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SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN, knt.

Microscopes, by which our Sense is so infinitely advanc’d, seems to be theonly Way to penetrate into the most hidden Parts of Nature, and to makemost of the Creation.

. I cannot (most worthy Auditors) but very much please myself in introduc-lri g Seneca, in his Prophecy of the new World,—

Venicnt annis fcecula seris,£>uibus, oceanus vincula rerutnLaxet, & ingcns pateat tellus,NovoJ'que Tiphjs detegat orbes,Nec Jit terris ultima Thule.

j-^t then I only begin to value the Advantages of this Age in Learning be-J° r e the former, when I fancy him continuing his Prophecy, and imagineI'ovv much the ancient laborious Enquirers would envy us, should he haveto them, that a Time would come, when Men sliould be able|° stretch out their Eyes, as Snails do, and extend them to JiJ'ty Feet inen gth ; by which means, they sliould be able to discover Two thousand Times^ many Stars as we can; and find the Galaxy to be Myriads of them; and.scry nebulous Star appearing as if it were the Firmament of some other'mrld, at an incomprehensible Distance, bury’d in the vast Abyss of inter-^Undious Vacuum : That they sliould lee the Planets like our Earth, un-^Ually spotted with Hills and Vales : that they sliould fee Saturn, a very Pro-j e ^, changing more admirably than our Moon, by the various Turnings, and'kimbrations of his several Bodies, and accompany’d besides with a Moon. his own ; til at they should find Jupiter to be an oval Earth, whose Nightenlighten’d by four several Moons, moving in various Swiftnesles, and^ a king Multitudes of Eclipses: That they should fee Mars, Venus and Mer-to wax and wain: And of the Moon herself, that they should have aAspect, as if they were hard by, discovering the Heighths and Shape ofjk Mountains, and Depths of round and uniform Vallies, the Shadows ofMountains, the Figure of the Shores, describing Pictures of her, withore Accuratenefs, than we can our own Globe, and therein requiting theyon for her own Labours, who to discover our Longitudes, by eclipsing the\ hath painted out the Countries upon our Globe, with the Point of her^>cal Shadow, as with a Pencil. After all this, if he sliould have told!^m, how the very Fountain of Light is variegated with its Faculce andb~ a cu/œ, proceeding round in regular Motions, would not any of the Astro-,.°soers s of his Time have chang’d their whole Life for a few windy Days,p Which principally the solar Spots appear) or a few clear Nights of our65 c ulum .

§ **ut I have lost myself upon this Subject, as endless as the Universe itself:^ ar S e a Field of Philosophy is the very Contemplation of the Phases ofc œlestial Bodies, that a true Description of the Body of Saturn only, were0ll gh for the Life of one Astronomer; how much more the various Mo-ti ° ns of them ; which I am not now to descant on, but reserve for the con-R 1U; d Subject of my future Discourses in this Place, a Place, in whichOrf Magnificence of our illustrious Founder Grejham hath adorn’d thisJMent City, with the Profession of the Sciences, in his own House,r a rare Example, leaving the Muses to be here his Heirs and Successorsj 1 ey er; who seem to be affected with the Place, having preset v'd itEsteem, by furnishing it hitherto with Men of most eminent Abilities,specially in mathematical Sciences; among whom the Names of Gunter,re}ec wood, Gillibrand, Fojler, are fresli in the Mouths of all Mathemati-

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