Of the Causes of Wonderful things. ft

for this was their resolution, that to certain hours and sec times, there were an-iwerable certain aspects of luperiour powers, .whereby alt things were <;ffccstedlPtolomj was of the fame minde, who reduced the heavenly irfluences to a certainorder, and thereby did prognosticate many things: and he thought the matter soclear, that it need nnt much proof: and moreover, that the increase and decreaieos all plants, and all living creatures, morecrlefle, did proceed from the powerandstrokeot the liars. Anstot'.e, finding that the highest motion was the causeand beginning os ail things, (for if that should cease, these nuill needs presently de-cay) laiih, that it was neafliry for this world to be placed very peer and close to theiuperiour motions, that ail power might be thence derived ; and he saw that all thisforce of inferiour things was caused from the Sun, as he himself fitly shews: Thewinding course of the Sun, faith he,-inthe oblique circle of the Zodiak, causeththe generation and corruption of all transitory things ; and by his going to aud fro,distingulsheth times and seasons. Tlato faith, that the circular motions of the hea-vens are the causes of fruicsulnefl; and barrenness:. The Sun is the Governour oftime, and the rule of life. Hence Jam’lichus following the doctrine of the tÆgjp-tians^ iaich, that every good tbingcometh certainly from the power of the Sun-, andif we receive any good from any thing else, yet the Sun mult perfect and finish it.Heraclitm calls theSun, the Fountain of heavenly light; Orphan calls it the lightof life; “P/dts calls it a heavenly Fire,an everliving Creature, a Itar that hath a Soul,the greatest and the daily (tar: and the natural Philosophers call it the very heart otheaven. And Plotinus shews, that in antient times the Sun was honoured instead ofGod. Neither yet is the Moon leffe powerful, but what with her own force, andwhat with the force of the urs which she borrows, (he works mucb.by reason of herneernesse to these inferiours. Aibstmalar laid, That all things had their vertue fromthe Sun and the Moon : and Hermes the learned said, that the Sun and the Moon arcthe life of all things livmg. The Moon is nighest to the Earth of all Planets; (herules moist bodies,and she hath such affinity with these inferiours,that as well thingsthat have fouls, as they that have none, do feel in themselves her waxing, and herwarning. The Seas and Flouds, Rivers and Springs, do rifeand fall, do run some-times swifter,sometimes flower, as she rules them. The surges of the Sea are tostto and fro, by continual succession; no other cause whereof the Antients could findbut the Moon only : neither is there any other apparent reason of the ebbingand flowing thereof. Living creatures are much at her beck, and receive from hergreat encrease : for when she is at the full, as Lucilius faith, she feeds Oysters,Crabs,Shelsifh, and such like, which her warm light doth temper kindly in the night sea-son; but when she is but the half or the quarter light, then she withdraws her nou-rishment, and they waste.Tn like manner, Cucumbers ,Gourds, Pompons, and suchlike, as have store of waterisbjuice, feel the stateof the Moon : for they wax as shedoth; and when she waineth, they waste, as Athermtn writes. Likewise the verystems of plants do follow the state of the heavens; wicnesse the Husband-man,who finds it by experience in his grassing: and skilful Husbandmen have found thecourse and season of the year, and the monethly race of the Moon so necessary forplants, that they have supposed this knowledge to be one chief part of Husbandry.So also, when the Moon passeth through thole signs of the Zodiak which are mostpeculiar to the earth, if youthen plant trees, thev will be strongly rooted in theearth: if you plant them when she p'sseth through the signs of the Air, then thetree so planted, will he plentiful in branches and leaves, and encreafeth more up-ward then downward. But of all other, the most pregnant sign hereof is found inthe Pome-granate ; which will bring forth s r uit just so many years, as many datesas the Moon is old when you plant it. And it is a report also, that Garlick, ifirbe set when the Moon is beneath the earth, and be also plucked up at such a time,it will lose its strong favour.Ml cut and lopped Woods,asTimbcr and Fewel,are fullof much moisture at the new of the Moom and by reason of that moisture, they waxloft, and so the worm eats them, and they wit her away. And therefore Vemoeritmcoumelleth, and Fttruvim is also of the same minde, to cut or lop trees in

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