The next shall be of East and West; that is, the proprieties and conditions ascribed unto Regions respectively unto those situations; which hath been the obvious conception of Philosophers and Geographers, magnifying the condition of _India_, and the Eastern Countries, above the setting and occidental Climates, some ascribing hereto the generation of gold, precious stones and spices, others the civility and natural endowments of men; conceiving the bodies of this situation to receive a special impression from the first salutes of the Sun, and some appropriate influence from his ascendent and oriental radiations. But these proprieties affixed unto bodies, upon considerations deduced from East, West, or those observable points of the sphere, how specious and plausible so ever, will not upon enquiry be justified from such foundations. For to speak strictly, there is no East and West in nature, nor are those absolute and invariable, but respective and mutable points, according unto different longitudes, or distant parts of habitation, whereby they suffer many and considerable variations. For first, unto some the same part will be East or West in respect of one another, that is, unto such as inhabit the same parallel, or differently dwell from East to West. Thus as unto _Spain_, _Italy_ lyeth East, unto _Italy_ _Greece_, unto _Greece_ _Persia_, and unto _Persia_ _China_; so again unto the Country of _China_, _Persia_ lyeth West, unto _Persia_ _Greece_, unto _Greece_ _Italy_, and unto _Italy_ _Spain_. So that the same Countrey is sometimes East and sometimes West; and _Persia_ though East unto _Greece_, yet is it West unto _China_. Unto other habitations the same point will be both East and West; as unto those that are _Antipodes_ or seated in points of the Globe diametrically opposed. So the _Americans_ are Antipodal unto the _Indians_, and some part of _India_ is both East and West unto _America_, according as it shall be regarded from one side or the other, to the right or to the left; and setting out from any middle point, either by East or West, the distance unto the place intended is equal, and in the same space of time in nature also performable.