Of OXFO^'D^SHlTiE. m 
23. If I defcend yet lower to perfons now living, we (liall. 
daily find Aftroncmy receiving new df^3/j;?Cf;77fw/j,particulariy froni 
the Right Reverend Father in God, Seth Lord Biiliop of Sarum^ 
one of the moft cordial Frornoterso^ this undertaking : who ra- 
ther embracing the opinions of Diogenes^ Apolloniu^ Myndiu^^ of 
the Chal dees ^ and at length of seneca ; That Comets are perpetual 
flars-, and carrjed about in a continued mction ; than of Fepler^ who 
thought them ftiil produced de Novo^ quickly perilliing again ; or 
of Gaffendu6^ who held indeed they might be corpora d^terna^ but 
yet that they always moved in ftraight lines ; he iirft propofed 
this new Theory of them, viz^ that it was much more probable 
they might rather be carry ed round in Circles or EllipftsQtithtY in- 
cluding or excluding the Globe of the earih^ fo great, that the 
Comets are never vifible to us, but when they come to the Perigees 
of thoi^e Circles or Ellipfesf and ever after invifible till they have 
abfolved their periods in thofe vaft Oibs^ which by reafon of their 
(landing in an oblique, or perpendicular pofture to the ejc, he de- 
monftrated might well feem to carry them in Jiraight lines ; all 
circles or ellipfes fo pofited, projefting themfelves naturally inro 
fuch lines : which Theory was tirft propofed in a Le^ure here at 
Oxford^ and afterward fet forth in the year 1653. The Right Re- 
verend Father in God, Seth Lord Bidiopof Sarum, znd my very 
good Lord, being then Frofejfor of Afironowy in this Vniver- 
fity. 
24. In the fame year, the fame Right Reverend, and moft ac- 
complidrd Bijhop firft Geometrically demonftrated, the Copernico- 
Elliptical Hypothefis to be the moft genuine^ fimple and uniform^ the 
moft eafie intelligible^ anfweringall Phenomena without com- 
plication of motions, by Eccentrics, Epicycles, or Epicyc- Epicycles, 
That the Excentrkities of the Planets and their Apoge's according 
to the Ptolemaic hypothefis, and the aphelions according to the 
Copernican, might all be folved by a fimple EllipticalYme, was firft 
indeed noted by Kepler^ but how their proper and primary Inequa- 
lities, OT ^nomali^ Co^quatdC, Hiould thence be demonftrated ^eo- 
metrically, he profeft he knew not, and utterly defpaired it would 
ever be done : which ftirred up the Learned Ifmael BuUiald'^ to 
attempt the removal of this difgrace to Aftronomy, v/hich accord- 
ingly he thought he had done, finding the method of the Apheli- 
ons^ and demonftrating (at leaft as he thought) the firft /^^fw^- 
Ff I'^Eies 
