( *87 ) 
te Planets 5 who hath written a Book of ehaj: Subjeft, 
“ and calls them Ajira Borbonia : But I could never yet 
“ fee it. What you, or he, or others may alledge for 
M that Opinion, I know not. In the mean time it 
“ were too much levity in me, againft my Judgment, 
‘‘ to acknowledge them Stars , unlefs I fee at lead 
“ fome poffibility how they may be fo, or fome pro- 
bability why they fhould not rather be Spots* Which 
when you, or they do produce from better grounded 
Reafons, Optical Experiments, or Demondrations, I 
<£ fhall willingly recant my Opinion. 
“ In the mean time, let me encourage you to pro- 
tC ceed in your noble Optical Speculations. I do be- 
“ lieve there are as rare Inventions as GaliUies TeU - 
€t Jcope, yet undifcover’d. My living in a place void 
“ of apt Materials for that purpose, makes me almofic 
“ Ignorant in thole Secrets 3 only what I have from 
“ Reafon, or the reading of Keplers Afiron. Opt. and 
GtliUus. If you impart unto us any of your Op- 
“ tical Secrets, we fhall be thankful, and obliged to 
<c you, and ready to requite you in any thing we 
(( can. 
“ It is true which you lay, That I found Venus 
<c Diameter much lefs than any Theory extant made 
“ it. Kepler cam e neared, yet makes her Diameter 5 
il times too much. Tycho , Lansberge , and the Ancients, 
about 10 times greater than it was. So alfo they dif- 
“ fer in the time of the g as far from the truth. By 
“ Lansberg the 6 (hould have been 1 6 h 31' before we 
ci obferv’d. it : By Tycho and Longotnontane 1° 8 h 25' be- 
“ fore. By Kepler (who is did neared the truth) 9 11 4 6' 
tc before. So that had not our own Obfervations, and 
“ Study, taught us a better Theory than any of thefe, 
<c we had never attended at that time for that rare 
“ Spectacle . You fhall have the Obfervation of it, 
u when we fee you. The Clouds depriv’d me of part 
U u 1 «i 
