Book Description

Excerpt from Fixed Stars, or an Analyzation and Refutation of Astrology: The Principles of This Science Being Plainly Laid Open, and Their Absurdity and Wickedness Clearly Demonstrated; To Which Is Added, Many Anecdotes But I would not have you imagine, Mr. Printer, that these are all the opinions, that have ever been advanced on this sublime theory. In ancient times, an heathen nation viewing the Fixed Stars and Planets, solved the whole phenomenon at once, by saying, that the sky was the chamber floor of heaven, and that the Fixed Stars were brass nails, something like cofiin nails, driven in on the under side of the floor, and kept clean for us in this world below to look at. But others objected to this theory, alledging that the trouble and expence of keeping the heads of so many nails clean, would be endless They said, therefore, that the sky was a boarded floor, several miles above the earth, and that above the floor there was nothing buta flaming fire, -that holes being bored through the floor, we were enabled to see the fire through them, and these we called Stars. The different magnitude of the Stars they accounted for, by saying, that some were bored with an half inch and' others with an inch auger thatthe smallest of them were bor ed with a' common gimblet; but the Sun and the Moon, being very large, were bored with a faucet wimble, such as coopers use for boring tap holes, and hung, holes! But this scheme of the heavens, met with objections, also for it was very judiei ously observed, that had the Sun and Moon been holes bored in the sky, they would have preserved their relative distance, in the same manner as the bung-hole and -tlie vent-hole of a barrel, which are never known either to approach to, or recede from each other after their first establishment. The Sun and Moon were seen to. Alter their positions daily, and therefore this astronomical system fould not be maintained. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.