The Empress having received an information of what concerned both Church and State, passed some time in viewing the Imperial Palace, where she admired much the skil and ingenuity of the Architects, and enquired of them, first, Why they built their Houses no higher then two stories from the Ground? They answered her Majesty, That the lower their Buildings were, the less were they subject either to the heat of the Sun, or Wind, Tempest, Decay, &c. Then she desired to know the reason, why they made them so thick? They answered, That, the thicker the Walls were, the warmer they were in Winter, the cooler in Summer; for their thickness kept out both the Cold and Heat. Lastly, she asked, Why they Arched their Roofs, and made so many Pillars? They replied, That Arches and Pillars, did not onely grace a Building very much, and caused it to appear Magnificent, but made it also firm and lasting. The Empress was very well satisfied with their answers; and after some time, when she thought that her new founded societies of the Vertuoso's had made a good progress in the several Employments she had put them upon, she caused a Convocation first of the Bird-men, and commanded them to give her a true relation of the two Cœlestial Bodies, viz. the Sun and Moon, which they did with all the obedience and faithfulness befitting their duty. The Sun, as much as they could observe, they related to be a firm or solid Stone, of a vast bigness; of colour yellowish, and of an extraordinary splendor: But the Moon, they said, was of a whitish colour; and although she looked dim in the presence of the Sun, yet had she her own light, and was a shining body of her self, as might be perceived by her vigorous appearance in Moon-shiny-nights; the difference onely betwixt her own and the Sun's light was, that the Sun did strike his beams in a direct line; but the Moon never respected the Centre of their World in a right line, but her Centre was always excentrical. The Spots both in the Sun and Moon, as far as they were able to perceive, they affirmed to be nothing else but flaws and stains of their stony Bodies. Concerning the heat of the Sun, they were not of one opinion; some would have the Sun hot in it self, alledging an old Tradition, that it should at some time break asunder, and burn the Heavens, and consume this world into hot Embers, which, said they, could not be done, if the Sun were not fiery of it self. Others again said, This opinion could not stand with reason; for Fire being a destroyer of all things, the Sun-Stone after this manner would burn up all the near adjoining Bodies: Besides, said they, Fire cannot subsist without fuel; and the Sun-Stone having nothing to feed on, would in a short time consume it self; wherefore they thought it more probable that the Sun was not actually hot, but onely by the reflection of its light; so that its heat was an effect of its light, both being immaterial. But this