe of their cunninge and the perfection of there arte. 

 To retoorne to the devise, therein is to be seen a shoe of eter- 

 nitie ; the beginninge of Tyme and a vewe of Age ; the periods 

 of the planetes ; the yearly and dailie motion of the soonne in 

 the zodiake ; the convertion of the moone in her cycle, and a 

 more particular distinction of tyme by motions artificiall of 

 weakes, daies, howers, quarters and minutes : adorned also 

 it is with beautifull pictures of holly and prophane stories, 

 and with admirable motions of men, beastes and birdes. To 

 entreat of theis partes in order doth cause me to be prepos- 

 terous, for first I must describe the heele and after, last ot all, 

 the heade. Eternitie is partly figured by the begininge, and 

 partly also by the laste parte of the fabricke. The pellican 

 that supporteth the globe dooth represent the poet's Atlas, 

 whome they fained to beare the woorld on his shouldiers ; but 

 Christians do resemble it to our Saviour, by whome all thinges 

 have there life, as the globe hath hir motion by the instru- 

 mentes conveyed in the belly of the pellican. Tyme is figured 



