Plato solem et lunam cæteris 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 ↩
Copernicus in Libris Revolutionem, deinde Reinholdus, post etiam Stadius mathematici nobiles perspicuis demonstrationibus docuerunt, solis apsida terris esse propiorem, quam Ptolemæi ætate duodecem partibus, i.e. uno et triginta terræ 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 ↩
Putat Cardanus, ab extrema cauda Halices seu Majoris Ursæ 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] —Jo. Bod. Met. Hist. p. 325 ↩
Chaldæi 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 ↩
Druidæ 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 ↩
There was a notorious idiot (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. ↩
The device of the vibration of a pendulum was intended to settle a certain measure of ells and yards, etc. (that should have its foundation in nature) all the world over: for by swinging a weight at the end of a string, and calculating by the motion of the sun, or any star, how long the vibration would last, in proportion to the length of the string, and the weight of the pendulum, they thought to reduce it back again, and from any part of time to compute the exact length of any string that must necessarily vibrate into so much space of time; so that if a man should ask in China for a quarter of an hour of satin, or taffeta, they would know perfectly what it meant; and all mankind learn a new way to measure things, no more by the yard, foot or inch, but by the hour, quarter, and minute. ↩
As the devil is the spiritual prince of darkness, so is the constable the secular, who governs the night with as great authority as his colleague, but far more imperiously. ↩
Caligula was one of the emperors of Rome, son of Germanicus and Agrippina. He would needs pass for a god, and had the heads of the ancient statues of the gods taken off; and his own placed on in their stead; and used to stand between the statues of Castor and Pollux to be worshipped; and often bragged of lying with the moon. ↩
Philtres were love potions, reported to be much in request in former ages; but our true knight-errant hero made use of no other but what his noble achievements by his sword produced. ↩
Ordeal trials were, when supposed criminals, to discover their innocence, went over several red-hot coulter irons. These were generally such whose chastity was suspected, as the vestal virgins, etc. ↩
The young Spaniards signalize their valour before the Spanish ladies at bull feasts, which often prove very hazardous, and sometimes fatal to them. It is performed by attacking of a wild bull, kept on purpose, and let loose at the combatant; and he that kills most, carries the laurel, and dwells highest in the ladies’ favour. ↩
His exterior ears were gone before, and so out of danger; but by inward ears is here meant his conscience. ↩
Stentrophon: A speaking trumpet, by which the voice may be heard at a great distance, very useful at sea. ↩
This alludes to some abject lechers, who used to be disciplined with amorous lashes by their mistresses. ↩
Hermes Trismegistus, an Egyptian Philosopher, and said to have lived Anno Mundi 2076, in the reign of Ninus, after Moses. He was a wonderful philosopher and proved that there was but one God, the creator of all things; and was the author of several most excellent and useful inventions. But those Hermetic men here mentioned, though the pretended sectators of this great man, are nothing else but a wild and extravagant sort of enthusiasts, who make a hodgepodge of religion and philosophy, and produce nothing but what is the object of every considering person’s contempt. ↩
Potosi is a city of Peru, the mountains whereof afford great quantities of the finest silver in all the Indies. ↩
Villainage was an ancient tenure, by which the tenants were obliged to perform the most abject and slavish services for their lords. ↩
The Indian women, richly attired, are carried in a splendid and pompous machine to the funeral pile where the bodies of their deceased husbands are to be consumed, and there voluntarily throw themselves into it, and expire; and such as refuse, their virtue is ever after suspected, and they live in the utmost contempt. ↩
