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The Difference of Heat and Cold in the Spring and Autumn.
THE Face of the Earth is like the Hearth of a Chimney, and the Sun as the Fire that lyeth thereon; that is the rea∣son that the Spring is not so warm as the Autumn, or the Au∣tumn so cold as the Spring, because the Sun is not so hot in the Winter to heat the Earth, as in the Summer: for as the Hearth of a Chimney will require some time to be heated, after the Fire is laid thereon, so it will retain a Heat sometimes, after the Fire is taken therefrom.
Likewise this is the reason, that it is coldest just before the break of Day, because at that time the Sun hath been longest absent: for there is some Heat in the Night, though but weak; not but that the Night may be hot, when the Day hath been cold: but then that Heat proceeds rather from the Bowels of the Earth, than the Beams of the Sun; for though the Sun may have a Constant Heat, yet his Beams have not, as we may ob∣serve, some Summer Daies are much colder than others; for some Daies may be hotter when the Sun is Oblick, than when it is Perpendicular over our Heads, by reason that cold and moyst Vapours may arise from the Earth, and as it were quench the Violent Heat in the Beams of the Sun; and Wind may cool the Heat also, or Clouds may obstruct the Heat, as a Skreen set be∣fore the Fire: yet neither Wind, nor Vapour, nor Clouds, can alter the Heat inherent in the Sun, &c.