BOOK II.] History of Nature. 5 1 



is the Order, as well of the Appearances of the Planets as of 

 their Occultations and their mere Motion, enfolded within 

 many strange Wonders. For they change their Magnitudes 

 and Colours, and sometimes they approach to the North, 

 sometimes they go back toward the South, and, all on a sud- 

 den, they appear one while nearer to the Earth, and another 

 while to the Heaven : wherein, if we shall deliver many 

 Points otherwise than former Writers, yet we confess, that 

 for these Matters we are beholden unto them, who first made 

 Demonstration of seeking out the Ways thereto : and there- 

 fore let no Man despair of profiting and going forward in 

 Knowledge from Age to Age. For, these strange Motions 

 fall out upon many Causes. The first is by Reason of those 

 Circles in the Stars, which the Greeks call Absides : for we 

 are compelled to use the Greek Terms. Each one of the 

 Planets hath a particular Circle by itself, and these different 

 from those of the starry Heaven : because the Earth from 

 those two Points which they call Poles, is the Centre of the 

 Heaven, as also of the Zodiac, situated obliquely between 

 them. All which Things are certainly known to be so be- 

 yond Question by the Compass. And therefore from every 

 Centre there arise their own Absides, and so they have 

 diverse Circuits and different Motions, because of necessity 

 the interior Absides must be shorter. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



Why the same Planets seem sometimes higher, and sometimes 



lower. 



THE highest Absides, therefore, from the Centre of the 

 Earth are of Saturn, in the Sign Scorpio : of Jupiter in 

 Virgo : of Mars in Leo : of the Sun in Gemini : of Venus in 

 Sagittarius: of Mercury in Capricorn: and in the Middle of 

 the said Signs : and contrariwise the said Planets in the 

 same Degrees of the opposite Signs are lowest and nearest 

 to the Centre of the Earth. So it happeneth that they seem 

 to move more slowly when they go their highest Circuit : not 

 for that natural Motions do either hasten or slacken, which 



