VOL. XXVII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 629 



once : if this was by conjunction of planets, in every appearance, there was at 

 least 80 bodies at once on this side the O ; it may be as many on the other side, 

 besides those unseen (by your reflection or otherwise) which doubtless must be 

 far more than seen. For it is a most rare, and I think unheard of thing, to 

 see but 3 (which is less than the half) of our planets, conjoined in visible <5 at 

 once : so that without question, if they be planets, they are many hundreds ; 

 which must have so many several orbes, and which certainly cannot be done in 

 so narrow a compass, as the -rV of the 0's semidiameter. And that they cannot 

 have any larger (I suppose not so large an) extent from the 0's superficies, may 

 be proved by their motion through the visible hemisphere of the sun's spherical 

 body, by comparing the swiftness of their motion towards the middle and sides 

 together. 6. If one of these (imagined) planets be swifter than another, as 

 they must needs be, then the c5 of '^ or 3 swifter ones would make a spot of 

 speedier motion than the c5 of 2 slower ones : but the motion of all about the 

 0's center, is always equal ; yea, and the spots retain the same position one to 

 another, (considering the sun's sphericity, and the angle of their appearance to 

 us) just like the fixed stars. So affirms Gassendus, moveri omnes eodem et 

 uniformi motu, adeo ut, cum plures fuerint, nulla antevertat aliam, sed eundem 

 tenorem in disco perinde servent inter se, ac servant fixse in firmamento. 

 «* As for that other annual motion of the spots, you speak of, from west to 

 east, upon their axis inclined above 8 degrees to the ecliptick ; I suppose it is 

 not any real motion of the orbes of those solar planets or spots, but only a visi- 

 ble motion so appearing, caused (in Kepler's systeme) by the sun's rolling upon 

 its own center in the midst of all the orbes, not exactly in the way of the 

 temporary ecliptick, but in the via regia (as Kepler calls it) inclined certain de- 

 grees to the temporary ; thereby turning about with him, the same way, his 

 adventitious or excrementitious parts, the spots, by his magnetical or 

 sympathetica! rayes. And hence may be demonstrated the appearance of that 

 annual motion in the sun's spots you speak of. See Galilaeus, Syst. Cosm. p. 

 339, & seq. So also in Ptolemie's and Tycho's systeme, the same appearance 

 may be demonstrated, supposing the fixed in the middle of the universe, 

 and the rolling round upon the same poles of that via regia (or way of the 

 spots) and keeping his axis in parallelism continually towards one and the same 

 part of the universe. This may be certainly demonstrated, although Galilasus 

 there affirms the contrary. Other hypotheses of that motion may be feigned, 

 as by the annual conversion of the poles of the via regia about the poles of the 

 ecliptick in the sun's body : but none I conceive so compendious, as the one of 

 the former. For my part, I incline to the first : yet if when we see you, you 



