nature are by far more certain and convincing than any of the Phyfical and Mechanical ones which the Theorift brings to prove the truth of his affertion, which have brought him into many ftrange and dangerous errors, it being juft that God Almighty fhould deliver thefe men up to follow ftrange delufions, who neglecting to proceed upon final caufes the true principles of Natural Philofophy, and to fquare their notions according to the Divine Revelations contained in Holy Scripture, have followed the wild and extravagant fancies of their own imaginations.

Another Argument which may be brought to convince the Theorist that the axis of the earth was at first inclined to the plane of the ecliptick as it is now, is, that it is certain by obfervation that Saturn and Jupiter (whom the Theorist will allow to have fuffered no Deluge as yet) have their axis not perpendicular but inclined to the planes of their orbits, and the pofition is true of all the other Planets as far as they can be obferved, and therefore it is reasonable to fuppofe that the fame must have been the pofition of the earth at the beginning, for where univerfally the fame effect is obferved, there it will be agreeable to the maxims of Natural Philofophy, to affign the fame caufe, nature being uniform and not taking different methods to perform the fame thing.

It remains now that I examin the reasons the Theorift alledges to prove that the earth before the flood had its axis perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptick; it is fays he, the immediate result of gravity or libration, that a body freely left to its felf fhould fettle in fuch a pofture as beft answers to its gravitation, and this earth whereof we speak being uniform and every way equally ballanced, there is no reason why it should incline at one end more than at the other towards the Sun, as if you will fuppofe a Ship to ftand North and South under the equator if it was equally built and equally ballanced it would not incline to one Pole more than to the other but keep its axis parallel to the axis of the earth, fo thofe great Ships that fail about the Sun once in fo many years whilft they are uniformly built and equally poifed keep fteady and even with the axis of their orbits, but if they loofe that equality and the centre of their gravity change the heavier end will incline more towards the centre of their motion, and the other end will recede from it, fo particularly our earth which makes one in that airy fleet when it escaped fo narrowly being fhipwrackt in the great Deluge, was however fo broken and difordered that it loft its equal poife and thereupon the centre of its gravity changing, one Pole became more inclined towards the Sun, and the other more removed from

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from it, in which skew posture it hath food ever fince.

Here the Theorift puts his falfe reasoning in fine words, and dreffes it out in gayety according to the prefent mode, that it may go the smoother off, but at the fame time he fhews us how little he is skilled either in Aftronomy or Geometry, for he tells us in one place, that the earth ftands inclined to the Sun or the Ecliptick, but how a fphere can be inclined to a plane paffing through its centre is far beyond my Geometry to conceive. I am fure he will find no fuch thing faid by the Geometers or the Aftronomers before him, but he may be easily pardoned for this small error, because he meant well, viz. that the axis of the earth was inclin'd to the plane of the Ecliptick, with which it makes an angle of 66° But he has committed a far greater blunder than this which is not so easily to be forgiven him, for a World-maker ought at leaft to understand fomething of Aftronomy and of the Copernican fyftem which he embraces, but it is plain that he does not know the Elements of that fyftem, fince he afferts that one Pole of the earth is more inclined to the Sun than the other, this is a position I never heard was given to the earth before. I wish he would inform us which of the two Poles is most inclined to the Sun, for I am fure Copernicus, Kepler and Gallileo the first

revivers

revivers of the Pythagorean fyftem never faid any fuch thing, they held that both Poles were equally removed from the plane of the ecliptick, the axis which joins them making with it an angle of 66° and keeping a pofition always parallel to it felf and therefore whatever inclination one Pole had at any time of the year to the Sun, the oppofite Pole would have the fame inclination at the oppofite time of the year, and therefore both Poles are equally inclined to the Sun.

"Tis true indeed that if one: hemisphere were heavier than the other; the heaviest Pole would always look towards the Sun to which it gravitates, and by confequence there would be no parallelifm obferved in the axis of the earth, for if there were a Globe swimming in water, one of whofe Poles were heavier than the other, it is demonftrable that the heaviest fide would always be towards the centre of the earth, but fince the earth does always keep its axis parallel to it felf, and by that means makes the variety of feafons which otherwife would not happen, I think it a demonstration that the Theorift's opinion in this point is falfe and ridiculous. For if at the Deluge the earth had loft its equal poife, and its Centre of gravity had been altered as he will have it, the true effect of this alteration would be that the Pole which was next to the Centre of gravity had been always turned towards the Sun, and the

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people

people living near it had injoyed a perpetual Summer and one continued day without any night, whilft thofe in the oppofite Pole had lived in perpetual darkness, Froft and Snow, having but one eternal Winter without any viciffitude of seasons. These therefore being the neceffary confequences of fuch a change of gravity in the earth as the Theorist imagines, and fince none of them did ever happen to it, but the earth does ftill keep its axis parallel to it felf; I think it is demonstratively evident that the earth received no fuch shock by the Deluge as was fufficient to alter the Centre of its gravity, and confequently the pofition of its Poles in refpect of the Sun.

'Tis true, a sphere put in equilibration, and made turn round about a point without any other motion, neceffarily keeps all its diameters parallel to themselves, and by confequence the axis which is one of them must also be parallel to its felf, for fince the time of its revolution is determined, it will perform its period in that time with the leaft motion poffible, which is only when all the diameters of the sphere in all parts of its orbit are parallel to themselves as is demonftrated by the Geometers, Nature generally taking the fhorteft courfes in all its operations, at least it takes that one and determinate method for performing its work, which the Philofophers call the unicum in natura, I wonder therefore why fome fhould make a third motion for

the