This unequable motion is derived from a combination of the earth's motion on her axis, and in her orbit, the consequence of which is that a point under the sun is carried in the same direction by the annual and diurnal velocities, whereas a point on the opposite side of the globe is carried in opposite directions by the annual and diurnal motions, so that in every twenty-four hours the absolute motion through space of every point in the earth completes a cycle of varying swiftness. Those readers who are unacquainted with the mathematical theory of motion must be satisfied with the assurance that this specious representation is fallacious, and that the oscillation of the water does not in the least result from the causes here assigned to it: the reasoning necessary to prove this is not elementary enough to be introduced here with propriety. Besides the principal daily oscillation of the water, there is a monthly inequality in the rise and fall, of which the extremes are called the spring and neap tides: the manner in which Galileo attempted to bring his theory to bear upon these phenomena is exceedingly curious. "It is a natural and necessary truth, that if a body be made to revolve, the time of revolution will be greater in a greater circle than in a less: this is universally allowed, and fully confirmed by experiments, such for instance as these:—In wheel clocks, especially in large ones, to regulate the going, the workmen fit up a bar capable of revolving horizontally, and fasten two leaden weights to the ends of it; and if the clock goes too slow, by merely approaching these weights somewhat towards the centre of the bar, they make its vibrations more frequent, at which time they are moving in smaller circles than before.[112]—Or, if you fasten a weight to a cord which you pass round a pulley in the ceiling, and whilst the weight is vibrating draw in the cord towards you, the vibrations will become sensibly accelerated as the length of the string diminishes. We may observe the same rule to hold among the celestial motions of the planets, of which we have a ready instance in the Medicean planets, which revolve in such short periods round Jupiter. We may therefore safely conclude, that if the moon for instance shall continue to be forced round by the same moving power, and were to move in a smaller circle, it would shorten the time of its revolution. Now this very thing happens in fact to the moon, which I have just advanced on a supposition. Let us call to mind that we have already concluded with Copernicus, that it is impossible to separate the moon from the earth, round which without doubt it moves in a month: we must also remember that the globe of the earth, accompanied always by the moon, revolves in the great circle round the sun in a year, in which time the moon revolves round the earth about thirteen times, whence it follows that the moon is sometimes near the sun, that is to say between the