■ ( m ) 
■So that all which Malpighim and Rhedi fay concerning 
their Generation, all that is in the Writings of Goedar^ 
t'ws and Swammerdam concerning the Time and Nature 
of their Tranimutations, may be looked upon as wholly 
new. And as for Hiflorm of larger Animals^ he pre- 
tends that lVi!!c!4ghhfs Hiftories of Birds and Fifties, Ray's 
Synop/is of Quadrupeds, bcfides a great many Modern 
Difcourfes upon particular Animals, are without com- 
parifon better than the Hiftories cf Ariflotle, ^lian^ 
or Pliny, QChap, zz,) 
Afterwards he inferts a Difcourfe written by that moft 
j^xcellent Aftronomer Mr,Ha//ey, concerning Ancient 
and Modern Ajlrommy and Optkks; who fays, that the 
I Egyptian and Chaldean Aftronomy was little worth in 
it ielf, and the Gr^^"/^ Aftroncmy ^ot much better, if 
compared wuh the Modern : That Ptolemy s Hypothecs 
of the Planetary Motions cannot be fet againft A^/>/fHs 
and Newton s ; nor Hipparchus's Catalogue of the Fixt 
Stars againft Tycho Brake's and Herelius\ : That the 
Ancients could know but little of Opticks^ fince they 
were fo meanly skilled in PerfpecStive ; and of Dioptrkks^ 
they were wholly ignorant, fmce they had no Notion 
of the Properties o\ Rcfraftion, which Des Cartes fix^ 
reduced to a Science, {Chap,zi.) 
Of Mufick he determines nothing pofitively, but feems 
to think that fince the grounds of Mufick have always 
been the fame, and that the Moderns ufe more Grada- 
tions of Half- Notes and Quarter-Notes than the Ancients • 
and that the Symphonys of the Ancients were only Con- 
(orts of feveral Voices and Inftruments to the fame Partj 
that Modern Mufick, confidered as Art, is perfedet 
than the Ancient, which was fo much extolled by thofe 
that heard it, becaufe it was the moft excellent they 
had ever heard, and fo had a right to the greateft Con> 
mendations which they could give it. (^Chap. 24.) 
Of 
