Histories

"IF a Phœnician born I am, what then? Cadmus was so; to whom Greece owes The books of learned men."

"DISEASES, famine, enemies, in us no change have wrought; What erst we were, we are; still in the same snare caught: No time can our corrupted manners mend; In vice we dwell, in sin that hath no end."

"THE WHITE dove is for holy held in Syria Palestine."

"IN the main sea the isle of Crete doth lie, Whence Jove was born; thence is our progeny. There is Mount Ida; there in fruitful land An hundred great and goodly cities stand. Thence, if I follow not mistaken fame, Teucer, the eldest of our grandsires, came To the Rhœtean shores, and reigned there Ere yet fair Ilion was built, and ere The towers of Troy. Their dwelling-place they sought In lowest vales. Hence Cybel’s rites were brought; Hence Corybantian cymbals did remove; And hence the name of our Idæan grove."

"SELDOM the villain, though much haste he make, Lame-footed vengeance fails to overtake."

"YET, though thou fetch thy pedigree so far, Thy first progenitor, whoe’er he were, Some shepherd was; or else—that I’ll forbear."

"MANY by valour have deserved renown Ere Agamemnon, yet lie all oppressed Under long night, unwept for and unknown; For with no sacred poet were they blest."

"THE HEAVEN and earth and all the liquid main, The moon’s bright globe and stars Titanian, A spirit within maintains; and their whole mass A mind, which through each part infused doth pass, Fashions and works, and wholly doth transpierce All this great body of the universe."

"NINE furlongs stretched lies Tityus, who for his wicked deeds The hungry birds with his renewing liver daily feeds."

"THE THIRSTING Tantalus doth catch at streams that from him flee; Why laughest thou? The name but changed, the tale is told of thee."

"THE JOYFUL spring did ever last, and Zephyrus did breed Sweet flowers by his gentle blast, without the help of seed."

"THE EAST wind with Aurora hath abiding Among the Arabian and the Persian hills, Whom Phœbus first salutes at his uprising."

"THE AMAZON with crescent-formed shield Penthesilea leads into the field."

"O WASTEFUL riot, never well content With low-priced fare; hunger ambitious Of cates by land and sea far fetched and sent; Vain glory of a table sumptuous; Learn with how little life may be preserved. In gold and myrrh they need not to carouse; But with the brook the people’s thirst is served, Who, fed with bread and water, are not starved."

"THE EGYPTIANS think it sin to root up or to bite Their leeks or onions, which they serve with holy rite. O happy nations, which of their own sowing Have store of gods in every garden growing!"

"ASTRÆA last of heavenly wights the earth did leave."

"SATURN to be the fatter is not known, By being the grave and burial of his own."

"THINGS thus agreed, Titan made Saturn swear No son to nourish; which by reigning might Usurp the right of Titan’s lawful heir."

"THE FIRST of all is God, and the same last is He. God is the head and midst; yea, from Him all things be. God is the base of earth and of the starred sky; He is the male and female too; shall never die. The spirit of all is God; the sun and moon and what is higher; The king, the original of all, of all the end: For close in holy breast He all did comprehend; Whence all to blessed light His wondrous power did send."

"BURA and Helice on Achaian ground Are sought in vain, but under sea are found."

"THEN came the Ausonian bands and the Sicanian tribes."

"THE ANCIENTS called me Chaos; my great years By those old times of which I sing appears."

"THE CHALYBES plough not their barren soil, But undermine high hills for iron veins; Changing the purchase of their endless toil For merchandize, which their poor lives sustains."

"THE ARCADIANS the earth inhabited Ere yet the moon did shine, or Jove was bred."

"AH! wretched they that worship vanities, And consecrate dumb idols in their heart; Who their own maker, God on high, despise, And fear the work of their own hands and art! What fury, what great madness, doth beguile Men’s minds, that man should ugly shapes adore, Of birds or bulls or dragons, or the vile Half-dog, half-man, on knees for aid implore!"

"IF Crœsus over Halys go, Great kingdoms he shall overthrow."

"THE WORLD discerns itself, while I the world behold; By me the longest years and other times are told; I, the world’s eye."

"THE PLANTS and trees made poor and old By winter envious, The spring-time bounteous Covers again from shame and cold; But never man repaired again His youth and beauty lost, Though art and care and cost Do promise nature’s help in vain."

"THE SUN may set and rise; But we, contrariwise, Sleep after our short light One everlasting night."

"HESPERIA the Grecians call the place,— An ancient fruitful land, a warlike race. Œnotrians held it; now the later progeny Gives it their captain’s name, and calls it Italy. This seat belongs to us; hence Dardanus, Hence came the author of our stock, Iasius."

"’GAINST fate no counsel can prevail. Kingdoms to slaves by destiny, To captives triumphs given be."

"FROM thence our kind hard-hearted is, enduring pain and care; Approving that our bodies of a stony nature are."

"THE QUEEN anon commands the weighty bowl, Weighty with precious stones and massy gold, To flow with wine. This Belus used of old, And all of Belus’ line."

"The alteration of motion is ever proportional to the motive force impressed; and is made in the direction of the right line in which that force is impressed."

"[I]f a place is moved, whatever is placed therein moves along with it; and therefore a body, which is moved from a place in motion, partakes also of the motion of its place. Upon which account, all motions, from places in motion, are no other than parts of entire and absolute motions; and every entire motion is composed of the motion of the body out of its first place, and the motion of this place out of its place; and so on, until we come to some immovable place, as in the before-mentioned example of the sailor. Wherefore, entire and absolute motions can be no otherwise determined than by immovable places; and for that reason I did before refer those absolute motions to immovable places, but relative ones to movable places. Now no other places are immovable but those that, from infinity to infinity, do all retain the same given position one to another; and upon this account must ever remain unmoved; and do thereby constitute immovable space."

"It is a property of motion, that the parts, which retain given positions to their wholes, do partake of the motions of those wholes. For all the parts of revolving bodies endeavour to recede from the axis of motion; and the impetus of bodies moving forward, arises from the joint impetus of all the parts. Therefore, if surrounding bodies are moved, those that are relatively at rest within them, will partake of their motion. Upon which account, the true and absolute motion of a body cannot be determined by the translation of it from those which only seem to rest; for the external bodies ought not only to appear at rest, but to be really at rest. For otherwise, all included bodies, beside their translation from near the surrounding ones, partake likewise of their true motions; and though that translation were not made they would not be really at rest, but only seem to be so. For the surrounding bodies stand in the like relation to the surrounded as the exterior part of a whole does to the interior, or as the shell does to the kernel; but, if the shell moves, the kernel will also move, as being part of the whole, without any removal from near the shell."

"The causes by which true and relative motions are distinguished, one from the other, are the forces impressed upon bodies to generate motion. True motion is neither generated nor altered, but by some force impressed upon the body moved; but relative motion may be generated or altered without any force impressed upon the body."

"As the order of the parts of time is immutable, so also is the order of the parts of space."

"The duration or perseverance of the existence of things remains the same, whether the motions are swift or slow, or none at all: and therefore it ought to be distinguished from what are only sensible measures thereof; and out of which we collect it, by means of the astronomical equation. The necessity of which equation, for determining the times of a phenomenon, is evinced as well from the experiments of the pendulum clock, as by eclipses of the satellites of Jupiter."

"All things are placed in time as to order of succession; and in space as to order of situation. It is from their essence or nature that they are places; and that the primary places of things should be moveable, is absurd. These are therefore the absolute places; and translations out of those places, are the only absolute motions.But because the parts of space cannot be seen, or distinguished from one another by our senses, therefore in their stead we use sensible measures of them. For from the positions and distances of things from any body considered as immovable, we define all places; and then with respect to such places, we estimate all motions, considering bodies as transferred from some of those places into others. And so, instead of absolute places and motions, we use relative ones; and that without any inconvenience in common affairs; but in philosophical disquisitions, we ought to abstract from our senses, and consider things themselves, distinct from what are only sensible measures of them. For it may be that there is no body really at rest, to which the places and motions of others may be referred.But we may distinguish rest and motion, absolute and relative, one from the other by their properties, causes and effects. It is a property of rest, that bodies really at rest do rest in respect to one another. And therefore as it is possible, that in the remote regions of the fixed stars, or perhaps far beyond them, there may be some body absolutely at rest; but impossible to know, from the position of bodies to one another in our regions whether any of these do keep the same position to that remote body; it follows that absolute rest cannot be determined from the position of bodies in our regions."

"The effects which distinguish absolute from relative motion are, the forces of receding from the axe of . For there are no such forces in a circular motion purely relative, but in a true and absolute circular motion, they are greater or less, according to the quantity of the motion. If a vessel, hung by a long cord, is so often turned about that the cord is strongly twisted, then filled with water, and held at rest together with the water; after, by the sudden action of another force, it is whirled about the contrary way, and while the cord is untwisting itself, the vessel continues for some time in this motion; the surface of the water will at first be plain, as before the vessel began to move: but the vessel, by gradually communicating its motion to the water, will make it begin sensibly to revolve, and recede by little and little from the middle, and ascend to the sides of the vessel, forming itself into a concave figure (as I have experienced), and the swifter the motion becomes, the higher will the water rise, till at last, performing its revolutions in the same times with the vessel, it becomes relatively at rest in it. This ascent of the water shows its endeavour to recede from the axis of its motion; and the true and absolute circular motion of the water, which is here directly contrary to the relative, discovers itself, and may be measured by this endeavour. At first, when the relative motion of the water in the vessel was greatest, it produced no endeavour to recede from the axis; the water showed no tendency to the circumference, nor any ascent towards the sides of the vessel, but remained of a plain surface, and therefore its true circular motion had not yet begun. But afterwards, when the relative motion of the water had decreased, the ascent thereof towards the sides of the vessel proved its endeavour to recede from the axis; and this endeavour showed the real circular motion of the water perpetually increasing, till it had acquired its greatest quantity, when the water rested relatively in the vessel. And therefore this endeavour does not depend upon any translation of the water in respect of the ambient bodies, nor can true circular motion be defined by such translation. There is only one real circular motion of any one revolving body, corresponding to only one power of endeavouring to recede from its axis of motion, as its proper and adequate effect; but relative motions, in one and the same body, are innumerable, according to the various relations it bears to external bodies, and like other relations, are altogether destitute of any real effect, any otherwise than they may perhaps partake of that one only true motion. And therefore in their system who suppose that our heavens, revolving below the sphere of the fixed stars, carry the planets along with them; the several parts of those heavens, and the planets, which are indeed relatively at rest in their heavens, do yet really move. For they change their position one to another (which never happens to bodies truly at rest), and being carried together with their heavens, partake of their motions, and as parts of revolving wholes, endeavour to recede from the axis of their motions.Wherefore relative quantities are not the quantities themselves, whose names they bear, but those sensible measures of them (either accurate or inaccurate), which are commonly used instead of the measured quantities themselves. And if the meaning of words is to be determined by their use, then by the names time, space, place and motion, their measures are properly to be understood; and the expression will be unusual, and purely mathematical, if the measured quantities themselves are meant. Upon which account, they do strain the sacred writings, who there interpret those words for the measured quantities. Nor do those less defile the purity of mathematical and philosophical truths, who confound real quantities themselves with their relations and vulgar measures."

"Absolute motion is the translation of a body from one absolute place into another; and relative motion, the translation from one relative place into another. Thus in a ship under sail, the relative place of a body is that part of the ship which the body possesses; or that part of its cavity which the body fills, and which therefore moves together with the ship: and relative rest is the continuance of the body in the same part of the ship, or of its cavity. But real, absolute rest, is the continuance of the body in the same part of that immovable space, in which the ship itself, its cavity, and all that it contains, is moved."

"It is indeed a matter of great difficulty to discover, and effectually to distinguish, the true motions of particular bodies from the apparent; because the parts of that immovable space, in which those motions are performed, do by no means come under the observation of our senses. Yet the thing is not altogether desperate: for we have some arguments to guide us, partly from the apparent motions, which are the differences of the true motions; partly from the forces, which are the causes and effects of the true motions."

"Absolute time, in astronomy, is distinguished from relative, by the equation or correction of the vulgar time. For the natural days are truly unequal, though they are commonly considered as equal, and used for a measure of time; astronomers correct this inequality for their more accurate deducing of the celestial motions."

"Absolute space, in its own nature, without regard to anything external, remains always similar and immovable. Relative space is some movable dimension or measure of the absolute spaces; which our senses determine by its position to bodies; and which is vulgarly taken for immovable space; such is the dimension of a subterraneous, an æreal, or celestial space, determined by its position in respect of the earth. Absolute and relative space, are the same in figure and magnitude; but they do not remain always numerically the same. For if the earth, for instance, moves, a space of our air, which relatively and in respect of the earth remains always the same, will at one time be one part of the absolute space into which the air passes; at another time it will be another part of the same, and so, absolutely understood, it will be perpetually mutable."

"Absolute, true, and mathematical time, of itself, and from its own nature flows equably without regard to anything external, and by another name is called duration: relative, apparent, and common time, is some sensible and external (whether accurate or unequable) measure of duration by the means of motion, which is commonly used instead of true time; such as an hour, a day, a month, a year."

"Place is a part of space which a body takes up, and is according to the space, either absolute or relative. I say, a part of space; not the situation, nor the external surface of the body. For the places of equal solids are always equal; but their superfices, by reason of their dissimilar figures, are often unequal. Positions properly have no quantity, nor are they so much the places themselves, as the properties of places. The motion of the whole is the same thing with the sum of the motions of the parts; that is, the translation of the whole, out of its place, is the same thing with the sum of the translations of the parts out of their places; and therefore the place of the whole is the same thing with the sum of the places of the parts, and for that reason, it is internal, and in the whole body."

"It may be, that there is no such thing as an equable motion, whereby time may be accurately measured. All motions may be accelerated and retarded, but the true, or equable, progress of absolute time is liable to no change."

"It is indeed a matter of great difficulty to discover, and effectually to distinguish, the true motions of particular bodies from the apparent; because the parts of that immovable space, in which those motions are performed, do by no means come under the observation of our senses. Yet the thing is not altogether desperate: for we have some arguments to guide us, partly from the apparent motions, which are the differences of the true motions; partly from the forces, which are the causes and effects of the true motions. For instance, if two globes, kept at a given distance one from the other by means of a cord that connects them, were revolved about their common centre of gravity, we might, from the tension of the cord, discover the endeavour of the globes to recede from the axis of their motion, and from thence we might compute the quantity of their circular motions. And then if any equal forces should be impressed at once on the alternate faces of the globes to augment or diminish their circular motions, from the increase or decrease of the tension of the cord, we might infer the increment or decrement of their motions; and thence would be found on what faces those forces ought to be impressed, that the motions of the globes might be most augmented; that is, we might discover their hindermost faces, or those which, in the circular motion, do follow. But the faces which follow being known, and consequently the opposite ones that precede, we should likewise know the determination of their motions. And thus we might find both the quantity and the determination of this circular motion, even in an immense vacuum, where there was nothing external or sensible with which the globes could be compared. But now, if in that space some remote bodies were placed that kept always a given position one to another, as the fixed stars do in our regions, we could not indeed determine from the relative translation of the globes among those bodies, whether the motion did belong to the globes or to the bodies. But if we observed the cord, and found that its tension was that very tension which the motions of the globes required, we might conclude the motion to be in the globes, and the bodies to be at rest; and then, lastly, from the translation of the globes among the bodies, we should find the determination of their motions. But how we are to collect the true motions from their causes, effects, and apparent differences; and, vice versa, how from the motions, either true or apparent, we may come to the knowledge of their causes and effects, shall be explained more at large in the following tract. For to this end it was that I composed it."

"[R]ational mechanics will be the science of motions resulting from any forces whatsoever, and of the forces required to produce any motions, accurately proposed and demonstrated....For I am induced by many reasons to suspect that they may all depend upon certain forces by which the particles of bodies, by some causes hitherto unknown, are either mutually impelled towards each other, and cohere in regular figures, or are repelled and recede from each other; which forces being unknown, philosophers have hitherto attempted the search of nature in vain; but I hope the principles here laid down will afford some light either to this or some truer method of philosophy."