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SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN, knt.

Quantity, and Salt in it: and in the LymphœduSlus, as to their Turgency,as I have frequently tried: And if with these, we join the Experiments ofthe Fermenting of Wines, and other Liquors against moist Weather; thesouring of them in Thunder, and dry Weathers; adding likewise the Histo-ry of Pests, and epidemical Diseases, we shall find a great Deal of Reasonto conclude, that there is a true Astrology to be found by the enquiringPhilosopher, which would be of admirable Use to Physick, though theAstrology vulgarly receiv’d, cannot but be thought extremely unreasonable andridiculous, as any Thing among the many Impostures that have been im-Pos’d by Antiquity upon the credulous World to him that hath given uphimself to Demonstration.

Hitherto in these greater Faculties, Theology, sacred and profane Histo-ry and Phyfick, we have been but assisted a little by Astronomy, but iflook into the next Class of Science, we shall perceive ourselves wholly in-debted to her. It is Astronomy that enlarg’d both our Understanding andHabitation ; hath given Politeness, and consequently Religion and Laws tofile barbarous World. He that looks upon that little Parcel of the World,Mfich the Ancients contented themselves with, and fees now, how we fur-row the great Ocean, and gather our aromatick Harvests from the remotestParts of the Globe, and can enjoy in our own Europe , whatever Thule orEthiopia, the rising or setting Sun can produce, must needs rejoice, that soitiuch larger an Inheritance is fallen to Mankind, by the Favour of Astrono-my. It was Astronomy alone, that of old undertook to guide the creeping^hips of the Ancients, whenever they would venture to leave the Land tofind a neighbour Shore ; tho' then fire was a humourfome Guide, and oftenfiling the Face of Heaven with Clouds, would cruelly leave them to thegiddy Protection of Fortune, and for the most Part only tofs’d them up andfiown, and sported herself with their Ruin : But if ssie deign’d to ssiew them°ne Glimpse of a Star, if but of Alcor, or the least albicant Spot of Hea-Ve n, it was enough to pave a Way for them homeward, through the Hor-ror of the Waves and Night. In this is truly perceiv’d the Influx of Hea-ven, when the influx of one Cynosura can move a thousand Sail of Fraught-Ships, and render the one Element as habitable, and more fruitful than theother, tho' more hazardous. Thus did the Ancients every where culti-v ate the Mediterranean Waters, but their Fear of venturing into the Oceanfiiey dissembled by Religion, lest they should violate the Rites of Thetis, andfile vVater Deities.

At last, Astronomy took to herself another Assistant, Magneticks, a Kind ofterrestrial Astronomy, an Art that tells us the Motions of our own Stardwell on, whose every Fragment moving in true Sympathy with the greatOne, bids us, in spite of Clouds, pass the vast Ocean, and possess everyPiece of our own Star: and now were the Gates of true Science open’d, andfile poor Philosophers Anaxiwander, Anaximenes , Leucippus, Empcdocles are^Ugh'd at, for making the Earth a Pillar, or a Table, or a Drum, or in-c fitfd of its own Nature. In a few Months we ssiake Hands with the An-tipodes, and pfty the supposed heretical Billiop for his unseasonable ventingfile Truth; and also the pious Ignorance of the Fathers , that would havePl a ne-Earth fixed upon infinite long Roots. But divine Astronomy, in-!5 n ded to discover to Man her own yet hidden Glory, as well as those of thePerrestrial Globe, for after the prodigious Attempt of Columbus , and as itAppears to me, the difficulter Voyage of Vafco de Gama, who before pur-the weak Beginnings of Hanno the Carthaginian , and twice scour'd through“le Torrid Zone ^ in doubling the Cape , first finding it habitable, difeover-the Errors of the Ancients about Africk , and first opening a Way to the

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