Of OXF0%V-SHl%E. 2zj 



23. If I defcend yet lower to perfons now living, we (hall 

 daily find Aftronomy receiving new advancements, particularly from 

 the Right Reverend Father in God, Seth Lord Biftiop of Sarum, 

 one of the moft cordial Promoters of this undertaking : who ra- 

 ther embracing the opinions of Diogenes, Apolloniu* Myndim^ of 

 the Chaldees, and at length of Seneca ; That Comets are perpetual 

 ffars, and carryed about in a continued motion ; than of Kepler, who 

 thought them ftill produced de Novo, quickly perifhing again ; or 

 of Gaffendm, who held indeed they might be corpora sterna, but 

 yet that they always moved in ftraight lines ; he firft propofed 

 this new Theory of them, viz^ that it was much more probable 

 they might rather be carryed round in Circles 01 Ellipfes(ehher in- 

 cluding or excluding the Globe of the earth) fo great, that the 

 Comets are never vifible to us, but when they come to the Perige's 

 of thofe Circles or Ellipfes, and ever after invifible till they have 

 abfolved their periods in thofe vaft Orbs, which by reafon of their 

 (landing in an oblique, or perpendicular pofture to the eye, he de- 

 monftrated might well feem to carry them in ftraight lines ; all 

 circles or ellipfes fo pofited, projecting themfelves naturally into 

 fuch lines : which Theory was firft propofed in a Letlure here at 

 Oxford, and afterward fet forth in the year 1 653. The Right Re- 

 verend Father in God, Seth Lord Biftiop of Sarum, and my very 

 good Lord, being then Ptofeffor of Aftronomy in this Vniver- 



24. In the fame year, the fame Right Reverend, and moft ac- 

 complifh'd Bifhop firft Geometrically demonftrated, the Copernico- 

 Elliptical Hypothefis to be the moft genuine, fimple and uniform, the 

 moft eafie and intelligible, anfweringall /^mwzetftf without com- 

 plication of motions, by Eccentrics, Epicycles, or Epicyc- Epicycles. 

 That the Excentricities of the Planets and their Apoge's according 

 to the Ptolemaic hypothefis, and the Aphelions according to the 

 Copernican, might all be folved by a fimple Ellipticall'ine, was firft 

 indeed noted by Kepler, but how their proper andprimary Inequa- 

 lities, or Anomali* Codtquatdt, fhould thence be demonftrated geo- 

 metrically, he profeft he knew not, and utterly defpaired it would 

 ever be done: which ftirred up the Learned Ifmael Bullialdus to 

 attempt the removal of this difgrace to Aftronomy, which accord- 

 ingly he thought he had done, finding the method of the Apheli- 

 ons, and demonftrating (at leaft as he thought) the firft Inequa- 



F f hies 



