DESCRIPTIO GLOBI INTELLECTUALS. 339 



quenter et manifesto fit, et in reliquis accidere potest), 

 ea apparentia nee ipsa fallere potest, quia mutatio ilia 

 magnitudinis non durat, neque sequitur astrum nee cum 

 corpore ejus movetur, verum astrum ab ea cito liberatur, 

 et solitam recuperat speciem. Veruntamen quamvis 

 ista ita se habeant, tamen cum et olim temporibus pris- 

 cis atque etiam aatate nostra, celebri et magno spec- 

 taculo, magna novatio facta fuerit in stella Veneris et 

 magnitudine et colore, atque etiam figura ; cumque mu- 

 tatio quse astrum aliquod certum perpetuo et constanter 

 sequitur, et cum corpore ejus circumvolvi cernitur, ne- 

 cessario statui debeat in astro ipso, et non in medio ; 

 cumque ex observationum neglectu multa quae in ccelo 

 fiunt conspicua praetereantur et nobis pereant ; istam 

 partem quaastionis nonaa recte admitti censemus. Ejus- 

 dem generis est altera pars quaestionis, Utrum astra per 

 longos seculorum circuitus nascantur et dissipentur ? nisi 

 quod major suppetat phaenomenorum ubertas quae hanc 

 quaestionem provocat quam illam de augmentis ; sed ta- 

 men in uno genere tantum. Nam quoad veteres Stellas, 

 omni seculorum memoria, nee alicujus earum ortus 

 primus notatus est (exceptis iis quae Arcades de Luna 

 olim fabulati sunt), nee aliqua ex iis desideratur. Ea- 

 rum vero quse cometae habitaa sunt, sed forma et motu 

 stellari, et prorsus veluti stellae novae, 1 et apparitiones 



1 This mode of speaking of the new stars confirms Professor Rigaud's 

 explanation of a curious phrase in one of Sir William Lower's letters to 

 Harriot. ''.Jlis elliptical Iter planetarum, methinkes, shewes a way to the 

 solving of the unknown walks of comets " (he is speaking of Kepler) ; 

 "for as his ellipsis in the earth's motion is more a circle, and in Mars 

 is more longe, and in some of the other planets may be longer againe, so 

 in thos commets that appeare fixed the ellipsis may be neere a right 

 line." The Professor remarks that he may possibly allude to phenomena 

 like the new star of 1572. It is this letter of Sir William Lower's, the 

 first part of which Baron Zach ascribed to the Earl of Northumberland, 



