102 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO 1^66. 



ed, I will not now undertake to show, nor is it necessary to my purpose ; but 

 that there is somewhat that does connect them, as much as what connects the 

 loadstone and the iron which it draws, is past doubt to those who allow them 

 to be carried. about by the sun, as one aggregate or body, whose parts keep a 

 respective position to one another : Like as Jupiter with his four satellites, and 

 Saturn with his one. Some tie there is that makes those satellites attend their 

 lords, and move in a body; though we do not see that tie, nor hear the words 

 of command. And so here.* 



2. To the second objection, that at Chatham and in the Thames the an- 

 nual spring tides happen about the equinoxes ; not (as this hypothesis doth sup- 

 pose elsewhere to have been observed) about the beginning of February and 

 November: if their meaning be, that annual high tides do then happen, 

 and then only ; if this prove true it will ease me of half my work. For it is 

 then easily answered, that it depends upon the obliquity of the zodiac ; the 

 parts of the equinoctial answering to equal parts of the zodiac, being near the 

 solstitial points greatest, and near the equinoctial points least of all. But beside 

 this annual vicissitude of the equinoxes, not to say of the four cardinal points, 

 which my hypothesis doth allow and assert, I believe it will be found that 

 there is another annual vicissitude answering to the sun*s apogaeum and peri- 

 gaeum. And that the greatest tides of all will be found to be upon a result of 

 these two causes co-operating : which (as doth the inequality of natural days, 

 depending on these same causes) will light nearer the times I mention. To 

 what is said to be observed at Chatham and in the Thames, contrary to that I 

 allege as observed in Rumney Marsh, I must at present ditiyiiv, and refer to 

 a melius inquirendum. If those who object this contrary observation, shall 

 after this notice find upon new observations heedfully taken, that the spring- 

 tides in February and November are not so high as those in March and Sep- 

 tember ; I shall then think the objection very considerable. But I do very 

 well remember, that I have seen in November very high tides at London, as 

 well as in Rumney Marsh. And the time is not yet so far past, but that it 

 may be remembered (by yourself or others then in London) whether in No- 

 vember last, when the tides were so high at Dover, at Deal, at Margate, and 

 all along the coast from thence to Rumney Marsh, as to do in some of those 

 places much hurt, (and in Holland much more,) whether I say, there were 

 not also at the same time at London very high tides. But a good diary of the 

 height and time both of high-water and low-water, for a year or two toge- 



* It is curious to observe how near, in these ingenious speculations. Dr. Wallis approached to the 

 universal principle of attraction of all matter, almost ever since so successfully employed in tlie systCna 

 of the universe. 



