466 



NOTES TO BOOK V. 



" Dum in hunc raodum de Martis raotibus triumpho, 

 eique ut plane devicto tabularum carceres et equationum 

 compedes necto, diversis nuntiatur locis, futilem victoriam 

 ut bellum tota mole recrudescere. Nam domi quidem 

 hostis ut captivus contemptus, rupit omnia equationum 

 vincula, carceresque tabularum effregit. Foris specula- 

 tores profligerunt meas causarum physicarum arcessitas 

 copias earumque jugum excusserunt resumta libertate. 

 Jamque parum abfuit quia hostis fugitivus sese cum rebel- 

 libus suis conjungeret meque in desperationem adigeret : 

 nisi raptim, nova rationum physicarum subsidia, fusis et 

 palantibus veteribus, submisissem, et qua se captivus pro- 

 ripuisset, omni diligentia, edoctus vestgiis ipsius nulla 

 mora interposita inhaesisserem." 



(T.) p. 457. Horrox (Horrockes as he himself spelt 

 his name) gave a first sketch of his theory in letters to 

 his friend Crabtree in 1638: in which the variation of the 

 excentricity is not alluded to. But in Crabtree's letter 

 to Gascoigne in 1642, he gives Horrox's rule concerning 

 it ; and Flamsteed in his Epilogue to the Tables, pub- 

 lished by Wallis along with Horrox's works in 1673, 

 gave an explanation of the theory which made it amount 

 very nearly to a revolution of the center of the ellipse 

 in an epicycle. Halley afterwards made a slight altera- 

 tion ; but hardly, I think, enough to justify Newton's 

 assertion ; (Princip. Lib. iii. Prop. 35. Schol.) " Halleius 

 centrum ellipseos in epicyclo locavit." See Baily's Flam- 

 steed^ p. 683. 





END OF VOL. I. 



915 







