278 PREFACE TO THE 



from west to east ; and that their views are there- 

 fore in accordance with those which Bacon propounds 

 in the Thema Cceli, so far at least as relates to the gen- 

 eral conception of the planetary motions. 



Patricius, on whom the influence of Telesius is man- 

 ifest, and who furnished Bacon with many of the facts 

 contained in the following treatises, also rejected, and 

 more contemptuously than Telesius, the common astro- 

 nomical hypotheses. The planetary motions, their 

 stations and regressions are, he says, explained by as- 

 tronomers by the help of epicycles and eccentrics ; but 

 we ascribe them to the natures and spirits of the plan- 

 ets, and in a higher degree to their souls and minds. 

 Of this idle talk Gilbert remarks that it destroys the 

 study of astronomy. " Quid autem," he observes, 

 " turn postea spectabit otiosus incassum philosophus, 

 opinione sua satiatus, coelum sine usu sine motuum 

 pragvidentia : ita nullius usus erit ilia scientia." But 

 Patricius's opinions on astronomy could clearly not be 

 of much value, seeing that he was sufficiently ignorant 

 to blame astronomers for not taking into account the 

 distance of the place where their observations are made, 

 from the centre of the earth ; and speaks of this omis- 

 sion as " a most evident fallacy : " a remark which 

 proves that he had either never heard of the correction 

 for parallax, or having heard of it was unable to under- 

 stand its nature. 



From him, however, Bacon derived some of the most 

 remarkable statements in the Descriptio Globi Intellec- 

 tualis ; particularly the incredible account of the muta- 

 tions which Venus underwent in 1578. That, setting 

 aside Patricius's loose way of speaking, the real phe- 

 nomenon was simply that Venus was visible before sun- 

 i Phv ? io! Nov, ii i 



