865 Th’ Egyptians say &c.] Egyptii decem
millia Annorum & amplius recensent; & observatum est
in hoc tanto Spatio, bis mutata esse Loca Ortuum &
Occasuum Solis, ita ut Sol bis ortus sit ubi nunc
occidit, & bis descenderit ubi nunc oritur. [The Egyptians
have records for ten thousand years and more, and
it has been observed that during this space of time,
the rising and setting places of the sun have changed
twice, so that twice the sun has risen where it now
sets, and twice set where it now rises] —
Phil. Melanct. Lib. 1 Pag. 60.
871 Some hold the heavens, &c.] Causa quare Coelum
non cadit (secundem Empedoclem) est velocitas sui
motus. [ The reason the sky does not fall is (according
to Empedocles) the speed it is moving at] —
Comment. in L. 2. Aristot. de Coelo.
877 Plato believ’d, &c.] Plato Solem & Lunam
caeteris Planetis inferiores esse putavit. [Plato
believed that the Sun and Moon were lower than the
other planets]— G. Gunnin in Cosmog.
L. 1. p. 11.
881 The learned Scaliger, &c.] Copernicus in Libris
Revolutionem, deinde Reinholdus, post etiam Stadius
Mathematici nobiles perspicuis Demonstrationibus docuerunt,
solis Apsida Terris esse propiorem, quam Ptolemaei
aetate duodecem partibus, i. e. uno & triginta terrae
semidiameteris. [Copernicus in his Book of Revolutions,
and afterwards Reinholdus, very cleverly showed by
mathematical means that the perihelion of the earth
was (become) nearer in the twelve centuries since
Ptolemy, that is, thirty-one times the radius of the
earth.] — Jo. Bod. Met. Hist.
p. 455.
895 Cardan believ’d, &c.] Putat Cardanus,
ab extrema Cauda Halices seu Majoris Ursae omne magnum
Imperium pendere.[Cardanus believed that the fate
of every great empire depended on the end of the tail
of the Thumb or Great Bear] — Idem p. 325.
913 Than th’ old Chaldean, &c.] Chaldaei
jactant se quadringinta septuaginta Annorum millia
in periclitandis, experiundisque Puerorum Animis possuisse.[The
Chaldeans alleged that they were forty or seventy
thousand years in experiments to possess the souls
of boys] — Cicero
975 Like Money, &c.] Druidae pecuniam mutuo accipiebant
in posteriore vita reddituri. [The Druids accepted
money from one another to be repaid in the next life]
— Patricius. Tom.2 p.9.
1001 That paltry story, &c.] There was a notorious
ideot (that is here described by the name and character
of Whachum) who counterfeited a second part of Hudibras,
as untowardly as Captain Po, who could not write himself,
and yet made a shift to stand on the pillory for forging
other men’s hands, as his fellow Whachum no
doubt deserved; in whose abominable doggerel this
story of Hudibras and a French mountebank at Brentford
fair is as properly described.
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