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CHAP. X Of several Properties of the Sun, whereof first his Greatness.
THE third thing wherein the resemblance holds between these two Suns is their like Properties, whereof there be many; we shall begin with that of Greatness. Who knoweth or will believe the stupendious mag∣nitude of the Sun! All the Etherial Bodies far exceed these Earthly in their Greatnesse. The Sun especially, which though the igno∣rant Countrey man believes, as Epicurus taught, that it is but Bipedalis, or of the big∣ness of a Bushel, the Learned know, that of necessity it must be far bigger then the whole Globe of the Earth and Seas; One hundred and sixty times bigger, the Learned say (al∣though by conjecture rather then certainty, to be exactly so and no more.)
The fixed Stars are said to be of six Magni∣tudes, the least whereof are held to be eigh∣teen times bigger then the Earth, and those of the first Magnitude an hundred and seven times greater. The Moon, however it seem to us, is the very least of all (but Mercury,) and is Quadragesima pars terrae; the Earth being thirty nine times bigger, and the Sun seven thousand times or thereabout, as is con∣ceived.
Should all the earth and seas be suppo∣sed