The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, Volume 2Browne, Thomas, Sir
Religion
The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, Volume 2
Browne, Thomas, Sir
Christianity; Ethics; Religion and medicine
Having thus beheld the ignorance of man in some things, his error and
blindness in others, that is, in the measure of duration both of years
and seasons, let us a while admire the Wisdom of God in this
distinguisher of times, and visible Deity (as some have termed it) the
Sun. Which though some from its glory adore, and all for its benefits
admire, we shall advance from other considerations, and such as
illustrate the artifice of its Maker. Nor do we think we can excuse the
duty of our knowledge, if we only bestow the flourish of Poetry hereon,
or those commendatory conceits which popularly set forth the eminency of
this creature; except we ascend unto subtiler considerations, and such
as rightly understood, convincingly declare the wisdom of the Creator.
Which since a Spanish Physitian [SN: Valerius de Philos. _Sacr._] hath
begun, we will enlarge with our deductions; and this we shall endeavour
from two considerations; its proper situation, and wisely ordered
motion.
And first we cannot pass over his providence, in that it moveth at all;
for had it stood still, and were it fixed like the earth, there had been
then no distinction of times, either of day or year, of Spring, of
Autumn, of Summer, or of Winter; for these seasons are defined by the
motions of the Sun; when that approacheth neare our Zenith, or vertical
Point, we call it Summer, when furthest off, Winter, when in the middle
spaces, Spring or Autumn, whereas remaining in one place these
distinctions had ceased, and consequently the generation of all things
depending on their vicissitudes; making in one hemisphere a perpetual
Summer, in the other a deplorable and comfortless Winter. [SN: _What the
natural day is._] And thus had it also been continual day unto some, and
perpetual night unto others; for the day is defined by the abode of the
Sun above the Horizon, and the night by its continuance below; so should
we have needed another Sun, one to illustrate our Hemisphere, a second
to enlighten the other; which inconvenience will ensue in what site
soever we place it, whether in the Poles, or the Æquator, or between
them both; no spherical body of what bigness soever illuminating the
whole sphere of another, although it illuminate something more than half
of a lesser, according unto the doctrine of the Opticks.
[Sidenote: _Every part of the Earth habitable._]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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