i6 6

Astronomy.

, to

The principal Use of the Orrery - lsrender the Theory of the Earth and j' . 0 $

Jura poll, rerumque fidem, legesque Deorum?

Ecce Syracujius tranfiulit arte fenex.

Inclufus variis famulatur spiritus ajiris,

Et vivum certis motibus urget opus.

Percurrit proprium mentitus Signs er annum?

Et simulata novo Cynthia mense redit.

Jamque suum volvens audax indufiria rnundumGaudet , & humana Jidera mente regit.

fpuid falsa insontem tonitru Salmonea mir or ?

Æmula Natures parva reperta manus.

4. .This Machine appears from hence to have ^ jj|sufficiently grand and universal, as comprehend! 1 ^the Heavenly Bodies, and exhibiting all their P r ^Motions ; which is all that can be said of our c°^ umodern Orreries. ’Tis true, this Orrery of -^ r ■ .was contrived to represent the Ptolomaic Syst elT V pfishe Mechanism and Nature of the Instrument f b 0 (

. fame, whether the System of Ptolomy or Coper nlCli ’any other be represented by it. frit

5. The next Orrery we have any mention of 1of Pofidonius the stoic, in Cicero’s Time, Sofore our Saviour’s Birth: Concerning which the y

in his Book De Nat. Deorum, has the followi^S,^sage .—£htidft in Scythiam, aut in Britanniam, Aptaliquis tulerit hanc , quarn nuper familiaris nofi ef .Pofidonius, cujus fingula cornerstones idem efficient& in Luna, IS in quinque Stellis errantibus, fMt'd

in Cœlo fingulis diebus IS noftibus ; quis indulitet, quin ea Sphasra fit perfefla Rations f J rJeP ilS :

If any Man should carry this Sphere of“ into Scythia or Britain, in every Revolution 0 .

** the Motions of the Sun, Moon, and Fivo ,j ),t»“ w ere the fame as in the Heavens each Day a -, 0 f i t5“ who in those barbarous Countries could donh

being finislied (not to fay actuated) by petf eit 0 f *“ son ?” What can be a more genuine Accpnncompleat Orrery than this ? And, by the way^^e,would Cicero fay, were he now to rife from the